Queen of Death

Keesing climbed up, carrying a torch and a spade. He looked at the steps. An enormous rock had fallen down onto the steps from the mountain above.

'Farrow's right,' De Fries said to Keesing. 'The entrance is blocked. It will take weeks to get that enormous rock out of the way.'

Keesing looked around carefully on each side of the rock and then above it.

'I wonder what's above the rock,' said Keesing. 'I can't see up there. We'll have to climb up round it.'

Farrow watched the two men climb further up the gully. They climbed round the side of the enormous rock and disappeared.

What can I do to stop them? Farrow asked himself. There must be something I can do.

But then he remembered Christine and the radio call. He could do nothing until Keesing spoke to Greer on the radio.

I've shown them the tomb, he thought. Perhaps they'll let us go now.

Suddenly De Fries appeared again. He climbed down the gully and hurried to the lorry. Then he climbed up the gully once more. This time he was carrying a box of dynamite.

'Have you found something?' Farrow shouted.

There's a hole in the mountain above the rock,' replied De Fries. 'It looks like another way into the tomb.'

Farrow sat and waited. The sun had gone behind the mountain in the west. About fifteen minutes later, there was a loud explosion. Then silence.

Suddenly there was a loud scream. De Fries appeared at the top of the rock. But this time he did not climb down. He fell from the rock and rolled over and over into the valley below. He lay on the hard ground, his body turning and twisting. Then he gave another loud scream and lay still. Farrow knew that he was dead.

Farrow sat on the rock. De Fries was dead and there was nothing he could do for him. But where was Keesing? If Keesing was dead, no radio message would be sent to Greer and Christine would die.

Farrow climbed down and ran towards the gully. Suddenly he stopped. He had heard the sound of an engine. Farrow looked along the valley and saw a huge lorry coming towards him. The lorry stopped. Farrow watched in amazement. Three figures dressed in protective suits climbed out of the lorry.

One of the figures moved towards Farrow. It stopped when it saw the body of De Fries. The man looked at Farrow and said, 'Who are you?'

'Farrow - Dr John Farrow. They made me take them here. They made me show them the tomb. Who are you? The police?'

'No, we're not the police. We've been following you. Thank you for writing such a clever book and for bringing us here. Let me introduce myself. My name is Strengel - Dr Jusef Strengel.'

CHAPTER ELEVEN

' We've Come Prepared'

Farrow had heard about Dr Strengel. He knew that Strengel was a rich man and owned a large collection of Egyptian antiquities.

Strengel pointed down at the body of De Fries.

'What's been happening here?' he asked.

'Keesing and De Fries blew open a passage into the Queen's tomb,' replied Farrow.

'Yes, we heard the explosion. It helped us to get here more quickly. Where's Keesing?'

'He's still in the tomb,' said Farrow. 'He's probably dead.'

'I found your book very helpful,' Dr Strengel told Farrow. 'I'm not a fool like Keesing. We've come prepared. No germs can get through these suits. Now we can take the mummy and treasure away before Inspector Salahadin arrives.'

Suddenly another voice interrupted them. It was Keesing. He had come out of the tomb while they had been talking. Now he was behind a rock. He was pointing a revolver at Strengel.

'You're not going to take the mummy or the treasure out of this tomb, Strengel,' said Keesing. 'I'm going to stop you.'

'Don't be a fool, Keesing,' said Strengel. 'You've been inside that tomb. The germs are in your body. You'll soon be dead like your friend, De Fries.'

'It was De Fries who was the fool,' replied Keesing, 'I didn't touch the mummy. It was De Fries who opened the case. I didn't touch it.'

'You've been in the tomb - that's enough,' said Strengel. 'You need help. I've got medicines in my lorry and I'm a doctor. Come down and I'll help you.'

There was a loud bang. A bullet from Keesing's revolver hit a rock near Strengel.

'That suit won't protect you if it's got a hole in it,' shouted Keesing, with a laugh.

Suddenly there was another shot from behind Keesing. The revolver dropped from Keesing's hand. Keesing fell slowly from behind the rock. He rolled down the gully towards them. The driver of Strengel's lorry had crept up the rocks behind Keesing. The driver was not wearing a suit.

'Keep away from here!' Strengel shouted to the driver. 'Go and get your suit on. It's dangerous here.'

Farrow remembered that he was in danger too. He moved away from the bodies lying on the rocks. Strengel looked down at Keesing. Keesing was not dead, but his face was turning black. He was in great pain.

'Shoot me - shoot me,' he said to Strengel. 'You were right. The germs are in my body. Shoot me now. Let me die quickly.'

'You knew that you were dying. And you wanted me to die in the same way,' was Strengel's cruel reply. He walked away, leaving Keesing turning and twisting in great pain.

Strengel turned to the two men who were with him, 'We can go into the tomb now and get the mummy. But we must he quick.'

'What about the radio message?' said Farrow, turning to Dr Strengel.

'What radio message?'

'They're holding my wife prisoner in Cairo,' Farrow explained. 'If Greer doesn't get a call from Keesing before seven o'clock, he'll kill my wife. And it's nearly seven o'clock now.'

'I haven't got time for that,' replied Strengel cruelly. He walked back to his lorry to get the equipment ready. They had powerful lights, spades, ropes, and steel bars. Strengel and his three men climbed up the gully. They were all wearing their protective suits.

Farrow stood thinking for a few moments. Then he walked down towards the lorry. He would try to use the radio to speak to Greer. He had never used a radio before, but he had watched Keesing using it.

In the Range Rover, Salahadin had also heard the explosion.

'That's them,' he said. 'They're near.'

'The explosion was on the other side of that mountain,' said the driver. 'It won't be easy to get there.'

'Which mountain?' asked Musa.

The driver pointed up to a mountain top to the east.

'That's the mountain shaped like a sitting man,' he said. 'We'll have to get round to the other side of that mountain.'

'Let's get there as quickly as we can then,' said Salahadin. 'The sun's setting now and it will soon be dark.'

'It'll be dangerous if we drive too quickly,' said the driver.

'Drive as quickly as you can,' Salahadin repeated. 'If they take that mummy out of the tomb, it could be much more dangerous for everyone.'

The driver drove the Range Rover round rocks and up over hills of sand. The passengers were thrown from one side to the other. Half an hour later, they reached the entrance to the valley. The driver stopped.

'We must be very near now,' he said to Salahadin. 'I've been in this valley before. There's a gully on the west side. It's below that great rock on top. The tomb must be in the gully.'

'Good,' said Salahadin. 'We can walk from here.'