The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 74

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one." He studied it for a moment and then made a note of the reading.

"Explain," she invited.

"I want to know if this spring is below the level of the entrance to the

sink-hole in Taita's pool. If it is not, then we can cross it off our

list of possibilities."

He stood up. "If you are ready, we can move on."

"Where to?"

"Why, Taita's pool, of course. We need a reading up there to establish

the difference in altitude between the two points."

nce Tamre knew where they were headed he showed them a shortcuts so it

took them just under two hours from the fountain head to the top of the

cliff face above Taita's pool.

While they rested, Royan remarked, "Tamre seems to spend most of his

days wandering around in the bush. He knows every path and game trail.

He is an excellent guide."

"Better than Boris, at least," Nicholas agreed, as he fished out his

barometer and took another reading.

"You look particularly pleased with yourself." Royan watched his face as

he studied the instrument.

"Every reason to be," he told her. "Allowing one hundred and eighty feet

for the height of the cliff below us, and another fifty feet for the

depth of the pool, the entrance to the sink-hole is still over a hundred

feet higher than your outlet through the fern grotto on the other side

of the ridge."

"Which means?"

"Which means that there is a distinct possibility that the streams are

one and the same. The inflow is here in Taita's pool and the outflow is

from your grotto."

"How on earth did Taita do it?" she puzzled. "How did he get to the

bottom of the pool? You are the engineering marvel. Tell me how you

would do it."

He shrugged, but she persisted. "I mean, there must be some established

way of doing things like that, of working under water. How do they build

the piers of a bridge, or the foundations of a dam, or - or - or how did

Taita himself build the shaft below the level of the Nile to measure the

flow of the river? You remember the description that he gives of his

hydrograph in River God?"

"The accepted technique is to build a coffer dam " Nicholas said

casually, and then broke off and stared at her. "My oath, you really are

a corker. A dam! What if that old ruffian, Taita, dammed the whole

flipping river!"

"Would that have been possible?"

"I am beginning to believe that with Taita anything is possible. He

certainly had unlimited manpower at his disposal, and if he could build

the hydrograph on the Nile at Aswan, then he understood very clearly the

principles of hydrodynamics. After all, the old Egyptians' lives were

completely bound up with the seasonal inundations of the river and the

management of the floods. From what we have gathered about the old man,

it certainly seems Possible."

"How could we prove it?"

"By finding the remains of his dam. It had to be a hell of a work to

hold the Dandera river. There is a good chance that some evidence of it

remains."

"Where would he have built the dam?" she asked excitedly. "Or let me put

it another way, where would you site the dam if you had to do it?,

"There is one natural place for it," he answered promptly. "The spot

where the trail leaves the river and detours down the valley, and the

river falls into the chasm.

They both turned their heads in unison and looked upstream.

"What are we waiting for?" she asked, and sprang to her feet. "Let's go

look-see!

Their excitement was infectious, and Tamre giggled and danced ahead of

them along the trail through the thorns and then up the valley to the

point where it rejoined the river. The sun had lost the worst of its

heat by the time they stood once again above the falls where the

Dandera. river plunged into the mouth of the chasm, and began its last

lap in the race to join the Nile.

"If Taita. had thrown a dam across here - " Nicholas made a sweep of his

arms across the mouth of the gorge, he could have diverted the river

down the side valley here."

"It looks possible," she laughed. Tamre giggled in sympathy, not

understanding a word of what they were saying, but enjoying himself

immensely.

"I would need a dumpy level to take some shots of the actual fall of the

land. It can be very deceptive, but with the naked eye it does look

possible, as you say." He shaded his eyes and looked up the bluffs on

each side of the waterfall. They formed two craggy portals of limestone,

between which the river roared as it plunged over the lip.

"I would like to climb up there to get a clearer picture of the layout

of the terrain. Are you game?"

"Try and stop me,', she challenged him, and led the climb. It was a

heavy scramble, and in some places the limestone was rotten and

crumbling dangerously. However, when they came out on the summit of the

eastern portal they were rewarded with a splendid overall view of the

ground below.

Directly to the north, the escarpment rose like a sheer wall with its

battlements crenellated and serrated. Above and beyond it there was a

dream of further mountains, the high peaks of the Choke, blue as a

heron's plumage against the clearer distant blue of the African sky.

All around them were the badlands of the gorge, a vast confusion of

ridges and spines and reefs of rock of fifty different hues, some

ash-grey and white, others black as the hide of a bull buffalo, or red

as his heart blood. The river in bush was green, the poisonous vivid

green of the mamba in the treetop, while further from the water the

scrub was grey and sear, and along the spines of the broken kopjes stood

the stark outlines of ancient drought-struck trees, their tortured limbs

twisted and black against the sky.

"The picture of devastation," Royan whispered as she looked around her,

'untamed and untaniable. No wonder Taita chose this place. It repels all

intruders."

They were both silent for a while, awed by the wild grandeur of the

scene, but as soon as they had recovered from the exertion of the climb

their enthusiasm resurfaced.

"Now you can get a good picture of it." Nicholas pointed down into the

valley below them. "There is a clear divide at the fork of the valley.

You can see the natural fall of the ground. There, from that side of the

gorge to that point below us, is the narrowest part. It is a neck where

the river squeezes through - the natural site for a dam." He swivelled

and pointed down to the left of where they sat.

'it would not take much to spill the river into the valley.

Once he had finished whatever he was up to in the chasm, it would taken

even less to break down the wall of the dam and let the river resume its

natural course again."

Tamre watched their faces eagerly, turning his head to each speaker in

turn, uncomprehending, but aping Royan's expression like a mirror. If

she nodded he nodded, when she frowned he did the same, and when she

smiled he giggled happily.

"It's a big river." Royan shook her head, while Tamre wagged his from

side to side in sympathy and looked wise.

"What method would he have used? An earthen dam?

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