she asked and looked down at the slabs beneath their feet, "The promise of reward from the earth? Under our feet, perhaps?" she asked. He stamped his foot on the slabs, but the sound was dull and solid. "Only one way to find out." He raised his voice and it echoed weirdly through the labyrinth. "Hansith! Come down here!'
apper sat on the high seat of his yellow frontend loader in the rain and cheerfully cursed his gang of Buffaloes, secure in the knowledge that they understood not a word of his insults. The rain swept over them in intermittent gusts off the high mountains. It was not yet the solid, drenching downpour of the true wet season. However, the river was rising sullenly, turning dirty blue'grey with the mud and sediment that it was bringing down.
He knew that the flood had not yet begun in earnest.
The thunder that growled ominously along the mountain peaks like a pride of hunting lions was only the prelude to the vast celestial onslaught which would soon follow.
Although the river was lapping the top course of gabions "s dam, and was roaring through the bypass that of Sapper he had cut into the side valley, he was still holding it at bay. His Buffaloes were packing more baskets with aggregate, using up the last of the steel mesh from the stores in the quarry. As soon as each of these was filled and wired closed, Sapper picked it up in the front bucket of the tractor and drove it down the bank of the Dandera. He reinforced all the weak spots in the dam wall, and then he began raising it another course. Sapper was fully aware of the overturning effect that the river would exert once it began to pour over the top of the wall. Nothing would be able to withstand its power once this happened. It would carry away a rock-filled gabion as if it were the branch of a baobab tree. it needed only a single breach in the wall to bring the entire structure tumbling and rolling down. He had no illusions as to just how swiftly the river could do its fatal work.
He knew that he dared not wait for the first breach to develop in the wall before he warned Nicholas and Royan in the chasm downstream. The river could easily outrun any messenger he sent, and once the wall began to go it would already be too late. It would be a matter of fine judgement, and he slitted his eyes against another gust of slanting rain that blew into his face. His instinct was to call them out of the chasm now - there was already less than twelve inches of free-board at the top of the wall. However, he knew that Nicholas would be furious if he was made to evacuate the workings prematurely, and in so doing aborted all their efforts. Sapper was fully aware of the extreme risks that Nicholas had taken and of the crippling expenditure he had made to reach this stage. Before they had left England, he had hinted to Sapper of the straitened circumstances in which he found himself.
Although Sapper did not understand the intricacies or the responsibilities of being a "Name' at Lloyd's, there had been so much publicity in the British press that he could not but realize that, if their venture here failed, the next stop for Nicholas would be the bankruptcy courts - and Nicholas was his friend.
The squall of. rain blew over, and a bright hot sun burst through the low cloud banks. The flow of the river seemed undiminished, but at least the water level on the dam wall was no longer rising, "I'll give it another hour," he grunted, engaging the gears of the tractor and easing her down the bank to place another gabion in position.
Nicholas worked shoulder to shoulder with Hinsith's gang as they began to strip the paving slabs from the floor of the lowest level of the maze. The joints between the slabs were so tight that, even using crowbars, they had difficulty prising them apart, In order to save time, Nicholas made the hard choice of going into a destructive search. He put four of the strongest men in the team to work with home-made sledgehammers, lumps of ironstone on wooden shafts, to break UP the slabs so that they could be more readily levered out of the floor. He felt guilty about the damage they were causing to the site, but the work went ahead very much faster. The high spirits and enthusiasm of the men were at last beginning to wane. They had worked too long in the oppressive confines of the maze, and every one of them was the head of the fully aware of the rising level of the river at gorge, and of the mortal threat behind those waters. Their expressions were surly and there was little laughter' or banter, But more worrying for Nicholas was the fact that at ported the first the beginning of this shift Hansith had re duty.
desertions. Sixteen of his men had failed to report for They had quietly rolled their blankets during the night, picked up whatever items of value or utility they found lying around the camp, and crept away into the darkness. Nicholas knew that it was no use sending anyone after them - they had too much of a start, and would be halfway up the escarpment already. This was Africa, and Nicholas was certain that now that the rot had started it would Spread very quickly.
