The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 60

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"If you are going after Mek Nimmur,.then my bet is that you won't be

coming back."

"You don't know me, English. You beat me up one night when I had a

bottle of vodka in my belly, so you think I am easy, da? Well, Mek

Nimmur will see now how easy I am."

Boris dung out of the hut. Nicholas pulled on a shirt over his shorts

and followed him.

Back in his own hut, Boris had flung a few essential items into a light

pack. Now he was stuffing cartridges into the magazine of his 30/06

hunting rifle.

"Let them go, Boris," Nicholas advised him in a more reasonable tone of

voice "Mek is a tough lad - they don't come tougher - and he has a war

party of fifty men with him. You are old enough to know that you can

never hold on to a woman by force. Let her go!

"I do not want to hold on to her. I want to kill her.

The safari is over, English." He flung a pair of keys on a. leather tag

on the floor at Nicholas's feet. "There are the keys of the Land

Cruiser. You can make your own way back to Addis from here. I will leave

four of my best men to look after you, and hold your hand. Leave the big

truck for me to use. When you get to Addis, leave the keys of the Land

Cruiser with my tracker, Aly. I will know where to find him later. I

will send you the money I owe you for cancellation. Don't worry - I am a

man of principles."

"How could I ever doubt it?" Nicholas smiled. "Good bye, old chum. I

wish you luck. You'll need plenty of that if you are going up against

Mek Nimmur."

Boris was several hours behind his quarry, and as soon as he had left

the camp he broke into a jog trot that carried him down the pathway to

join the main track to the west, towards the Sudanese border. He ran

like a scout, with an easy swinging gait that ate up the ground.

"Looks as though he is still in good shape, even with the vodka."

Despite himself Nicholas was impressed as he watched him go. "But I

wonder how long he will be able to keep up that pace?"

He turned back to'his own quarters to get a little more sleep, but as he

passed her hut Royan popped her head out.

"What was all the shouting about? I thought that you and Boris were

having another little difference of opinion."

"Tessay has done a bunk. Boris has guessed that she has gone off with

Mek, and he is chasing after them."

"Oh,  icky! Can't we warn them?

"No chance of that, but unless Mek has gone soft he will be expecting

Boris to come after him. In fact, now that I come to think of it, he is

probably hoping for just that chance to even the score. No, Mek doesn't

need any more help from us. Go back to sleep!

"I can't possibly sleep now. I am so worked up. I have been looking at

the Polaroids that we took last night. Taita has given us an overflowing

cup. Come and have a look at this."

"Just one hour's sleep moreP He made a mock plea.

"Immediately, if not sooner."She laughed at him.

In her hut she had the Polaroids and the rubbings spread out on the camp

table, and she beckoned him to take the seat beside her.

"While you were snoring your head off, I made some progress." She laid

four Polaroids side by side, and placed her large magnifying glass over

them. It was a professional land surveyor's model on folding legs, and

under it every detail of the photographs was revealed. "Taita has headed

each of the sides of the stele with the name of one of the seasons of

the year - spring, summer, autumn and winter.

What do you think he was getting at?"

"Page numbers?"

"Exactly my own thought," she agreed. "The Egyptians considered spring

as the beginning of all new life. He is telling us in which order to

read the panels. This one is spring." She selected one of the

photographs.

"It starts with four standard quotations from the Book of the Dead." She

quoted the first few lines of the opening section: "'I am the first

breeze blowing softly over the dark ocean of eternity. I am the first

sunrise. The first glimmer of light. A white feather blowing in the dawn

wind. I am Ra. I am the beginning of all things. I will live for ever. I

shall never perish."' Still holding the glass poised, she looked up at

him. "As far as I can see, they do not differ "Substantially from the

original. My instinct is to set these aside for the time being. We can

always come back to them later."

"Let's go with your instinct," he suggested. "Read the next section."

She held the glass to the Polaroid. "I am not going to look at you while

I read this. Taita. can be as earthy as Rabelais when he is in the mood.

Anyway, here goes. "The daughter of the goddess pines for her dam. She

roars like a lioness as she hurries to meet her. She leaps from the

mountain, and her fangs are white. She is the harlot of all the world.

Her vagina pisseth out great torrents. Her vagina has swallowed an army

of men. Her sex eateth up the masons and the workers of stone. Her

vagina is an octopus that has swallowed up a king."'

"Whoa there!" Nicholas chuckled. "Pretty fruity stuff, don't you think?"

He leaned forward to study her face, for it was still turned away from

him. "Och, lassie, you have roses in your bonny cheeks. Not a blush,

surely not?"

"Your Scots accent is not in the least convincing," she told him coldly,

still not looking at him. "When you have finished being clever at my

expense, what do you think of what I have just read?"

"Apart from the obvious, I have't any idea."

"I want to show you something." She stood up and packed the photographs

and the rolls of art paper back into the haversack. "You'll need to get

your boots on. I am taking you on a little walk."

An hour later they stood in the centre of the suspension bridge, swaying

gently high above the swift waters of the Dandera river.

"Hapi is the goddess of the Nile. Is this river not then her daughter,

pining to meet her, leaping from the mountain top, roaring like a

lioness, her fangs white with spume?" she asked him.

They stared in silence at the archway of pink stone through which the

river poured, and suddenly Nicholas grinned lasciviously. "I think that

I know what you are going to say next. That's what I first thought of

when I looked at that cleft. You said it was like a gargoyle's mouth,

but I had another image."

"All I can say is that you must have some extraordinary lady friends,'

she said, and then covered her mouth. "Ooops!

I didn't mean to say that. I am being as disgusting as either you or

Taita."

"The workmen swallowed up in there!" His voice became more excite& "The

masons and the workers in stone!'

"Pharaoh Mamose was a god. The river has swallowed up a god with her -

with her stone archway." She was equally excited. "I must admit that I

would not have made the association if you hadn't explored the interior

of the cavern, and found those niches in the wall." She shook his arm.

"Nicky, we have to get in there again. We have to get a clearer look at

that has-relief you found on the cavern wall."

"It will take some preparation," he said dubiously. "I will have to

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