The boy turned and scampered through the short horizontal antechamber and into the gallery, turning and pointing up to the top of the east wall.
Bending down, David and Diana followed him.When they emerged into the high-ceiled gallery, David lifted his lantern as high as he could.He strained his eyes in an attempt to see evidence of a tunnel opening.Once Diana had added the light from herfanoos, the opening near the roof became evident.
“There it is,” she breathed.
“Did you really wish to go through that?”David asked, studying her expression of awe.
“Not particularly,” she replied, wiping perspiration from her brow.“But I do wish someone had published a drawing or?—”
“Like this?”David asked, turning over the map Salman had given him.On the back side were a series of marks made in four rows.
“I make those,” Ari stated, one hand on his chest as he pointed to the papyrus.
“You did?”Diana asked.“You were in there?In the upper chambers?”She pointed up to the tunnel.“When?”
He shrugged.“With that man Vyse.I carried hisfanoosand tools,” he added proudly.
“And he had you document...write what you saw on the walls?”
His face screwing into confusion, Ari shook his head.“Salman did.”
“Salman was his guide,” David guessed.“He was there in the chambers?With you?”
Ari nodded.“He gave me charcoal and the map and told me to draw while we waited for the Englishman.”
Diana and David exchanged knowing looks.A young boy—Ari would have been four or five at the time—would have grown bored waiting for the explorer to complete his work.Giving him a task to transcribe what he saw on the walls would keep him busy for a time.
“So....which chamber is this?”Diana asked, pointing to the top series of hieroglyphics.
Ari held up two fingers.“Wellington’s chamber,” he said, obviously struggling to remember the pronunciation of the name.“Many cracks in the stones.”
The comment didn’t surprise Diana.The relieving chambers were meant to protect the king’s chamber, but it also meant they would have to withstand pressure from the weight of stones directly above.“And this one?”She pointed to the next set of hieroglyphics down on the page.
He held up three fingers.
“Nelson’s chamber,” she said in a whisper.She pointed to the next set.
He held up four fingers.
“Lady Arbuthnot’s chamber, which means this one is Campbell’s chamber,” she said, pointing to the last as Ari held up five fingers.
“The top one.”
David took a long draught from his canteen before wiping the back of his hand across his brow.“It’s terribly warm in here, and I think we best be going.”He glanced over at Diana, wincing as if he thought she might argue.
“I’m ready to go, too,” she said, rolling up the map before stuffing it into her satchel.She gave herfanoosto the boy.“Lead the way, Ari.”
David nudged her elbow and asked in a whisper, “Are you sure?”Despite his quiet query, his voice still echoed.
She nodded.“He may show us things we missed,” she said hopefully.“And it’s downhill most of the way.”
With Ari holding thefanoosahead of her and David’s lantern behind, her hands would be free.Placing a palm against the smooth polished limestone of the grand gallery walls, she carefully followed the boy by staying on a sort of curb that hugged the wall.A matching curb ran alongside the opposite wall, and in the middle, the sloping path was a few inches lower.
“This is how they would have transported the blocks,” David said in awe.“I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before,” he commented.
“We were climbing up that ramp,” she reminded him, realizing now it was a way to keep traction as the side curbs were a smoother stone.
When they had almost reached the part of the tunnel that connected the grand gallery to the ascending passage, Diana remembered her husband’s comment about following David.She turned her head, glancing over her shoulder to see where her cousin’s attentions were directed.
