About 11am the heat the heat of the day stirred the sand devils and raised shimmering mirages over the stonework, the Dervishes vanished from the scene. On the scorched hilltops the Medji watched as Binkie and Gerard’s parties retired to shade themselves from the heat.
Adrian quickly realised that to stay where he was would invite disaster from thirst. Taking his wounded and all the stores he could carry he marched to join the others. He reached them just as the temperature rose to an almost unbearable level.
Hassan, over by the foot of the cliff, led three others into the caves out of the sun. There he found a tunnel stretching back behind a deserted camp. Carefully creeping along the passage and keeping a wary eye for traps he slowly advanced. As he did so he noticed that sconces were mounted at regular intervals in the walls. These, he realised, were of fairly recent manufacture.
Around a corner they came upon a wooden door set into the wall. He entered the room to find that is was a well used store room. In it the light of his torch showed stacks of boxes. Investigating them he found that the nearest boxes were marked as containing Remington and Martini Henry ammunition. Further away were dried and preserved rations in date order. He continued to explore below ground.
Above Hassan, although he did not realise that at the time, Binky scanned the horizon and saw a column of figures marching towards the River. He is sorely tempted to set off in pursuit of them for he suspected that they were slavers. The sergeant of Askaris, standing beside him saw his dilemma and commented that they might just a easily be a diversion set up by the Mahdists to split the party. Binky, quietly, put his field glasses back into their case, turned and walked back down from the crest. As he came back onto the flat he noticed some strange plants with large red-topped globes surrounded by bright green leaves. He took a sample for Cynthia and placed it carefully into a string net bag.
Meanwhile, the midday heat forced almost everyone into shade and so Adrian took his Askaris on a sweep around the flanks to make sure that the Mahdists were truly gone. As he did so he came upon a low, partly concealed cave. From it issued sounds of rustling. He decided to investigate, mostly to get out of the heat. Drawing both his revolvers he advanced cautiously, pausing to let his eyes adjust from the glare of the sun to the sudden gloom. He could see little enough. The floor of the cave was covered in a dry evil smelling stuff that crunched underfoot as he advanced. The rustling continued growing louder and now it seemed to surround him. Suddenly, there came a rushing noise. Something dark was coming towards him fast, it had no form and its shape changed as it approached. He fired. The rushing noise increased as thousands of bats rushed past him.
Over by the temple Binky made an examination of the temple entrance. It struck him that the temple was remarkably complete and undamaged. He looked very carefully at the hieroglyphics and pictures on the entrance and located a partially concealed doorway. Behind it he found a ladder leading upwards and a stairway leading down. Closely followed by Henry Jones he climbed up and found his way blocked by a trap door. He examined it carefully and then gave it a gentle push. He was surprised to find that the trap door moved easily upwards revealing a dark room. Calling down for a carbide lamp he climbed into the room. He was staggered to find himself in a library. An ancient Egyptian library surrounded him. The floor was covered in undisturbed dust. In the centre was a clear area and as Binky looked at the scrolls, pushing three inside his shirt, Henry called over to him that he had found another trapdoor. This time it was in the ceiling.
Perched on Henry’s shoulders Binky examined the trapdoor. Actually, he discovered, it was a pair of shutters that opened sideways. It took a lot of effort to push one of the shutters. It stubbornly refused to move. Bracing himself and with Henry giving him a heave, Binky managed to slide the shutter open. He was almost blinded by the sunlight. The opening led onto the roof of the gateway.
Back below ground, Hassan and his party explore further and find other empty rooms and a storeroom of Egyptian artefacts taken from the site. On a table lay a leather bound book containing lists and dig records.
Adrian, by this time, had completed his patrol around the perimeter. He set off up the hill towards the pyramid where he intended to establish a vedette post. This was a slow undertaking as the surface was particularly rough.
Gerald and his group were checking out the statues, sphinxes and obelisks. Gradually it became clear that they gave the story of the escape of a pharaoh and his flight into this region and then his successors were found and forced to move onwards. The hieroglyphics made frequent reference to “Mophir” but whether this was a person or a place was not entirely clear. Gerard suspected the latter.
Binky, quite exhilarated by his finding a route to the roof of the gate performed a jig around the top. Accompanying himself by singing loudly several ribald music hall songs.
In the temple courtyard Cynthia dropped a stone into the well and estimated that it was about 60 feet deep. She wandered around taking in the sights of the temple and noticed that the dais was a single slab of marble. A crack seemed to run around its edge but on half of each long side and one short side the crack was quite obvious whereas on the rest of the perimeter it was almost invisible. This set her thinking.
She started to look for the unusual although she did not yet quite what she was looking for. Ramsden joined her in the search. After some time Ramsden found a socket set in to the steps. He cleared it out and tried to find what was in the bottom. He tried using the barrel of his shotgun but to no avail.
Up at the pyramid Adrian established the vedette, put up a tent and ran the field telephone line from the post to the temple. In the middle point of the pyramid’s east side he found a 7 foot tall statue of Bast. He tries almost everything to find a way in; finger tip searches, prising out blocks, climbing the sides and so on.
