sight which no human eye had beheld for
the floor of the temple. The first thing that
nearly three milleniums wiped out the caught their attention was a large circular hole memory of the terrible danger he had braved.
piercing the roof exactly in the center.
His imagination pictured the little temple as it
“This temple must have been dedicated
had been when swarthy priests in flowing
to the Sun God,” remarked the Professor,
white robes, celebrated their mysterious rites
pointing to the opening. “There was probably
amongst those silent pillars, while rows of
an altar in such a position that the sun’s rays bowing worshipers filled the seats around.
would strike it exactly at noon.”
Professor Wadsworth’s emotions were
“There’s the altar,” said Courtland,
different in kind but no less intense. For him it pointing to a huge square block of stone on the was the culmination of a lifetime of study, the opposite side of the temple. “And there’s the
fulfilment of a lifelong ambition. The world,
priest, if I’m not mistaken,” he added,
or at least his world, the world of science,
indicating a pile of bones lying in front of the would acclaim him in no uncertain voice. He
altar.
would take rank with the greatest
In a moment the professor was
archaeologists of all time.
waddling across the floor to submit this new
But they were only at the beginning of
discovery to examination, when Courtland
their discoveries. Greater wonders than any
with a cry of warning, rushed after the little
they had yet seen were to come. When they
man and seizing him unceremoniously by the
walked down the flight of granite steps, or
collar, jerked him backwards so violently that
seats, and approached the central temple, the
the Professor sat down on the floor with great
Professor gave voice to an exclamation of
suddenness.
amazement.
“For Heaven’s sake, be careful, sir!”
“Great Heavens!” he cried, “this is Courtland cried, “I thought you were done even more marvelous than I had realized. Do
for!”
you notice anything especially strange in the
“Why! What!” sputtered the Professor,
structure of this building?”
“What’s the matter?”
“Well, no, I can’t say I do,” replied
Courtland pointed to the floor directly
Courtland, “unless you mean the masonry.
under the circular opening in the roof.
Those old workmen must have been
“You almost stepped into that!” he
wonderful stonecutters. Can’t see the joints at panted.
all.”
The even surface of the granite floor
“Exactly!” agreed the Professor. “But
was broken by a round hole like the mouth of
the reason you cannot see the joints is because a well, about six feet in diameter. Its highly
The Face of Isis
11
polished sides dropped away into skillfully concealed door,” said the professor.
impenetrable gloom.
“Well, there is nothing to be gained by
They lay on their faces on the floor
looking down the shaft. Let us examine the
and peered down into the gulf which had
altar. There may be an inscription which will
almost proved the end of Professor throw some light on the purpose of the Wadsworth’s career. The rays of Courtland’s
temple.”
flashlight failed to reveal any bottom to the
They carefully skirted the mouth of the
pit. An empty cartridge case was dropped and
well and approached the place of sacrifice.
the professor’s stop-watch showed the interval
before a faint tinkle announced that the bottom granite, hewn, like the temple, from the solid
had been reached.
rock. It bore no inscription and was
unornamented save for a globe and crescent,
THE Professor made a rapid calculation in his
the latter with its horns turned upwards,
notebook. “Allowing for the speed of sound
rendered in bas-relief.
and using thirty-two feet per second for the
“The symbol of the goddess Isis,”
acceleration of gravity, with proper allowance
remarked the Professor. “One of the great
for the resistance of the air,” he announced,
trinity of deities who dominated the religion of
“the pit is about eight hundred feet deep. That Egypt during the Fifth Dynasty. This building
would make the bottom practically level with
closely resembles the famous temple of Isis at
the ground.”
Philse and it is possible that it was constructed
“Why, the pinnacle is like an under the supervision of some priest from that enormous cannon!” exclaimed Courtland.
temple.”
“More like a great elevator shaft,”
“And perhaps this is the old codger
amended the Professor. “Ever since we arrived
himself,” said Courtland, motioning to the
I have been puzzled as to how the ancient
heap of bones which lay at their feet.
priests reached their aerial place of worship.
