The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 34

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been ordered to provide an escort for the employees of the Pegasus

Company. If you yourself experience any trouble while you are here, or

if you need assistance for any reason you have only to call on me, sir."

"That is extremely civil of you, colonel."

"I will detain you no longer, sir." He saluted a third time and backed

off towards the Pegasus truck, taking the Texan foreman along with him.

Jake Helm'had not uttered a word since their arrival, and now he left

without a farewell.

Colonel Nogo gave Nicholas his fourth and final salute through the cab

window as the truck pulled away.

Deuce!" Nicholas told Royan, as he acknowledged the salute with a

nonchalant wave. "I think that point was definitely ours. Now at least

we know that, for whatever reason, Mr Pegasus definitely does not want

us in his hair. I think we can expect his next service fairly promptly.,

They walked back to where Boris sat in the dining tent and Nicholas told

him, "All we need now are your mules."

"I have sent three of my men to the village to find them. They should

have been here yesterday." The mules arrived early the next morning, six

big sturdy animals, each accompanied by a driver dressed in the

ubiquitous-jodhpurs and shawl. By midmorning they were loaded and ready

to begin the descent into the gorge.

Boris paused at the head of the pathway, and looked out over that

valley. For once even he -seemed to be subdued and awed by the immensity

of the drop and the rugged splendour of the gorge.

"You will be Passing into another land in another age," he warned them

in an uncharacteristically philosophical mood. "They say that this trail

is two thousand years old, as old as Christ." He spread his hands in a

deprecating gesture.

"The old black priest in the church at Debra Maryam will tell you that

the Virgin Mary passed this way when she fled from Israel after the

crucifixion." He shook his head. "But then these people will believe

anything." And he "stepped out on to the pathway.

It clung to the cliff, descending at such an angle that each pace was

down a rock step so deep that it stretched the-tendons and the sinews in

their groins and knees, and jarred their spines. They were forced to use

their hands to scramble the rougher and steeper sections, where it was

almost as though they were descending a ladder.

It seemed impossible that the mules under their heavy packs could follow

them down. The plucky beasts lunged down each of the rock steps, landing

heavily on their forelegs, then gathered themselves for the next drop.

The trail was so narrow that the bulky packs scraped against the rock

wall on one hand, while on the other hand the drop sucked at them

giddily.

When the path dog-legged and changed direction, the mules could not make

the turn in one attempt. They were forced to back and fill, edging their

way round the narrow trail, sweating with terror and their eyes rolling

until the whites flashed. The drivers urged them on with wild cries and

busy whips.

At places the pathway entered the body of the mountain, passing behind

butts and needles of rock that time and erosion had prised away from the

cliff face. These rocky gateways were so narrow that the mules had to be

unloaded and the packs carried through by the drivers, and then the

mules were reloaded on the far side.

Look!" Royan cried in astonishment and pointed out into the void. A

black vulture rose up out of the depths on widespread pinions and

floated past them almost within arm's length, turning its gruesome naked

head of pink lappeted skin to stare at them with inscrutable black eyes

before sailing away.

"He is using the thermals of heated air from the valley for lift,'

Nicholas explained to her. He pointed out along the cliff to an

overhanging buttress on the same level as themselves. "There is one of

their nests." It was a shaggy mound of sticks piled on an inaccessible

ledge. The excrement of the birds that had inhabited it over the ages

had painted the cliff face below with streaks of brilliant white, and

even at this distance they could catch whiffs of rotting offal and

decaying flesh.

All that day they clung to the precipitous track as they eased their way

down that terrible wall. It was late afternoon, and they were only

halfway down, when the trail turned back upon itself once more and they

heard  the rumble of the falls ahead. The sound grew louder and became a

thunderous roar as they moved around the corner of another buttress and

came in full sight of the falls.

The wind created by the torrent tugged at them and forced them to clutch

for handholds. The spray blew around them and wetted their upturned

faces, but the i: Ethiopian guide led them straight on until it seemed

that they must be washed away into the valley still hundreds of feet

below.

Then, miraculously, the waters parted and they stepped behind the great

translucent curtain into a deep recess of moss-covered and gleaming wet

rock, carved from the cliff by the force of water over the aeons. The

only light in this gloomy place was filtered through the waterfall,

green and mysterious like some undersea cavern.

"This is where we sleep tonight," Boris announced, obviously enjoying

their astonishment. He pointed to bundles of firewood piled at the rear

of the cave, and the smoke-blackened wall above the stone hearth. The

muleteers carrying food and supplies down to the priests in the

monastery have used this place for centuries."

As they moved deeper into the cavern, the sound of falling water became

muted to a dull background rumble and the rock underfoot was dry. Once

the servants had lit the fire, it became -a warm and comfortable, not to

say romantic, lodging.

With an old soldier's eye for the most comfortable spot, Nicholas laid

out his sleeping bag in a corner at the back of the cave, and quite

naturally Royan unrolled hers beside his. They were both tired out by

the unusual exertion of climbing down the cliff wall, and after supper

they stretched out in their sleeping bags in companionable silence and

watched the firelight playing on the roof of the cave.

"Just think!" Royan whispered. "Tomorrow we will be retracing the

footsteps of old Taita himself."

"To say nothing of the Virgin Mary,'Nicholas smiled.

"You are a horrid old cynic," she sighed. "And what is more, you

probably snore."

"You are about to find out the hard way," he told her, but she was

asleep before him. Her breathing was gentle and even, and he could just

hear it above the sound of the water. It was a long time since he had

had a lovely woman lying at his side. When he was sure she was deeply

under, he reached across and touched her cheek gently.

"Pleasant dreams, little one," he whispered tenderly.

"You have had a busy day." That was the way he had often bid his younger

daughter sleep.

The muleteers were stirring long before the dawn, and the whole party

was on the path, way again as soon as the light was strong enough to

reveal their footing. When the early sun struck the upper walls of the

cliff face, they were still high enough above the valley floor to have

an aerial view of the terrain.

Nicholas drew Royan aside and they let the rest of the caravan go on

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