Phineas’s face was totally expressive. His eyes were dancing, and he said, “I’ll tell you one thing. That’s not a native rock. That was brought in from somewhere. Let’s take a look at it.”
They advanced and went around the rock, which rose some twenty feet in the air. It had probably been roughly square at one time, but was worn now by the abrasive actions of the wind and sand.
The professor dropped on his knees and began digging. “Get a shovel,” he said. “We’ve got to see what’s on the base of this.”
Josh ran and got a shovel, and he applied his muscle power. Soon he had a trench dug completely around it, a foot and a half deep. “Look,” he said, “it’s square at the bottom.” His face was alight, and he said, “What does that mean, Professor? That it was a monument?”
“Yes, and I think all the words that were carved into it have worn away, but we’ll dig down and see.” He looked up and said, “What about the house?”
“I haven’t seen anybody,” Kefira said. “It seems to be deserted.”
The four of them went to the house, and Lisimba cautioned them, mentioning, “Some say it is haunted with bad spirits.”
“I don’t think we need worry about that,” Phineas said cheerfully. He led the way inside, and indeed, the house was empty. There were a few pieces of broken furniture, but the house seemed to have been more recently occupied by wild animals and birds than anything else.
“This is strange,” Phineas murmured, frowning. “A house out here and not inhabited.”
“Well, I don’t think anyone could farm this land,” Josh observed.
“It was probably greener a thousand years ago. Much of this land was.”
Going outside, the three of them stood considering the black rock and the house. The goat on the top looked down at them, chewing placidly.
“I wonder where that goat finds food and water. Can’t live on just what’s growing on the house, especially without water.”
“There’s probably a small spring somewhere close around. There would have to be to support him. Did you notice there were other animal tracks too?” Josh asked.
“Let’s set up the tents,” the professor said. “We’ve got to think about this.”
Setting up the tents occupied some of their time, and Kefira fixed a quick meal, but none of them were particularly hungry. The professor had gone to gaze at the stone, looking up at it and then getting down and digging like a terrier at the base.
“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard of,” Kefira said. “Do you think it means something?”
“I believe the professor thinks so. He wouldn’t be so busy otherwise.”
Five minutes later the professor came back, and a smile wreathed his face. “Well, I found something. An inscription at the base. It’s only the name of the quarry and the quarry master, but I can date it from that. This stone,” he said, “goes all the way past the time of the early days of the pharaohs.” He smiled with satisfaction. “And if there’s a stone like that, it was put here for a purpose, and we’re going to find it.”
“Professor, do you mean it?” Kefira cried with delight.
“You’ll see whether I mean it. The first thing I’m going to do is get in that truck and go make sure that we’re in good standing with the authorities at Cairo.” He frowned and then shook his head. “No one is going to take this away from us.”
Ten minutes later the professor was on his way, driving the truck across the desert at full speed. Kefira and Josh stood watching him. “I believe God is in this, Josh.”
“I think you’re right.”
The two of them watched until the truck disappeared, and then Josh said, “Well, there’s nothing much to do until the professor gets back. Maybe I can spend some time with you.”
Kefira suddenly laughed. “Well, I’m not going anywhere alone this time, that’s for certain. Now, let’s see if we can find that spring….”
****
As it happened, Kefira and Josh had plenty of time to spend together. The professor was gone for two days, and Kefira enjoyed every moment. They did find the tiny spring, enough to supply their needs, and they had plenty of food. The few workers they’d retained enjoyed loafing, and Kefira and Josh spent every waking moment together. It was a wonderful time for Kefira, and each day she found out more about this man whom she had grown to love. He said nothing to her about his feelings, but often he would take her hand and smile at her in a way that warmed her deep inside.
****
The professor came roaring back with a full crew. He got out of the truck waving a paper, and when he reached them, his eyes were electric. “No one can say we haven’t followed the official line on this. We have full authority to dig anywhere in this area.”
“That’s wonderful, Professor!” Josh exclaimed. “But where are we going to start?” He looked around at the vacant spaces and shook his head. “We can’t just stick a shovel in that sand.”
“No, we’re going to start in the logical place,” Phineas said.
“The logical place. Where’s that?” Kefira asked.
“Under the house itself.” He saw their surprise and said, “In ancient Egypt many people buried their dead beneath their houses. I don’t know what was here before, but I’m banking on the fact that since it’s happened before, it can happen again. So come along. Let’s start dismantling that floor.”
They went inside at once, both Josh and Kefira filled with excitement. The floor was covered with a layer of stones four inches thick. “This stone had to be brought in from somewhere,” the professor said. He had wiggled a crowbar into a crack and pried up one of the rocks. He studied it, saying, “I’m thinking it came from Aswan, but we shall see.”
The professor and Josh quickly removed a section of the floor and then began to remove the material beneath it. “This isn’t sand,” Josh said. “This house was built on something else.”
“Probably on top of another structure that had been flattened by wars or storms,” Phineas agreed.
