5. In the Tomb

5 In the Tomb Stanley found that no matter how many humps a camel may have, riding one was no joking matter. The camel lurched. Stanley slipped. The camel bumped. Stanley slid. He finally solved the problem by folding himself over its hump like a blanket. At last the caravan came to a stop. Stanley fell to the ground and looked

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up. And up. Somehow, pyramids had always looked a bit smaller in pictures. Sir Hawara brought Stanley around to the back, and then lit a torch and handed it to him. He pointed to a space just a few inches wide between two enormous stone blocks. "Remember, find the scrolls, and then unlock the tomb. No dillydallying." Stanley stared at the dark slot between the stones. He didn't think it looked like a place he would want to be dillydallying. He didn't think it looked like a place he would want to do anything in, in fact. But he reminded himself that this was an important archaeological expedition, and a promise

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was a promise. He took a deep breath and wedged himself into the passageway. Three inches is not very much room to get around in. Stanley had to half wriggle and half slide as he took little sideways hops, just to inch along slowly. After many twists and turns in the deepest darkness, he heard a leathery flapping. He felt a rush of wind, as if from a great many wings. He held up his torch and then out of the gloom... Bats! Hundreds of them! Thousands, perhaps! Stanley had disturbed a whole colony of bats, and they were coming right for him! He felt himself break into a cold sweat and a new set of goose disks. As the

bats approached, Stanley leaped up and pressed himself against the stone wall. And he stuck there! The goose disks on his arms and legs, in combination with the cold sweat, had become little suction cups! Stanley hung perfectly still, pressed tight to the pyramid wall like a starfish, until the entire flock of bats had passed by. Then, as his fear subsided, the little goose disk suction cups let go one by one—thwop, thwop, thwop—and he slipped gently to