“One of us to the other said--if the Emperor be buried and with him mighty treasures, how easy will it be for us--we shall know all the mechanical secrets of this place--to find a means for returning, and, if there be treasure buried, to take it away with us; and we agreed. So we have set this down for the guidance of our sons if we be dead when the great attempt shall be made, that the bronze door which shall fall at the entrance, and may not be lifted except with the strength of fifty bullocks--and the ............ be taken away. “We have made a pit so large as the door itself, and there is nothing solid beneath that floor; so that if you shall find at either side of the entrance, between two great rocks carved two bronze images buried the length of a finger, between stones, you shall pull these and the door will fall as it fell before, but never to be raised, save with the strength of fifty bullocks. “And inside is a large cave with two silver lamps which shall burn on the day of its closing, and from one of these lamps there is a long chain of bronze which runs through a tunnel along the roof, and is mechanically connected (here again the manuscript is indecipherable). “If you shall pull upon the silver lamp which is nearest the door of bronze, the whole of the door of silver which is at the foot of the steps shall open. I myself made this tunnel and placed the chain therein, fixing with mechanical contrivance. “Beware of all steps save the spirit steps, for they are devilishly made by.............. “Inside the silver door you shall find the great rivers working marvellously, and on the roof of the cave, which has been made smooth with great labour, many stars shaped ........ precious stones. And here will the Emperor be laid--he and his wives, and in a pit which we have dug on either side shall be cast the ornaments of gold and silver, and the jewels which he wore in his lifetime, and the jewels also of his wives and of his blood relations. “Let our memories be blessed by our children, that we have brought fortune to them, and made them richer than kings, and given them dominions greater than the provinces of the barbarians.” Talham read these documents through twice, scribbling in his angular writing a rough translation the first time and amending as he read it again. He looked up at the detective. Tillizinni had been infected with something of the fever which possessed the other. “What do you think?” asked Talham. “I think it is a wonderful discovery,” said Tillizinni, and he meant it, for that document to him was as precious as anything which Talham might secure from the vaults beneath Mount Li. It was written on paper of extraordinary texture. Indeed, it was as thin as that quality which is known as “Indian paper” to-day. Very few of the characters had been damaged, and such obliterations as there were, were caused by the folds in the document. Talham looked up with a puzzled frown.