Текст книги "The Seventh Scroll"

Автор книги: Wilbur Smith

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"Nicky! Put me down." She kicked with outrage, but he continued running

down into the chamber at the foot of the staircase.

Hansith and his men were carrying the last few packed ammunition crates

up the staircase on the far side of the chamber. They balanced the

crates easily on their heads and went up the steps with alacrity.

Here Nicholas set Royan down on her own feet again, "Will you promise to

behave now? We aren't playing games.

This is deadly serious – I mean deadly, if we get trapped down here."

"I know." She looked contrite. "I just couldn't bear to leave the rest

of it."

"Enough of that. Let's go." Nicholas grabbed her hand and dragged her

after him. After the first few steps she shook her hand free and started

to run in earnest, outstripping him and reaching the top of the

staircase a few paces ahead of him.

Even under their burdens the porters were making good time. Caught up in

the long hurrying column, Nicholas and Royan wound their way back

through the maze, grateful for the signposts at each corner, and made it

down the central staircase into the ruined long gallery without taking a

wrong turning. Sapper was waiting for them at the ruins of the sealed

doorway, and grunted with he porters.

relief when he saw them amongst I thought I told you to go on ahead and

get the boats ready,'Nicholas shouted at him.

"Couldn't trust you not to be bloody stupid." Sapper looked miserable.

"Wanted to make sure you didn't hang about in there."

"I am touched, Sapper."Nicholas punched his shoulder, and then they ran

down the approach tunnel and clattered over the bridge across the

sink-hole.

"Where is MeV Nicholas panted at Sapper's back as he jogged in front of

him. "Have you seen Tessayr

"Tessay is back. She had a nasty experience. She was in a terrible mess.

Seems she got badly knocked about."

"What has happened to her?" Nicholas was appalled.

"Where is she?"

"It looks like she fell into the hands of von Schiller's gorillas and

they beat the hell out of her. Mek's men are taking her down to the

monastery. She will wait for us at the boats."

"Thank God for that," Nicholas muttered, and then louder, "What about

MeV

"He is trying to hold off Nogo's attack. I have been hearing rifle fire

and grenades and mortar shells all morning. He too is going to fall back

and wait for us at the  boats."

They ran the last few yards down the tunnel ankle, deep in slush and

water, and at last crawled over the wall of the coffer dam on to the

rocky ledge around Taita's pool. Nicholas looked up to see Hansith's

porters scrambling up the bamboo scaffolding ladder towards the top of

the cliff, each of them hauling up one of the ammunition crates.

At that moment he caught a sound that he recognized instantly. He cocked

his head to listen and then told Royan grimly, "Gunfire! Mek is fighting

it out, but it's pretty darned close."

"My bag!" Royan started towards her thatched shelter at the foot of the

cliff. "I must get my kit., "You won't need your make-up or your

pyjamas, and I've got your passport." He seized her arm and turned her

back towards the foot of the ladder. "In fact the only thing you need

now is plenty of space between you and Colonel Nogo. Come along, Royan!'

They swarmed up the bamboo scaffolding and when they reached the cliff

top Royan was surprised to discover that, although the earth was wet

underfoot from the recent rain squalls, the sun was high and hot. She

had lost all sense of time in the cold, gloomy passages of the tomb, and

now she held up her face to the sunlight and drank it in gratefully for

a moment while Nicholas checked the porters and made certain that they

were all out of the chasm.

Sapper set off at the head of the column along the trail through the

thorn forest, with the file of porters strung out behind him. Nicholas

and Royan waited until all the men were on the pathway before they

themselves brought up the rear of the column. The sound of the fighting

was frighteningly close now. It seemed to be almost at the brink of the

chasm close behind them, less than half a mile away.

The crackle of automatic fire gave a spring and a lift to the feet of

the porters, and the entire party raced back through the forest to reach

the main trail down to the monastery before they were cut off by Nogo's

advance.

Before they reached the junction of the paths, they ran into a party of

stretcher-bearers carrying a litter. They too were headed down towards

the monastery. Nicholas thought the person they were carrying was one of

the wounded guerrillas of Mek's force. But even when he caught up with

them it took a moment for him to recognize Tessay's swollen and burned

face.

"Tessay!" He stooped over her. "Who did this to you?" She looked up at

him with the huge dark eyes of a wounded child, and told him in halting,

broken words.

