"Mr Carter!" "Sir!" "Sir!" "Mr Carter." "There is a door." " On va trouver un tresor ici." " Oh, regarde." "What is this place?" "It's nothing." "Nothing at all." "Please." "Please move." "Get out of my way." "There is a tomb here." "Show us the treasure, please." "Move aside." "Come, we wish to see it." "There is no tomb." "Now get out of my bloody dig." "Please, sir." "Please, come." " Just a quick look." " Move away." "Monsieur!" "Come on, Selim." "What on Earth possessed you to strike him?" "He assaulted one of my men." "Now, tell me." "Why isn't he here instead of me?" "Because an Arab workman is not a French duke." "He shouldn't have been there in the first place, Maspero, and you know it." "We're trying to do serious work." "We're not a sideshow for tourists." "Your work relies on the delicate balance of good will, which I must maintain." "Here you have French bureaucracy against British foreign interest against Egyptian home rule." "The country is a powder barrel and you sit above it, flicking matches at whomsoever displeases you." "I don't care cos I'm not a bloody diplomat." "I would never have said you were." "May I remind you that neither of us will ever discover anything more important or wonderful than what is in that desert?" " If only everyone felt the same way." " Yes, well, they should." "But they don't." "Personally, I have some sympathy... but the Antiquity Service does not." "They're revoking your licence." "Well, wasn't that quite the thrill?" "There are an awful lot of beggars." "Are you quite sure about this?" "Well, everyone has to start somewhere." "All we have to do is to find some men and start digging." "Come along." " Bravo!" " He's right over there." "He is not at home." "Of course he's at home, he lives here." " Mr Davis does not buy from pedlars." " You just listen to me." "For heaven's sake, Hamid." "Mr Carter is an eminent archaeologist." "My apologies, Miss Lewis." "Sir." "Thank you." "You all right?" "You weren't robbed or something, were you?" "What?" "No." "Why?" " I didn't realise there was a do on." " Oh, there's always a do on." " You should stay." " I'm here to see Davis." " But if he's busy..." " I'm sure he's not too busy for you." "Why don't you wait in the library?" "Thank you." "Take those for the library." "Take two trays." "Carter." "My dear fellow." "Long time no see." "Where have you been hiding yourself?" "Here and there." "I've been doing some research." "What can I do for you?" "Well..." "I bought this in a coffee house in town." "Hmm." "Looks like someone's stealing from your dig." "Hmm." "Not the first time." "Thank you." "I'll look into it." " How much did you pay for it?" " £5." " That's six." " Oh, er, finder's fee." "Really, not necessary." "Thank you." "Carter, you'll have to forgive me." "Timmy's birthday waits for no man." " Course." " And thank you again." "Carter." "Good luck." " Where's Selim?" " He go to work." "Not for Davis?" "No, didn't you hear?" "For the English Lord on the hills." "He's burrowing all over the place, like a jerboa on heat." "Oh." "Thanks." "Number seven." "Have you got anything?" "No, sir." "Nothing here." "Try... over there." "Against the rocks." "Yes, those rocks." "Sir." "Perhaps if first we map out the area..." "There's nothing to map, really, is there?" "Number three." "What have you got?" "No, sir." "Sir Carnarvon." "It's Lord Carnarvon." "You say Lord Carnarvon or sir." "Forgive me." "Lord Carnarvon." "May I make a suggestion?" "I'm not taking any stolen goods from you, do you hear me?" "But these are not stolen, these were found." "Good afternoon." "Do any of you chaps know a man called Carter?" "I'm here because of my leg." "The heat relaxes the fibres or some such." "But I've been going quite crazy sitting in hotel rooms all day so I thought I'd try my hand at archaeology." "If I turn up a fortune, so much the better." "Have you ever undertaken an archaeological expedition before?" "Well, when I was up at Cambridge, I took the wallpaper off my set and there was Tudor panelling underneath." "That's as near as damn it to archaeology, isn't it?" "No, I've not actually undertaken an archaeological expedition before." "And I could certainly do with some help." "60 digs and not much to show for it." "60 digs?" "!" "When I say digs, I mean 60 holes." "And nothing in any of them." "Except yesterday we turned up trumps." "Found the most astonishing kind of cat coffin." "You really must see it." "Got a taste for it now, I suppose." " How did you hurt your leg?" " Car crash." "Hmm." "I