I leaned back against the seat and turned my face to the window. A nervous tick started jumping above one eye. I knew nothing of this surviving caravan stop that still had gold chunks littering the floor and apparently, neither had the last Candace. Just what secrets might these murals reveal?
Days passed, and then on the third morning Flint literally drove right up to the half buried in the sand mud brick wall of what looked like nothing more than a randomly placed wall in a sea of sand. With a sinking feeling, I realized that Flint had found the caravan stop with near pin point accuracy.
No entrance appeared visible in the long mud brick wall, still left exposed of sand by the relentless desert winds. No wonder not very many people had found this place; it would have been easy to miss in the dunes of sand. Flint rooted around in the back of the Landrover and pulled out a pick.
He walked right up to the brick wall and started prying a door out of the aged mud brick. Sweat gleamed off of his bare arms and his shirt was soon drenched and I couldn't help but admire the specimen that he was as the wet shirt clung to him.
His voice shocked me out of my day dreaming, "Would you like the honors?"
He was gesturing to the hole he had created in the wall. I glanced at the dark hole and my mind filled with all the dark things that could be in there and I shook my head no.
"You mean you're going to make me go down through the small dark and sinister hole first?" He asked, sounding exasperated.
With a slight smile I said, "You're just the man for the job!"
He smiled like a Cheshire cat and said, "That's right! I am."
Before I could retort he ducked inside and I was suddenly left alone in the whispering desertscape. Nervously, I looked around and then, making an effort not to think about it too much, I ducked inside with a gasp.
"Didn't take long for you to join the party." He said wryly.
"I thought you might hurt yourself in here all alone so I came in to save you from yourself."
The beam of Flint's flashlight shown into my face briefly and I heard him grunt something, as he blinded me with the light. The beam of light went back to examining the long corridor we stood in. It stretched out a long distance to either side of us.
"This would have been where they chambered the camels, a lot of camels." Flint said. His beam found an opening in the opposing wall down the corridor from us.