Of course the contents of the tomb itself were scattered.
In all directions lay bones, objects of gold and other metals, or overturned thrones.

The roof and walls alone remained as they had been.
"What vandalism!" exclaimed Higgs, indignant even in his misery.

"Why wouldn't you let me move the things when I wanted to, Orme ?" "Because they would have thought that we were stealing them, old fellow.
Also those Mountaineers were superstitious, and I did not want them to desert.

But what does it matter, anyway?
If you had, they would have been burned in the palace." By this time we had reached that end of the vast tomb where the hunchbacked king used to sit, and saw at once that our quest was vain.
The tunnel which we had dug beyond was utterly choked with masses of fallen rock that we could never hope to move, even with the aid of explosives, of which we had none left.
So we returned, our last hope gone.
Also another trouble stared us in the face; our supply of the crude mineral oil which the Abati used for lighting purposes was beginning to run low.

Measurement of what remained of the store laid up for our use while the mine was being made, revealed the fact that there was only enough left to supply four lamps for about three days and nights: one for Maqueda, one for ourselves, one for the watchman near the tunnel mouth, and one for general purposes.
This general-purpose lamp, as a matter of fact, was mostly made use of by Higgs.