Lord of the Silent - Elizabeth Peters [26]
“You were among the few who did not,” I said with a sniff. “It was immensely successful, which is not surprising since it was a perfect example of yellow journalism—sensational and exaggerated.”
“Come now, Peabody, that isn’t fair,” Emerson expostulated. “The reviewers hailed it as a shrewd analysis of relations between the warring desert chieftains.”
“That isn’t what sold the book. It was her lurid descriptions of the Emir’s harem and his women, and his—er—his advances to her.”
“Really? Did he—uh—”
“According to Miss Minton,” I said, “he was about to overcome his scruples, such as they were, when she was rescued by a handsome, dashing, mysterious hero.”
Emerson choked on his wine. After recovering himself, he exclaimed, “Peabody! It wasn’t—it couldn’t have been—”
“No, Emerson, it couldn’t have been,” I said. “I don’t believe in her mystery man or in her highly colored version of her relations with the Emir. She wasn’t captured; she walked into Hayil—rode, rather—in search of a story and I expect Ibn-Rashid evicted her when he tired of her interminable questions. Let us turn to more important subjects. Why aren’t you in Luxor, Howard?”
Howard opened his mouth, but before he could reply, Emerson said, “Yes, why aren’t you? I hear that the local thieves are at it harder than ever—digging at Drah Abu’l Naga and even stealing statues from Legrain’s magazine at Karnak.”
“Where did you hear that? Oh—Selim, I suppose. He would know; half the crooks in Gurneh are friends and kin of his. It’s not as bad as all that, Professor. Your tomb hasn’t been touched, if that is what’s worrying you.”
More precisely, the tomb was that of Queen Tetisheri, which we had discovered and cleared several years earlier. We had removed the funerary equipment—and a deuced difficult job it had been—but there were painted reliefs of superb quality in one chamber, and thieves had been known to cut out fragments of such reliefs for sale on the illegal antiquities market. They were popular with collectors.
“Have you been in it?” Emerson demanded.
“No one’s been in it, sir, since you locked the gates and refused to give up the keys to the Service des Antiquités.” Howard grinned appreciatively. He had had a falling-out with the Service, which had resulted in his losing his position as Inspector of Upper Egypt, and he thoroughly approved of Emerson’s high-handed behavior.
“Then how do you know it hasn’t been molested? Curse it,” Emerson added.
I got Emerson off the subject by asking about Howard’s recent work in the Valley of the Kings—one of the valleys, that is to say, for there are two of them. The East Valley is the one visited by tourists. The West Valley is seldom visited, for it contains only two royal tombs, both isolated and in bad repair. Howard had spent several weeks exploring one of them.
This proved to be a mistake on my part. Emerson had yearned to work in the Valley himself; after years of frustration watching the inept excavations directed by Mr. Theodore Davis of America, he had seen the concession given to another wealthy dilettante, Lord Carnarvon. In my opinion Emerson was a trifle unjust to this gentleman, who was far more conscientious than Davis had been, and who had the good sense to hire Howard to carry out the actual digging; but it was still a sore subject. Dismembering his dinner with wild slashes of his knife, Emerson demanded details which he refused to allow Howard to give, interrupting him after almost every sentence.
“You had no business starting on that tomb if you meant to spend only a month at it. Amenhotep the Third was one of Egypt’s greatest kings and his tomb could provide vital information about a particularly important period.”
“Well, sir, you see—”
“At least there are tourists and a few token guards in the East Valley. Nobody ever goes to the West Valley. Nobody except vandals and thieves; now that you’ve aroused their interest, they’ve probably removed everything of value that you overlooked. How far did you get?”
“The entrance corridor and the well—”
“Yes, and what happened to the objects