A sudden resolution took hold of Smith. He would explore that tomb, at
once and alone. No one should accompany him on this his first visit;
it would be a sacrilege that anyone save himself should set foot there
until he had looked on what it might contain.
Why should he not enter? His lamp, of what is called the "hurricane"
brand, was very good and bright, and would burn for many hours.
Moreover, there had been time for the foul air to escape through the
hole that they had cleared. Lastly, something seemed to call on him to
come and see. He placed the bronze head in his breast-pocket over his
heart, and, thrusting the lamp through the hole, looked down. Here there
was no difficulty, since sand had drifted in to the level of the bottom
of the aperture. Through it he struggled, to find himself upon a bed of
sand that only just left him room to push himself along between it and
the roof. A little farther on the passage was almost filled with mud.
Mahomet had been right when, from his knowledge of the bed-rock, he said
that any tomb made in this place must be flooded. It _had_ been flooded
by some ancient rain-storm, and Smith began to fear that he would find
it quite filled with soil caked as hard as iron.
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