Free The Buried Pyramid by Jane Lindskold Page A

maid, settled a plate of dainties that he promptly ignored on the table near his elbow, and became quite solemn.
    “I do have some rather serious matters to confide in you both,” he began. “Before I begin, I must impress upon you how very important it is that none of this go any further than ourselves. I believe you will understand why once I have finished, but I must have your word.”
    Stephen nodded crisply, boyishness vanished.
    “You have my word,” he said. “Not a peep to anyone.”
    “Mine, too, Uncle Neville. I’ll swear on anything you’d like.”
    “Your word is enough, Jenny,” Neville replied, “as is Stephen’s. If I didn’t think you were trustworthy, I wouldn’t be confiding in you. However, I must warn you that this could be a dangerous secret to hold.”
    Neither of his listeners expressed any reluctance to hear, but still Neville paused for a long moment more before going on.
    “My story begins when I was still in active service in Egypt. My commanding officer called me to him and told me I was being delegated to escort a visiting German archeologist, one Alphonse Liebermann, during his travels into Upper Egypt.”
    Speaking tersely, yet sparing no detail, Sir Neville related how Alphonse Liebermann had been seeking the lost burial complex of a pharaoh known to him only as Neferankhotep. He told about their journey up the Nile, and about their arrival at the Hawk Rock. In less dispassionate tones, he related how on the brink of their great discovery they had been assaulted by Bedouin tribesmen.
    “We were forced to flee for our lives,” Sir Neville concluded, “and without a great deal of luck and some elaborate trickery we would not have escaped. The event soured Liebermann on searching for buried tombs. We returned to Luxor and toured extensively before he returned home.”
    Sir Neville drank deeply from tea that Jenny knew must be stone cold, but he didn’t appear to notice. “Events might have soured Alphonse on archeological exploration, but I fear that for me the attraction became only more acute. My duties did not permit me to pursue this interest full-time, nor even to always remain in Egypt, but when I could, I continued learning everything possible. My interest meant that I was frequently assigned as liaison to archeological expeditions—a courtesy the army was happy to extend for diplomatic reasons. However, though I came to know various archeologists very well, I never confided in them what I had learned from Alphonse Liebermann. That was to be my discovery, and mine alone.
    “I continued planning on mounting an expedition to find the Valley of Dust. The winter two years after the first venture, everything fell into place. I had been detailed to escort a group as far as Luxor. However, once in Luxor, my time was to be my own. I had leave coming to me, and I arranged to take it. I made other arrangements as well, and one night, a few days before I was to depart, I was returning rather late to my quarters when my plans were scotched for good.
    “By this time, I knew Cairo quite well, and did not always remain on the main thoroughfares. This proved to be a mistake. A group of men—Arabs, I could tell, but not more than that—emerged from an alley and attacked me. I would like to say that I fought them all off, or even that I fought brilliantly, but the reality is that when five men attack one, even if that one is armed, the single man is doomed to failure.
    “I believe that they intended to kill me, but the noise of our battle—and I assure you that I did not hesitate to shout for help at the top of my lungs and in every language I could remember—brought some brave men to my rescue. They were Greeks, I believe, and their arrival forced my assailants to flee.
    “I survived, but only barely, and only because the doctor who first treated me was a very clever Egyptian hakeem who had studied both abroad and in his own land. However, I was no longer fit for duty, much the