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“The good officer doesn’t want to know about that!”

    “Oh, but I do,” Captain Khammale said.
    Dalifa smiled and said, “I’ve always made ornaments and little statues. So, of course, I was happy to offer my skills to the priests to make ornaments for Tutankhamen’s tomb.”
    Captain Khammale nodded. “Now you will help Antef to take them out again. Melt the gold and silver down and make new ones to sell and make your fortune!”
    “No!” Antef said. “We would never rob the grave of our dear, dead King. Never!”
    “Good,” Captain Khammale grinned. “Because if you try it, and if I catch you, I will tie you to a tree, then I will cut off your ears and then your nose. Then I will cut off little strips of skin one at a time and pour salt water into the cuts. Then I will let the ants and the jackals finish you off.”

    “Would you like that, Antef?”
    The old man shook his head. My own mouth felt as dry as dust at the horror of the thought. The Captain rose and left.
    “We can’t go ahead now,” I said.
    Antef looked at the empty doorway. “Oh, yes we can, Paneb. I have spent all my money on this plot. There is no turning back now.”
    In the warm room I shivered.

Chapter 4
The Terrible Trap
    “Antef,” I snivelled, “I don’t want to have my ears cut off! I’d scream!”
    Dalifa threw her head back and laughed. “If your ears were cut off you wouldn’t hear yourself!”
    “It’s not funny,” I shouted.

    The old man reached across, grabbed my tunic and hissed, “Captain Khammale was just guessing. He knows nothing. Anyway, he is just one man. He can’t stop us.”

    Dalifa scoffed, “Paneb’s frightened.”
    “You will have Dalifa with you. Think of the riches waiting for you,” Antef breathed.
    Dalifa smiled at me and said, “I have seen those riches, Paneb,” she said proudly. “One golden servant for each day of the year and enough jewellery to break a camel’s back,” she went on.

    “Kerpes and I will be waiting at the end of the tunnel with some strong men to carry it all to the boat.” Antef added.
    I blinked. “Tunnel? What tunnel? It’s just a door into a passage. I pass the goods through a door.”

    “The King will be placed in his coffins–he has three of them,” Antef explained. “Then the priests will sweep the floor and leave. They will close the door to the tomb and seal it. The King’s workers will fill in the passage with stones to block it off.”
    “I’ll be sealed behind a stone door and a passage full of stones? I can’t dig my way out!” I argued.

    “We will dig our way in,” Antef said. That is why we have the stupid, but strong, Kerpes.”
    “I don’t want to be shut in a tomb!” I wailed.
    “It will only be for the night,” Antef said. “We’ll start digging a tunnel as soon as the workmen leave. We will pay the guards to look the other way. You’ll be out as the sun rises.”
    “We’ll take the treasures in a boat down the river. There are traders there waiting to buy them from us,” Dalifa said.

    “Just one day from now you will have more riches than you could earn in your lifetime as a peasant farmer.”
    “It’s not the day I’m worried about. It’s the night,” I told them.

    Antef laughed. He gripped my arm in his claw hand. “Time to take the boat,” he said.
    We stepped into the quiet streets.
    “Everyone has gone to see the procession,” Dalifa said, nodding towards the temple. “Time for me to join it.” Dalifa waved goodbye.
    Antef and I hurried down to the riverside where the huge barges were waiting to take Tutankhamen on his last voyage.
    I just hoped it wouldn’t be my last voyage too.

Chapter 5
To the Tomb

    We slid over the water faster than a fish and landed on the western shore. The west where the sun set and where Tutankhamen’s spirit would soon be travelling … without his treasure.

    The evening sun was cool as we crossed the desert. This was the road I’d taken every day for seventy