The Eye of the Serpent by Philip Caveney Read Free Book Online Page A

absolutely untouched.’
    Alec stared. ‘But that’s incredible!’ he said. ‘There’s not a tomb been found that hasn’t had
somebody
break in and filch some of the treasures. Even King Tut’s tomb had been brokeninto twice over the past three thousand years.’
    â€˜Yeah, Carter told me that. I spoke to him the other day.’
    â€˜He’s a nice chap,’ said Alec. ‘Uncle Will introduced me to him on the last dig. It was good of him and Lord Carnarvon to allow Uncle Will to excavate in the Valley of the Kings. He had to approach them for permission, years back. Carter could have said no, but he didn’t – he said something about there being no harm in a bit of healthy competition.’
    â€˜You admire Carter, huh?’
    â€˜I was back at school in Cairo when they found Tut’s tomb. I would have given anything to have been in on that.’ Alec wasn’t about to admit it, but Howard Carter was the nearest thing he had to a hero in his life. If he could have changed places with anyone in the world, Carter would have been his first choice.
    Ethan smiled. ‘Well, Howard’s having a tough time of it now. Since Lord Carnarvon died he can’t make a move without somebody shoving a camera in his face. All that baloney about a curse.’
    â€˜You don’t believe it, then?’
    â€˜Heck, no! People like to make up that mumbo jumbo – it sells newspapers.’
    â€˜But Lord Carnarvon
did
die back in March.’
    â€˜Sure, but not from a curse – just an infected mosquito bite.’
    Alec nodded. ‘Same thing that got my mother,’ he said.
    Ethan looked uncomfortable. ‘Yeah, I remember Will mentioning it in one of his letters. Must’ve been tough for you, Alec.’
    Alec did what he always did in these circumstances. He ignored the sympathy and pressed on with the point he was making. ‘Llewellyn said something about a curse, back on the
Sudan
,’ he said. ‘Not for Tut’s tomb; for the one that Uncle Will found. How is it he knows about the find?’
    â€˜Not sure. I’ve only told a few people and I swore them all to secrecy. I guess somebody must have blabbed.’
    â€˜Hmm. You have to admit that it’s strange that nobody has been near that tomb since it was first sealed. Have they found much in the way of artefacts?’
    â€˜Are you kidding? So far, we’ve only been in the antechamber and that is stacked with goodies. Jars, scrolls, statues, chariots. You name it!’
    â€˜Which makes it even more odd. We know that tomb robbers usually turn out to have beenin cahoots with the people who organized the burial. Why didn’t somebody come and loot this one?’
    â€˜Well . . . maybe it was just better hidden than most. From what I read in Will’s journal, it was a complete accident that somebody chanced upon it when they did. He said that— Oh, great!’
    â€˜What’s the matter?’ Alec looked up in surprise. Ethan was staring at something in the rear-view mirror. Alec turned to look over his shoulder. The sky behind them was darkening to an ominous gunmetal grey; below, a shifting, stirring brown mass was whipping around in the air.
    â€˜Sandstorm coming in,’ said Ethan. ‘Travelling pretty fast, by the look of it.’ He glanced round. ‘We can’t turn back. We’ll just have to keep on for the camp and hope we can outrun it.’ He looked at Alec and grinned. ‘What were you just saying about a curse?’
    He pushed his foot down on the accelerator and brought the Crossley up to its top speed, the metal chassis juddering as the wheels raced across the uneven dirt surface. Already the wind was picking up and Alec could see little flurries of sand gusting across the surface of the road.
    â€˜How far is it to camp?’ he asked anxiously.
    â€˜Maybe twenty miles.’ Ethan turned to the boy and