The search went on all day, and the workers were kept busy hauling out their wheelbarrows full of dirt. That night they had uncovered half the floor but had found nothing save one or two interesting artifacts. One was a comb made out of ivory.
“That ivory didn’t come from here,” Josh said.
“No, from India probably. But the pharaohs knew ivory. And this,” Phineas said, “is most interesting.”
Kefira came closer and saw a fragment of pottery no more than three inches square. “What’s interesting about that?” she said.
“The writing on it,” the professor explained.
Kefira stared at it and shook her head. “What kind of writing is it?”
“It’s hieroglyphics, and it’s of the time of very early Egypt. So we’re at the right spot. I’m sure of it.”
****
The next day, however, the professor was not so sure, nor the day after. They had removed the entire floor and had made sample digs but had found only a few minor pieces.
“How deep are we going to go, Professor?” Josh asked.
“You’ve got to remember, Joshua, that the desert shifts. You remember how deep we had to go in some of those simple little burial grounds in Louisiana? Have you ever been to Israel?”
“No, never.”
“I think the biggest surprise for me there was when I saw Jacob’s well.”
“Why, I read in the Bible where Jesus met a woman at Jacob’s well.”
“Yes, it was in Samaria. Well, I knew the well was there, so I was anxious to see it. It’s always been a favorite story of mine. So I went there, and I saw a house there, and I thought that must be the well. I went over to it and found out that it had become a tourist attraction. They charged to see it. Not much but a little. So I paid and went into the small house, expecting to find it.”
“Was it there?” Josh inquired.
“No, there was a set of stairs that went down some thirty feet. There was a place hollo
wed out, and there was the well.”
“The well was thirty feet underground?”
“Yes, that well was up on top of the surface when Jesus sat there and talked with that woman. But over hundreds of years, even thousands, the earth had filled in. That’s the way it is with the earth.”
****
The dig went on for a week. They were not removing shovelfuls at a time, but teaspoons. They kept finding evidence of ancient Egypt. The professor found a gold scarab and murmured, “This is a treasure. This was not owned by a poor person.”
He handed it to Kefira, who examined it. “Why, it looks like a beetle.”
“That’s what a scarab is. Egyptians worshiped beetles as they worshiped nearly everything else.”
Handing the item back, she said, “We go so slowly.”
“The old-school archeologists destroyed a lot of things. We might find one tiny piece of evidence here if we’re careful, but if we use shovels, we could miss it. Be patient, my dear.”
Kefira was patient. She did the cooking, and she also helped with the painstaking business of taking out the rubble and sand a spoonful at a time. Whenever she saw something in the ground, she would often proceed with only a brush, carefully brushing away the sand until the object was revealed and then she would call the professor to make a judgment on it.
One day she had been digging very carefully. She was kneeling down, and her knees were beginning to ache. Suddenly the spoon she was using to move the fine silt struck something hard. She blinked and scraped again. Carefully she tested the earth and knew that whatever it was, was very large. “Professor,” she said, “I found something.”
As always when one of them made a find, the other two would rush over. “What is it, my dear?”
“I don’t know. Here, you’d better see. It seems like a big flat stone.”
The professor gave her a startled look and then stooped down and began working with it. Josh and Kefira bent over, Josh holding a flashlight. The professor scraped carefully and looked up with his eyes dancing. “I think we found something here.”
“What do you think it is?”
“It’s stone, all right, but like that needle out there. It’s been hauled in. Here, help me, Josh. We need to clear away.”
All of them worked diligently but carefully. An hour later they had cleared an area five feet square. The professor was totally silent. He had found something that startled him. The others leaned in and saw that he had found some writing. They did not speak for fear of disturbing his concentration.
Finally Phineas Welles looked up, and his lips were trembling. He could not speak for a moment, and finally Josh cried, “What is it, Professor?”
“It’s … tomb, if I’m not mistaken.” He waved a hand that was not quite steady toward the seal. “You see that seal? It says it is the seal of Mensah.”
Josh and Kefira both stared at him, for he had mentioned often that this would be the greatest find in modern archeological history.
“Is that what it says, Professor?” Kefira asked.
“I believe it is. I think we have found a tomb, and pray to God that it might not be a false one.”
“It could be like the one back at the tell that Amir claimed, couldn’t it?”
“It could be, or it could be that tomb robbers have been here, but I doubt it. Somewhere there’s an opening. If this is the opening to the tomb, it doesn’t look broken into to me. Just think of it. If we could find a tomb with the body of a man like Mensah and all of the treasures buried with him, it would be the dream of my lifetime.”
****
They worked into the evening until they were exhausted, clearing more away until finally the opening to whatever was below was cleared. The professor said, “If it’s like other tombs, this will give access to a stairway, and then there will be a tunnel leading to the burial chamber. But we must go very slowly. Get some rest.”
The professor went to bed, but both Josh and Kefira were too excited. She fixed coffee, and they drank it together, talking late into the night. Finally Josh said, “Let’s walk around. I can’t sleep.”
“All right, Josh.”
