The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 130

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repeatedly.

"There is probably an explanation for that," Nicholas told her. "Taita

himself might have removed the treasure and the body. Many times in the

writing of the seventh scroll he laments the waste of such treasure. He

points out that it could have been much better spent in protecting and

nurturing the nation and its people."

"No, it does not make sense," Royan argued, "to go to such length as to

dam the river and tunnel under the pool, to build this elaborate tomb,

and then to remove and destroy the king's mummy. Taita was always a

logical person. In his own way he revered the gods of Egypt. It shows in

all his writings. He would never have flouted the religious traditions

in which he believed so strongly. Some thing about this tomb does not

ring true for me - the mysterious and almost offhanded disappearance of

the body, even the paintings and the inscriptions up on the walls."

"I agree with you about the missing corpse, but what do you find

illogical about the decorations?" Nicholas wanted to know.

"Well, the paintings first." She indicated the image of Isis with a wave

of her hand. "They are lovely, and they are the work of a competent

classical artist, but they are hackneyed and stylized in form and choice

of colour. The figures are stiff and wooden - they do not move and

dance.

They lack that spark of genius that we were shown in the tomb of Queen

Lostris where the original scrolls in their alabaster jars were hidden."

Nicholas considered the murals thoughtfully. I see what you mean. Even

the murals in the tomb of Tanus at the monastery are in a different

class from these."

"Exactly! she said forcefully. "Those were the paintings of Taita

himself These are not. They were done by one of his hacks." ,  "What

else is there about the inscriptions that you don't like?"

"Have you ever heard of another tomb that did not have the text of the

Book of the Dead inscribed upon its  walls, or that did not depict the

dead person's journey through the seven pylons to reach the paradise

beyond?"

Nicholas looked startled; he had never considered that it fact. Without

replying he left her and went back down the long gallery, ostensibly to

supervise the packing of the sacred statues, but in reality to give

himself more time to consider what she had said.

Before leaving England Nicholas had seen to it that all of the more

vulnerable and breakable equipment that they had air-freighted into the

gorge had been packed in sturdy metal ammunition crates. All these

crates had waterproof rubber seals and strong lever fastenings. The

original contents had been padded and protected with olystyrene packing.

When they left Ethiopia the equipP

ment would be abandoned, but the crates, together with the packing

material, had been carefully preserved for iA transporting the treasures

that they might find in the tomb.

While six of the sacred statues fitted neatly into the crates, the

images of Hathor the cow and satanic Seth were too large. However,

Nicholas discovered that these had been carved in separate parts. The

heads were detachable, and the hoofed legs of Hathor were held into the

body by wooden pins that were rotted to dust. Broken down into their

separate parts, even these two larger statues could also be packed into

the metal cases.

Nicholas watched Hansith packing Seth's ferocious head of ebony and

black resin into one of the crates. Then after a while he went back to

where Royan was working on the inscriptions on the wall above the empty

sarcophagus.

"Very well. I agree. You are right about the lack of inscriptions from

the Book of the Dead. It does seem strange.

But what can we do about it, other than accepting it as a mystery which

we can never unravel?"

"Nicky, there is something more here. This is not everything. I feel it

in every fibre of my being. We are missing something."

"Who am I, a mere male, to question the veracity of a woman's

instincts."

"Stop being superior," she snapped. "How long do I have to work over the

inscriptions from the stele?"

"A week or two at the most. I have to set up an RV with Jannie. We have

to be there at Roseires airstrip when he comes in to pick us up. That's

one date we dare not reak., "Good Lord. I thought you would have

arranged that long ago. How will you contact Jannie from here?"

"Quite simple really." Nicholas smiled. "There is a public telephone at

the post office in Debra Maryam, Tessay can move freely anywhere in the

Goiam. She will go up the escarpment with an escort of monks and

telephone Geoffrey Tennant at the British Embassy in Addis. I have

already arranged it with Geoffrey. He will relay a message on to

Jannie."

"Will Tessay do it for you?"

He nodded. "She has agreed to go up to Debra Maryam tomorrow. Jannie

must have as much notice as possible to get himself prepared for the

flight out from Malta. It's going to need some firte timing for all of

us to arrive at the airstrip simultaneously. It will be asking for

trouble for one party to sit around waiting at Roseires for the others

to arrive."

awn on the first of April," Nicholas gave Tessay the message. "Tell

Jannie . we will be there on April Fools' Day! A nice easy one to

remember."

They watched Tessay set off along the trail with her escort of monks and

Royan asked Mek Nimmur quietly, "Don't you worry about her going off

like this on her own?"

"She is a very competent person, and she is well known and liked

throughout the Gojam- She is as safe as any person can be in a dangerous

land." Mek watched Tessay's slim figure in shamnw and jodhpur pants

becoming smaller with distance. "I wish I could go with her, but-' Mek

shrugged.

Suddenly Royan exclaimed, "There is something that I forgot to ask her."

She left Nicholas and Mek standing, and ran down the trail calling after

the other woman. Her voice floated back to where Nicholas stood watching

her.

"Tessay! Wait! Come back!'

Tessay turned and waited for Royan to catch up with her. While the two

women stood talking together, Nicholas lost interest and turned to study

the distant silhouette of the escarpment-With a sinking feeling in the

pit of his stomach he saw that the thunderheads on the mountain tops

were denser and more ominous than they had been only days before. The

rains were building up swiftly now.

He wondered if they really had as long as they hoed before the dam was

threatened and they were driven out of the gorge by the rising waters.

All, He looked back down the path just in time to see Royan pass

something to Tessay, who nodded and pushed it into the pocket of her

jodhpurs. Then at last the two women embraced warmly, and Tessay turned

away. Royan stood in the middle of the trail, watching until a bend in

the valley hid Tessay from her. Then she walked slowly back to where

Nicholas waited.

"What was all that about?"he wanted to know, and she smiled

mysteriously.

"Girls' secrets. There are some things that it's best you brutish

males'don't know about." But when Nicholas raised an eyebrow at her, she

relented and told him, "Tessay will ask Geoffrey Tennant to send a

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