Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-06-25
QUEEN HATASOO.

/ entered two seamen. One Of them wore
| the uniform of an American blueiacket,
and evidently belonged to the american
cruiser that was lying in the harbor.
| The other who was much Older man
than his comrade, was as evidently in
| the merchant service, and lad the look
of man who had been spending week
ashore among the low barrooms of
Naples.
You're the counsel, sir?" said the
man-of wars man.
Il am" replied the consul.
Bill, here, and me, wants a little adj
vice of you, and we're willing and able to
pay for it, if there's any charge. Only
We want you to keep mum about what
| we've got to tell you. That's fair, amt
it?"
Quite fair" said the consul, provided
you are not going to confess any crime
| to me-"
"0h, There amt no crime about il,
said the sailor. Il came ashore this
morning and ran across Bill who was
shipmates with me four years ago, when
we were up the Mediterranean in the
Lancaster. We got talking about lit
tie business that we got cheated in when
we were together, and we calculated that
we couldn't do better than to come and
tell you about it, and ask if you could
see any way for us to get our rights"
Pm always glad to help a sailor" re-
piled the consul. Take cigar and sit
down, and tell me your story. Pm a tee
totaller. and so | can't offer YOU any
thing to drink, but you can help your
self to those oranges on the table if
you're thirsty"
The sailors accepted the cigars crate
fully, and the manof wars man launched
into his story.
when we were lying at Port Said, in
the Lancaster. the surgeon took a notion
to do some digging, calculating to find
valuable antiquities, and so on. He was
first class man all the way through,
and Bill here and | were particular
friends of his. He'd ladle out medicine
to Us whenever we asked for it, and my
idea is that we had twice as much medi-
cine out of the surgeons stores as any
other two men aboard the ship, though
as general thing we were about the
healthiest of the lot.
We'll! The surgeon got months
leave to 90 digging, and he got permits
sion for me and Bill to 60 with him. He
told MS. as soon as we got ashore with
him. that he had got on the track of the
tomb of an Egyptian queen called Hata-
500, who lived about 10000 years ago.
and that he wanted to dig her up and
carry her off without letting the Arabs
know anythin" about it. That's the rea-
son why lie took Bill ard me to help
him, knowing that we could be trusted.
provided, OF course, he made it worth
our while
We'll! We didn't lose any time in
laying in tents and stores and such. and
we went up the river to place called
luxor, which is about as low down a
town as | ever struck. On the opposite
side of the river, there is valley where
the old Egyptians used to have their
graveyard, and it was there that the sur
geon. whose name was Thomas Stark,
calculated to find his corpse. We went
across the river and pitched the tents a
good way up the valley, where travellers
didn't usually come. and the surgeon paid
the sheik of the next village to keep all
his Arabs at home and not let them
come and interfere with us. Then we
set tc digging i'll the sand. and it's the
Il
stoning the decks in the Persian gulf is
cool alongside of it. However, that's got
nothing to do with the facts. There was
nothing but sand in sight, and the sur
geon said that Queen Hatasoo's tomb was
buried under the sand. and that we'd
have to find it. We dug for about a
week, making dozen OF so different
holes in the ground, before we struck the
tomb, but one morning we found it and
broke open the door and went in with
our candles
1T was a laundering big tomb with
rooms enough in it to accommodate a
whole family of corpses There wasn't
any sign of a coffin in it, so far as could
see, but the surgeon set us tn digging in
one corner of the last room and after
bit we struck pit, and cleared ii out,
and at the bottom of the pit was the
old lady 5 coffin. 1t was made of wood
covered with painted figures, and when
We had pried the lid off, there she lay,
wrapped up tight, and as sound as the
day when she was made into mummy.
And what showed Bill and me that there
was Il good sense in digging for mummies
was that Hatasoo had big lot of gold
and Jewels covering her breast, which
must have been worth II tidy lot of
money if they could have been sold at
a fair price.
The surgeon was in bully spirits. and
said that he would pay us men the fair
value of the gold aud Jewels when we
should get back to the states, and that
he would keep the old lady for his share.
That suited Bill and me, and we lent a
hand to carry the queen and her traps
to the surgeons tent where he put her
IN big pine box that he had brought
along for the purpose and screwed her
down, Then he said he'd take rest,
tor the sun had been Il little too much
Tor him, and we all turned in for sleep.
1t was about noon when Bill and
turned out. and went to the surgeons
tent for orders. A. he didn't answer
our hail we calculated that something
vas wrong and went into the tent, and
found him as dead as Queen HataSoo.
\ on see the sun had given him fit. nd
he'd died without being able To call Us.
Bill here, has got head en- him.