sure you are safe and soon back home with us” he had assured her. They agreed to meet early the next morning at the far end of the Valley of the Queens . Yasmeen’s father would drive overnight to be there and Rashidi agreed to have Yasmeen and “her little friend” with him. Once they knew where the secret tomb was located, we would be allowed to return with Yasmeen’s father. He was to tell no-one – if there was anyone else around or any police then Rashidi assured him that we would not live. He was also to bring with him the golden collar and the jewelled dagger. We tore into the bread and cheese. We were ravenous and very low on strength. The food restored our spirits a little, especially now we had hope that tomorrow we would be free. It was also great to be able to wash. As I watched Yasmeen undress and bathe herself I realised once again just how beautiful she was. “Now that I’m clean I feel human again” she said, rubbing up against me. “Make love to me Ramy” she whispered, running her hands over my naked body. What was a man to do? We fell into a deep sleep but were awake as soon as the sun began to lighten the cave. We had tried to save some food for the morning but we were so hungry we had eaten it all. We could only hope that our captors would be in a benevolent mood and bring us some breakfast. Soon we heard footsteps and, to our relief, we saw that they had indeed brought us some gruel and water. “Eat this quickly” we were told “don’t waste time, we have a long walk ahead of us”. It was great to walk out into the sunshine, even though our hands were bound again. This time they didn’t bother to blindfold us, I guess because they figured we would travel faster that way and we wouldn’t be coming back anyway. It didn’t really matter, the hills all looked much the same to me and most of the time I was looking at the ground so I wouldn’t stumble. We walked for about an hour and as we came over the last crest I could see the Valley of the Queens spread out below us. Far in the distance I could see the first of the tourist buses coming towards Queen Hatshepsut’s temple which was below us to the right. It was so far away that they looked like toy buses and I knew it would be useless to try and attract their attention if something went wrong. Let’s hope these are men of their word, I thought. I could see a man waiting under the overhang of a rock. The sun was already beating down on us and I knew Yasmeen must be as thirsty as I was. Nothing really mattered though except the thought that we would soon be free. “That’s my father” Yasmeen whispered to me.
Yasmeen’s father was not at all like her in appearance. He was short and tubby but when he saw his little girl his eyes lit up and I could see the resemblance in his broad smile. “My darling daughter” he said “I hope they haven’t hurt you”. “Never mind about all that” said Rashidi “Give me the collar and the dagger. Yasmeen’s father produced them from inside his jacket and they glittered in the sunlight. Rashidi turned them over and over in his hands, examining th em. “They are truly remarkable” he said “and now it is time for you to show us where the tomb is that contains all these treasures.” From beneath their robes both Rashidi and Mosi produced guns and waved them at us, signalling for Yasmeen’s father to lead us to the tomb. He nodded to me briefly in acknowledgement as we turned back into the hills the way we had come. “It is hard for me to find this” Yasmeen’s father was explaining to Rashidi. “I have not been here since I was a boy. My father brought me just before he died. The man who showed my father the tomb died suddenly and not long after my father brought me here he also died suddenly. It is believed there is a curse on most of these tombs and that is what I also