Although the ligaments which united
The steps by which we made the ascent are
the bones had long since mouldered away,
too perilous and laborious for every-day use.
they could still trace the outlines of the
They were evidently designed for an skeleton of a man of large stature. A golden emergency.”
sistrum, the duplicate of the one they had
“Well, if this is an elevator shaft,” found at the foot of the rock, lay close to the commented Courtland dryly, “they must have
left hand, while the right arm was bent under
left the car at the first floor. I don’t see any the body and a dagger with a bronze blade and
push button, so I guess it’s the steps for us!”
golden shaft lay among the ghastly ribs.
“It is probable that the car was
“Do you see what has happened?”
operated by means of a rope running over a
asked Wadsworth in a low voice. “He was the
pulley on a wooden framework spanning the
last living soul in this awful place and he
hole in the roof,” the Professor elucidated.
offered himself as a sacrifice to the goddess.”
“The woodwork has long since rotted away
“Poor old Buffer!” said Courtland.
and followed the car into the shaft.”
“Perhaps he was left alone up here, and he
“But how did they get out when they
couldn’t work the elevator and killed himself
got to the ground floor?” asked Courtland.
rather than climb down the outside. Don’t
“There’s no sign of an opening in the rock
know that I blame him!”
outside.”
While Courtland was philosophizing,
“The outlet is probably closed by a
the Professor walked around to the rear of the
Amazing Stories
12
altar. S
uddenly he emitted a tremendous shaft, since the spiral stairway did away with shout, which startled Courtland out of his the Professor’s rather fantastic theory of an reverie.
elevator? Was it possible that the shaft was
“The Stairs! Eureka, the Stairs!” yelled
nothing more than an oubliette, a pit of death
the Professor.
like those in old French castles, into which
The altar was nothing but a shell! The
world like a miniature subway station, and a
flight of steps was visible descending into
SOME of these questions were soon to be
darkness. A huge slab of granite which had
answered. The explorers passed through the
formed the back of the altar, lay on the stone
door, walked down a short passage and
floor. The aged priest, if such he were, had
emerged, not into the open air, but into a large apparently lacked the strength to replace the
chamber, perfectly circular, at least forty feet slab, after making his last ascent.
in diameter, but barely six feet in height. In
The Professor was in a frenzy of the center of the floor was a circular spot of excitement. He could hardly wait until phosphorescence, a ghostly shimmering glow Courtland had made sure that he had a spare
as though a concealed source of light were
bulb for his flashlight, before rushing down
shining through a slab of opal glass.
the tunnel. They started, Courtland in the lead.
The mysterious light was reflected
The steps led steeply downward, sweeping
from the low roof and dimly revealed the
round in a great spiral.
limits of this rock-hewn chamber.
Round and round they went, Courtland
“What a weird place!” exclaimed
counting the steps aloud. The flashlight Courtland. “What do you suppose it was used gleamed faintly on the rough-hewn walls and
for? And what is that uncanny light?”
roof of the tunnel. They had long since lost all
“This was probably the burial place for
sense of direction, but they knew that they
the mummies of the priests,” said the
could not get beyond the confines of the Professor. “We may find their tombs carved pinnacle.
out of the rock walls. As for the light, it must At last, when Courtland had counted
be due to some radioactive substance in the
just over a thousand steps, he came to a rock. Let us examine it more closely.”
sudden halt.
As they approached the uncanny spot
“The bottom!” he said.
of light, Courtland noticed that its surface was The Professor plodded down the last
not perfectly uniform but was broken at one
few steps and stood beside him. They were in
point by a small, dark object. Suddenly he
a tiny room, hardly six feet square, and facing burst into a shout of laughter and running
them was a door which gave forth a metallic
forward, picked up this object and exhibited it gleam in the rays of the electric light.
to the Professor.
The door, which was of solid bronze
It was an empty cartridge case!
and bore the globe and crescent of Isis, hung
“One on you, Professor!” he chuckled.
on massive hinges. Courtland put his shoulder
“Radioactive substance in the rock! It’s the
against it and swung it open with little effort, light coming down the elevator shaft and
revealing a passage through which came a dim
shining on the floor.”
light. This must be the entrance from the
So it was nothing very mysterious after
ground level. But if so, where was the bottom
all. They stepped into the circle of light, and of the shaft? And what was the object of the
looking upward, they could see a tiny disk of
The Face of Isis
13
blue sky, visible through the hole in the
After tremendous exertion, the two
temple roof, eight hundred feet above them.
men succeeded in raising the heavy stone lid
It was Courtland who drew the and sliding it to one side. Courtland flashed Professor’s attention to the fact that there was his light into the interior. It was empty!
no debris of any sort at the bottom of the shaft.
