I looked around the room. Evelyn was there. The excitement of the moment shone in her young, petite features. Callender was there, an unemotional man by nature, rather like myself, I fancy, but it was clear he was visibly moved by the event. And there was Carnarvon. The smile of satisfaction on the grandee’s face told the whole story, standing in the midst of our ultimate achievement, his expression a picture of outright astonishment.
I thought on the daunting task that now lay ahead of me.
“Please! Please remain still and close,” I cautioned. I was terrified one of them would inadvertently step on something.
Carnarvon took me by surprise by wresting the torch from my hand. He stood before us and shined the light on the floor so that we could all see his face.
“Thus far we have come, my friends. Are we not up for a little more this night?”
“Of course! Where to now, Porchy?” Lady Evelyn almost yelled in her eagerness.
The earl turned the torch to illuminate the small, square patch of darker plaster that lay at the base of the wall to our right. The two dusty, black sentinels at either side of the walled-up doorway remained unmoved, staring into each other’s eyes.
“The burial chamber lies beyond that. Why not enter through the robbers’ hole? See what they found. See what is left!”
It was tempting. That it was. But I was resolute. “No, your lordship.” I ordered emphatically. “Out of the question. In due course, of course. But not now.”
“But Howard, old chap, we have to know what lies before us. The scale of the task. The Egyptian authorities, Lacau in particular, they would not abide it, but there is no need for them to know. We can cover our tracks adequately enough to deceive the Antiquities Service. You yourself were one of them. You know their ways… Come on, man!” The earl squeezed my arm. “We have waited many years for this, our day of days. Let us taste it. Let us relish it to the full!”
My patron was trying to persuade me through force of authority. The arrogance in his tone was repugnant to me. I would have nothing of it but, when one considers the moment, I was uncharacteristically diplomatic and controlled in my response. “I do not think this is necessary, sir. There is plenty of time. We should not disturb anything we cannot document or record properly first. And we are far too far gone… I mean, far too tired tonight to do any such thing.”
But the earl wasn’t listening to me. “Well. Get Burton in to record it in its pristine condition now, there’s a good fellow. Then we’ll break through.”
“But what then, your lordship? What if there are more doorways?”
“Very well. I understand. Just one further penetration just to see if we really have something. Please, Howard. Please!”
The childishness of his pleading was tremendously irritating to me. “Of course ‘we have something’, sir.”
The lack of discipline shown by my patron at this exceptional moment – and I concede that this moment was indeed exceptional – was quite beyond my comprehension.
The earl persisted. “Howard, you would agree that thus far we have come across something beyond our wildest dreams, a project of enormous magnitude, even in this first room?”
I struggled for the right words but could do nought but nod my head.
“Surely you need now, right now, to comprehend the size of the task ahead of you? You need to have enough information to plan your excavation, the supplies you will need, the time it will take, the scientific team. Right?”
He was reading my mind. I nodded again.
“And remember, old chap, there is a significant risk that all this will go to Egypt. This may be our one chance to assure ourselves of at least some meagre compensation, don’t y’ think – ‘on account’, as it were.”
It did not surprise me that the earl was eager for some early trophies. I had to nip that one in the bud. At last I had found the words. “Your lordship. With respect, please hear me out. I implore you to take pause. We shall get our just rewards by and by.”
“Y’ know my confidence in that is weak, Howard. Permit us to take a modicum, sir. A mere, undetectable modicum.”
“Absolutely not, your lordship. Absolutely not.” I shook my head. My expression may have appeared resolute but I confess that my spirit was weak and eager to be turned.
Carnarvon looked me straight in the eyes. In the torchlight I tried to keep a stern expression, but the earl, it seems, could sense the anticipation which burned alike within me, perhaps more even than his own. I had the strongest of desires to discover what lay beyond that sealed door.
“In the name of England we shall enter, Howard. In England’s name we shall discover what lies within. The wogs will have to wait.”
The thought had tremendous appeal. I recalled the ‘Tomb of the Horse’. I smiled. In the heat of this incredible moment I found myself incapable of thinking completely straight.
I drew a deep breath in the thick, ancient air, coughed as the dust of ages caught the back of my throat, and handed my hat to Evelyn. In that single movement, my mind was made up. There would be no going back this night.
An excerpt from Tutankhamun Uncovered, by Michael J. Marfleet.
Copyright 2009-2010 Michael J. Marfleet. All rights reserved.
Published by Apex Publishing Ltd.
