THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GOLDEN PYRAMID
There was not much room in our hearts for mountains or gold just then:
yet somehow, before we left the Palace, Anthony and I had told Brigit
and Monny the secret which had been the romance of our lives, until
they came into it to paint dead gold with the living rose of love.
Victorian women would have been grieved or angry with men who could
leave them at such a time; but these two, instead of reproaching us,
urged us on. Naturally, they wanted to go with us. They said, if there
were danger, they wished to share it. And if there were to be a "find,"
they wished to be among the first to see what no eyes had seen for two
thousand years. But when Anthony explained that there wasn't time to
get tents together and make a decent camp for ladies, even if we were
sure not to tumble into trouble, they said no more. This was surprising
in Monny, if not in Brigit. I supposed, however, that she was being on
her best behaviour, as a kind of thank-offering to Providence for its
unexpected gift of legitimate happiness.
Our secret was to be kept. Only the Sirdar knew--and gave Fenton leave
of absence for a few days. The Set did not suspect the existence of a
mountain at Meröe more important than its neighbours. They did not even
know what had become of Antoun Effendi after he bade them farewell, and
"good luck." From the first, he had given it out that he must leave the
party at Khartum. The object of returning to Meröe was to "meet Sir
Marcus;" and I promised to be back in plenty of time to organize the
return trip to Cairo. My departure, therefore, was all in the day's
work: and the great sensation was Mrs. East's engagement. Even though,
for obvious reasons, Monny's love affair was kept dark, Cleopatra could
not resist parading hers, the minute her wire to Sir Marcus had been
safely sent. I got an invitation for all the members of the Set to a
tennis party in the Palace gardens, at which the Sultan of Dafur and a
bodyguard armed with battle axes would be the chief attraction. Also I
induced the landlord of our hotel to promise special illuminations,
music, and an impromptu dance for the evening. This was to make sure
that none of our friends should find time to see me off at the train.
Anthony was to join me there, in mufti, and might be recognised by
sharp eyes on the lookout for mysteries. Once we got away, that danger
would be past: unless Cleopatra told. But I was certain that she would
not to any one ever again mention the name of Antoun.
It was a full train that night, but no one in it who knew Antoun. Many
people who had been visiting friends or staying at an hotel for weeks,
were saying good-bye. The narrow corridors of the sleeping-cars had
African spears piled up on the floor against the wall, very long and
inconvenient. Ladies struggled in, with rainbow-coloured baskets almost
too big for their compartments. Seats were littered with snake-skins
like immense, decayed apple parings; fearsome, crescent-shaped knives;
leopard rugs in embryo; and strange headgear in many varieties. Stuffed
crocodiles fell down from racks and got underfoot: men walked about
with elephant tusks under their arms; dragomans solicited a last tip; a
six-foot seven Dinka, black as ink and splendid as a Greek statue,
brought flowers from the Palace for some departing acquaintance of the
Sirdar and his wife. Officers in evening dress dashed up through the
sand, on donkey-back, to see the last of friends, their mess jackets
making vivid spots of colour in the electric light. All the fragrant
blossoms of Khartum seemed to be sending farewell messages of perfume
on the cool evening air. No more fantastic scene at a railway-station
could be imagined. If the world and its doings is but a moving picture
for the gods on Olympus they must enjoy the film of "a train departing
from Khartum."
Anthony did not join me until just as the train was crawling out of the
station, for we had asked Brigit and Monny not to see us off, and they
had been startlingly acquiescent. We had a two-berthed compartment
together, and talked most of the night, in low voices; of the mountain;
of the legends concerning it, and the papers of the dead Egyptologist
Ferlini, which indirectly had brought Fenton into Monny Gilder's life,
and given Brigit back to me. There was the out-of-doors breakfast
party, too, on the terrace at Shepheard's. Had it not been for this
incident Antoun, the green-turbaned Hadji, would never have been
selected by Miss Gilder, in words she might now like to forget. "I'll
have _that_!" But, had not a distressed artist called on me one morning
in Rome, months ago, with an old notebook to sell, I should not have
come to Egypt for my sick-leave; and none of us would have met. I had
visited the artist's studio to please a friend, and bought a picture to
please him (not myself); therefore he regarded me as a charitable
dilettante, likely to buy anything if properly approached. Bad luck had
come to him; he wanted to try pastures new, and needed money at short
notice: therefore he wished to dispose of a secret which might be the
key to fortune. Why didn't he use the key himself? was the obvious
question; which he answered by saying that a poor man would not be able
to find the lock to fit it.