"Helm!" Nicholas blurted. "I' love to get my hands on that bastard." At

that moment Royan caught up with them, and she let out a small cry of

horror as she saw Tessay's face. Then immediately she took charge of

her.

tcher'bearers Nicholas spoke quickly to one of the stre from he

recognized.

wh

"Mezra, what is happening out there?"

"Nogo moved a force in from the east of the gorge.

They outflanked us, and we are pulling out, This is not our kind of

fighting."

"I know," Nicholas remarked grimly. "Guerrillas must

"Where is Mek Nimmur?" keep moving.

"He is retreating down the eastern bank of the chasm." As Mezra replied,

they heard a renewed outburst of firing behind them. "That is him!"

Mezra nodded. "Nogo is pushing him hard."

"What are your orders?"

"To take Lady Sun to the boats and wait for Mek Nimmur there."

"Good! Nicholas told him. "We will go with you."

he jet Ranger was flying low, hugging the contours Of the land, never

cresting the high ground. Helm knew that Mek Nimmur's shufta were armed

with RPGs, rocket-launchers. In the hands of a trained man, these were

deadly weapons against a slow-flying, unarmoured aircraft such as the

jet Ranger.

The pilot's defence was to use  the terrain as cover, weaving and

twisting up the valleys so as to deny the racketeers a clear shot.

Although the rain clouds were slumping down the into the Abbay gorge,

the helicopter was escarpmen keeping well below them. However, the

sudden squalls of wind rocked the machine dangerously and splatterings;

of heavy raindrops rattled against the windshield. The pilot sat forward

in the seat, leaning against his shoulder-straps as he concentrated on

this dangerous low flying in these unpleasant conditions. Helm sat in

the right'hand seat, beside the pilot. Von Schiller and Nahoot Guddabi

were together in the rear passenger seat, both of them craning nervously

to peer out of the side windows as the heavily wooded slopes of the

valley streamed past, seemingly close enough to touch.

Every few minutes the radio crackled into life, and they could hear the

terse transmissions of Nogo's men on the ground calling for mortar

support or reporting objectives attained. The pilot translated the radio

gabble for them, twisting round in his seat to tell von Schiller, "There

is a sharp fire-fight going on along the top of the chasm, but the

shufta are on the run. Nogo is handling his force well. They have just

dislodged a strong force from the hillside to the east of us," he

pointed out of the left hand port, "and they are hammering the shufta

with mortars as they run."

"Have they reached the spot in the chasm where Quenton-Harper was

working?"

"It isn't clear. All a bit confused." The pilot listened to the next

burst of Arabic on the radio. "I think that was Nogo himself speaking

just then."

"Call him up!" von Schiller ordered Helm, leaning over the back of his

seat. "Ask him if they have secured the tomb site yet."

Helm reached across and lifted the microphone off its hook below the

instrument panel. "Rose Petal, this is Bismarck. Do you copy?"

There was a pause filled with static, and then Nogo's voice Speaking

English. "Go ahead, Bismarck,'

"Have you secured the primary objective? Over."

"Affirmative, Bismarck. All secured. All opposition suppressed. I am

sending men down the ladder to clear the workings."

Helm swivelled in his seat to look back at von Schiller.

"Nogo has men in the chasm already. We can go in and land., "Tell him

not to let any of his men into the workings before I arrive,' von

Schiller ordered sternly, but his expression was triumphant. "I must be

the first in there.

Make him understand that."

While Helm relayed his orders to Nogo, von Schiller tapped the pilot on

the shoulder. "How long to the objective?"

"About five minutes'flying time, sir."

"Circle the site when you arrive. Don't land until we are sure Nogo has

it under his control."

The pilot lifted the collective and the sound of the rotors altered as

they changed pitch. The helicopter slowed and then hovered in mid-air,

while the pilot pointed down.

"What is it?" von Schiller followed his gesture. "What do you see?"

"The dam," Helm answered. Quenton-Flarper's dam.

He did a load of work down there."

The wide body of trapped water gleamed grey and sullen under the rain

clouds, tainted with the run-off from the highlands. The water diverted

into the side canal boiled white and angrily down into the long valley.

"Deserted!" Helm commented. "All Harper's men have pulled out."

"What is that yellow object on the bank?" von Schiller wanted to know.

"That's the earth-moving machine. You remember? My informer told us

about it."

"Don't waste any more time," von Schiller ordered.

"Nothing more to see here. Let's get on!'

