The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 114

• Предыдущая
• 114/177
• Следующая

he is compassionate, and he rewards the devout."

"He is all'compassionate." The abbot's tears overflowed and ran down his

cheeks.

"You and your monastery have suffered a grievous loss.

The sacred relic of St. Frumentius has been taken from you alas, never

to be recovered. But what if God were to send you another? What if he

were to send you the sacred body of St. Antonia?"

The abbot looked up through his tears, his expression suddenly

calculating. That would be a miracle indeed."

Mek Nimmur placed his arm around the old man's shoulders and whispered

quietly in his ear, and Mai Metemma stopped weeping and listened

intently.

have obtained your workers for you," Mek told Nicholas as they began the

march up the valley the next morning. "Mai Metemma has promised to give

us a hundred men within two days and another five hundred to follow them

within the next week. He is handing out indulgences to all those who

volunteer to work on the dam. They will be spared the fires of purgatory

if they take part in such a glorious project as the recovery of the holy

relic of St. Antonia."

Both the women stopped in their tracks and stared at him.

"What did you promise the poor old man?" Tessay demanded.

"A body to replace the one that Nogo plundered from the church. If we do

discover the tomb, then the monastery's share will be the mummy of

Mamose."

"That's a mean thing to do,"

A Royan exploded. "You will cheat him into helping us."

"It is not a cheat." Mek's dark eyes flashed at the accusation. "The

relic that they lost was not the veritable body of St. Frumentius, and

yet for hundreds of years it served the purpose of uniting the community

of monks and drawing Christians from all over this land. Now that it is

gone, the very existence of the monastery is threatened.

They have lost their reason for continuing."

"So you are tempting them with a false promiseP Royan was still angry.

"The body of Mamose is every bit as authentic as the one they lost. What

does it matter if it is the body of an ancient Egyptian rather than that

of an ancient Christian, just as long as it serves as a focus for the

faith and if it is the means by which the monastery might survive for

another five hundred years?"

"I think Mek is making sense." Nicholas gave his opinion.

"Since when have you been an expert in Christianity?

You are an atheist," Royan flashed at him, and he held up his hands as

if to ward off a blow.

"You are right. What do I know about it anyway?

You argue it out with Mek. I am going to discuss the theory of

dam-building with Sapper Webb." He sauntered up to the head of the file

of men and fell in beside his engineer.

From time to time he heard heated voices raised behind him, and he

grinned. He knew Mek, but he was also beginning to understand the lady.

It would be fascinating to see who would win this argument.

They reached the head of the chasm in the middle of the afternoon, and

while Mek 6.. searched out a campsite Nicholas took Sapper immediately

to the narrow neck of the river just above where it plunged over the

waterfall. While Sapper set up the theodolite, Nicholas took the

graduated levelling staff.

Sapper ordered him up and down the face of the cliff with peremptory

hand signals, all the while peering into the lens of the theodolite,

while Nicholas teetered on insecure footing and tried to keep the staff

upright for Sapper to take his sightings.

"Okay!" Sapper bellowed, after taking his twentieth shot. "Now I want

you on the other side of the river."

Tine!" Nicholas bellowed back. "Do you want me to fly or swim?"

Nicholas hiked three miles upstream to the ford where the trail crossed

the Dandera river, and then fought his way back through the tangled

river in undergrowth to the point on the bank opposite which Sapper lay

in the shade smoking a soothing cigarette.

"Don't rupture yourself, will you?" Nicholas yelled across the water at

him.

It was almost dark before Sapper had made all the shots he wanted, and

Nicholas was still faced with the long return trip over the ford. He

covered the last mile in almost total darkness, guided only by the

flicker of the campfires.

Wearily he stumbled into the camp and flung down the levelling staff.

"You had beer tell me that it was worth it," he tt growled at Sapper,

who did not look up from his slide rule.

He was working over his revised drawings by the glaring light of a small

butane lantern.

Most Populiir VPIL

"You weren't too far out in your estimates," he congratulated Nicholas.

"The river is forty'one yards wide at the critical point above the

falls, where I want to site the structure."

"All I want to know is if you will be able to throw a dam across it."

Sapper grinned and laid his finger down the side of his nose, "You get

me my ruddy front-ender, and I'll dam the bleeding Nile itself."

 had eaten their dinner - another of the packs - Royan glanced across

the fire at cholas. -When she caught his eye she inclined her head in

invitation. Then she stood up and casually drifted out of camp, looking

back once to make sure he was following her. Nicholas lighted the path

with his torch as they picked their way back to the dam site and found a

boulder overlooking the water on which to sit.

He switched off the torch and they were silent for a while as their eyes

adjusted to the starlight, and then Royan whispered, "There were times

that I thought we would never return here - that it was all a dream, and

that Taita's pool never existed."

"For us perhaps it never will, without the help of the monks from the

monastery." There was a note of enquiry in his voice.

"You and Mek Nimmur win," she chuckled softly. "Of course we have to

accept their help. Mek's arguments were very convincing."

"So you agree that their reward should be the mummy of Mamose?"

"I agree that they may take whatever mummy we discover, if we discover

one at all," she qualified. "For all we know, the true mummy of Mamose

may be the one that Nogo stole."

Quite naturally he slipped his arm around her shoulders, and after a

moment she relaxed against him. -oh, Nicky, I am afraid and excited.

Afraid that all our hopes are vain, and excited that we might have found

the key to Taita's game." She turned her face to his, and he felt her

breath on his lips.

He kissed her, tenderly. Then he drew back with the warmth of her

lingering on his lips and studied her face in the starlight. She made no

movement to pull away from stead she swayed towards him, and kissed him

back., him. In At first it was a staid sisterly kiss, with her mouth

tightly losed. He brought his right hand up behind her head and  weaved

his fingers into her hair, holding her face to his.

He opened his mouth over hers, and she made a little sound of dissent

through her closed lips.

Slowly, voluptuously, he worked her lips apart, and her protests died

away as he probed her mouth deely with his tongue. She was making a

contented little mewling sound now, like a kitten nursing on the teat,

and her arms went around him. She kneaded his back with strong supple

• Предыдущая
• 114/177
• Следующая