likeness were better preserved than is usual. Without entering into
particulars, I will only say that I hope I shall never see such another
look as that which was frozen on this dead man's face. Even the Arabs
recoiled from it in horror and began to mutter prayers.

"For the rest, the usual opening on the left side through which the
embalmers did their work was absent; the finely-cut features were those
of a person of middle age, although the hair was already grey, and
the frame was that of a very powerful man, the shoulders being of an
extraordinary width. I had not time to examine very closely, however,
for within a few seconds from its uncovering, the unembalmed body began
to crumble now that it was exposed to the action of the air. In five or
six minutes there was literally nothing left of it but a wisp of hair,
the skull, and a few of the larger bones. I noticed that one of the
tibiæ--I forget if it was the right or the left--had been fractured and
very badly set. It must have been quite an inch shorter than the other.

"Well, there was nothing more to find, and now that the excitement was
over, what between the heat, the exertion, and the smell of mummy dust
and spices, I felt more dead than alive.

"I am tired of writing, and this ship rolls. This letter, of course,
goes overland, and I am coming by 'long sea,' but I hope to be in London
within ten days after you get it. Then I will tell you of my pleasing
experiences in the course of the ascent from the tomb-chamber, and of
how that prince of rascals, Ali Baba, and his thieves tried to frighten
me into handing over the papyri, and how I worsted them. Then, too, we
will get the rolls deciphered. I expect that they only contain the usual
thing, copies of the 'Book of the Dead,' but there _may_ be something
else in them. Needless to say, I did not narrate this little adventure