by Wilbur Smith
down-to-earth Sapper felt that this was a direct personal challenge from
down the ages. He too had been caught up in Taita's game.
dint of neither threat nor heavenly reward could the monks be inveigled
into working on Sundays. Each Saturday evening they knocked off an hour
earlier and trooped away down the valley on the trail to the monastery,
so as to be in time for Holy Communion the next day. Although Nicholas
grumbled and scowled at their desertion, secretly he was as relieved as
any of them for the chance to rest. They were all exhausted, and for
once there would be no chanting of lock the next morning.
matins to wake them at four ' So on Saturday night they all swore to
each other that
they would sleep late the next morning, but from force of habit Nicholas
found himself awake and fully alert at that same iniquitous hour. He
could not stay in his camp bed, and when he came back from his ablutions
at the riverside he found that Royan was also awake and dressed.
"Coffee?" She lifted the pot off the fire and poured a mugful for him.
"I slept terribly badly last night," she admitted. "I had the most
ridiculous dreams. I found myself in Mamose's tomb lost in a labyrinth
of passages-. I was searching for the burial chamber, opening doors, but
there were always people in the rooms that I looked into. Duraid was
working in one room and he looked up and said, "Remember the protocol of
the four bulls. Start at the beginning." He was so real and alive. I
wanted to go to him but the door closed in my face, and I knew I would
never see him again." Tears filled her eyes and glistened in the light
of the campfire.
Nicholas sought to distract her from the painful memory. "Who were in
the other rooms?" he asked.
"In the next room was Nahoot Guddabi. He laughed spitefully and said,
The jackal chases the sun," and his head changed into the head of
Anubis, the jackal god of the cemetery, and he yelped and barked. I was
so frightened that I ran."
She sipped her coffee. "It was all meaningless and silly, but von
Schiller was in the next room, and he rose in the air and flapped his
wings and said, "The vulture rises, and the stone falls." I hated him so
much I wanted to strike him, but then he was gone."
"And then you woke up?"Nicholas suggested.
"No. There was one other room."
Who was in it?"
She dropped her eyes, and her voice was small, "You were," she said.
"Me? What did I say?" He smiled.
"You didn't say anything," she whispered, and blushed so suddenly and
fiercely that he was instantly intrigued.
"What did I do then?" He was still smiling.
"Nothing. I mean, I can't tell you." The dream returned to her, vivid
and real as life, every detail of his naked body, even the smell and the
feel of him. She forced herself to stop thinking about it. She felt
vulnerable as she had been in the dream.
"Tell me about it he insisted.
"No! She stood up quickly, confused and still blushing, trying to thrust
the images from her.
Last night had been the first time in her life that she first time she
had ever dreamed of a man in that way, the had ever experienced a full
orgasm in her sleep. This morning, when she awoke, she found that she
had soaked right through her pyjamas bottoms.
"We have a full day ahead of us with no work to do," she blurted - the
first thought that came into her mind.
have On the contrary." He stood up with her. "We still to make the
arrangements for getting out of here. When the time comes, we will
probably be in something of a hurry."
"Mind if I tag along?" she asked.
wo teams, the Buffaloes and the Elephants, with only their foremen
missingi were waiting, for them at the quarry. They comprised sixty of
the strongest men in the Tabour force. Nicholas unrill from one of the
pallets.
packed the inflatable Avon rafts neat pack, with Each raft was deflated
and folded into a ese craft had been the paddles strapped along the
sides. It is specifically designed for river'running in turbulent water,
and each was capable of carrying sixteen crew and a ton of cargo.
strap the heavy packs on to Nicholas directed them to they had cut for
that purpose. Five the carrying poles that men on each end of the long
poles, with the bundle of the boat stung in the centre, made light of
the load They se off at a cracking pace down the trail, and as soon as
one was ready to take over. They made the team tired the nex exchange
without even stopping, the new porters slipping their shoulders under
the pole on the run while the exhausted team dropped out.
proof and water Nicholas carried the radio in its shock uch a precious
reglass case. He would not trust proof fib He and Royan trotted
instrument to one of the porters.
behind the caravan, joining in the chorus of the along work chant that
the porters sang as they carried their loads down to the monastery.
Mai Metemma was waiting on the terrace outside the church of St.
Frumentius to welcome them. He led them down the staircase hewn out of
the rock of the cliff, two hundred feet to the very water's edge. There
was a narrow rocky ledge against which the Nile waters dashed, and the
spray from the high waterfalls drifted over them like a perpetual
drizzle of rain. After the heat and the bright sunlight above, it was
cold and gloomy and dank down here in the depths of the gorge. The black
cliffs ran with water, and the ledge on which they stood was wet and
slippery underfoot.
