'The singing sands,' Kane said softly. 'I wonder if Alexias heard them also.'
'One thing is certain,' Ruth Cunningham said. 'He wouldn't have had anyone who could have given him the scientific explanation.'
'All the same, I don't think he'd have been afraid,' Kane said gently. There was a short silence and he took out a crumpled packet of cigarettes. 'The thing we've got to decide now is, what do we do next.'
Marie took one of his cigarettes and leaned down to light it from the spirit-stove. When she sat up, her face was thoughtful. 'How far did Alexias say the temple was from Shabwa?'
'About ninety miles,' Kane said.
'And we're about forty miles from Shabwa?' He nodded and she leaned back, her face half in shadow. After a while she said slowly, 'I think we should turn round and chart a course for Marib. Even if we don't find other pillars still standing, we should find this outcrop of rock which Alexias described.'
Ruth Cunningham turned eagerly to Kane. 'Do you think we could?'
He nodded. 'I don't see why not. We've got plenty of fuel and water. If we start now, we should be there by dawn. There's enough moonlight, and it would be a damned sight more pleasant than travelling during the day.'
Marie got to her feet. 'That settles it, then. We pack up and move on right away.' As Kane turned away, she caught his sleeve. 'You need some sleep, Gavin. I'll drive for a couple of hours - you can take over later.'
For a moment, he was going to refuse, and then tiredness dropped about his shoulders like a heavy blanket. When they drove off half an hour later, he was sprawled amongst the baggage in the rear and already asleep.
He awakened with a bad taste in his mouth. It was bitterly cold and he sat up and leaned forward. Jamal dozed beside him and Ruth Cunningham was asleep, her head lolling backwards.
He scrambled over into the front seat. When Marie turned to smile at him, he saw the lines of fatigue on her face and a strange and immediate rush of tenderness moved inside him.
'What time is it?' he said.
'About three-thirty.'
He reached across and took the wheel in his hands. 'Slide out of the way and I'll take over. You should have wakened me an hour ago.'
She lit a cigarette and placed it in his mouth and then she folded her arms and leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. 'All at once I feel tired.'
He inhaled the fragrance of her and smiled. 'Lucky me.'
She sighed contentedly. 'This is nice.'
They were crossing an area of flat scrubland and he drove with one hand, sliding the other about her shoul- der, pulling her close. There were many things he could have said, but there was really no need to say anything.
After a while, she raised her face and kissed him gently on one cheek. 'My poor Gavin,' she said and there was a glint of amusement in her eyes.
'Damn you!' he said. 'Damn all women!'
She laughed softly. 'What are we going to do about it?'
He sighed. 'The usual thing, I suppose. There's Father O'Brien at Mukalla. Will he suit you?'
'Admirably - I like Father O'Brien,' she said. 'And afterwards?'
He shrugged. 'That can take care of itself.'
She seemed about to argue the point and then she shrugged as if content for the moment. 'We'll see.'
After a while, she slept and Kane held her close as he stared out through the windscreen, and told himself wryly that life was catching up on him again. It was rather pleasant to find that he didn't really mind.
The scrubland came to an end and he eased Marie into the corner, changed to a lower gear, and took the truck up the steep side of a dune.
The moon grew paler, and in the east, tiny fingers of light appeared above the horizon as dawn touched the sky. His eyes were gritty and sore from lack of sleep and his arms ached with the driving of the past few hours.
He halted on top of a large dune for a moment or two and searched the desert with field glasses. As the sun lifted above the horizon, flooding the sky with light, it glinted on something in the distance. He focused the glasses. Rearing out of the desert five or six miles away, was a great outcrop of reddish stone.
He engaged a low gear and took the truck down the steep side of the sand dune. Once at the bottom, he drove through a gap which brought him to another flat plain of sand and scrub. He accelerated and drove towards the distant outcrop of rock at high speed.
As the truck lurched forward, the others came awake quickly. 'What's happening?' Marie demanded anxiously.
He nodded into the distance. 'We're almost there.'
Ruth Cunningham leaned forward, her hands gripping the edge of the seat so strongly that her knuckles showed white.
The outcrop increased in size until it towered above them and then they entered the deep gorge which twisted into the heart of it. Kane braked to a halt and switched off the engine. It was completely quiet, and after a moment, he took down one of the rifles and stepped to the ground. 'It might be an idea if we left the truck here. There's no knowing what we might find up ahead.'
Jamal took the other rifle and they started to walk along the firm bed of the gorge. After a while, Ruth
Cunningham gave a startled exclamation and pointed upwards. 'Isn't that an inscription on the face of the rock?'
As the sun's rays penetrated the gorge, they picked out the rock inscriptions with startling suddenness. Kane moved closer and gazed up. After a moment or two, he nodded. 'They're Sabean all right. We've certainly come to the right place.'
He moved on, the others at his shoulder. They passed several more inscriptions and then rounded a shoulder of rock and paused.
Before them stretched a broad avenue of pillars, some in varying stages of ruin, others still intact. At the end of the avenue there was the crumbling facade of a mighty temple built into the face of the gorge itself.
Kane's mouth went dry. He could remember no other moment in his life quite like it. He started forward quickly and the others trailed after him.
At the end of the avenue of pillars, and directly in front of the temple itself, was a deep pool of water, crystal-clear and fed from some invisible spring. He flung himself down by its side and drank from his cupped hands.
He could hear the others coming up behind him, the two women talking excitedly, and he cried out, 'This water is as cold as ice.'
