Major Eaton:
Doctor Jones, we've heard a lot about you.
Indiana:
Have you?
Major Eaton:
Professor of Archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it... obtainer of rare antiquities.
Indiana:
That's one way of saying it. Why don't you sit down, you'll be more comfortable.
Colonel Musgrove:
Yes, you're a man of many talents.
Major Eaton:
Now, you studied under Professor Ravenwood at the University of Chicago.
Indiana:
Yes, I did.
Major Eaton:
You have no idea of his present whereabouts?
Indiana:
Only rumors, really. Somewhere in Asia, I think. I haven't really spoken to him in ten years. We were friends once, but we had a bit of a falling out, I'm afraid.
Colonel Musgrove:
Now, Doctor Jones, you must understand that this is all completely confidential.
Indiana:
I understand.
Colonel Musgrove:
Yesterday afternoon, our European section intercepted a German communique that was sent from Cairo to Berlin.
Major Eaton:
You see, for the last two years, the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all sorts of religious artifacts. Hitler's a nut on the subject. He's crazy. He's obsessed with the occult. And right now, apparently, there is some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside Cairo.
Colonel Musgrove:
Now, we have some information here, but we can't make anything out of it and maybe you can. "Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, Staff of Ra, Abner Ravenwood, US."
Indiana:
The Nazis have discovered Tanis!
Major Eaton:
Now just what does that mean to you... 'Tanis'?
Indiana:
Tanis is one of the possible resting places of the Lost Ark.
Colonel Musgrove:
The Lost Ark?
Indiana:
Yeah, the Ark of the Covenant. The chest the Hebrews used to carry the Ten Commandments around in.
Major Eaton:
Alright now, what do you mean the Ten Commandments, you're talking about THE Ten Commandments?
Indiana:
Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets that Moses brought down out of Mount Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. Didn't you guys ever go to Sunday School? Look, the Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them into the Ark. When they settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called The Temple of Solomon, where it stayed for many years, till all of a sudden... whoosh, it was gone.
Major Eaton:
Where?
Indiana:
Nobody knows where or when.