expect you think I've gone about it all the wrong way." "Enthusiasm counts for a great deal, my Lord." "Perhaps we could apply some scientific methodology as well." "Scientific methodology." "Excellent." "I knew you were the right chap for the job." "Maspero said you were a different breed." " Did he?" " Yes, what do you think he meant by that?" "I really can't say." "He also said you were terrible with people... unless they've been dead for 1,000 years or more." " Really?" " So, what do you say?" "Could you spare me the time?" "I would be most happy." "Mr Carter!" "Ah." "Lord Carnarvon, may I present Miss Lewis, from the Metropolitan Museum in New York." "Oh, delighted, Miss Lewis." "Please, call me Maggie." " We're a hotbed of democracy, I'm afraid." " Oh." "The Bush Telegraph says you're doing rather well for a new boy." "Well, not a bad start, I suppose." "But the problem with finding anything at all is that it whets one's appetite." "I was just asking Mr Carter..." "what one has to do to find a tomb." "What are you saying?" "It's impossible?" "I'm saying we've come late to the feast." "A great tomb, a royal tomb, a pyramid or anything of that sort is like... a beacon in the desert, saying, "This is where the treasure's buried."" "Ah." "So... almost every one of the great tombs was robbed within a couple of decades of being sealed." "So rather unwise for a great king to build himself a great tomb." "That's why they stopped building pyramids." "No-one since the time of the pharaohs themselves has seen an intact royal tomb." "Oh." "Didn't quite realise." "Well, shall we?" "I think it's beautiful." ""In the sixth year of the reign of Khnum Heket Amun Hatshepsut." "May she live forever."" "How long ago was that, exactly?" " 3,400 years ago." " Hmm." "You see, she does live forever." "I want to find more." "Carter." " You laid it on rather thick." " Well, he thinks it's all a lark." "Dig in the sand and you'll find buried treasure." "Don't you think it's better he knows the truth?" "Well..." "I just wonder if he's cut out for this." "His wife's the one with the money, you know?" "Rothschild and all that." "He just married into it." "The quick and easy route." "And people say he cuts something of a swath at the gaming tables." "I think that's what you like." "That he's a gambler." "Like you." " I've never gambled in my life." " Is that what you think?" "Carter." "How long have you been out here now?" "You need to get a proper patron." "Not some flighty aristo who'll be gone the moment his gammy leg feels better." "With proper backing, you could make a very good career for yourself." "But you have to play the game." "If I wanted to play the game, would they have me?" "Maspero told Carnarvon that I was a different breed." "That's good." "That means a breed apart, a cut above the rest." "No, it means "not one of us"." "Well... you're back in the Valley, at least." "Does that mean you'll be taking rooms?" "Here?" "Lord, no." "No, no." "I'll stay out at the dig site." "You wouldn't prefer to be with people?" "Sometimes people just get in the way." "Right." "Gently does it." "Oh, wow." "Ah." "Isn't that something?" "What have you got?" "Not sure." "Take it to Maggie." "So?" "What sayeth the oracle?" "Nebkheperure." "Sorry." "Never heard of him." "Er, the workmanship is outstanding." "He must've been a noble of some kind." "You know who could tell you straightaway?" "Indeed but he's signed on with someone else." "Oh, for heaven's sake, Winlock." "Carter doesn't give a damn about professional rivalry." "All he cares about is the work." "Oh, now I have to slog all the way up to his cave." "It's all right." "I'll take it." "Bribe him with whiskey." "That's what I always do." "Where did you find it?" "Winlock found it near a subterranean room that we're clearing." "Could've been a storeroom but our money's on tomb antechamber but we lost the tomb." "Not much in there, except the usual debris." "This was one of the better pieces." "It's rather odd." "Nebkheperure." "Question is... what's he doing here?" "You know who he is?" "Yes, of course." "What, you don't?" "No-one on the dig knows." "We're guessing minor official." "Hmm." "Well... he's a little obscure." "I'll give you that." "And he's not local." "Still, I'm surprised at you and Winlock for not spotting it." "Nebkheperure is the coronation name of the pharaoh that was known afterwards as Amun-tut-ankh... or Tutankhamun." "Ah, I remember." "The Heretic." "Akhenaten was the Heretic." "This is his son." "What's a cup with