The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 128
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staircase and focused them on the white expanse of the plastered
doorway.
VAen they assembled at the threshold they were all in a sober mood.
Despite the fact that the tomb was thousands of years old, it was still
an act of desecration that they were about to perpetrate. Royan had
translated the hieroglyphic warning on the sealed doorway to Sapper, Mek
and Tessay, and none of them was prepared to take it lightly.
Nicholas marked out the square opening he intended cutting through the
plaster covering, This was large enough to afford access, but it also
enclosed the royal cartouche and Tatia's maimed hawk seal. He intended
lifting these out in one piece, and preserving them intact. In his
imagination, he could already see them displayed in a prominent position
in the museum at Quenton Park.
Nicholas began on the right'hand upper corner of the opening. First he
used a long, needle-sharp awl as a probe.
He pressed and twisted the needle point through the dried clay in an
attempt to determine exactly what lay beneath the surface. Very soon he
found out that the plaster had been laid over laths of finely interwoven
reeds.
"That makes it a lot-easier," he told Royan. "The reed mat will help to
hold the plaster together and prevent it cracking and breaking up."
He kept working the point of the awl deeper, until suddenly the
resistance gave way and the blade ran in Its full length.
"Six inches," he said, measuring the thickness of the door off the
blade. "Taita never skimps, does he? It's a heavy bit of work."
Still using the awl, Nicholas drilled all four corners of the square
opening he intended cutting. Then he stepped back and gestured for
Hansith to bring up the heavy four-inch gimlet to enlarge them. This was
the type of drill that fishermen use for cutting through lake ice in
winter.
As soon as the gimlet broke through, Nicholas impatiently pulled Hansith
aside and peered into the hole.
Beyond the opening all was completely dark, but he caught a whiff of the
faint breath of ancient air that washed through the opening. The odour
was dry and dead and austere, the smell of the ages long past.
"What do you see?" Royan demanded at his elbow.
"The light! Give me the light!" he ordered, and when Sapper handed it to
him, he held it to the opening.
"Tell me!" Royan was dancing beside him with impatience. "What do you
see now?"
"Colours!" he whispered. "The most marvelous, indescribable colours." He
stepped back and, lifting her around the waist, held her so that she
could look into the aperture.
"Beautiful!" she cried. "It's so beautiful."
The men rigged up the heavy-duty electric blower fan which would
circulate the air in the shaft, while Nicholas prepared the chain-saw.
When he was ready, Nicholas handed Royan a pair of goggles and a dust
mask and helped her to adjust them. Then he made her fit a pair of wax
ear plugs.
Before he started the chain-saw, he sent the rest of them back down the
tunnel as far as the causeway over the sinkholes In the confined space
the exhaust fumes from the chain-saw and the dust, together with the
noise of the petrol engine, would be overpowering, but apart from that
he wanted only Royan with him at the moment of the break'in.
When they were alone, Nicholas switched the blower fan to its highest
speed, then donned his own mask and goggles and plugged his ears. He
pulled the starter cord of the chain-saw motor and it burst into life in
a cloud of blue exhaust smoke.
Nicholas braced himself and pressed the spinning chain blade into the
gimlet hole in the plastered doorway.
It cut through the thick white plaster and the laths beneath it like a
knife through the icing on a wedding cake.
Carefully he ran the cutting edge down the line he had marked out.
A cloud of flying white plaster dust filled the air.
Within seconds they could see only a few feet in front of their eyes.
Doggedly Nicholas kept the cut going, down the right -hand side, across
the bottom, then up the left side. Finally he made the last cut across
the top, and when the square trapdoor began to sag forward under its own
weight he killed the engine of the chain'saw and set it aside.
Royan jumped forwards to help him, and together in the eddies of dust
and smoke they steadied the square of plaster and prevented it from
crashing to the paving and shattering into a thousand pieces. Gently
they lifted it out from the opening and, with the seals still intact,
laid it against the side wall of the landing.
The open hatchway they had cut through the plaster was a dark square.
Nicholas adjusted the floodlight to shine through it, but the dust was
still too dense for them to be able to see much of the interior.
Nicholas climbed through the hatch into the space beyond. All was
obscured by a dense fog of dust that not even the lamps could penetrate.
He did not attempt to explore further, but immediately turned back to
help Royan through the opening after him.
He recognized her right to share every moment of this discovery. Beyond
the wall they stood quietly together, waiting for the blower fan to
clear the air. Slowly the dust fog began to dissipate, and the first
thing they became aware of was the floor beneath their feet.
No longer made of stone slabs, it was covered with tiles of yellow agate
that had been polished to a gloss and fitted together so cunningly that
no joints were visible. It was like a single sheet of lovely opaque
glass, dulled only by the film of fine talcum dust that had settled upon
it.
Where their feet had disturbed the layer of dust the agate sparkled
through it, catching the light of the floodlamp.
Then the fog of dust that surrounded them thinned, and gradually a
miraculous blaze of colours and shapes began to appear through the murk.
Royan lifted the dust mask from her face and let it drop to the agate
floor.
Nicholas followed her example, and took a breath of the stagnant air. No
draught had disturbed it for thousands of years and it had the odour of
great antiquity, the musty smell of the linen bandages of an embalmed
corpse.
Now the miasma of dust faded away and before them opened a long straight
passageway, the end of which was hidden in shadow and darkness. Nicholas
turned back to the opening in the sealed door behind them, and reached
through it to bring in the fioodlight on its stand. Quickly he arranged
it to illuminate the full length of the passageway ahead of them.
As they started forward, the images of the old gods hovered around them.
They glowered at the intruders from the walls and hung over them,
watching them with huge and hostile eyes from the ceiling high overhead.
Nicholas and Royan passed on slowly. Their footfalls on the agate tiles
were muted by the thin carpet of dust, and the dust that still hung in
the air reflected the light and cast over them a luminous net that had
an ethereal, dreamlike quality.
Inscriptions covered every inch of space upon the walls and the high
roof. There were long quotations from all the mystical writings, from
the Book of Breathings, the Book of the Pylons and the Book of Wisdom.
Other blocks of hieroglyphics recited the history of Pharaoh Mamose's
existence on this earth, and extolled those virtues that made the gods
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