Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-03
CHAPTER XIV.
The Tomb Of the Pharaoh.

kenes arrived in Thebes. On the s1xteeHth
day Rachel would begin to expect him. anu
he could not hope to reach Memphis ny
that time. She SHOULD not wait an nour
longer than necessary. He would get tne
signet that night and return by the swift
est boat obtainable In Thebes. The dawn
should find him on the way to memphis.
He entered the streets of the Lioyah
suburb of the holy CITY, and passed through
1t to the scattering houses, set OUTSIDE the
thickly-settled portion, and nearer to the
metropolis. At the portal of the most pre-
tentious of these houses he knocked ana
was admitted.
He was met presently In the chamber Oh
guests by an old man. gray-haired ana
bent. This was the keeper of the tomb OF
Rameses the Great.
Il am the son of Mentu,' he said, thy
friend, and the friend of the Incompatible
Pharaoh. Perchance thou ..dost remember
me-.
II remember Mentu,'' the old man replied
after a space that might have been spent
in rumination, or in collecting his faculties
to speak.
He decorated the tomb Of Rameses," the
young man continued.
AYE, l remember. ! watched him often
at the work.
Thou knowest how the great king loved
him.
The old man bent his head in assent.
He was given signet by Rameses, and
on the jewel was testimony of royal favor
which should outlive the Pharaoh and Men
tn himself. 1t was lost. But the place In
which 1t was lost is small, and l would
search for it again.
By this time the old mans face had be-
come inquiring.
There is need for the signet now. 1t
was lost in the tomb of the Incompatible
Pharaoh. May 1 not visit the crypt?
would go this very night
The keepers face sobered and he shook
his head.
Deny me not. pray thee. Kenkenes
entreated earnestly. Never was a greater
strait-which is the peril of spotless wom-
anhood. l can go alone. There is no need
that thou shouldst waste an hour of thy
needed sleep for me. 1 pledge thee l shall
conduct myself without thee as 1 should
beneath thine eye, and none need ever
know l went alone"
The ancient keeper weakened at the earn
estness of the young man.
"CanSt thou open the ga 2"
Il have not forgotten from the daily prac-
tice that was mine for many weeks.
Then go, and let no man know of this
Kerkenes thanked him gratefully and
went at once.
In chambers hewn in solid rock the
nonarchs of the eighteenth and nineteenth
dynastieS were entombed. All along the
walls of the gorge nature had secured the
sacred resting place of the sovereigns
against trespass from the end and sides of
the chasm and Egypt had dutifully
Strengthened the one weak point in the for
tifcation-the entrance-by the gateway of
81 ante. But there was no vigilance of
guards. Whosoever knew how to open the
gates might enter the valley. The secret of
the bolts was known only among the men,
bers of the royal family and the court. To
kenkenes, whose craft as sculptor had
taught him the intricate devices used in
closing tombs, the opening of these gates
was simple.
He let himself into the valley and closing
the valves behind him, went up the tor
tuous gorge, darkened by the shadows of
the walls. He continued past the mouth of
the valleys southern arm wherein were en-
tombed the kings of the eighteenth dy-
nasty. Here IN this open space, he could
see the circling bats, which before he could
only hear above his head. Somewhere
among the rocks up the moonlit hollow an
owl hooted. But theftombS he sought were
in the upper end of the, main ravine.
With trembling hands he pushed the
doors, rough with Inscriptions, and the
great stone valves swung ponderously in
ward, the bronze pins making no sound as
they turned in the sockets. kenkenes en-
tered and closed the portals behind him.
Instantly all sound of the outside world
was cut off-the sound of the wind the
chafing of the sands on the hills above, the
movement and cries of might birds, beasts
and insects. Absolute stiffness and original
night surrounded him.
With all speed he lighted his lamp. but
the faring flame Illuminated only a little
space in the brooding, lowering blackness
about him.
He moved forward his path only discov-
cred to him step by step as the light adj
vanced the sumptuous frescoes done by the
hand of his father emerging, one detail at
a time. The solemn figures fixed accusing
aya frlpZP.
sive countenance of the monarch himself
confronted him from every wall. One pom
derous chamber after another he traversed,
for the tomb penetrated the very core OF
the mountain.
The innermost crypt contained the affairs
This was the sanctuary, the holy of holes,
never entered except by hierarch.
When Kenkenes reached the final thresh-
old he paused. Thus far, his presence had
been merely a midnight intrusion. If he
entered the sanctuary his coming would be
violation He thought of the distress of
Rachel and dared.
The first alabaster altar glistened sud
denly out of the night like a bank of snow
Kenkenes' sandal grated on the sandy dust
that lay thick on the floor Not even the
keeper had entered this crypt to remove the
dust of six years.
In this chapel the signet had been lost
Kenkenes set his light on the floor and
began his search. The first time he search
ed the floor he laid the lack of success to
his excited work. The second time the
began to trickle down his tenn
pies Thereafter he sought, lengthwise and
crosswise, calling on the gods for aid but
there was no CLINT of the jewel.
At last sick with despair, he sat down to
collect himself. Suddenly across the heavy
silence there smote sound.
For a moment Kenkenes sat, transfiXed,
and in that moment the sound came nearer.
He remembered the injunction of the old
keeper Human or supernatural, the now
conner must not find him there. He leaped
the light as he did so. He flung the corner
of his kamis over the reeking wick that the
odor might not escape, but his fear in that
direction was materially lessened when he
saw that the stranger bore Tuning torch.
On one end of the short pole of the torch
was a knot of flaming pitch, on the other
was a bronze ring fitted with sprawling
claws. The stranger set the light the
floor, and the device kept the torch up
right. He crossed the room and stood at
the altar of Neferari Thermuths.
BY the deeply fringed and voluminous
draperies, and by the venerable beard, rip
ping and streaked with gray, the young
sculptor took the stranger to be an Israeli
ite AS Kenkenes looked upon him he
was minded of his father, the magnificent
Mentu There was the bearing of the
courtier, with the same wondrous stature,
the same massive frame. But the delicate
features of the Egyptian, the long, slim
fingers. the narrow foot were absent. In
this mans countenance there was majesty
instead of grace; in his figure might in