No, not quite empty, for where the
“So that disposes of the idea that it was
head of the mummy should have been, was a
used as an elevator,” he said. “But the golden casket; the casket which Courtland had question still remains, what was it used for?”
shown me in his house at Cambridge.
“The most puzzling thing,” said the
Courtland
reached
in
and laid hold of
Professor, “is he extreme smoothness of the
the casket, but in spite of its small size it took walls of the shaft. They are polished like the
all his strength to lift it. He set it on the floor surface of a mirror. If it were merely intended and the Professor seized the flashlight and
to transmit light or air, the builders, or rather began eagerly examining their find.
excavators, would hardly have gone to the
The lid was secured by a simple bolt.
trouble to polish the sides like that.”
When it was raised, the reason for the great
“My original notion may be right after
weight of the casket was revealed. It was filled all,” laughed Courtland. “It may be a cannon
to the brim with a fine powder, apparently of a and this is the breach we’re standing in! Well, metallic nature. When Courtland took some of
let’s see if they’ve left any gunpowder.”
it in the palm of his hand it seemed heavier
Courtland turned the rays of his than any known metal. It was bluish in color flashlight on the walls of the circular chamber.
with a prismatic sheen, almost like mother-of-
At one point a large alcove had been carved
pearl.
out, the roof being raised so that it formed a
The hieroglyphics upon the casket
semi-circular room like a chapel. On the back
were the first, and in fact the only inscription wall of this alcove was an immense bas-relief
which the explorers found in any part of the
representing a bull with its forehoofs resting
hidden temple. Professor Wadsworth was wild
on a crescent. On the brow of the animal was a
to get at the work of translating it, confident scarab inscribed with certain hieroglyphics that it would open the way to new and more and on the floor below stood a massive marvelous revelations. He wanted to start the sarcophagus or coffin cut out of a solid block
return journey at once, but Courtland pointed
of granite.
out that they had still to decide whether some
The lid of the sarcophagus also bore
outlet existed from this chamber to the open
the design of he bull and crescent. Wadsworth
air at the foot of the Djibel el Sheetan. So,
eagerly examined the cartouche or signature
leaving the golden casket by the empty
on the scarab.
sarcophagus, they started to examine the walls
“My dear boy!” he cried. “This of the circular room.
d
iscovery is far more important than we have
Their investigations were at once
realized. This sarcophagus contains the rewarded. Diametrically opposite the passage mummy of no petty priest. It is he burial place by which they had entered was another bronze
of one of the mightiest Pharaohs of he Fifth
door, opening into another passage through
Dynasty, Kut-Amen-Pash. Here we have which, came the unmistakable gleam of proof, not only of the early settlement of daylight. They hurried along it. Fifty feet from Mexico by the Egyptians, but that the the door they were brought to a stop at an expedition was actually led by Pharaoh archway, blocked with masses of broken rock.
himself. Let us attempt to open the coffin.”
The daylight they saw, was seeping through
Amazing Stories
14
the interstices between the rocks and they them such labor to produce, he was unable to could hear the excited voices of their Moorish
guess, but from the temple roof to the bottom
workmen discussing the probable fate of the
of the chamber of the sarcophagus he found
“Christian Pigs” who had dared the wrath of
no remnant or remains of human life, save the
the Devil by violating the secrets of His pitiful bleached bones before the great altar of Satanic Majesty’s special mountain.
Isis.
Courtland shouted and there was
Late in the afternoon of the second day
instant silence. After considerable persuasion, of Professor Wadsworth’s seclusion,
he convinced Achmed that the Sidis were Courtland was sitting on the natural coping unharmed but in need of assistance. At last,
which surrounded the summit of the Djibel el
guided by Courtland’s voice, the Moors pulled
Sheetan, absorbed in visions of those far
the rocks away and the two explorers stepped
distant days when this silent spot had been the forth at the top of the mound where they had