 Holidaying on a Mediterranean cruise ship , Tintin and his dog Snowy meet wealthy film director Rastapopoulos and eccentric Egyptologist Sophocles Sarcophagus . When two policemen ( Thomson and Thompson ) accuse Tintin of heroin smuggling , he escapes the ship and joins Sarcophagus on his search for the undiscovered tomb of the Pharaoh Kih @-@ Oskh . Tintin discovers that the tomb is full of boxes of cigars labelled with a mysterious symbol , but he and Sarcophagus fall unconscious after an unseen enemy gasses them . They are then taken aboard a ship inside wooden sarcophagi , captained by smuggler Allan , but to avoid the coastguard Allan orders Tintin and Snowy thrown overboard . They are rescued by a gunrunner who sails them to Arabia . Travelling by land , Tintin meets Sheikh Patrash Pasha , a big fan of his , and encounters Rastapopoulos filming a movie . The local army drafts Tintin and then arrests him as a spy , before Thomson and Thompson rescue him so that they can arrest him . 