He joked and jollied them along, not allowing them to sense his true feelings. He worked shoulder to shoulder in the excavation in an and sweated along with them made attempt to hold them, But he knew that, unless they Ali under these slabs to keep their interest another discovery and expectations alight, he might wake up tomorrow to
all find that even the monks and the faithful Hansith were gone. He had started lifting the slabs in the angle of the corner of the maze, and they worked out from there in both directions down the arms Of the tunnel. His heart sank as they broke up each paving slab with the hammers only to find beneath it the solid stratum of the country rock with no indication of any joint or opening.
"It doesn't look very hopeful," he muttered to Royan as he took a short break to drink from one of the water flasks.
She too was looking unhappy as she Poured water from the flask into his cupped hands, so that he could wash the sweat and grime from his face.
"I may have got the symbols for the levels wrong," she suggested. "It is just the kind of trick Taita would play, to work out combinations which would both give a logical solution." She hesitated before she appealed to him for guidance. "Do you think I should start working back the other combination-'
Her question was interrupted by a bellow from Hansith. "In the name of the Blessed Virgin, effendi, come quickly!'
They spun around together. In "her haste Royan dropped the flask, which shattered at her feet. She did not seem to notice that it had drenched her legs, but ran back to where Hansith was standing with the hammer poised for another stroke.
What is it-' she broke off as they both saw that beneath the paving slabs Hansith had uncovered another layer of dressed stone sills.
These were laid neatly across the floor of the tunnel from wall to wall, recessed into the surrounding rock, with knife-edge joints between them. Their sides were smooth and plain, without engravings or markings upon them.
"What is it, icky?" Royan demanded.
"Either it's another layer of paving, or it)s a cover over fall an opening in the floor,, he told her eagerly. "We won't know until we lift one of them." The stone sills were too thick and heavy to be cracked with the primitive hammers, although Hansith tried his best. In the end they were forced to dig around the first of lever it free. It took five men to raise the end of them and it and lift it off its foundation.
"There is an opening under it." Royan went down on the space that it had left. "Some her knees to peer into kind of open shaft!'
Once the first sill was removed it was easier to get a urchase on the others that blocked the rectangular open I away, Nicholas shone ing. When they had cleared them al the dark shaft that was revealed. It the lamp down into stretched from wall to wall of the tunnel, and the head stand up to his room was sufficient for even Nicholas full height on the steps that led down at a forty-five degree angle.
"Surely this must be it.
"Another stairway he exulted exhausted all the false leads by now."
Even Taita must have crowding up behind them, their The workmen were very and the ting at this fresh disco sullen mood evapora certainty of additional bonuses in silver dollars that they had earned.
"Are we going down?" Royan asked. "I know we should be careful and check it for traps, but we are-running out Of time, Nicky."
"You are right, as always. The time has come when we have to press on regardless."
hand, "Caution thrown to the winds." She took his laughing. "Let's go down together."
tious step at a They descended side by side, one cau time, with the lamp held head high and the shadows retreating before them.
"There is a chamber at the bottom,'Royan exclaimed.
"Looks like a store room - what are all those objects stacked along the walls? There must be hundreds of them.
Are they coffins, sarcophaguses?" The dark shapes were almost human, standing shoulder to shoulder, rank after rank, around the walls of the square chamber.
"No, I think those are corn baskets on one side," she said, recognizing them. "Those on the other side look like wine amphorae. Probably some sort of offering to the dead."
"If this is one of the funeral store rooms," said Nicholas in a voice tight with excitement, "then we are getting very close to the tomb now."
"Yes!' she cried. "Look - there is another doorway on the far side of this store room. Shine the light over there."
The beam picked out the square opening facing them across this lower chamber. It was inviting, beckoning them almost seductively. They almost ran down the last few steps in . to . the chamber lined with the reed baskets and pottery wine jars. But as they reached the leveffloor of the store room they ran into an invisible barrier that stopped both of them dead and sent them reeling backwards.