Helm tapped the pilot's shoulder, and gestured downstream.

apper was waiting for them to catch up at the junction of the trail,

where the diverted river was roaring down the valley in a torrent and

had washed out a long section of the original track. The porters, strung

out in a long line down the valley, each with an ammunition crate

balanced on his head, were picking their way along the higher ground

above the water.

Tessay's litter was near the rear of the column, with Royan and Nicholas

trotting on each side of it and steadying it over the rough and uneven

sections of the path.

"Where is Hansith?"  Nicholas shouted at SappeT, shading his eyes to

check the men ahead of him, and trying to pick out the big monk's

distinctive form from amongst the others in the caravan.

thought he was with you," Sapper shouted back. "I haven)

t seen him since we left the chasm., Nicholas turned and stared back the

way they had come, along the footpath through the Thorn forest.

"Damn the man," he grunted. "We can't go back to look for him. He will

have to make his own way down to the monastery."

At that moment they heard the faint but familiar flutter of rotors in

the hot, humid air below the lowering cloud masses.

"The Pegasus chopper! Sounds as though von Schiller is heading directly

for Taita's pool. He must have known all along exactly where we were

working," said Nicholas bitterly. "Not wasting any time. Like a vulture

coming in to a fresh carcass."

Royan was also looking up at the sound, trying to pick out the shape of

the aircraft against the dark clouds. Her OEM  NOOF AL

, the tendrils of sweat-damp face was flushed from the ru hair dangled

down her cheeks. "If those swine are allowed to enter our tomb it will

be a dreadful desecration of a sacred place," she said angrily.

Nicholas reached-across the litter and took Suddenly  determined. "You

are her arm. His expression'was stem an right. Go on down to the

monastery with Tessay. I will follow you later." Before she could

protest or question him, he strode across to Sapper.

"I am putting the two women in your care, Sapper.

Look after them."

"Where are you going, Nicky?" Royan had come up behind him, and

overheard his orders to Sapper. "What are you going to do?"

"One little chore. Won't take me long."

"You aren't going back there?" She was horrified. "You will get yourself

killed or worse. You saw what Helm did to Tessay-'

"Don't fuss yourself, my love," he laughed, and before she realized what

he intended he kissed her full on the lips.

While she was still flustered and confused by this display in front of

so many men, he pushed her gently away.

"Take care of Tessay. I will meet you at the boats." Before she could

protest further, he turned and struck out up the valley at a long-legged

lope which carried him over the rough terrain so swiftly that she had no

further chance to prevent him.

"Nicky!" she screamed after him despairingly, but he pretended not to

hear and kept going, following the diverted river upstream, back towards

the dam.

he jet Ranger followed the convoluted course of the river below the dam.

At moments they could look directly down into the narrow gap between the

high cliffs, into the shaded depths of the chasm, almost dry now, with

only the occasional gleam of the shrunken and still pools.

"There they are!" Helm pointed dead ahead. There was a small cluster of

men on the brink of the chasm.

"Make sure they aren't shufta!" There was fear in von Schiller's voice.

"No!" Helm reassured him loudly. "I recognize Nogo, and that tall one

beside him in the white shamnia is the monk Hansith Sherif, our

informer." He shouted above the engine beat at the pilot, "You can go in

and land. There!

Nogo is waving you in!'

The moment the skids of the helicopter touched the ground, both Nogo and

Hansith ran forward Between them they helped von Schiller down from the

passenger cabin and hustled him clear of the spinning rotors.

"My men have secured the area," Nogo assured him.

"We have driven the shufta down the valley towards the river. This man

is Hansith Sherif, who has been working beside Harper in the tomb. He

knows every inch of the tunnels."

"Does he speak English?" Von Schiller looked up at the tall monk

eagerly.

"A little bit," Hansith answered for himself.

"Good! Good!" Von Schiller beamed at him. "Show me the way. I will

follow You. Come on, Guddabi, it's about time you did some work for the

money I am paying you., Hansith led them quickly to the head of the

scaffolding, where von Schiller paused and looked down nervously into

the gloomy depths of the chasm, The bamboo framework seemed flimsy and

rickety, the drop deep and terrifying. Von Schiller was on the point Of

Protesting when Nahoot Guddabi whimpered behind him.

"He does not expect us to climb down there, does he?" His terror

bolstered von Schiller immediately, and he turned on Nahoot with relish.

"It is the only access to the tomb. Follow the man down. I will be close

behind you., 1VjU,)t "Putul– YY(, When Nahoot still hesitated, Helm put

a calloused hand in the small of his back and shoved him forward.

