All these things Smith noted hurriedly as he swung the lamp to and fro
in that hallowed place. Then he saw something else which filled him with
dismay. On the floor of the chamber where the coffins had been--for this
was the burial chamber--lay a heap of black fragments charred with fire.
Instantly he understood. After the thief had done his work he had burned
the mummy-cases, and with them the body of the queen. There could be
no doubt that this was so, for look! among the ashes lay some calcined
human bones, while the roof above was blackened with the smoke and
cracked by the heat of the conflagration. There was nothing left for him
to find!

Oppressed with the closeness of the atmosphere, he sat down upon a
little bench or table cut in the rock that evidently had been meant
to receive offerings to the dead. Indeed, on it still lay the scorched
remains of some votive flowers. Here, his lamp between his feet, he
rested a while, staring at those calcined bones. See, yonder was the
lower jaw, and in it some teeth, small, white, regular and but little
worn. Yes, she had died young. Then he turned to go, for disappointment
and the holiness of the place overcame him; he could endure no more of
it that night.

Leaving the burial hall, he walked along the painted passage, the lamp
swinging and his eyes fixed upon the floor. He was disheartened, and the
paintings could wait till the morrow. He descended the steps and came to
the foot of the mud slope. Here suddenly he perceived, projecting from
some sand that had drifted down over the mud, what seemed to be the
corner of a reed box or basket. To clear away the sand was easy,
and--yes, it was a basket, a foot or so in length, such a basket as
the old Egyptians used to contain the funeral figures which are called