his name on doing in our dig?" "Well, your guess is as good as mine." "Amarna was his capital." "Petrie did some work there, actually." "The thing is... that's 300 miles away." "So how did Tutankhamun's cup get here?" "Now, Evelyn, this is Mr Carter." "Carter, this is my daughter Evelyn." " Nice to meet you, Evelyn." " How do you do, Mr Carter?" "Mrs Carter." "No." "I'm not Mrs Carter." "I'm not married." "Really?" "Miss Lewis is a professional lady, Evelyn." "She's married to her work." "And Carter here is erm..." "What is the word I'm looking for?" "..undomesticated." "Mr Carter is an expert." "So from now on, please address any questions on Egyptian history to Mr Carter, not to me and certainly not to Mama." "Carter, a word, if you would." " Come sit down." " She's been running us ragged." "Be a good chap and take her out tomorrow and give her a tour." "Here we are." "What are they all doing?" "Oh, you know." "Journeying onto the next life." "That sort of thing." "What were they like, the pharaohs?" "I'm not sure, really." "They're all dead." "Well... some of them were good." "Kind and wise." "Some of them were cruel and foolish." "Not all that different from people nowadays." "I've never seen anything so beautiful." "The cats." " Papa has a cat coffin." " Yes, he does." "Did you know that cats were like gods to them?" "Oh?" "They lived in the temples, they were worshipped." "When Digby died, Jenkins just buried him behind the stables." "Yes, well, I bet Jenkins didn't worship Digby as a god, did he?" "Papa says all the tombs were robbed." " Was this tomb robbed?" " Yes, it was." "That's such a shame." "I wish you could find a royal tomb." "So do I." "Papa says perhaps they have all been found." "Well, that's what everyone says." "But you don't believe it, do you?" " What makes you say that?" " I can tell." "I think you're right." "People lose things all the time and forget where they've put them." "So why shouldn't a royal tomb get lost and forgotten?" "Hello." "Remember the tomb that Ayrton found in year seven... erm, KB55." "You were there." "Erm, 55." "I catalogued it for him." " Ah." " It was rather strange." "The coffin was desecrated, the name was scratched out." "Face removed." "Very deliberate." " What's this all about?" " It's nothing, really." "It's just..." " Winlock's cup" " I thought you solved that little mystery." " Tutankhamun, remember?" " Yes, no." "Erm..." "It's just... why was it here?" "I mean, Tutankhamun was crowned in Amarna." "See?" "It just doesn't..." "Something doesn't quite... ..make sense." "You said the coffin was desecrated." "Yes." "Bye, Maggie." "Hello?" "Hello?" "Hello!" "Hello?" " Professor Petrie?" " Just a sec." "I'll be right out." "Have you brought supplies?" "No." "It's Howard Carter." "Oh." "I thought you brought supplies." " Hot in there, was it?" " I don't mind the heat, used to it." "It's the bloody bat shit I take issue with." "Gets in your sinuses and food doesn't taste right afterwards." "Oh." "Hand me those sardines, would you?" " Here you are." " Thank you." "Mmm." "Ah." "That is better." "Now... what can I do for you, my boy?" "Well, erm, I wanted to ask you about Amarna." "That bloody place." "Of course." "Er, let's have a drink." "Perhaps you'd like to wash first?" "Hmm?" "Oh, yes." "I suppose you are right." "Ah, very well." "You make yourself comfortable" " and..." "I'll erm..." " Yes." "Ah!" " Carter?" " Yes." "See the ethyl alcohol?" "Er... yes." "Right." "Now root around." "You should find some citric acid." " Yes, got it." " Ah." "Get a couple of beakers." " Put the citric acid in at the bottom." " Yes." "And then pour two or three fingers of the alcohol on top." "You'll like this." "There you are." " My God." " Near as damn it... gin and tonic." " So, where is everyone?" " What?" "Oh, they left." "It wasn't me." "No, the university got cold feet about all this nonsense in Europe and told them all to go back to London." " You're still here." " Oh, it takes more than some German sabre-rattling to scare this old dog." "Huh." "Amarna, you said." " Yes." " What a total wash-out that place turned out to be." "Eight months and not a thing to show for it." "No pottery, no utensils." "No domestic items of any kind whatsoever." "Because they all left." "That was after the Heretic King died." "Akhenaten." "Yes, well, his madness was the only thing holding the place together." "The sand blew in, the people blew out and that, my boy, was the end of Amarna." "And where did they go?" "Hmm?" "Oh, they went to Luxor." "Started