He pointed to the recess in the cliff.

"No good, sah," said Mahomet. "No tomb there. Bed-rock too near top. Too
much water run in there; dead queen like keep dry!"

But Smith went on, and the others followed obediently.

He walked down the little slope of sand and boulders and examined the
cliff. It was virgin rock; never a tool mark was to be seen. Already the
men were going, when the same strange instinct which had drawn him to
the spot caused him to take a spade from one of them and begin to shovel
away the sand from the face of the cliff--for here, for some unexplained
reason, were no boulders or _debris_. Seeing their master, to whom they
were attached, at work, they began to work too, and for twenty minutes
or more dug on cheerfully enough, just to humour him, since all were
sure that here there was no tomb. At length Smith ordered them to
desist, for, although now they were six feet down, the rock remained of
the same virgin character.

With an exclamation of disgust he threw out a last shovelful of sand.
The edge of his spade struck on something that projected. He cleared
away a little more sand, and there appeared a rounded ledge which seemed
to be a cornice. Calling back the men, he pointed to it, and without a
word all of them began to dig again. Five minutes more of work made it
clear that it was a cornice, and half an hour later there appeared the
top of the doorway of a tomb.

"Old people wall him up," said Mahomet, pointing to the flat stones set
in mud for mortar with which the doorway had been closed, and to the
undecipherable impress upon the mud of the scarab seals of the officials