"Ewan Chisholm, despised drunk albeit gifted Egyptologist, is ordered by his curator at the Aspenwall Museum to fetch Sir William Garfield Tats papers from his widow.
Chisholm stumbles on an envelope containing snapshots of a horde of pharaonic jewelry never seen before. When the Aspenwall governors learn about the jewel hoard they decide to send Chisholm to Egypt to find it for their museum."