Free Tutankhamun Uncovered by Michael J Marfleet

“Bring the beast back to me. I refuse to be beaten by a lesser intellect.”
    “That’s the way, Howard!” encouraged Newberry. “Thought for a moment you’d given up and the evening’s sport was over!”
    Carter smiled, dusted himself off, and walked back to his reluctant mount.
    Early the following morning, Newberry and his young assistant took off on camelback with their Egyptian guides in search of the newfound tomb. Hannibal, owing to his own special kind of perfume, had been ordered to maintain a rearguard position downwind of the others.
    The journey took them along the east bank of the Nile south and east from el Bersha, across the desolate plain that cradled the ruins of Akhetaten, and into the enclosing cliffs.
    Notwithstanding the discomfort of his ride, the excitement for Carter was electric. Nearly every Egyptologist with a right to search in Egypt was hoping to be the first to encounter the final resting place of this most different of kings. For Howard Carter, at this junior stage in his career, any discovery would have done. The chance of being present at a find of such importance was quite beyond his wildest aspirations.
    After many hours the party latterly found themselves on a rock-strewn plateau. Carter’s anticipation heightened as the camel trail merged with a track way, obviously ancient, polished smooth by hundreds of years of traffic. The track continued into the relatively flat yonder without any suggestion of an end. The painful camel riding continued.
    After about another two hours the character of the landscape clearly changed to a topography fashioned by the hand of man. There were piles of debris everywhere. Carter’s eye was by now trained enough to recognise that the heaps of rubble were ancient, from some large excavation. As they rounded one of the mounds the ground opened up ahead of them and they quickly realised this was too big to be the entrance to any tomb. Clearly it was an ancient quarry and, once down beneath the man cut cliffs emblazoned all about with ancient graffiti, Newberry was able to identify the place as the hitherto lost quarries of Hatnub. These quarries dated from the time of the great pyramids at Gizeh and had been in use throughout much of ancient Egypt’s history.
    There was little disappointment in not finding what they had expected. This encounter was equally exiting. They would receive considerable recognition for their discovery. For the young apprentice to become associated with such a remarkable find was a great stroke of good fortune.
    The two made a brief investigative tour of the place, took some quick notes, and then started back. As they returned along the rocky track, Carter reflected on the wall painting of the colossal alabaster statue that he had copied recently in Deir el Bersha. They must have just trod the very path along which it had been dragged to its final resting place.
    For once, Carter was impatient to relieve himself of the news of their discovery. The ‘testosterone two’, who had been carousing elsewhere over the last couple of days, finally returned at about nine that evening and Newberry and Carter were quick and explicit in acquainting them with the results of the previous day’s exploration. The two showed little sign of sharing in their colleagues’ elation. They took the news quietly with no expression of surprise. After a short silence, they bade their colleagues ‘good night’ and retired to their quarters.
    Carter and Newberry watched them disappear and then looked back at each other, their feelings somewhat dampened by Fraser and Blackden’s lacklustre reactions.
    Once out of earshot, Fraser turned to Blackden. There was evident anger and frustration in his face. He clenched his fists. “Damn!... Damn, damn, damn! A blasted discovery while we were out of camp. It wouldn’t surprise me if the bastards knew about it ahead of time and waited for us to leave so they could take the glory for themselves. What d’