"God!" Nicholas clutched at his throat, his voice a strangled choke. "Get back. Got to get back."
Royan was inking to her knees, also gasping and hunting for breath.
"Nicky!" she tried to scream, but her breath was trapped in her lungs. She felt that a steel noose had encircled her chest and, as it tightened, the breath was being forced out of her.
"Nicky! Help me!" She was strangling, like a fish thrown up on the bank. The strength drained from her limbs, and her vision began to break up and fade. She did not have the strength to stand.
He stooped over her and tried to lift her, but he was almost as weak. He felt his own legs buckling, no longer able to support even his own weight. erately as he suffocated.
"Four minutes," he thought desp i to brain death I "That's all we have got. Four minutes and oblivion. We have to get airer her armpits From behind her, he slipped his arms und locked his hands together over her breasts. Again he and ied to lift her, but his strength was gone. He began to tr ds the stairs down which they had walk backwards towar run so lightly, and every pace required a huge effort. She was already unconscious, lying inert in the circle of his arms. Her limp legs trailed across the stone floor as he dragged her back.
The lowest step caught his heels and he almost toppled his balance over backwards. with an effort he regained and lugged her back up the steps, her feet sliding and bumping loosely over the treads. He wanted to shout to his lungs Hansith for help, but he did not have me air in to utter a sound.
, she's dead," he told himself, and if you drop her no ps, his lungs hunting for he struggled up another five ste precious air and finding none. His strength oozed out of wobbled and as his vision slid and him a drop at a time A
11 distorted.
"Please God, let me
"Let me breathe," he pleaded.
breathe."
Miraculously, like a direct answer to his prayer, he felt slide down his panting throat and the precious oxygen ngth began flooding back swell his lungs. At once his stre Royan's chest and lifted and he tightened his grip around her bodily. He staggered up the remaining steps with her sprawled out Of the mouth of the body in his arms and shaft on to the slabs of the tunnel at Hansith's feet.
"What is is, effendi? What has happened to you and the lady?" Nicholas had no breath to answer him. He laid Royan in the position for mouth-tolmouth resuscitation, and slapped her cheeks.
"Come on!" he pleaded with her. "Speak! Talk to me!" There was no response, so he knelt over her, covered her open mouth with his own and blew down her throat, until from the corner of his eye he saw her chest swelling and inflating.
He sat back for a count of three. "Please, my darling, please breathe!'There was no colour in her yellow, corpselike face.
He bent over her and covered her mouth again, and as he filled her lungs with his own breath he felt her stir under him.
"That's it, my darling," he told her. "Breathe! Breathe for me." At the next breath she pushed him away and sat up groggily, staring round at the circle of faces that hovered over her anxiously. She picked out Nicholas's pale face amongst the black faces of the men.
"Nicky! What happened?"
"I am not sure - but whatever it was, it almost got both of us. How are you feeling now?"
"It was as though an invisible hand had me by the throat, and was strangling me. I couldn't breathe, and then I passed out."
"It must be some kind of gas filling the lower levels of the passage. You were only out for less than two minutes," he reassured her. "It takes four minutes of oxygen starvation to kill the brain."
"I have a terrible headache." She pressed her fingers to her temples. "I heard your voice calling me back. You called me "my darling"." She dropped her eyes.
"Just a little slip of the tongue." He lifted her to her feet and for a moment she swayed against him, her breasts soft and warm against his chest.
"Thank you once again, Nicky. I am so deeply in your debt already, I will never be able to repay you."
am sure we will be able to work something out."
She was suddenly aware of the niens eyes watching her and drew away from him. "What kind of gas? And how did it get there? Was it another of Taita's tricks, do you think, Nicky?"
"One Of the gases of decay, most probably," was his the lower part of the opinion. . "Because it is trapped in passage, it must be a heavier-than-air type. I would guess that it is probably carbon dioxide, although it could be something like methane. I think methane is heavier than air, isn't it?"