"The same--the same! By heavens, the
very same!"
Oh, he could not be mistaken. There were the identical lips, a little
thick and pouted; the identical nostrils, curved and quivering, but a
little wide; the identical arched eyebrows and dreamy eyes set somewhat
far apart. Above all, there was the identical alluring and mysterious
smile. Only on this masterpiece of ancient art was set a whole crown of
_uraei_ surrounding the entire head. Beneath the crown and pressed back
behind the ears was a full-bottomed wig or royal head-dress, of which
the ends descended to the breasts. The statuette, that, having been
gilt, remained quite perfect and uncorroded, was broken just above the
middle, apparently by a single violent blow, for the fracture was very
clean.
At once it occurred to Smith that it had been stolen from the tomb by
a thief who thought it to be gold; that outside of the tomb doubt had
overtaken him and caused him to break it upon a stone or otherwise. The
rest was clear. Finding that it was but gold-washed bronze he had thrown
away the fragments, rather than be at the pains of carrying them. This
was his theory, probably not a correct one, as the sequel seems to show.
Smith's first idea was to recover the other portion.
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