Along narrow passages they crept and down many a secret-stair, till at
length they came to a door at the foot of a long slope of rock.
This door Asti unlocked and thrust open, then when they had entered,
re-locked it behind them.

"What is this place?" whispered Tua.

"The burial crypt of the high priestesses of Amen, where it is said that
the god watches. None have entered it for hard on thirty years. See here
in the dust run the footsteps of those who bore the last priestess to
her rest."

She held up her lamp, and by the light of it Tua saw that they were in a
great cave painted with figures of the gods which had on either side of
it recesses. In each of these was set a coffin with a gilded face, and
behind it an alabaster statue of her who lay therein, and in front of
it a table of offerings. At the head of the crypt stood a small altar of
black stone, for the rest the place was empty.

Asti led Tua to a step in front of the altar and bidding her kneel,
departed with the lamp which she hid away in some side chapel, so that
now the darkness was intense. Presently, through the utter silence, Tua
heard her creep back towards her, for although she walked so softly the
dust seemed to cry beneath her feet, and her every footstep echoed round
the vaulted walls. Moreover, a glow came from her, the glow of her life
in that place of death. She passed Tua and knelt by the altar and the
echo of her movements died away. Only it seemed to Tua that from each of
the tombs to the right and to the left rose the Ka of her who was buried