Within An Ancient Song - 3

Professor Henderson did pay no heed to the call of his wife. She shrugged her shoulders as did I. The Professors wife, Abigail, she left the hole with my assistance. We had dug to the ladies shoulder height. Once up she did walk away but not in the direction of the Professor. She was walking in the direction of the tents. I started to remove more dirt from the hole. The sand did cling to something, I could not make out what it was at the moment. Clunk, my spade struck again, gently. I followed the contour of the object, it was rectangular in shape. By the time Abigail returned I had cleared the sand from around the rectangle. It seemed to be about four feet high Its dimensions, six feet in length, three feet in breadth. Abigail jumped into the hole holding brushes of different sizes. I can remember your Mother was just as excited as I was. The sand was removed, as close as we could, from the object and then we started to use the small brushes. Slowly the sand fell away and then in the sun something glinted. It looked like gold. Now the good lady yelled for her husband in a frenzy as her brush quickly removed sand. I joined in the yelling as my brush removed the ancient sand so easily. The Professor leapt into the hole, his anger venting, "Abigail, get out of this hole and you, Hassan, get out of the valley before I rip you...." "Robert, shut up," Abigail yelled. "The prize, we have found the prize, well Ali found it." "The Prize," he yelled as he turned to face his wife, his hands clenched into fists. His eyes caught the glint of the gold. In his anger, he hadn't noticed it. The gold did shine so brightly. The slim, bearded man, stood transfixed. "You were right Professor, it was here all along. Anubis' temple. You have found it." My words didn't seem to penetrate but then, slowly, the Professor took a brush from his wife and he started to brush away the sand. All anyone heard him say was, "Forgive me, Ali," over and over. I started to remove the sand as did Abigail. Soon the plinth was standing in the sun once more. Etched deeply in the gold was the form of Anubis. A strange thing happened then, a cloud came out of nowhere and seemed to blot out the sun. It stayed there for a few minutes then it just seemed to be gone. The Egyptians believed this to be some kind of portent. They shivered and they stepped away from the hole. They were afraid. They knew the ancient ways. They were right to be afraid. To Be Continued.......... 10/01/2019.