The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 120

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dropped down beside her.

"Nothing," he admitted. "We have still got the running to ourselves."

"Once Sapper stops the river upstream, this is going to be our main area

of operations, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, but even before Sapper closes the dam I want to open a fly camp

here, and move all the gear and equipment we will need from the quarry

to have it handy when we start the exploration of the pool."

"How are we going to get down into the pool? Down the river bed, once it

is dry?"

"I suppose we could use the dry river bed as a road, and come down it

from below the dam or up from the monastery end, through the pink

cliffs."

"But that is not the way you are planning to get in, is it?" she

guessed.

"Even with no water in it, the river bed will be a long way round. It's

a three- or four-mile haul from either end of the abyss, added to which

it will be a pretty rough road to travel." He grinned ruefully. "You are

speaking to an expert on the subject. I went down it the hard way, and I

wouldn't want to do it again. There are at least five chutes and rock

jams that I can remember being thrown over."

"What is your better idea, then?" she asked.

"It's not my idea," he contradicted her. "It's Taita's idea really."

She peered over the edge. "You mean to build a scaffold down the cliff,

just the way he did it?

"What's good enough for Taita is good enough for me," he acknowledged.

"The old boy probably had a good look at the alternative of using the

river bed as an access road, and abandoned the idea."

"When will you start work on the scaffold, then?"

"One of our teams is already cutting bamboo poles higher up the gorge.

Tomorrow we will begin carrying them up here, and stacking them. We

can't waste a day.

Once the darn is closed we have to get into the dry pool as soon as

possible."

As if to add weight to his words there came a far-off mutter of thunder,

and they both craned their heads to peer up with trepidation at the

escarpment. Probably a hundred miles to the north, faintly washed as a

sepia print superimposed upon the razor-edged blue silhouette of the

loescarpment wall rose high tumbled towers of cumu nimbus clouds.

Neither of them spoke about it, but both "were aware of how ominously

the torm clouds were settling on the distant mountains.

Nicholas glanced at his wrist-watch and stood up.

"Time to start back if we are to get into camp before dark."

He gave her his hand and lifted her to her feet. She dusted off her

clothes and then stepped right to the very lip of the canyon.

ks," she called I "Wake up, Taita. We are hot on your trac down into the

shadows.

"Don't challenge him." Nicholas took her arm and drew VI, her back. "The

old ruffian has given us enough trouble already."

The axemen had left the stumps of several great trees standing on the

banks of the Dandera upstream from the dam- Sapper used these as anchor

points for the heavy cables that he strung across the river. Through the

cables he had rigged a cunning series of pulley blocks. The main cable

was run back and connected to the tow hitch on the front-ender.

Two other cables were laid out, one to each bank, where the Buffaloes

and the Elephants stood ready to handle them- One team was under the

direction of Nicholas, and the other under Mek Nimmur. For this crucial

part of the construction, Mek had come down from the hills to lend a

hand.

The grating of massive treetrunks lay on the river verge, already half

in the water. Heavily weighted with boulders, it was an unwieldy

structure that would require all their combined efforts to manoeuvre

into position.

Sapper slitted his eyes as he studied the layout, and then looked

downstream to the partially completed dam. The two walls of gabions

stretched out from either bank, but the gap in the middle of the river

was twenty feet across and the whole volume of the river roared through

it.

"The one thing we don't want is to let the bleeding plug run away from

us and slam into the ruddy wall," he warned Nicholas and Mek. "Otherwise

we are going to lose a big chunk of what we have done so far. I want to

cuddle her in there, nice and softly, and let her sit snug in the gap.

Any questions? This is your last chance to ask. You all know the

signals."

Sapper took one last drag on his cigarette, and flicked the stub into

the river. Then, looking lugubrious, he said, "Okay, gents. The last one

in the water is a sissy,'

Compared to their men, Nicholas and Mek were overdressed in their khaki

shorts. The others were all stark naked. When the order was given they

trooped waist-deep into the river and took up their stations along the

cables.

Before he followed them into the river, Nicholas took one last look

round. At breakfast that morning Royan had innocently asked to borrow

his binoculars. Now he knew why. She and Tessay were perched up on top

of the slope high above the gorge. Even as Nicholas watched, he saw

Royan pass the binoculars to Tessay. They were not missing a moment of

this fateful operation.

Nicholas looked back from the ridge to the rows of big naked men, pulled

a face and muttered, "My oath, there are some prize specimens around

here. I just hope that Royan isn't making comparisons."

Sapper climbed up on to the yellow tractor, and with a roar and a cloud

of diesel smoke the engine burst into life. He raised one hand above his

head with the fist ji clenched, and Nicholas relayed the order to his

team, "Take the strain."

The foremen repeated it in Amharic, and the men leaned back against the

cables. Sapper threw the tractor into extra low, and eased her forward.

The belly straightened in the lines, the sheave wheels squealed, and the

timber grating slid ponderously down the bank into the river. The

weighted end of the grating sank immediately and bumped along the

bottom, while the lighter end floated ut into midstream, until it was

high. Slowly they hauled it  hanging vertically in the water.

The current seized it and began to bear it away, straight at the wall of

gabions. It picked up speed alarmingly. The tractor bellowed and- blew

out clouds of black smoke as Sapper threw her into reverse and backed up

on the cables.

The teams of naked black men heaved and chanted - some of them had

already been dragged in neck-deep as they hauled on the lines.

The grating steadied across the current, and they let it fall away at a

more sedate pace, down towards the open gap in the wall. As it began to

slew towards one bank, Sapper lifted his right arm and windmilled it.

Obediently, Mek's team on the far bank paid out rope and Nicholas's team

on the near bank picked it up. Once again the grating was lined up on

the gap.

"Rock and roll. Close the hole," bellowed Sapper, and now the full

current was too powerful to resist. It dragged both teams into the river

until some of them were in over their heads, losing their hold on the

lines and floundering and swimming. However, those men who still had

their footing managed to slow the rush of the grating just enough to

prevent it smashing out of control into the dam. It settled firmly

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