We passed a couple of side tunnels, and our passage bent this way and that. Then it seemed to come to a blank end.
Amenardis pushed open a door. The rushlight wavered as she stepped down.
We stood in a spacious underground chamber, perhaps twenty by fifty feet. Three sides were hewn from soft rock while the fourth was closed by a wall of brick.
The door through which we had come was a thin flat wooden structure, coated with plaster on the chamber side and modeled and painted to look like the rock, with an irregularity that would serve as a handle to open it. In a strong light I do not think it would have befooled anybody, but by rushlight, especially if you were not looking for it, you would never have noticed it.
The central part of the chamber was taken up by a colossal sarcophagus of sable stone, such as might have held the body of a Titan or a Kyklops. It towered up over our heads.
"What is this?" I whispered. "I've never seen the like."
Amenardis waved at the sarcophagus. "Coffin of Apis bull. You in rooms under the temple of Osiris. Tis have men dig tunnel, take over this room for his band and loot. Nobody ever come in here, since the coffin was rolled in and entrance closed up."
I looked more closely at the sarcophagus. It was made of one single piece of polished black granite with a close-fitting lid. It was, I should judge, over twelve feet long and eight wide, and almost as high as it was long. The thing must have weighed hundreds—nay, thousands—of talents. I could see why "all Memphis" had to turn out to haul such monstrous objects from the city to this temple in the desert.
"Is the bull in there?" I asked. In my excited fancy the vast lid rose up and an angry deity issued forth.
"No. Tis cut hole in the sarcophagus, make door. Cut up mummy of bull and take out to make room for loot. I not see for years, since Tis marry Thoueris."
She searched along the end Of the sarcophagus, low down. At last she said: "Here door!"
I slid my fingers along (he granite and felt the crack. The door was big enough for a stooping man lo go through. The insetting of this door, too, had been a masterly job. My fingers found the gamma-shaped slot for the key.
"Locked," said Amenardis in a despondent tone. "No have key. Can you pick this lock?"
"Alas, no! Do you know where Tis keeps the key?"
"Keep one on string around neck. Have other, spare, but I not know where he hide. Sony. I no good to you after all." She began to weep quietly.
"On the contrary, my darling, this is a great stride forward. Now that I know where the accursed robe is, perhaps you can find that spare key, or I can learn how to pick the lock, or something. Everything is fine and I love you."
"You do? You not just say that to make me help you?"
"Of course not!"
I took the rushlight from her, set it on the floor, and took her in my arms. Her rich, thinly clad body seemed to melt into mine with a gentle but irresistible gliding, writhing motion.
When passion drives, a floor of rock thinly covered with sand is as good as a golden couch.
Later Amenardis said: "Chares! Hurry! Tis come back from city any time!"
Feeling magnificent, albeit a little lightheaded, I made myself presentable and picked up the rushlight. As I neared the door of the tunnel, something moved at floor level. When I stooped to see, I got a shock. There crouched a large black scorpion, hoisting its tail over its back and spreading its nippers.
I gave a grunt of dismay and stepped back, bumping into Amenardis.
"Is—is Tis a sorcerer who keeps familiar spirits to spy upon his people?" I said, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.
"Oh, that!" said Amenardis. "Step on it. Your shoes thicker than mine."
The scorpion scuttled. I brought my foot down upon it, albeit with loathing. "Let's get out of here," I said. "Rhou-ek."
She gave a low laugh. "You mean rhou-en, unless you want to stay here while I go."
"The gods forbid!" I found the plaster-covered door and blundered through.
"Your friend Onas," said Tis at dinner, "has been at me all day to give him a glimpse of the dread Book of Thôth. In sooth, he drove a hard bargain with me, that he would not help me in the final haggle with Men unless I would fulfill his desire." The dealer in antiquities cast a possessive glance upon the splendid gorget of gold and amethysts that gleamed on Thoueris' neck.
"So," continued Tis, "I have—perhaps rashly—agreed to show it to him, this very night. For magical reasons, which as fellow wizards you all appreciate, this book must be scanned only at midnight."
"Are we all invited?" said Dikaiarchos.
"Certainly, my dear sir. I should be unhappy if any of you failed to come."
Berosos said: "Against rash adventures tonight the stars have warned me."
"Oh, you and your stars!" said Onas.
"And who won twenty drachmai by betting on the red bull, on whom he had cast a rough horoscope and so knew it would win?"
Manethôs : "Berosos, if the Divine Wisdom watches over me, I think it will also watch over you—even though you worship it with corrupt Babylonian rites."
Onas, Berosos, and I had brought our short artilleryman's swords on the journey, but Berosos had left his in charge of Horos. He pleaded that he would be unable to use it, and he disliked its weight and inconvenience. Before midnight Onas and I strapped our swords to our thighs and donned our military kilts, which hid the weapons. Then we went forth to meet our host.
Tis handed me a bronzen lamp, which sputtered and sent forth a powerful stench of castor oil. Dikaiarchos, wrapped in a voluminous cloak against the chill of the desert night, got another; so did Berosos, while Tis bore one himself.
"Come," said he. "You are about to see something few men know of."
He led us into his bedroom and opened the secret door. "In you go; watch the steps. Go straight along the tunnel."
Holding my lamp high, I descended the steps for the second time. Tis followed.
Ahead, my people trudged in single file, like a procession of ghosts. The lamplight flickered and flared, throwing weird shadows on the rough dun walls, as if the animal-headed gods of Egypt were keeping pace with us.
As we came to the first fork in the tunnel, Tis called out: "Stand, pray. Let me by."
He squeezed past us and took the lead. I passed the side tunnels with an uneasy glance, wishing I knew whither they went and whether indeed they were empty.
Tis opened the door at the end of the tunnel and ushered us into the burial chamber. While my comrades gasped at the sight of the vast black sarcophagus, Tis explained where we were, adding:
"You must all swear secrecy about what you see here. The priests of Osiris might not like my making so free with their catacomb for warehouse space. Will you hold this lamp, pray?"
Tis handed the lamp to Manethôs and brought out a key from his bosom. It was a short, heavy, forked bronze key of the new type, which throws the bolt by a single twist of the wrist instead of by teasing it across by stages. He slipped the ring on the end of the key over his middle finger and felt along the sarcophagus until he found the little door. He thrust the key in and turned it with a click. The door opened.
Standing behind Tis on tiptoe, I raised my lamp and moved my head this way and that, to see as much as I could of the inside of the sarcophagus. I had a glimpse of shelving piled with goods: precious metals, jewels, silks, and above all with books, great stacks of them.
Tis, bending double, reached inside. Then he backed out and straightened up. In one hand he held a folded piece of textile; in the other, a scroll.
"Here, Onas," he said, proffering the scroll.
Onas took the scroll and began to unroll it. "Hold your lamp steady, Berosos," he said. "I cannot see to read. By the First Ennead, it is the genuine—"