The Gold in the Grave
Read The Gold in the Grave Online
Authors: Terry Deary
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Historical, #Ancient Civilizations, #Readers, #Chapter Books, #ebook
Illustrated by Helen Flook
A&C Black • London
Reprinted 2009
First published 2004 by
A & C Black Publishers Ltd
36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY
Text copyright © 2004 Terry Deary
Illustrations copyright © 2004 Helen Flook
The rights of Terry Deary and Helen Flook to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
eISBN: 978-1-40811-607-4
A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means–graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems–without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.
This book is produced using paper made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by CPI Cox & Wyman, Reading RG1 8EX.
Table of Contents
The water clock dripped. It was the second hour of the afternoon and time to go. Time to carry out the greatest robbery in the history of the world.
There were four of us in the room. Four grave robbers. And we had the perfect plot.
They had been burying kings in Egypt for thousands of years. Burying them with gold and jewels to spend in the Afterlife.
And people had been robbing those kings for thousands of years, to spend the fortunes in
this
life. Kings were buried in pyramids to guard their gold.
It didn’t work.
No one used pyramids any more. They were too easy to rob. Now the kings were buried in tombs. Deep in the rocky cliffs near Thebes. There was only one way in–and that was guarded.
Dalifa was the temple jeweller who made ornaments for King Tutankhamen’s tomb.
Antef was the master thief, the greatest tomb robber in the world.
“I have saved a lot of money,” he said. “Now I am going to risk it all to win the biggest prize of all. And you are going to help me.” He chuckled and showed his black and yellow stumps of teeth.
At least that was the idea. If we could rob the tomb of King Tutankhamen then we would be rich as kings. If we failed then our punishment would be horrible–so horrible it gave me nightmares.
Big Kerpes would be one of the coffin carriers at the sunset funeral of Tutankhamen.
Tutankhamen had been dead for seventy days. Days spent in turning his holy body into a mummy. From the first day of the King’s death, Antef had been plotting the perfect plot.
Kerpes told me, “If they catch you they’ll cut off your nose.” He rubbed his own flat broken, nose. “If you are lucky.”
“And if I am unlucky?” I asked.
“Then the new King Ay will have you crucified–nailed to the walls of Thebes city. He will show the world what happens to grave robbers.”
“I don’t want to be nailed to the wall, Kerpes,” I whispered.
“Then don’t get caught,” he grunted.
Me? I am Paneb. In those days I was the poor son of a tavern owner. I wasn’t very clever and I wasn’t very brave. But I was very, very skinny. And that’s why they wanted me.