up again there." "So they moved their new capital... ..right next to the Valley of the Kings." " You're back." " Erm..." "I'm so sorry." "I wasn't meaning to pry." "I found the catalogue for 55 and I thought it might be useful for you" " so I brought it over." " Thank you very much." "Very kind." "Carter." "Carter, I really didn't mean to intrude." "It's quite all right." "Here's the catalogue." "Carter." "Yes." " Ugh." "Oh." "Erm..." " Yes." "What are you looking for?" "What do you think's there?" "Thank you very much for this." "This is very kind of you." "Good afternoon." "Good afternoon." "The way things stand at the moment," "I'm prepared to say the Valley is all dug out." "Anything that was out there to find, we found it." "Your concession lapses at the end of this month." "Are you not intending to renew?" "No." "No, I think we have to try our hand elsewhere, while we still can." "The Nile Delta, perhaps." "You had a crack at the Delta, didn't you, Lord Carnarvon?" "Well, not much of a crack, to be honest." "When I was there, it was full of cobras." "Biblical plague." "You've never seen me move so fast." "To hell with the stick." "The cobras cured me." "I ran like a gazelle." "A plague of cobras will do that to a man." "You really think the Valley is exhausted?" "Well, there are scraps." "There'll always be scraps but... no." "The game's not worth the candle any more." " Excuse me." " It's the end of an age, gentlemen." "Let's see this season out and move on." " You shouldn't be reading this." " Why not?" "If there's a war, it's going to affect all of us." "Come." "You have to buy Davis' concession." "Why?" "You heard Davis." "Valley's all dug up..." "I know." "I know." "But... ..suppose it's not." "There's something I'd like to show you." " What is this?" " Amarna." "Known by those who lived here as the City of Lepers." " Why?" " It was cursed." "It was the dream city of a pharaoh." "Akhenaten built it." "A whole city dedicated to his new religion of the sun." "But of course, his people didn't want to be sun worshippers." "They simply wanted their old gods back." " What did they do?" " Well, when Akhenaten died, his people abandoned the city." "Left it for the desert to claim." "And their new pharaoh brought back their old ways of worship." "And who was this new pharaoh?" "A 12-year-old boy..." "named Tutankhamun." "Well, I've never heard of this Tutankhamun." "Because we've never found him." "Most archaeologists reckon that he was thrown into an unmarked grave, along with his heretic father." "Well, it's a good story, Carter, but what does it have to do with Davis' concession?" "This is a long way from the Valley of the Kings." "Herbert Winlock found a faience cup with Tutankhamun's coronation name inscribed on it." "Now, he found it in the Valley here." "Now, why was it here?" "Who brought it to the Valley?" "Now, our 12-year-old pharaoh..." "led his people away from Amarna, away from his father's heresy and built them a new capital in Luxor, just outside the Valley of the Kings." "I think Tutankhamun brought his own cup to the Valley." "I think he brought his relatives, too." "He took them from their tombs here and reburied them 300 miles away, next to his new city, here." "Now, we have found reburial sites in both of these locations and in this one, in particular, we have found a coffin." "Desecrated, as you would that of a heretic." "I think he wanted them near him." "I think he wanted to keep his family together." "I think he intended on being buried with them, so as to join them in the afterlife." "Now, if I'm right... that would mean that he..." "is buried... here." "In the Valley of the Kings." "Exactly where Davis has his concession." "It'd be underground." "There'd be nothing to show on the surface." "All that area has been dug and dug." "It's a hell of a long shot." "Yes, but it's still a shot." "There is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings that has been lost and forgotten." "And no-one else knows it's there." "I'll buy the concession the moment it becomes available." "Right." "Well, we need men." "Yes, a proper dig crew." "Mm-hm." "Yes, and enough tools for a large-scale exploratory dig." "Mm-hm." "Well, now." "Off to bed with you, it's late." " Yes, Papa." "Night." " Good night, my darling." " Night, Mr Carter." " Good night." "Where is everyone?" "It's like a ghost ship." "Excuse me." "What the hell's going on?" "Some idiot kid shot the Archduke of Austria and his wife." "We just got it on the wire an hour ago." "So now all