One of the men pointed out to me that a mass of fallen rock lay beyond
his feet, and had apparently shut him in, so that he had died through
suffocation, buried under the earth that the rock had brought down with
it.
I at once despatched a man to my hotel to fetch my camera, that I might
by flashlight take a photograph of the skeleton as it lay; and another I
sent to get from the chemist and grocer as much gum arabic and
isinglass as could be procured. My object was to give to the bones a
bath of gum to render them less brittle when removed, restoring to them
the gelatine that had been absorbed by the earth and lime in which they
lay.
Thus I was left alone at the bottom of my passage, the four men above
being engaged in straightening the adit and sifting the earth.
I was quite content to be alone, so that I might at my ease search for
traces of personal ornament worn by the man who had thus met his death.
The place was somewhat cramped, and there really was not room in it for
more than one person to work freely.
Whilst I was thus engaged, I suddenly heard a shout, followed by a
crash, and, to my dismay, an avalanche of rubble shot down the inclined
passage of descent. I at once left the skeleton, and hastened to effect
my exit, but found that this was impossible. Much of the superincumbent
earth and stone had fallen, dislodged by the vibrations caused by the
picks of the men smashing up the chalk blocks, and the passage was
completely choked. I was sealed up in the hollow where I was, and
thankful that the earth above me had not fallen as well, and buried me,
a man of the present enlightened age, along with the primeval savage of
eight thousand years ago.
A large amount of matter must have fallen, for I could not hear the
voices of the men.
I was not seriously alarmed. The workmen would procure assistance and
labour indefatigably to release me; of that I could be certain. But how
much earth had fallen? How much of the passage was choked, and how long
would they take before I was released? All that was uncertain. I had a
candle, or, rather, a bit of one, and it was not probable that it would
last till the passage was cleared. What made me most anxious was the
question whether the supply of air in the hollow in which I was enclosed
would suffice.
My enthusiasm for prehistoric research failed me just then. All my
interests were concentrated on the present, and I gave up groping about
the skeleton for relics. I seated myself on a stone, set the candle in a
socket of chalk I had scooped out with my pocket-knife, and awaited
events with my eyes on the skeleton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account