It was over, and all that could be noted was a sinkage in the ground where the ancient pit had been.

“I am sorry for them,” said Oliver presently, “but it had to be done.”

“Sorry for whom?” I asked.

“For those Fung priests or soldiers.  The levels below are full of them, dead or alive.  They were pouring up at our heels.  Well, no one will travel that road again.”

Later, in the guest house at Mur, Higgs told us his story.  After his betrayal by Shadrach, which, it appeared, was meant to include us all, for the Professor overheard the hurried talk between him and a Fung captain, he was seized and imprisoned in the body of the great sphinx, where many chambers and dungeons had been hollowed out by the primaeval race that fashioned it.  Here Barung the Sultan visited him and informed him of his meeting with the rest of us, to whom apparently he had taken a great liking, and also that we had refused to purchase a chance of his release at the price of being false to our trust.

“You know,” said Higgs, “that when first I heard this I was very angry with you, and thought you a set of beasts.  But on considering things I saw the other side of it, and that you were right, although I never could come to fancy the idea of being sacrificed to a sphinx by being chucked like a piece of horse-flesh to a lot of holy lions.  However, Barung, an excellent fellow in his way, assured me that there was no road out of the matter without giving grave offence to the priests, who are very powerful among the Fung, and bringing a fearful curse on the nation.

“Meanwhile, he made me as comfortable as he could.  For instance, I was allowed to walk upon the back of the idol, to associate with the priests, a suspicious and most exclusive set, and to study their entire religious system, from which I have no doubt that of Egypt was derived.  Indeed, I have made a great discovery which, if ever we get out of this, will carry my name down to all generations.  The forefathers of these Fung were undoubtedly also the forefathers of the pre-dynastic Egyptians, as is shown by the similarity of their customs and spiritual theories.  Further, intercourse was kept up between the Fung, who then had their headquarters here in Mur, and the Egyptians in the time of the ancient empire, till the Twentieth Dynasty, indeed, if not later.  My friends, in the dungeons in which I was confined there is an inscription, or, rather, a graffite, made by a prisoner extradited to Mur by Rameses II., after twenty years’ residence in Egypt, which was written by him on the night before he was thrown to the sacred lions, that even in those days were an established institution.  And I have got a copy of that inscription in my pocket-book.  I tell you,” he added in a scream of triumph, “I’ve got a certified copy of that inscription, thanks to Shadrach, on whose dirty head be blessings!”

I congratulated him heartily upon this triumph, and before he proceeded to give us further archaeological details, asked him for some information about my boy.