at only upon reaching Dar-es-Balat Those m full Sight therefore missed the disappearance of the other heavy equipment-trucks, cranes, even the construction trailer-as, to the accompaniment of sharp cracks, they one by one departed from view Al Habaqi was among the lucky, and he saw mirrored in the faces around him his own confusion and terror, yet as he looked longingly at the construction engineer for some sign of expert understanding, he saw still another emotion-utter amazement-added to those the man already displayed Follow ing the engineer's gaze, al-Habaqi's own chin fell to his chest as he saw die bucket of the shovel rise from the excavation floor like a metal beanstalk Seconds later, a dusty and disheveled foreman-the second person to be blotted out-rose bit by bit from the ground, obviously climbing die arm of the shovel When the foreman reached die bucket, he shouted, 'Get back'" "The floor's a mirage,1'he said "There's a big cave down there, and some of us are hurt The whole valley might collapse " The engineer, to whom these words were addressed, was fixed m a slack-jawed stupor, but a clerk called back to the foreman "There's a commset m the shovel-call Dar-es-Balat'" The foreman climbed down, apparently swallowed up by the valley floor A few minutes later he reappeared "The commset's working, but we can t get anybody, not even the commercial stations'" "How do you know it's working?" "When we call, it comes over the sets m the other equipment down there " The clerk had a receiver on a chain around her neck, and the music from Ihe small, shell-like ornament now became the loudest sound on the site "Well, I'm picking up a station," she said ' 'The fall must have broken the set m the shovel'' Al Habaqi listened with an increasing sense of unreality as there then ensued an argument shouted from valley floor to side between a tattered man on a metal pole and a woman holding a coffee pot about the quality, maintenance and durability of the commsets purchased by the Tarabuq Construction Company When the argument progressed heatedly from the equipment to the management of the company, he said quietly, "Excuse me, but you have a coffee pot in your hand " With a puzzled expression the clerk looked at the container whose handle she clenched m her fist, and at the blood in her palm where her nails had dug into her hand The observation seemed to clear her mind Giving the pot to the mayor, she said "111 go to town for help " and headed up the hillside Thus it was that al Habaqi sat, sipping coffee from a pot, staring at what looked like a raving flagpole sitter, when the rescue 'thopters arrived Leto's no-room had been found EXPLORATION Even before the nature of the discovery became known the Rakis Finds were protected by swift initial action, both governmental and private After the fortuitous breakthrough of the construction crew into the subterranean vaults rescue help was swift in arriving After the workers had been removed from the partially col lapsed floor of the cxca\ ation site near Dar es-Balat, the whole Mte was cordoned off by police Their action protected the material within the structure below, even though their concern was simply that more subsidence might occur In this assumption they were correct, tor smaller falls took place on the third and fourth of Shawwal until the slope of the pit was stabilized Local officials, not realizing what had been brought to light, assumed that the site inspection had been m error, and that the pit opened into a natural cavern But those workers who had fallen into it soon convinced the town leaders that they had not been inside a cave, but inside a carefully finished chamber Regional officials who conducted the first intentional descent into the chambers imme 428 diately recognized that they had penetrated a storehouse of artifacts.