the crowned heads of Europe are at each other's throats." " Oh, this'll be a bloody mess." " Excuse me." "Carter, come and have a drink with me." "Chin-chin." "Wow, look at me, drinking whisky." "I am ruined for polite society." "They're calling us back." "What?" "The Metropolitan Museum says the situation here is untenable." "They're giving the men two weeks to pack up the dig sites." "Women and children go home on the first available ship." "I'm leaving tomorrow evening." "But it's not really gonna amount to anything, is it?" "And even if it does, it won't affect us, surely." "You silly man." "Of course it affects us." "Not everyone can live in a cave and ignore the world." "You could come with us." "Davis could get you passage." "No." "I can't." "I..." "I can't leave now." "I'd miss my chance." "Heaven forfend that you miss your chance." " Carter." " Well, we've got the men." " Most of them." " Most of them?" "Yes, well, it turns out that some of the dig crews are refusing to work for an Englishman any more." "Ah." "Mmm." "But we have enough?" " Yes." " Papa." "What's the matter?" "Are you all right?" "Mr Carter was right..." "about the tomb." " What do you mean?" " Tutankhamun's tomb, it was in the Valley." "Mr Davis has just found it." "Ah." ""The lord of the two lands..." "Amun-tut-ankh..." " "given life, like the sun, lives forever."" " Extraordinary." "About the only thing left in there." "Well, that's the Valley all over." "Just scraps." "Everything's been robbed or dug." "There's nothing left to find." "Rather like the one we found in '05." "In the detail." "Well done, sir." " These are to be sent on, do you understand?" " Yes, madam." " I'll take the train but these are to be sent on." " Yes, madam." "You told Davis." " What?" " You told him and he got there first." "No, Carter." "He found it by chance." "It has nothing to do with me." " Found it by chance?" " I promise you, I never said a word." "I would never, ever betray you." "I have to go." "I'm sorry." "The train leaves on the hour." " Do you mind if I join you?" " No." "I could do with a drink." "I really am terribly sorry." "This isn't it." "It can't be." "It's too small." "It's wrong." "It's all wrong." "This isn't it." "Perhaps this is all the tomb you get if you're the son of a heretic." "His name was down here." "No, his name was on a piece of gold foil, which could've been washed down here during any flood season." "All that means is that he's here in the Valley." "Not in this room." "Somewhere else maybe but not here." "This isn't it." "Will you buy the concession?" " Carter..." " This silly little room is not the tomb of a pharaoh." " It's..." " I have to know how sure you are." "How sure I am?" "I have traced his family from the exodus in Amarna through to the colonisation at Luxor." "The reburial..." "No, no, no." "Not that, not your head." "I don't give a damn about that." "In your heart... in your belly." "I can feel it." "Like a white elixir." "Incredibly heavy." "Incredibly ancient." "It's there." "The concession is yours." " I wish you the best of fortune." " Monsieur Maspero, my thanks." "We'll start with exploratory trenches every 20 yards, according to the grid system, which Selim is plotting out now." "Then we allocate each worker one grid square and we quarter the whole area in stages." "And by the end of the season, I want to have worked right up to the neck of the valley." " How far down are you going?" " A couple of feet." " It's essentially a scouting..." " Papa." "So we don't need..." "Evelyn, go and wait in the car." "But, Papa..." "Go on now." "Attention!" " Lord Carnarvon." " Yes." "I'm sorry to trouble you, sir." " I'm here to take you to the port." " What's going on?" " It's war, sir." " What, here?" "Yes, sir." "Everywhere." "I'm to make sure you're safe and drive you to the ship." "You're needed in Britain." "Are you Mr Carter?" "I am, yes." "Sir, I'm to ask you to report to the Army headquarters in Cairo." " I can't." "I have work to do here." " Sir." "You are being asked to report to Cairo for assignment to war duties." "Get this lot rounded up." "Check their papers and their names." " Don't you dare." "These are my men." " Let the man do his job, Carter." "I can take you with me now, sir." "If you wish." "Very well." "Well... not much choice, it seems." "No." "Keep me posted." "Let me know where you end up." "I will, yes." "Good luck." "And you." "Oh, Carter." "If he's out there, he's waited 3,000 years." "I believe he can wait a while longer." "Go on, in the car."