The two walked outside and made their way toward the needle. They stood staring up, and Josh put his arm around her waist. “You’re quite a dreamer, Kefira Reis.”
Kefira turned to face him, and he kept his arm in place. She put her hands on his chest and looked up at him. She did not mean to say so, but somehow she could not keep it back any longer. “Joshua, do you know that I care for you?” she whispered softly.
Josh was absolutely still for a moment, and then he lowered his head and kissed her. She returned his kiss with a firm pressure, and he drew her closer. He had a dread of making a mistake with this girl, but her words had touched something in his heart.
“I’m glad you do, Kefira, for I love you with all my heart.” He stroked her hair and then kissed her again. He feared that his ardor would be too great for her, yet her arms drew him close, and he knew then that this was right. When he lifted his head, he said, “Will you marry me and live with me and be my wife?”
“Yes!” Kefira reached up and put both hands on his cheeks. She held his face like that for a moment, then put her arms around him and laid her cheek against his chest. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t love me.”
“That’s the one thing in this world you’ll never have to worry about.”
The two stood holding each other, while overhead, a silver disc of moon shed its light upon them. There in the silence, Josh and Kefira knew they had found something in the land of Egypt more precious than any archeological find.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The Prize
The work progressed very slowly, so slowly that Kefira grew impatient. Every day she helped Josh, Professor Welles, and the crew uncover what lay beneath the ancient house.
It took over a week of careful, painstaking labor to unearth the stairway beneath the house. Some of the stones were heavy, and Josh had to do most of that work, but finally the flooring was removed, and they stared down into the darkness. The professor threw a beam from his flashlight and said in a hushed whisper, “It’s possible no one has been in this place for thousands of years. I haven’t seen any sign of grave robbers. It’s a miracle!”
The professor went first, followed closely by Josh and Kefira. At the foot of the stairs they found a landing, but it was filled in with rubble.
“Where did all this come from?” Josh asked in bewilderment.
“I think it’s possible that whoever built this tomb—Mensah perhaps—ordered it filled in to keep robbers out. They were very conscious of grave robbers in those days.”
“Well, there’s bound to be a door here.”
“I’m sure there is, and let’s hope it’s sealed and the seal is unbroken. But first,” the professor said, “we’ve got to examine this rubble carefully.”
Piece by piece, and in small buckets, the rubble was removed. Finally on the first day of August the rubble was cleared, and the professor stood with Josh and Kefira, staring at the door before them. It was sealed in, and he went over it carefully with his fingers. He turned and said in a voice not quite steady, “It hasn’t been broken into. I think we may have found something really great.” He passed his hand over his forehead and said, “This has happened before so many times, when people got this far and then found that robbers had gone in and spoiled everything.”
He turned to the seal and ran his fingers over it. It was the seal of the royal cemetery. He turned to them and nodded. “This is clear proof that a person of very high standing was buried here. I think whoever designed this was very wise. I believe he had seen the damage done to other tombs and decided to hide his own very well.” He smiled slightly and said, “Khufu, who built the largest pyramid, the great pyramid, made a mistake. He wanted his body to be hidden, and then he built a building half a mile high and almost a quarter of a mile wide so nobody could miss the location.”
“That
wasn’t very smart, was it?” Kefira said seriously.
“No, and in the Valley of the Kings, the pharaohs, very conveniently for grave robbers, put themselves in one small area. But this man evidently came out in the middle of an empty desert. He had the tomb built, then disguised the entrance with this ordinary-looking house. It took a long time, I would think, depending upon how long the tunnel is and how big the chambers are. But I would suspect he had all the dirt hauled off and that he worked for a long time. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he didn’t have some of the workers killed to keep the location secret.”
“What a gruesome thought,” Kefira said, frowning.
“There are more gruesome things in this world than you can think of, Kefira.” Phineas smiled. “Well, we’ll open this door and see what we have. We’ll take one stone out first and then see what’s on the other side.”
For two hours the men labored, taking turns chiseling away the mortar that held the stone together, and finally Josh said, “I believe I can pull it out now, Professor.”
“Do so then, Joshua, and let’s take a look at what we’ve found.”
Josh got his fingers in the crevice and began to work the stone outward. Finally it came free, and he staggered back before putting it down.
The professor stepped forward with his flashlight and looked through the opening. He was silent for a long time, but neither Josh nor Kefira wanted to disturb him.
Turning to face them, the professor’s face was alight with eagerness. “It’s a tunnel,” he said. “There seems to be a great deal of rubble in it. But the tunnel must lead to the burial chamber.”
The news encouraged them, and for the next day they tore the wall of the door down. When it was clear they stepped inside, and Josh flashed his light around. “It’s full of all sorts of things. I thought it might be empty.”
“This may not be the last tunnel. I think whoever made this tomb knew what he was doing.”
They began to pick up objects from the floor, and the professor exclaimed, “Look at this!” He held out a clay cylinder with hieroglyphics around it.
Beloved Enemy, The (House of Winslow Book #30) Page 29