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CHAPTER TEN

The Valley of Death

It was just after five o’clock when Farrow told De Fries to stop the lorry. They were at the entrance to a narrow valley. ‘We’re here now,’ said Farrow. ‘The Queen’s tomb is in this valley.’

‘How do you know?’ Keesing asked.

Farrow pointed up at the mountain top to the east.

‘That looks like a snake, doesn’t it?’ he asked.

Keesing and De Fries looked up. The top of the mountain was about three hundred metres long. It ended with a great rock rising high in the sky. The mountain top looked like a snake with its head raised.

‘And that’s a sitting man,’ Farrow continued, pointing to the mountain top to the west.

Keesing and De Fries looked upwards towards the setting sun. In the middle of the mountain top there was a large rock. It looked like a man’s head. Below the rock, a gully ran down the mountain side to the bottom of the valley. The mountain had the shape of a sitting man.

‘A snake with raised head and a sitting man guard the tomb of Queen Axtarte,’ said Farrow. ‘Those words are written on the pillar from the Temple of Karnak.’

‘And where’s the tomb?’ said Keesing turning to Farrow.

Farrow pointed to the gully that ran up the mountainside.

‘Somewhere between the legs of the sitting man,’ he told Keesing. ‘That’s all I know. You’ll have to go and look for it.’

They climbed back into the lorry and De Fries drove down the valley to the bottom of the gully.

‘You know that it can take a long time to get inside a tomb,’ said Farrow.

‘Why is that?’ asked Keesing.

‘The Ancient Egyptians always made secret entrances to the tombs,’ replied Farrow. ‘And they sealed the entrance with huge rocks. They wanted to keep out tomb robbers. It could take you years to get inside.’

‘We’ve got a box of dynamite in the back of the lorry,’ Keesing told Farrow. ‘When we find the entrance, it won’t take us long to blast our way in.’

‘What about the Queen’s Curse? Aren’t you afraid of that?’ asked Farrow.

‘That was written a long time ago,’ replied Keesing. ‘The Queen wanted to frighten tomb robbers. It doesn’t mean anything today.’

‘You could be wrong, you know,’ said Farrow. ‘I’m going to get as far away from you as I can.’

‘Don’t you want to make sure that I radio to Greer?’ asked Keesing.

Farrow did not know what to do. If Keesing did not radio, Greer would kill Cristine. So Farrow had to stay near.

Farrow looked up the gully. There was a large rock on the right leg of the sitting man.

‘I’m going up there,’ Farrow told Keesing. ‘You can shout to me if you want me.’

Farrow climbed up the leg of the sitting man and sat down on the large rock. De Fries climbed up the gully and started to search for the entrance to the tomb. Keesing took torches and spades out of the lorry and waited. After some time De Fries shouted down to Keesing, ‘I’ve found some steps cut into the rock of the mountain!’

Keesing climbed up, carrying a torch and a spade. He looked at the steps. An enormous rock had fallen down onto the steps from the mountain above.

‘Farrow’s right,’ De Fries said to Keesing. ‘The entrance is blocked. It will take weeks to get that enormous rock out of the way.’

Keesing looked around carefully on each side of the rock and then above it.

‘I wonder what’s above the rock,’ said Keesing. ‘I can’t see up there. We’ll have to climb up round it.’

Farrow watched the two men climb further up the gully. They climbed round the side of the enormous rock and disappeared.

What can I do to stop them? Farrow asked himself. There must be something I can do.

But then he remembered Christine and the radio call. He could do nothing until Keesing spoke to Greer on the radio.

I’ve shown them the tomb, he thought. Perhaps they’ll let us go now.

Suddenly De Fries appeared again. He climbed down the gully and hurried to the lorry. Then he climbed up the gully once more. This time he was carrying a box of dynamite.

‘Have you found something?’ Farrow shouted.

There’s a hole in the mountain above the rock,’ replied De Fries. ‘It looks like another way into the tomb.’

Farrow sat and waited. The sun had gone behind the mountain in the west. About fifteen minutes later, there was a loud explosion. Then silence.

Suddenly there was a loud scream. De Fries appeared at the top of the rock. But this time he did not climb down. He fell from the rock and rolled over and over into the valley below. He lay on the hard ground, his body turning and twisting.

Then he gave another loud scream and lay still. Farrow knew that he was dead.

Farrow sat on the rock. De Fries was dead and there was nothing he could do for him. But where was Keesing? If Keesing was dead, no radio message would be sent to Greer and Christine would die.

Farrow climbed down and ran towards the gully. Suddenly he stopped. He had heard the sound of an engine. Farrow looked along the valley and saw a huge lorry coming towards him. The lorry stopped. Farrow watched in amazement. Three figures dressed in protective suits climbed out of the lorry.

One of the figures moved towards Farrow. It stopped when it saw the body of De Fries. The man looked at Farrow and said, ‘Who are you?’

‘Farrow - Dr John Farrow. They made me take them here. They made me show them the tomb. Who are you? The police?’

‘No, we’re not the police. We’ve been following you. Thank you for writing such a clever book and for bringing us here. Let me introduce myself. My name is Strengel - Dr Jusef Strengel.’