Page:Weird Tales volume 32 number 05.djvu/35

Rh may trust 'The Wolf' for that. No; it is needless to delude ourselves—without the scroll, or at least the drawing to inform us of the shape and size of the mountains it describes, we can never hope to find the tomb."

"But I recall the drawing—I recall it well," I answered. "Three cone-shaped mountain peaks, with the center tip rising high above the others. It is on the top of the latter one where lies the great boulder that is supposed to hide the entrance of the tomb."

"Three cone-shaped peaks!"

The Midnight Lady gave a slight start as she gasped the words, then wheeled to face me.

"Three peaks?—three cone-shaped peaks?" And, as I nodded: "Why, it is the Three Sisters mountains!

"Sacred Cat of Bubastis!" she cried, her eyes bright with a mad joy. "Why I know them well—a wild, stony trio of high peaks, seventy miles to the south of us; a two days' journey, perhaps. And it is there you say the tomb lies? Ah then, the smile of Osiris is surely ours. Once we have got out of this ambush, forty-eight hours should see us at the sarcophagus of the last Ptolemaic ruler."

"But our present position," reminded Sabbatier. "The fort is surrounded, and we are hopelessly out-numbered. The few glimpses I got of the Arab host from the air was enough to show they number half a thousand, against the score or so who defend the walls. We are trapped and"

"For the time, yes!" she broke in sharply. "No need to mention what I already know. Two days now since the warriors of 'The Wolf' surrounded us, yet not daring to attack. How they learned of my whereabouts I know not, but it is their uncertainty as to the number of my own men that has so far stayed an attack. They know not whether we be ten or a thousand."

"But need you remain here?" put in Sabbatier. "The plane is still without. In five minutes I can fly you miles from danger and"

"And leave these poor fellows leaderless?" Her glare was enough to silence the Frenchman.

A tall man had appeared in the doorway.

"He will escort you to your quarters below," she addressed us. "You both must be famished as well as weary. Food and a few hours' rest should work wonders, and I may have need of every rifle at dawn.

"Be of good cheer, though. What our friends out on the sand-hills do not know is that one of my riders got through their lines, and tomorrow should bring a thousand fighting-men from the south to aid us."

I stood on the roof of the little mud fort, looking through an embrasure to the numerous camp-fires that glowed and twinkled from the surrounding sand-hills.

At intervals, along the walls, watchful sentinels peered cautiously into the gloom from one of the surrounding embrasures, their rifles held in readiness. In the small courtyard below were gathered the remainder of the tiny garrison, singly or in small groups. Now and then one of their number would cast a nervous glance to the walls above him, and their low murmurs came only at intervals. An air of impending disaster hung over the entire fortress.

For an hour I stood beside the embrasure of that tiny fort beneath the glorious African stars, puzzled by the strange events that had led me to a life of wild adventure. Only five short