"Get on with it. You are wasting time."

MD

Reluctantly Nahoot started down the affording after SC the monk, and von

Schiller followed him. The framework of bamboo shook and swayed under

their combined weight and the drop to the rocks below sucked at them,

but at last they reached the ledge beside Taita's pool. There they stood

in a small group, staring about them in awe and wonder. .

"Where is the tunnel?" von Schiller demanded as soon as he had regained

his breath, and Hansith beckoned to him to follow him to the wall of the

small coffer dam.

Here von Schiller paused and looked around at Helm and Nogo. "I want you

to remain on guard here. I will enter the tomb with Guddabi and this

monk. I will send for you when you are needed."

"I would feet happier to be with you, to protect you, Herr von

Schiller-' Helm began, but the old man frowned at him.

"Do as I tell you!" And with Hansith steadying him he climbed stiffly

down the wall of the coffer dam into the mouth of the tunnel. Nahoot

Guddabi followed him closely.

"The lights? Where does the power come from?" von  to know.

Schiller wanted

"There is a machine," Hansith explained, and at that moment they heard

the soft burble of the generator ahead one of them spoke again as they

moved down of them.  the entrance tunnel after Hansith, until they

reached the bridge over the dark waters of the sinkholes

"This is very rough construction," Nahoot muttered, his uneasiness at

last giving way to professional interest. "It tomb I have does not

remind me of any other Egyptian ever inspected. I think we may have been

misted. It is bably some native Ethiopian workings." pro

"You are making a premature judgement," von Schiller admonished him.

"Wait until we have seen the rest of what this man has to show us."

Von Schiller steadied himself with a hand on Hansith's shoulder as they

crossed the bobbing pontoons of baobab wood, and he scrambled ashore on

the far side with relief.

They started up the rising section of the tunnel and passed the

high-water mark.

As soon as the construction of the walls changed to packed and dressed

stone, Nahoot remarked on it. "Ah! I was disappointed at first. I

thought we had been duped, but now one can see the Egyptian influence."

They reached the landing outside the ruined gallery on which stood the

Honda generator. By -now both von Schiller and Nahoot were sweating with

exertion and trembling with excitement.

4Th is looks more and more promising. It may very well be a royal tomb,"

Nahoot exulted. Von Schiller pointed to the plaster seats stacked

against the -side wall where Nicholas and Royan had abandoned them.

Nahoot fell to his, knees beside them and examined them eagerly, his

voice trembling as he cried out.

The cartouche of Mamose, and the seal of the scribe Taita!" He looked up

at von Schiller with shining eyes, "There can be no doubts now. I have

led you to the tomb as I promised you I would."

For a moment von Schiller stared at him, speechless in the face of such

hare-faced arrogance. Then he snorted with disgust and stooped to peer

through the open doorway into the long gallery.

"This has been destroyed!" he cried in horror. "The tomb has been

annihilated."

"No, no!" Hansith assured him. "Come this way. There is another tunnel

beyond."

As they picked their way through the rubble and wreckage, Hansith told

them in halting, broken English AL

how the roof of the gallery had collapsed, and how he, Hansith, had

found the true entrance under the ruins.

Nahoot stopped every few paces to examine and exclaim over the scraps of

painted plaster that had survived the fall of the roof. "These must have

been magnificent.

Classical work of the highest order-'

"There is more to show you. Much more," Hansith promised them, and von

Schiller snarled at Nahoot.

"Leave these damaged sections now. Time is running out on us. We must

hurry on directly to the burial  hamber."

Hansith led them up the hidden staircase into the maze of the bao, and

then through the twists and turns to the lowest level.

"How did Harper and the woman ever find their way through this?" von

Schiller marvelled. "It's a rabbit warren."

"Another concealed staircase!" Nahoot was amazed, and stuttered with

excitement as they descended into the gas trap where the ranks of

amphorae had stood undisturbed for thousands of years, and thn climbed

the last flight of stairs to the beginning of the funeral arcade.

Now both of them were stunned by the splendour of the murals and the

majesty of the great god images that guarded the length of the arcade.

They stood side by side unable to move, frozen with awe as they gazed

about them." $ "I never expected anything like this," von Schiller

whispered. "This exceeds anything that I ever hoped for."

"The rooms on each side are filled with treasures." Hansith pointed down

the arcade. "There are such things as you have never dreamed. Harper was

able to take very little with him – a few small boxes. He has left piles

of goods, stacks of chests."