Their voices ceased abruptly and, as Kane started to get up, a reflection in the water in front of him caused him to grab for his rifle.
A bullet chipped the stone edge of the pool, and he raised his arms above his head and climbed slowly to his feet. On the other side of the pool were at least a dozen half-naked Bedouins, and they were holding the very latest Lee Enfield rifles. Standing in front of them, a sardonic smile on his face, was Selim.
'Please do not try anything foolish,' he said in his careful, clipped English.
The Bedouins moved quickly round the pool, splitting into two groups and effectively surrounding Kane and his party. Selim followed at a more leisurely pace, one hand toying with the hilt of his jambiya, the other tugging gently at his beard.
He paused a foot or so away and Kane said softly, 'It's a small world.'
Selim nodded. 'You are a hard man to kill.' He sighed heavily and his right fist shot out, catching Kane full in the mouth.
Kane lay on the ground for a moment, shaking his head and conscious of the threatening muzzles of the rifles that had swung towards him. He wiped blood from his mouth and got to his feet slowly.
Selim smiled. 'The down payment on an old score. The rest will come later. I never forget a debt.' He gave a quick command and the Bedouins closed in, urging their prisoners forward with shrill cries.
As he stumbled towards the great flight of steps which led up to the temple, Kane considered the unexpected turn events had taken. From the beginning, he should have realized there was the possibility that John Cunningham had survived the desert crossing - that some human agency had prevented his return. But why Selim? It didn't make sense.
As he mounted the top step and crossed the terrace, the closer view of the temple drove other considerations from his mind. It had been built into the face of the rock wall itself, and the great pillars that supported the portico and flanked the entrance were at least sixty feet high.
Marie appeared at his shoulder and her voice was filled with awe. 'I've never seen anything like it. There's nothing to touch this in the whole of Arabia.'
Kane nodded. 'Strong Egyptian influence, I would say. Same style of portico as the temple at Karnak.'
It was cool and very quiet inside and his eyes soon became accustomed to the dim light. The floor was constructed of rose-coloured marble, and pillars of well-cut blocks of drafted masonry, towered into the gloom. At the other end of the imposing nave, a great statue loomed out of the darkness.
The party paused, as Selim called a halt and ordered most of his men outside except for three who were obviously to be their guards. He turned to Kane. 'You will all stay here. If you attempt to escape, or make a suspicious move of any sort, the guards have orders to kill you at once.'
'Okay, you're the boss,' Kane said. 'There's one thing you might tell us before you go. What happened to Mrs Cunningham's husband? After all, he's the reason we're here.'
Selim shrugged. 'He is alive and well - for the moment.'
Ruth Cunningham moved forward. 'When can I see him? Oh, please let me see him.'
Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled. Selim looked down into her face as if seeing her for the first time. After a moment or two, he shook his head slowly. 'That is not possible at the moment. If you behave yourself, you may see him later. You must wait here.'
'But for what?' Kane demanded. 'A firing squad, a slit throat or a new arrival?'
Selim smiled thinly. 'I am not here to answer questions.'
He turned and walked away quickly, and Kane took the crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket. There was one left and he drew smoke deep into his lungs as he looked up at the statue.
It was like nothing he had ever seen before, carved from solid stone. The lips were full and sensual, and the eyes slanted upwards above high cheekbones and were closed as if in sleep. It had a strong affinity with the statues of the Hindu goddess Kali, which he had seen many times in Indian temples.
He frowned slightly, his mind grappling with the academic side of the problem, and his eyes wandered to the high altar, noticing the carved fire-bowl. He remembered the Roman cavalrymen and the old priestess who had remained to tend the flame, and time seemed to have no meaning. It was a circle, turning upon itself endlessly.
Marie moved beside him and said softly, 'It gives me a strange feeling to know that he must have stood here - Alexias, I mean.'
Kane nodded without speaking and they stayed there for a moment, side by side, thinking the same thoughts, and then there was a sudden commotion in the entrance.
As Kane turned, a man in dust-covered khaki clothes moved towards them. He wore an Arab head-cloth and sand goggles covered his eyes. When he was a few feet away, he paused and regarded them silently for a moment before removing the goggles. It was Professor Muller.
He bowed stiffly. 'I trust you ladies have not been seriously inconvenienced?'
Kane took a quick step forward, but before he could speak, a familiar voice said, 'Ah my good friend, Captain Kane. So you managed to get here after all?' and Skiros stepped out of the gloom.
ELEVEN
IT WAS ALMOST NOON when the two guards came to the temple for Kane. Marie and Ruth Cunningham had been removed earlier that morning, and shortly afterwards, Jamal had also been taken away.
Alone in the temple with his guards, Kane had spent the time going over events again and again in his mind, but it was no use. He couldn't make sense of any of it. If Muller had stumbled across the temple by chance, then why hadn't he announced his discovery? It would have made him world-famous. And what about Skiros and Selim? Where did they fit in? The problem offered no solution and he waited with mounting impatience until the two Bedouins came for him.
Emerging from the cool half-light of the temple, he paused at the top of the steps, momentarily dazzled by the strong sun. One of his guards pushed him forward so that he stumbled down several steps, almost losing his balance.
The two men seemed to find the incident amusing and Kane, by a supreme effort of will, choked back his anger and walked docilely between them, his eyes keenly searching the valley as they advanced.
The rock walls were covered with inscriptions and at several points he noticed the dark openings of caves. Quite suddenly, the floor of the gorge dipped slightly, and beneath them in a hollow he saw an encampment of several tents beside a green oasis of palm trees.