The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 94

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who was indispensable for the time being. Nahoot Guddabi was the one who

had brought the existence of the seventh scroll to his attention.

Apparently some English author had written a fictionalized version of

the scrolls, but von Schiller never read fiction of any sort,  either in

German or in any of the four foreign languages in which he was fluent.

Without Nahoot bringing the existence of the Taita scrolls to his

notice, he might have overlooked this opportunity of his lifetime.

The Egyptian had come to him as soon as the original translation of the

scrolls had been completed by Duraid Al Simma, and the existence of an

unrecorded Pharaoh and his tomb had been mooted. Since then they had

been in constant contact, and when the time.came that Al Simma and his

wife had started to make too much headway with their investigations, von

Schiller had employed Nahoot to get rid of them and to bring the seventh

scroll to him.

The scroll was now the shining star of his collection, safely housed

with his other ancient treasures in the steel and concrete vaults below

the Schloss in the mountains that was his private retreat, his Eagle's

Nest.

Despite this, the choice of Nahoot to under-take the more sensitive work

of ridding him of Al Simma and his wife had proved to be a mistake. He

should have.. sent a professional to take care of them, but Nahoot had

argued that he was capable of seeing it through, and he had been well

paid for the work that he had mismanaged so ineptly.

He "too would be disposable in time, but right now von Schiller still

needed him.

There was no question that Nahoot's understanding of Egyptology and

hieroglyphics was far in advance of von Schiller's own. After all,

Nahoot had spent most of his life studying them, while von Schiller was

an amateur and only a comparatively recent enthusiast. Nahoot was able

to read the scrolls and this new material that they had acquired as

though they were letters from a friend, whereas von Schiller was obliged

to puzzle over each symbol and resort frequently to his reference books.

Even then, he was not capable of picking up the finer nuances of meaning

in the text.

Without Nahoot's assistance he could not hope to solve the riddles which

confronted him in the search for Mamose's tomb.

This was the team who were now assembled beneath him, waiting for him to

start the proceedings. "Sit down, please, Fr5ulein Kemper," he said at

last. "You too, gentlemen. Let us get started."

Von Schiller remained standing on his block at the head of the table. He

enjoyed the feeling of superior height.

His short stature had been a source of humiliation ever since his

school-days when he had been nicknamed Tippa' by his peers.

"Fr-dulein Kemper will be recording everything which is said here this

afternoon. She will also issue each of you with a folder of documents

which she will collect from you again at the end of this meeting. I want

to make it very clear that none of this material will ever leave this

room.

It is of the most confidential nature, and belongs to me alone. I will

take a most stringent view of any breach of this instruction."

As Utte handed out the folders, von Schiller looked at each recipient in

turn. His expression made it clear what the penalty would be for any

contravention of his instructions.

Then von Schiller opened the dossier that lay on the tabletop in front

of him. He stood over it, leaning forward on his bunched fists.

"In your folders you will find copies of the Polaroid photographs that

were recovered from Quenton-Harper's camp. Please look at these now."

Each of them opened their own folder.

"Since our arrival Dr Nahoot has had an opportunity to study these, and

he is of the opinion that they are genuine, and that the stele in the

photographs is an authentic artefect of ancient Egyptian origin, almost

certainly dating from the Second Intermediate Period, circa 1790 BC. Is

there anything you wish to add to that, Doctor?"

"Thank you Herr von Schiller." Nahoot smiled  eaginously, but his dark

eyes weren nervous. There was something cold and dispassionate about the

old German that terrified him. He had displayed ro emotion whatsoever as

he ordered Nahoot to arrange the death of Duraid Al Simma and his wife.

Nahoot knew that he would be equally unmoved if he were- to order

Nahoot's own murder. He realized that he was riding the tiger's back. "I

would just like to qualify that statement. I said that the stele

pictured in these prints appeared to be genuine. Of course I would not

be able to give you a definite opinion until I was able to examine the

actual stone at first hand."

"I note your qualificatioq," von Schiller nodded, "and we are assembled

here to find the means to obtain the stele for your examination and

verdict." He picked up the glossy print that Utte had made from the

original that morning in the laboratory darkroom in the adjoining hut.

Photography was not the least of her many talents and skills and she had

done a very competent job. The copies of the Polaroids that Helm had

transmitted to him in Hamburg had been blurred and distorted, but still

they had been sufficient to bring him rushing across the continents in

all this haste. Now he held these clear likenesses in full colour, and

his excitement threatened to suffocate him.

While they were all silent, he caressed the print as lovingly as if it

had been the actual object that it portrayed.

If this were genuine, as he knew instinctively that it was, then it

alone would be well worth the considerable cost in time and money and

human life that he had already paid.

It was a marvelous treasure, to match even the original seventh scroll

which was already in his collection. The condition and state of

preservation of the stele after four thousand years seemed to be

extraordinary. He lusted for it as he had for few things in his long

life. It required an effort to set aside this pervasive longing, and to

apply his mind to the task ahead of him.

If, however, the stele is genuine, Doctor, can you tell us, or rather,

can you suggest to us where it may be situated, and where we should

direct our search?"

"I believe that we should not consider the stele in isolation, Herr von

Schiller. We should look at the other Polaroids that Colonel Nogo was

able to recover for us, and which Frdulein Kemper has so ingeniously

copied." Nahoot set aside the one print and selected another from the

pile in the folder in front of him. "This one, for example."

The others riffled through their own folders and selected the same print

as he was displaying.

"If you study the background of this copy, you will see that in the

shadows behind the stele there appears to be the wall of some type of

cave or cavern." He looked up at von Schiller, who nodded encouragement.

"There also appears to be some type of barred doorway."Nahoot set the

print aside and selected another. "Now, see here. This is a photograph

taken of another subject. It is, I believe, of a mural decoration

painted upon either a plastered wall or the bare rock of a cave,

possibly an excavated tomb, It seems to have been taken through the

grille of the gate which I pointed out to you in the first photograph of

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