The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 67

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dead in hours. It was not in the least surprising that there was so

little permanent human habitation down here in the gorge.

When he backed off the skyline he felt rejuvenated, and set out to cross

the saddle of the mountain. It was less than a mile across, and without

warning he came out on the top of the cliffs on the far side. One more

unwary pace and he would have stepped off into space and plunged down a

thousand feet. Once again he moved along the crest until he found a

concealed vantage point from which to spy the terrain below.

The river was the same - a wide and confused expanse of white-ruffled

rapids, running back towards him as it turned through the leg of the

oxbow. The trail followed the near bank, except where it was forced to

detour inland by the rugged bluffs and stone needles which rose out of

the Nile waters.

In the great desolation of the gorge he could pick out no movement other

than the run of wild waters and the ceaseless dance of the heat mirage.

He knew it was not possible that Mek Nimmur had moved fast enough to

have passed completely ahead of him; therefore he must still be coming

around the bend of the oxbow.

He drank again, and rested for almost half an hour.

At the end of that time he felt strong and fully recovered.

He debated with himself whether to descend immediately and stake out an

ambush on the' trail, but in the end decided to keep to the high ground

until he had his quarry in sight.

He checked his rifle carefully, making sure that the telescopic sight

had not been bumped out of alignment during the climb, and then emptied

the magazine and examined the five cartridges. The brass case of one of

them was dented and discoloured, so he discarded it and reloaded with

another from his belt. He chambered a round and setthe safety-catch.

He set the weapon aside while he changed his sweat, dampened socks with

a fresh dry pair from his pack and retied his bootlaces with care. Only

a novice would risk blistered feet in these conditions, for within hours

they would be infected and festering.

He drank once more, and then stood up and stung the 30/06 on his

shoulder. Ready now for anything that the goddess of the chase could

send his way, he moved off along the crest to intercept the war party.

From every vantage point along the rim he glassed the valley below, each

time without spying his quarry, and the afternoon passed "swiftly. He

was just beginning to worry that Mek Nimmur had somehow managed to slip

past him unseen, that he had crossed the river at some secret ford or

taken another path through a hidden valley, when there came a plaintive

and querulous cry on the heat-hushed air.

He looked up. A pair of kites were circling over one particular clump of

Thorn scrub on the river bank.

The yellow'billed kite is one of the most ubiquitous scavengers in

Africa. It exists in close symbiotic association with man, feeding off

his rubbish, picking up his leavings, soaring and circling over his

villages or his temporary campsites, watching for his scraps or waiting

patiently for him to squat in the bushes and then dropping down

immediately he has finished his private business, acting as a universal

sewage disposal agent.

Boris studied this pair of birds through his binoculars as they sailed

idly in the heated air, always circling directly over that same patch of

river in bush. They had a distinctive manner of steering with their long

bifurcated tails, twisting them from side to side as they flirted with

the breeze. Their bright yellow beaks showed clearly as they turned

their heads to look down at something in the scrub.

He smiled coldly to himself. "Da! Nimmur has gone into camp early.

Perhaps the heat and the pace are too fierce for his new woman, or

perhaps he has stopped to play with her a little."

He moved on along the rim until he could look down directly into the

patch of bush. He studied it through the binoculars, but without picking

out any signs of human presence. After almost two hours he was becoming

uncertain of his original assumption. The only thing that retained his

attention was the pair of kites, which had settled in a treetop

overlooking the patch of scrub. He had to trust that they were watching

the men hidden in the scrub.

He glanced at the sun anxiously. It was sliding down towards the horizon

at last and losing its furious heat. Then he looked down into the valley

again.

Directly below the patch of bush was an indentation in the river bank

that formed a backwater, almost a small lagoon, When the river was in

flood it would be inundated, but now there was a small strip of gravel

bank exposed. On this bank stood a number of boulders that had tumbled

down from the cliff above. Some of them were lying on the beach, while

others had rolled into the river and were half, submerged. The largest

was the size of a cottage, a great round mass of dark rock.

As he watched, a man emerged unexpectedly from the scrub. Boris's pulse

quickened as he watched him scramble down on to one of the smaller

boulders and jump from there on to the gravel bank. He knelt at the

water's edge and filled a canvas bucket -with water, then climbed back

and disappeared into the bush again.

"Ah! The heat is too much even for them. They must drink, and that gives

them away. If it had not been for the birds I would never have known

that they were there." He clucked softly with reluctant admiration.

"Nimmur is a careful man. No wonder he has survived so long. He keeps

tight control. But even he must have water."

Boris kept watching through the glasses as he tried to guess what Mek

Nimmur would do next. "He has lost much time here by sheltering from the

heat. He will march again as soon as it is cooler. He will make a night

march," he decided, as he looked at the sun again. "Three hours until

dark. I must make my move before then. Once it is dark it will be

difficult to pick my targets."

Before he stood up he wriggled back from the skyline.

He retraced his steps back along the Mountainside until a bluff shielded

him from the eyes of Mek Nimmur's sentries.

Then he started down. There was no goat track here and he had to make

his own going, but after a few false starts he discovered an inclined

rock shelf that afforded him a fairly easy path down the face. When he

reached the bottom of the gorge, he took careful stock of the lie and

run of the . stratum so as to be able to find it again in an emergency.

It was a good escape route, and he knew that he might soon be under

pursuit and duress.

It had taken him over an hour to negotiate the descent, and he knew that

he was running out of time. He reached the trail at the water's edge,

and started back along it towards Mek Nimmur's camp. He was in a hurry

now, but even then he was careful to take anti-tracking precautions. He

walked on the edge of the trail, stepping only on the stony ground,

careful to leave no sign of his passing.

But despite his caution, he nearly walked right into them.

He had not covered the first two hundred metres when in the back of his

mind he registered the low, mournful whistle of a pale-winged starting,

and almost ignored it until alarm bells sounded in his mind. The timing

was all wrong. The starling only gave that particular call at dawn when

it left its nesting site high up in the cliffs. This was late afternoon

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