"Where is the coffin? Where is the body that was in the tomb?" von

Schiller demanded.

"Harper has given the body, in its golden coffin, to the abbot. They

have taken it away to the monastery.

"Nogo will soon fetch it back for us, You need not worry about that,

Herr von Schiller," Nahoot assured him.

s though the spell that held them was shattered by this promise, they

started forward together, slowly at first, and then both of them began

to run. Von Schiller tottered into the nearest store room on his old,

stiff legs, and giggled like a child on Christmas morning as he gazed

upon the piled treasures. "Incredible!'

He dragged down one of the cedarwood chests from the nearest stack, and

ripped off the lid with trembling fingers. When he saw the contents he

was struck speechless.

He knelt over the chest and began to weep softly with emotion too

overwhelming to express in words.

/4, Nicholas was banking on the fact that Nogo's men would be driving

along the Cliff tops to reach Taita's pool, and that he would have a

free run up the course of the diverted stream to the dam site. He took

no precautions against running into them, other than to pause every few

minutes to listen and peer ahead. He knew that he had little time left

to him. He could not expect the rest of the party to wait for him at the

boats and endanger themselves for this whimsy of his.

Twice he heard automatic gunfire in the distance, coming from the

direction of the chasm, down towards the Po. However, the chance he

took paid off, and he reached the dam site without running into a I ny

of Nogo's forces. He did not, however, push his luck too far. Before

approaching the dam openly, he climbed the hillside above it and

surveyed the area. It gave him time to recover from the hard run up the

valley, and to check that Nogo had not left men to guard the dam,

although he considered this unlikely.

He could see that the yellow front-loader tractor was still parked on

the bank high above the wall where Sapper MET &

had left it. He could also see no sign of any human presence, no armed

Ethiopian army guards. He grunted with relief and wiped the sweat out of

his eyes with his shirtsleeve.

Even with his naked eye he could see that the water was lapping the top

of the wall and squirting through the gaps and chinks between the

gabions. Yet from where he stood the wall still seemed to be holding

well, and it would need another foot rise in the level of the backed-up

river to overturn it.

"Well done, Sapper," he thought, grinning. "You did a hell of a job."

Nicholas studied the level of the river and the condition of the waters

that were being held back by the wall.

The flow down from the mountains was much stronger than when he had last

been here. The river bed was brimming from bank to bank, and some of the

trees and bushes at the edge were already partially submerged, bowing

and nodding as the swift current tugged at them. The flood was a sullen

grey colour, fast and hostile, swirling into the pond of the dam before

finding the outlet into the side channel and tearing down it, growling

like a wild animal released from its cage, brimming into spume and white

water as it felt the sharp fall into the valley.

Next he looked towards the escarpment of the gorge.

It was blotted out by banks of dark, menacing cloud that obscured the

northern horizon. At that moment a squall of wind swept over him, cold

with the threat of rain. He needed no further urging and started down

the slope towards the dam, slipping and sliding in his haste. Before he

reached the bottom, the squall of wind had turned to cold rain. It flung

needles into his face and plastered his shirt to his body.

He reached the tractor and scrambled up into the t. There was a moment

of panic when he driver's sea AL

 Wor thought that Sapper might have removed the key from its

hiding-place under the seat. He srabbled for it for a few seconds until

his fingers closed over it, and then let out a sigh of relief.

"Sapper, for a moment there you were very close to death. I would have

broken your neck with my own hands." He thrust the key into the ignition

lock and turned it to the pre-heat position, waiting for the coil light

on the dashboard to turn from red to green.

"Come on!" he muttered impatiently. Those few seconds of delay seemed

like a lifetime. Then the green light flashed and he twisted the key to

start.

The engine fired at the first turn and Nicholas hooted, "Full marks,

Sapper. All is forgiven."

He gave the machine time to warm up to optimum operating temperature,

slitting his eyes against the rain as he waited and looking around at

the hills above him, fearful that the sound of the engine might bring

Nogo's gorillas swarming down on him. However, there was no sign of life

on the rainswept heights.

He eased the tractor into her lowest gear and turned her down the bank.

Below the dam wall the water that was finding its way through the gaps

was less than hub-deep.

The tractor bounced and ground its way through the boulder-strewn

watercourse. Nicholas stopped the machine in the middle of the river bed

while he studied the downstream face of the dam wall for its weakest

section.

Then he' lined up below the centre of the wall, at'the point where

Sapper had shored up the raft of logs with rows of gabions.

