"There's the labour and the risk," he ventured at last. "Of course my agents at Cairo--I have secret agents in every city on the globe--could proceed to the spot from my carefully worded directions. They could do the work of excavating. So far, so good! But they would have to work quietly and would be punished if discovered. Of course here and there they could bribe. Naturally, they would have to bribe, and that, as you are doubtless aware, requires money. Again, entering this port the custom-house officials would have to be bribed, and they've gone up in price the last few years. My control tells me that this mummy is one they've been looking hard for. It's about the only one they haven't found. The loss will be discovered and my men might be traced. It requires an enormous sum. Now, for instance, a thousand dollars"--he regarded Bean closely and was reassured--"a thousand dollars wouldn't any more than start the work. Two thousand"--his eyes were steadily upon Bean now--"would further it some. Three thousand might see it pretty well advanced. Four thousand, of course, would help still farther and five thousand"--he had seen the shadow of dismay creep over the face of his sitter--"five thousand, I _think_, might put the thing through." Bean drew a long breath. The professor had correctly read the change in his face at "five thousand," but it had been a sudden fear that his whole ten thousand was not going to suffice for this prodigious operation. "I can afford that," said Bean shortly. He hardly dared trust himself to say more. His emotion threatened to overcome him. The professor suffered from the same danger. He, too, dared trust himself to say no more than the few necessary words. "There must be a payment down," he said with forced coldness. "How much?" "A thousand wouldn't be any too much." "Enough?" "Well, perhaps not enough," the professor nerved himself to admit. "I'll give you two, now. Give you the rest when you get--when you get It here." "You move me, I confess," conceded the professor. "I will undertake it." "How long will it be, do you think?" "I shall give orders by cable. A month, possibly, if all goes well." "I'll give you check." He gulped at that. It was the first time he had ever used the words. The Countess parted the curtains. Curiously enough she carried a pen and ink, though no one remarked upon the circumstance. Bean had that morning left a carefully written signature at the bank where his draft had been deposited. He later wondered how the scrawl he achieved now could ever be identified as by the same hand. And he was conscious, even as he wrote, that the Countess Casanova and Professor Balthasar were labouring under an excitement equal to his own. It _was_ a big feat to attempt. As before, they waited until he had closed the lower door. "Oh, Ed!" breathed the Countess emotionally. "Anything loose in the house?" asked the professor. "They's a couple bottles beer in the icebox, but _Oh, Ed_!"