The notebook he had to sell had been the property of a distinguished
distant relative, long since dead; the Italian, Ferlini, who about 1834
ransacked the ruins of Meröe in the kingdom of Candace. Ferlini had
given treasure in gold, scarabs, and jewels to Berlin, all of which he
had discovered in a secret _cache_ in the masonry of a pyramid, in the
so-called "pyramid field" of Meröe. But he had been blamed for
unscientific work, and in some quarters it was not believed that he had
found the hoard at Meröe. This jealousy and injustice had prevented
Ferlini's obtaining a grant for further explorations he wished to make.
He claimed to have proof that in a certain mountain not far from the
Meröe pyramids, and much resembling them in shape, was hidden the tomb
of a Candace who lived two hundred years earlier than the queen of that
name mentioned in the New Testament, mistress of the eunuch baptized by
St. Philip. In the notebook which had come down with other belongings
of Ferlini the Egyptologist, to Ferlini the artist, was a copy of
certain Demotic writing, of a peculiar and little known form. The
original had existed, according to the dead Ferlini's notes, on the
wall of an antechapel in one of the most ruinous pyramids at Meröe,
decorated in a peculiarly barbaric Ethiopian style. The wall-writing
described the making of the mountain tomb, ordered by Candace in fear
that her body might be disturbed, according to a prophecy which
predicted the destruction of the kingdom if the jewels of the dead were
found.
Ferlini, a student of the Demotic writings which had superseded
hieroglyphics, doubted not that he had translated the revelation
aright, though he admitted supplying many missing words in accordance
with his own deductions. He was in disfavour at the time he tried to
organize an expedition in search of the queen's hoard, and though
legends of the mountain confirmed the writings which Ferlini was the
first to translate, the Italian could induce no one to finance his
scheme. The one person he succeeded in interesting had a relative,
already excavating in Egypt: but eventually addressed on the subject,
this young man replied that the antechapel in question had fallen
completely into ruin. It would be impossible, therefore, to find the
wall-writing, "if indeed it ever existed."
This verdict had put an end to Ferlini's hopes, and nothing remained of
them save the translated copy of the writing in his notebook (the
missing words inserted) and the legends of the negroes who, generation
after generation since forgotten times, had told the story of the
"Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." Nobody, within the memory of man, had
ever searched for the problematical tomb: and as tales of more or less
the same character are common in Egypt, I did not place much faith in
the enthusiastic jottings of Ferlini. However, my love of the unknown,
the mysterious and romantic, made me feel that the possession of the
notebook was worth the price asked: two thousand lire. When I had
brooded over it myself, I posted it to Fenton at Khartum; and his
opinion had brought me to Egypt. Thinking of the matter in this way, it
seemed that we owed our love stories to the impecunious artist, who had
probably spent his eighty pounds and forgotten me by this time. In a
few hours, or a few days, we might owe him even more.
Anthony, acquainted with Meröe, its pyramids and pyramidal mountains,
since his first coming to the Sudan, had been able to plan out our
campaign almost at an hour's notice. He knew where to wire for camels
[to take us to our destination, eighteen miles from Kabushîa], also for
trained excavators. And he knew one who, if the white men were in
ignorance, could tell us all the most hidden happenings of the desert
for fifty miles around. This was the great character of the
neighbourhood, among the blacks, the Wise Man of the Meröitic desert,
who claimed to be over a hundred years old, had a tribe of sons and
grandsons, and practically ruled the village of Bakarawiya. For
countless generations his forbears had lived under the shadow of the
ruined pyramids. Family tradition made them the descendants of those
Egyptian warriors who revolted in the time of King Psammetichus,
migrating from Elephantine Island to Ethiopia. There they were well
received by the sovereign, given lands in Upper Nubia, and the title of
Autolomi, or Asmack, meaning "Those who stand on the left side of the
King." Anthony's friend and instructor in the lore of legends rejoiced
in the name of "Asmack," which, he proudly said, had been bestowed on
the eldest son in his family, since time immemorial.
Asmack the old and wise was to meet us at Kabushîa Station, with
camels, one for each, and one for Sir Marcus, in case he had arrived
and wished to ride to the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid.
It was orange-red afternoon when our white train slowed down, to pause
for a moment at Kabushîa Station, and the first face we saw was that of
Sir Marcus Antonius--a radiant face whose beaming smile was, I knew,
not so much a welcome for us as a sign that he had received the
telegram from Cleopatra. He hurried along the platform to the steps of
our sleeping car; and Anthony, ready to swing himself down before the
train stopped, pointed out Asmack not far off,--a thin old black man
who must once have been a stately giant, but bent forward now as if
searching the earth for his own grave. He had got to his feet, from a
squatting position in the coal-stained, alluvial clay of this strange
desert, and was gazing toward us, his few rags fluttering in the warm
wind. Beside him stood a mere youth of fifty or so, and two or three
young men, with several sulky camels.