"Sorry for all your hard work," he apologized to Sapper, as he

manoeuvred the steel scoop of the tractor to the right height and angle

before attacking the wall. He worried the gabion he had selected out of

its niche in the row, reversing and thrusting at it until he could get

the scoop under it and drag it free. He pulled away and dropped the

heavy wire mesh basket over the waterfall, then drove back and renewed

the attack.

It was slow work. The pressure of the water had wedged in the gabions,

keying them into the wall so it took almost ten minutes to free the

second basket. As he dropped that one over the waterfall, he glanced for

the first time at the fuel gauge on the dashboard of the tractor and his

heart sank. It was registering empty. Sapper must have neglected to

refuel it: either he had exhausted the fuel supply or he had not

expected ever to use the machine again when he abandoned it.

Even as Nicholas thought about it the engine stuttered as it starved. He

reversed it sharply, changing the angle of inclination so that the

remaining fuel in the tank could slosh forward. The engine caught and

cleared, running smoothly and strongly once again. Quickly he changed

gear and ran back at the wall.

"No more time for finesse," he told himself grimly.

"From here on in it's brute force and muscle."

By removing two of the gabions he had exposed a corner of the log raft

behind them. This was the vulnerable and part of the wall. He worked the

hydraulic controls lifted the scoop to its highest travel. Then he

lowered it carefully, an inch at a time; until it hooked over the end of

the thickest log in the jam. He locked the hydraulics and thrust the

tractor into reverse, gradually pouring on full power until the engine

was roaring and blowing out a cloud of thick blue diesel smoke.

Nothing gave. The log was jammed solidly and the wall was held together

by the keying of the gabions into each other and the enormous pressure

of water behind them. Despairingly, Nicholas kept the throttle wide

open.

The lugged tyres spun and skidded on the boulders under them, throwing a

tall shower of spray high into the air and churning out loose rock and

gravel.

"Come on!" Nicholas pleaded with the machine. "Come on! You can do it."

The engine beat faltered again as she starved for fuel.

She spluttered and coughed, and almost stalled.

"Please!" Nicholas begged her aloud. "One more try." Almost as if it had

heard him, the engine fired again, ran unevenly for a few moments, and

then abruptly bellowed at full power again.

That's it, my beauty," Nicholas yelled, as it lurched  hammered against

the wall.

an With a sound like a cannon shot the log snapped and the top end of it

flew out of the wall, leaving a long, deep hole through which the river

poured triumphantly, a thing -'solid column of dirty grey water.

"Thar she blows!" Nicholas shouted, jumping down from the driver's seat.

He knew there was not enough time left for him to drive the tractor out

of the river bed. He could move more quickly on his own feet.

The current seized his legs, trying to pull them out from under him. It

was like one of those childhood nightmares when monsters were pursuing

him and, despite his every effort, his legs would only move in slow

motion.

He glanced back over his shoulder, and at that instant he saw the

central section of the dam wall burst, blowing outward in a violent

eruption of furious waters. He struggled on another few paces towards

the bank before the deep and turbulent tide picked him up. He was

helpless in its grip. It swept him away, over the waterfall and down,

down into the hungry maw of the chasm.

these are the royal crook and sceptre of the Pharaoh," cried von

Schiller in a voice that was gusty and faint with emotion as he lifted

them out of the cedarwood chest.

"And this is his false beard and his ceremonial pectoral  Wo, emblem."

Nahoot knelt beside him on the floor of the tomb under the great statue

of Osiris. All the ill feelings between them were forgotten in the

wonder of the moment as they examined the fabulous treasures of Egypt.

"This is the greatest archaeological discovery of all time," von

Schiller whispered, his voice tremulous. He pulled his handkerchief from

his pocket and dabbed at the perspiration of excitement that trickled

down his cheeks.

"There is years of work here," Nahoot told him seriously. "This

incredible collection will have to be catalogued and evaluated. It will

be known for ever as the von Schiller hoard. Your name will be

perpetuated for all time.

it is like the Egyptian dream of immortality. You will never be

forgotten. You will live for ever."

A rapturous expression crossed von Schiller's features.

He had not considered' that possibility. Up until this moment he had not

considered sharing this treasure with anybody, except in his particular

way with Utte Kemper, but Nahoot's words had awakened in him the old

impossible dream of eternity. Perhaps he might make arrangements for it

to be made accessible to the public – but only after his own death,

naturally.