Royan shivered as she watched the river racing by, forming a great
spinning vortex as it swirled around the deep rock bowl and then raced
out through the narrow throat of the gorge on its long hectic journey
towards Egypt and the north.
"If only I had known that this was the road you were planning on taking
home-' she eyed the river dubiously.
"If you would prefer to walk, it's okay by me,'Nicholas told her. "With
luck we will be carrying some extra baggage.
The river is the logical escape route."
"I suppose it makes sense, but still it's not terribly inviting." She
broke off a piece of driftwood from a stranded tangle that lay trapped
upon the ledge and tossed it into the river. It was whipped away, and
raced over the standing wave where some submerged obstacle forced the
surface to bulge up.
What speed is that current? she asked in a subdued voice as the splinter
of driftwood was sucked below the surface.
"Oh, not much more than eight or nine knots," he told her off handedly,
'but that's nothing. The river is still very low. just wait until it
starts raining up in the Mountains, then you will really see some water
passing through here.
it will be great fun. Lots of people would pay good money for the chance
to run a river like this. You are going to love it."
Thanks," she said drily. "I can't wait."
Fifty feet above the ledge, out of reach of the Nile's highest water
level, was a small cavern - the Epiphany shrine. L
ong ago the monks had
cut this passage deeply into the rock face, and it ended in a spacious,
candle-lit chamber that housed a life'sized statue of the Virgin,
dressed in faded velvet robes, with the infant in her arms.
Mai Metemma gave them his sanction to store the rafts in the shrine, and
they stacked them against a side wall.
When the porters had left, Nicholas showed Royan how to operate the
quick-release handles on the packs, and the CO, cylinders which would
inflate the rafts within minutes.
He wrapped the radio case and his small emergency pack in a sheet of
plastic and stowed them in one of the boat packs, where he could lay his
hands on them again in a hurry.
"You do intend coming along on this joy ride?" she asked anxiously. "You
aren't planning on sending me down on my ownsome?"
"It is best that you know how it all works," he told her.
if things start to get a little hairy when the time comes to leave here,
I may need your help in launching the rafts." When they climbed back up
the staircase into the warmth and the sunlight, Royan's uncertain mood
had changed. "It's not yet noon, and we have the rest of the day to
ourselves. Let's go back to Taita pool again," she suggested, and he
shrugged indulgently.
the Elephants accompanied them as The Buffaloes and far as the branch in
the trail. Here the teams headed back towards the dam, and shouted and
hallooed their farewells after Nicholas and Royan.
their last visit, the path Even in the short time since through the
undergrowth had become overgrown. Nicholas was forced to use his machete
to hack a way through, and they ducked uqder the trailing thorn
branches. It was midafternoon when they eventually crossed the high
ridge and stood once again on the cliff directly above Taita's pool.
"It looks as though we were the last ones here., Nicholas's tone was
relieved. "No signs of any other visitors since us."
"Were you expecting any?"
"You never know. Von Schiller is a formidable character, and he has some
charming lads working for him. Helm is one that worries me, and I had a
nasty feeling that he might have been snooping around here. I am going
to take a closer look."
He worked quickly around the entire area, casting widely for any sign of
intruders. Then came back to where she sat on the lip of the abyss and
dropped down beside her.
"Nothing," he admitted. "We have still got the running to ourselves."
"Once Sapper stops the river upstream, this is going to be our main area
of operations, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yes, but even before Sapper closes the dam I want to open a fly camp
here, and move all the gear and equipment we will need from the quarry
to have it handy when we start the exploration of the pool."
"How are we going to get down into the pool? Down the river bed, once it
is dry?"
"I suppose we could use the dry river bed as a road, and come down it
from below the dam or up from the monastery end, through the pink
cliffs."
"But that is not the way you are planning to get in, is it?" she
guessed.
"Even with no water in it, the river bed will be a long way round. It's
a three- or four-mile haul from either end of the abyss, added to which
it will be a pretty rough road to travel." He grinned ruefully. "You are
speaking to an expert on the subject. I went down it the hard way, and I
wouldn't want to do it again. There are at least five chutes and rock
jams that I can remember being thrown over."
"What is your better idea, then?" she asked.
"It's not my idea," he contradicted her. "It's Taita's idea really."
She peered over the edge. "You mean to build a scaffold down the cliff,
just the way he did it?
"What's good enough for Taita is good enough for me," he acknowledged.
"The old boy probably had a good look at the alternative of using the
river bed as an access road, and abandoned the idea."
"When will you start work on the scaffold, then?"