Cynthia and Ramsden continue to try to lever the socket without success. Then in a fit of temper Ramsden rammed the post in as hard as he could, a loud click was heard and the slab dropped away pivoting about the centre of the longer sides. In it could be seen a chamber, obviously undisturbed for centuries. In two rows lay six sarcophagi all bearing the markings of Bast. Rope was fetched and the slab secured in the partially open position in which it had come to rest.
Under Binky’s orders the camp is established in the temple courtyard. The two machine guns were set up on the Temple roof at opposite corners to give the best field of fire.
It was now late afternoon and Binky decided to investigate the stairway downwards in case it could be used for a surprise attack. And so Binky, Henry Jones and Cynthia with 2 Askaris equipped with crowbars, lamps and dynamite set off into the dark. The tunnel was narrow and Henry led the way. His skill at finding traps was well known. Fortunate it was for the party that he was at the front because a short way into tunnel he found a pit trap. From ahead of them came the sound of running water. They advanced warily and found a slow running stream under the floor of the tunnel. It appeared from a hole on one side of a chamber and ran through a wide but fairly shallow boulder strewn channel to disappear on the other side. The pathway was some 4 feet above the surface and Henry saw something in the water. He was lowered down and recovered a necklace bearing the design of Nephetem upon it. He handed it to Cynthia.
Up by the pyramid one of the Askaris on vedette duty put a rope around the head of the statue of Bast and tried to pull the statue over. The statue moved and he fell into a hole that appeared below his feet. A few moments later another askari was lowered down the hole – now found to be a steeply sloping passage. He soon found his friend and the two, tied together were pulled back up. Adrian then formed a small group to explore.
At the foot of the cliffs below the pyramid Gerald and Hassan inspected the sphinxes. All showed signs of being robbed and attacked by crowbars and other metal tools in the very recent past. There was no treasure to be had but the inscriptions now confirmed Mophir as being a location some way off to the south.
Deep below ground, Henry, found a deep pit about 9 feet across. There were rectangular holes in the walls on each side almost exactly opposite each other. A brief search yielded nothing to assist in crossing the gap until Binky looked up and saw wooden slats stowed on the ceiling. Taking these down they were roped together to make into bridge, each slat fitting into a pair of holes. The party quickly moved on until a sealed entrance blocked their way. This entrance still had the seals of Bast intact although there was evidence that others had tried to get in. What had defeated the others was not clear but perhaps it was the angle at which the block lay. There was a very real danger that the block, when freed would fall on those beneath. Binky, ever in favour of direct action, placed a single stick of dynamite at the edge of the block with a long fuse. The party retired quickly. After the dust of the explosion passed the party found a 2 foot section had been dislodged and a passage into a room was found. Binky led the way and discovered a sarcophagus with the canoptic jars beside it. At each corner stood an embalmed cat. The sarcophagus contained the mummified body of a person about 5 feet tall. The sarcophagus was left closed. Sounds from behind a wall indicated that someone was breaking their way towards them. There was nothing else in the chamber. So they left.
Meanwhile, almost directly above Binky, Adrian led his small group down through the traps to reach a chamber. This had been looted. Beneath his feet a booming noise could be heard and dust fell from the wall revealing a concealed doorway. Breaking this down took a little time, a short passage led to another sealed door. This too yielded to the attack and they entered a camber with a sarcophagus in the middle, 4 canoptic jars and 4 mummified cats. They could smell the acrid smoke of a dynamite explosion and found a 2-foot hole in the floor. The murals depicted hunting and war scenes. Adrian decided to return to the pyramid and re-seal the entrance.
While all this had been going on the main camp had been struck and been moved up into the temple courtyard. Dinner was being prepared.
By now it was well into the afternoon and the parties all decided to make good their activities for the day in last couple of hours of daylight. Ramsden, Cynthia and two askaris set off to collect the black orchid. On the way Cynthia struck up a conversation with the recently arrived Meg. Meg, pausing only to collect her watercolours and sketching materials, joined the party.
On the way and deep in conversation, they come upon a lion feeding upon the bodies of the dead Egyptian soldiers. The lion is just as surprised as the party and a fusillade of poorly aimed shots scares it away unharmed. The fusillade also seems to stir something in the ruins by the pool. A rapid but alert advance discovers two runaway slaves (one male, one female). They are both still tied. Ramsden frees them and they help carry equipment. Meg sketches and makes a detailed painting of the Black orchid while Cynthia examined it very carefully and made her notes. Once the drawing was complete they carefully lift the black orchid, carefully extracting the roots and noting the structures. They also took some soil and some of the pool water. Their aim achieved the returned quickly to the temple.
Binky went down into the chamber to photograph and paint copies of some of the murals.
Hassan and Gerald while away their time looking at the pyramid and its mysterious contents. The skulls that were found earlier are looked at with more care and, although obviously humanoid, were equally obviously not human. None had any teeth.
Adrian, ever the professional, tested the field telephone only to find that it did not work. After a little while he found the problem and fixed it. Having read in his boyhood adventure stories of the gold and gems to be found at the top of pyramids Adrian sent Mahmud up to check. Unfortunately, the stories were inaccurate. He came back with nothing.
Gerald standing on the cliff top scans the horizon and saw figures approaching in the distance. He called to Adrian who turned his field glasses on them and identified them as Mahdists. He thought that they would attack after dark.
All returned to the temple camp.