Sir Marcus began to shake hands almost before we were on the platform;
and so did he engross himself in us and absorb our attention that none
of us quite knew when the train went out.
"My dear boys!" he addressed us, nearly breaking our finger bones.
"Lord, Fenton, you're even better looking as a true Britisher than a
false Arab! But never mind that now. Borrow, you're a trump. I believe
I owe everything to you. I mean, in the matter of Mrs. East--_Clara_.
It always was my favourite name. Fenton knows? Thanks for the
congratulations. Thanks to you both. You must be my best men. What?
Can't have but one? Well, it must be Borrow, then, I suppose. Oh, about
the mountain? Why, of course you're anxious. Don't think I have not
been busy. I have. Got here by special train. Cost me a lot of money.
But who cares? It's worth it. I want to hurry things up, and get to
Khartum. What your blessed mountain is to you, that is a certain lady
to me."
"What have you found out?" I managed at last to cut short his
rhapsodies.
"Why, not much, I'm bound to confess. But I've had only a few hours.
Some one--heaven knows who--came here, it seems, with Arabs he'd
engaged heaven knows where, and pretended to be my agent, empowered by
me to work at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, where it was well
known I'd got the right to excavate. Well, the chap was armed with
credentials, and had a contract signed by me, so the authorities
thought he was all right of course, and let him go on. This was more
than a month ago. He pitched his camp out by the mountain, and nobody
disturbed him. Fact is, from what I hear, I don't believe the
excavating men from the Liverpool School of Archeology or whatever you
call it, thought much of his chances of success. A case of looking for
Captain Kidd's treasure! He and his men were excavating round the
mountain, and he'd engaged some more fellows from the neighbourhood to
make the work go faster. But a few days ago--not yet a week--he
discharged the lot, paid them up and sent them off saying he'd
abandoned hope of finding any entrance to an alleged tomb. The Arabs
departed by train; but the fellows from hereabouts gossiped a bit, it
seemed, and the story was started that they'd been got rid of because
the Boss had hit on something, and wanted to be left to himself.
"You haven't told us yet the name of the man," Anthony reminded him.
"By Jove, no more I haven't! I'm so excited about everything. You won't
know it, but Borrow will. Colonel Corkran."
Anthony gave me a look. "I do know the name," he said. "It's the man of
my dream."
"The man of your dream? Corkran a _dream_?"
"A dream which has kept repeating itself until I grew superstitious
about it. A red-faced man with a purplish sort of moustache, I saw
coming between you and us, or looking at me out of a dark recess,
something like a deep doorway. Borrow said when I told him, I was
describing your man, Corkran, whose place he took on your yacht
_Candace_."
"Well, I'm hanged! If that's not the rummiest go! I only hope he's not
in that recess or deep doorway now, if it leads into your mountain. You
remember, Borrow, my telling you he'd been alone for a while in the
sitting-room I use as an office at the Semiramis Hotel, and had had a
good chance if he wanted to browse among my papers? Well, I didn't
mention this to you at the time, but an unsigned contract with you for
your services, in return for all my rights in the Mountain of the
Golden Pyramid, was lying on the desk. (As for the contract he's been
showing here, it could only have been for the trip; but it showed him
to be my agent right enough.) And there were two confidential letters
on my desk: one from a man I'd written to, an Egyptologist chap, saying
in his opinion there _might_ be a tomb in the mountain; the other, an
answer, not finished, telling him I meant to run the risk, and had
secured the rights. You know how queer I thought it, Corkran should
throw up his job, which was paying him pretty well? But it wasn't my
business, and I was jolly glad to be rid of him as it happened. Well,
here we have the mystery explained."
"Not quite yet! I wish we had," I said, thinking of the sly old poacher
on our preserves, who had perhaps by this time skimmed the cream off
the secret. It was easy to guess why he had sent away his workers if,
indeed, he had imagined himself on the eve of a discovery. Rights to
dig are given on the understanding that the Egyptian government shall
have half of anything found, worth the taking. Corkran's scheming to be
alone must mean that he intended annexing what treasure he could carry
off, and then getting out of the bad business. Already six days had
passed since the Arabs and Nubians had left him alone in his camp; and
though it was lucky that we had learned what was going on, it might be
too late to profit by the information. Even if we caught Corkran
red-handed, he might have hidden his spoil where none but he, or some
messenger, could ever find it.