"One of our teams is already cutting bamboo poles higher up the gorge.
Tomorrow we will begin carrying them up here, and stacking them. We
can't waste a day.
Once the darn is closed we have to get into the dry pool as soon as
possible."
As if to add weight to his words there came a far-off mutter of thunder,
and they both craned their heads to peer up with trepidation at the
escarpment. Probably a hundred miles to the north, faintly washed as a
sepia print superimposed upon the razor-edged blue silhouette of the
loescarpment wall rose high tumbled towers of cumu nimbus clouds.
Neither of them spoke about it, but both "were aware of how ominously
the torm clouds were settling on the distant mountains.
Nicholas glanced at his wrist-watch and stood up.
"Time to start back if we are to get into camp before dark."
He gave her his hand and lifted her to her feet. She dusted off her
clothes and then stepped right to the very lip of the canyon.
ks," she called I "Wake up, Taita. We are hot on your trac down into the
shadows.
"Don't challenge him." Nicholas took her arm and drew VI, her back. "The
old ruffian has given us enough trouble already."
The axemen had left the stumps of several great trees standing on the
banks of the Dandera upstream from the dam- Sapper used these as anchor
points for the heavy cables that he strung across the river. Through the
cables he had rigged a cunning series of pulley blocks. The main cable
was run back and connected to the tow hitch on the front-ender.
Two other cables were laid out, one to each bank, where the Buffaloes
and the Elephants stood ready to handle them- One team was under the
direction of Nicholas, and the other under Mek Nimmur. For this crucial
part of the construction, Mek had come down from the hills to lend a
hand.
The grating of massive treetrunks lay on the river verge, already half
in the water. Heavily weighted with boulders, it was an unwieldy
structure that would require all their combined efforts to manoeuvre
into position.
Sapper slitted his eyes as he studied the layout, and then looked
downstream to the partially completed dam. The two walls of gabions
stretched out from either bank, but the gap in the middle of the river
was twenty feet across and the whole volume of the river roared through
it.
"The one thing we don't want is to let the bleeding plug run away from
us and slam into the ruddy wall," he warned Nicholas and Mek. "Otherwise
we are going to lose a big chunk of what we have done so far. I want to
cuddle her in there, nice and softly, and let her sit snug in the gap.
Any questions? This is your last chance to ask. You all know the
signals."
Sapper took one last drag on his cigarette, and flicked the stub into
the river. Then, looking lugubrious, he said, "Okay, gents. The last one
in the water is a sissy,'
Compared to their men, Nicholas and Mek were overdressed in their khaki
shorts. The others were all stark naked. When t
he order was given they
trooped waist-deep into the river and took up their stations along the
cables.
Before he followed them into the river, Nicholas took one last look
round. At breakfast that morning Royan had innocently asked to borrow
his binoculars. Now he knew why. She and Tessay were perched up on top
of the slope high above the gorge. Even as Nicholas watched, he saw
Royan pass the binoculars to Tessay. They were not missing a moment of
this fateful operation.
Nicholas looked back from the ridge to the rows of big naked men, pulled
a face and muttered, "My oath, there are some prize specimens around
here. I just hope that Royan isn't making comparisons."
Sapper climbed up on to the yellow tractor, and with a roar and a cloud
of diesel smoke the engine burst into life. He raised one hand above his
head with the fist ji clenched, and Nicholas relayed the order to his
team, "Take the strain."
The foremen repeated it in Amharic, and the men leaned back against the
cables. Sapper threw the tractor into extra low, and eased her forward.
The belly straightened in the lines, the sheave wheels squealed, and the
timber grating slid ponderously down the bank into the river. The
weighted end of the grating sank immediately and bumped along the
bottom, while the lighter end floated ut into midstream, until it was
high. Slowly they hauled it hanging vertically in the water.
The current seized it and began to bear it away, straight at the wall of
gabions. It picked up speed alarmingly. The tractor bellowed and- blew
out clouds of black smoke as Sapper threw her into reverse and backed up
on the cables.
The teams of naked black men heaved and chanted - some of them had
already been dragged in neck-deep as they hauled on the lines.
The grating steadied across the current, and they let it fall away at a
more sedate pace, down towards the open gap in the wall. As it began to
slew towards one bank, Sapper lifted his right arm and windmilled it.
Obediently, Mek's team on the far bank paid out rope and Nicholas's team
on the near bank picked it up. Once again the grating was lined up on
the gap.
"Rock and roll. Close the hole," bellowed Sapper, and now the full
current was too powerful to resist. It dragged both teams into the river
until some of them were in over their heads, losing their hold on the