# Read the first page of Treasure by Clive Cussler

Read the opening of Treasure by Clive Cussler free, no signup. Adventurer Dirk Pitt races zealots to a hoard hidden since ancient Alexandria.

- Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/treasure-clive-cussler
- Genre: Adventure
- Year: 1988
- ISBN: 9782246413011
- Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781982122072&s=read-page
- Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9782246413011
- Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9782246413011

## The opening

A small, flickering light danced eerily through the black of the tunneled passageway. A man dressed in a woolen tunic that dropped below his knees paused and raised an oil lamp above his head. The dim glow illuminated a human figure inside a gold-and-crystal casket while casting a grotesque, wavering shadow against the smoothly cut wall behind. The man in the tunic stared into the sightless eyes for a few moments, and then he lowered the lamp and turned away.

He studied the long line of stationary forms that stood in deathlike silence, so great in number they seemed to trail off into infinity before vanishing in the darkness of the long cavern.

Junius Venator moved on, his strap sandals scraping over the uneven floor with a bare whisper of sound. Gradually, the tunnel widened into a vast gallery. Soaring to a height of nearly thirty feet, the domed ceiling was divided by a series of arches to give it structural strength. Gutters carved in the limestone spiraled down the walls so water seepage could run into deep drainage basins. The walls were laced with cavities filled with thousands of strange-looking circular containers made of bronze. Except for the large wooden crates stacked uniformly in the center of the carved chamber, the forbidding place might have been mistaken for the catacombs beneath Rome.

Venator peered at the copper tags attached to the crates, checking their numbers against those on a scroll he flattened on a small folding table. The air was dry and heavy, and sweat began to course through the layers of dust that blanketed his skin. Two hours later, satisfied everything was catalogued and in proper order, he rolled up the scroll and slid it into a sash at his waist.

He took one final, solemn look at the objects in the gallery and exhaled a sigh of regret. He knew he would never see or touch them again. Tiredly, he turned, held the little lamp in front of him and retraced his steps through the tunnel.

Venator was not a young man; he was approaching his fifty-seventh year—old for his time. The gray, lined face, the sunken cheeks, the tired dragging steps reflected the weariness of a man who had no more heart for life. And yet, down deep, he felt a glow of warmth from an inner satisfaction. The immense project was successfully completed; the great burden lifted from his bent shoulders. All that remained for him was to survive the long voyage to Rome.

He passed four other tunnels leading off into the hill. One had been blocked off by a great pile of rubble. Twelve slaves excavating deep inside had perished when the roof collapsed. They were still in there, crushed and buried where they fell. Venator felt little remorse. Better for them to have died quickly than suffer years of misery in the mines of the Empire on a bare subsistence diet before dropping from disease or being abandoned when they were too old to work.

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