"You'll go out with us to the mountain, Sir Marcus?" I went on. "We'll
be ready to start--"
But Sir Marcus had suddenly become deaf. He had turned as if to gaze
after the long ago departed train. Instead of answering me, he was
stalking off toward a group of people at the far end of the platform:
three ladies and two men in khaki. For a second I felt an impulse of
indignation. Cheek of him to march away like that, not caring much that
we had been robbed, largely through his carelessness, and by one of his
own men!
But the indignation turned to surprise, sheer incredulous amazement. I
glanced at Anthony to learn whether he had seen; but he was beckoning
the old wise man of the desert. "Fenton," said I, "it seems we weren't
the only passengers to get off here. There are three people we know,
talking to two we don't."
Anthony looked. "Great Scott!" said he. And in another instant we were
following Sir Marcus hastily along the platform to greet--or scold (we
weren't sure which it ought to be) the big hatted, green-veiled,
khaki-dressed but easily recognised figures of Brigit O'Brien, Monny
Gilder, and Mrs. East.
"We couldn't help it," Monny cried in self-defence to Anthony, before
he had time to reach the group. "We knew you wouldn't let us come, so
we came--because we _had_ to be in this with you. Even Biddy wanted to
--and she's so _wise_. As, for Aunt Clara, I believe she'd have started
without us, if we hadn't been wild for the journey. So you _see_ how it
was!"
We did see. And we couldn't help rejoicing in their pluck, as well as
in the sight of them, though it was all against our common sense.
"We've ordered our own camels, and a tent, and things to eat and drink,
so we shan't be any bother to you," Monny went on, as Anthony rather
gravely shook hands, his eager brows lifted, his eyes smiling in spite
of himself. "We couldn't have done it, if it hadn't been for Slatin
Pasha. We first went and confided _everything_ to him, because we knew
he loved adventures and would be sure to sympathize. These gentlemen
from the camp are his friends, and they've organized our little
expedition at his request. More than one person can use the telegraph,
you know! And oh, won't it be lovely going with you out into the
desert!"
* * * * *
It was not yet evening when we set forth; but it was the birth of
another day when we arrived within sight of Corkran's camp. The tents
glimmered pale in the light which comes up out of the desert before
dawn, as light rises from the sea; and so deep was the stillness that
it might have been a ghost camp. There was not even the howling of a
dog; and this silence was more eerie than the silence of sleep in a
lonely place; because of the tale a grandson of Asmack's had brought to
the village. He was one of the Nubian men Corkran had engaged to help
his Arab workmen from the north; and when the whole gang had been
discharged he, suspecting that some secret thing was on foot, hid in
the desert-scrub that he might return by night to spy. He had wished
his brothers to stay with him, but they, fearing the djinns who haunt
the mountain and have power at night, refused, and begged him to come
away lest he be struck by a terrible death. The legend was that Queen
Candace, the queen who ordered the making of the tomb--had been a
witch. When she died, by her magic arts learned from the lost Book of
Thoth, she had turned all those aware of the tomb's existence, into
djinns, to guard the secret dwelling of her soul. Even the great men of
the court who by her wish hid in the mountain her body and jewels and
treasure, became djinns the moment they had closed and concealed the
entrance to the tomb. They could never impart the secret to mortals;
and because of the knowledge which burned within their hearts, and the
anguish of being parted forever from those they loved, the tortured
spirits in prison grew malevolent. While the sun (still worshipped by
them as Rã) was above the horizon they had no power over men, but the
moment that Rã? "died his red death" the djinns could destroy those who
ventured within such distance of the mountain as its shadow might
reach: and if any man ventured nearer in the darkness of night, he
heard the wailing of the spirits. Camp had been pitched beyond the
shadow's furthest reach; but the night after the workmen were
discharged, Asmack's one brave grandson had been led by curiosity to
approach the haunted mountain. When he had crept within the trench most
lately dug, he had heard the wicked voice of the djinns raging and
quarrelling together. There had been a threatening cry when they knew
how a man had defied their power, and the Nubian had escaped a fate too
horrible to put in words, only by running, running, until his breath
gave out, and the sun rose.
This story gave the silent desert power even over European minds, as we
came where the small camp glimmered, just outside the Shadow's wicked
circle.
Not one of Asmack's men would go with us to the tent, which was
evidently that of the leader. He might be lying there dead, struck by
the djinns, they said, and all those who looked upon the body would be
accursed. The three women would not have gone to Corkran's tent, even
had we allowed them to do so; and Sir Marcus, already a slave, though a
willing one, stayed with his adored lady and her friends, inside the
ring which the Nubians proceeded to make with the camels. Carrying a
lighted lantern Anthony and I walked alone to the tent.
The flap was down, but not fastened, and the canvas moved slightly as
if trembling fingers tried to hold it taut.
"Colonel Corkran!" I called out, sharply. But there was no answer.