We sat up. Her face was white and strained and her eyes great dark pools. She drew my own face against hers and made a tent over our heads with her long hair. It was halfdry inside and warm compared with the cold rain, and the smell of her hair and skin was sweet in my nostrils. She touched my cheeks and eyes and lips with her finger-tips, then kissed me with cold lips.
'It's the big thing. We'll never know about it unless we have it here'
'Darling,' I said. 'Darling, darling.'
The rain broke through her hair and drew an icy line between us where our bodies met.
'We'll come back. It's not for now. The moment's past'
What made the bolt strike the cairn?'
°Some special attraction in those stones, perhaps. The Hill people didn't see it as a heap of stones but as a person, a sort of deity who kept a watchful eye on lovers in order to bind them in their vows.'
I laughed shakily. 'It certainly put on a king-size show for us.'
'Queen-size.' She tried to smile, too. 'Which reminds me. All I've gat on is the queen's ring, It's a good thing I didn't leave my clothes in a heap at the spring instead of here.'
We found our soaking garments and dressed while the rain drove down and it became darker. It must have been about breakfast-time. Nadine had her flying-jacket and tucked her hair under the hood. It seemed to emphasize the shadows under her eyes. I hunched up my shoulders and tried to protect myself against the rain but it was useless. Suddenly I exclaimed. 'We've lost the "King's Messenger"!' '
No, Guy, here it is. I still had sense enough when I left the spring to put it in my pocket.'
I surveyed the tabletop with dismay. 'No "King's Messenger" or anything else is going to be much use to us now, Nadine.'
'What a shambles!'
Between us and the way into the underground chamber a crevasse about ten feet wide had opened. It narrowed in the direction of the secret stairway and widened on the opposite side facing the river. Thousands of tons of soil and rock had collapsed into it, forming a rubble-littered sloping ramp from the summit to the terrace.
The implication struck us both.
It's the end of The Hill, Guy! Look, anyone can simply walk to the top now. It's not even a climb.'
'The rock supporting the tabletop must have been eroded and rotten and ready to split and the thunderbolt did the rest. We must get off here — quick. Look there!'
We were only about a dozen feet away from the crevasse, and soil and rocks were tumbling into it as the rain undermined them. Nadine looked with anguish towards the underground chamber.
The isifuba board, Guy! We just can't abandon it!'
The whole place has probably caved in. We can't risk our necks trying to find out. Anyway, the crevasse is too wide to get across.'
'Where can we go, Guy?'
'My boat — down that ramp. It's the only route left open.'
Another tremor shook The Hill.
'It's breaking up under us, Nadine! Hurry!'
The tattoo of rain sent muddy runnels pouring over the lip of the crevasse but we picked a spot which didn't look too dangerous. I went first. It was only an eight-foot drop to the ramp but it felt like eight hundred. I was muddied to the knees when I landed and so was Nadine in spite of my help. Soaked, cold and dejected, we struggled and sloshed down the slope with our arms linked. The farther we plodded, the trickier the going became, as we stubbed our feet and shins against obstacles we couldn't see. The rain, too, became heavier.
'It's developing into a cloudburst!' I called out. 'If this goes on the river will come down!'
There was a heavy rumble and we froze in our tracks, wondering whether a new avalanche was on its way which might overwhelm us, but it was thunder we heard. Flickering tongues of lightning leapt from cloud to cloud, illuminating the terrace below us like a gigantic flash-bulb. It was the onset of a new spectacular display which blinded, deafened and frightened us. At the same time the wind steadied into the north-east and, since we were heading north, it whipped the sheets of rain into our faces, which had the effect of making the downpour seem to increase in intensity. Everything was now a water-swept haze; the sun, too, had given up and all there was left in the way of light was an opaque dimness, like twilight.
We still had about halfway to go down the moraine-like incline and plugged ahead doggedly, heads down, slipping and stumbling, sometimes falling waist-deep into softer patches until we looked like scarecrows. Finally, at the level of the terrace, the crevasse broadened out to about three times its upper width. On the open terrace we felt more exposed to the vivid flashes of lightning and one of these underwrote our danger when it struck the wire fence and blazed along it like a magnesium flare. We made our way as quickly as we could through ankle-deep water and where the terrace ended, fronting the river, we found torrents of dirty water pouring over like a small flood. We negotiated the wire where I had originally cut it and it was like crawling under a small waterfall. The thought of another lightning strike to the wire lent wings to our crossing feet and we breathed easier when we were safely through and across the ladder with which I had bridged the rolls of wire. Then we reached the outer limits of the river bed proper and squelched our way slowly and tediously through a semi-liquid mess of mud until we located the boat by the palm clump, and crawled thankfully aboard out of the storm's uproar.
It was dry and snug in the tiny, low cabin and stuffy, too, because the air in it had heated during the blazing days and had had no opportunity to disperse. The main cabin was for'ard and there was another smaller one aft: they were linked by an open, self-draining cockpit. I had named her the Empress of Baobab because she had bulges where no craft should have had bulges. As a boat she was a herring-gutted bitch; as a sanctuary from the storm she was heaven. It was difficult to hear one another speak above the drumbeat of the rain on the cabin's thin aluminium roof.
'Get dry and help yourself to some of my clothes from the locker,' I told Nadine. 'I'm going over the side with a rope to make her fast. I'm scared of a sudden flood. If the river does come down we could be wrecked.'
Isn't there an engine?'
'Of sorts. It's seen better, days. It wouldn't hold her head into a flood.'
The wind caused me more concern than the rain which it brought slanting and cutting into my face when I opened the door. At sea it would have been considered a moderate gale. It blustered in from one direction only, the north-east, and this is what puzzled and worried me. A normal thunderstorm is usually accompanied by strong erratic gusts, but judging by the lightning flashes, the force of this one was already falling off in intensity. Yet the powerful wind continued. I took a rope and dropped into the mud, which gave off a kind of stale flatus. The palm seemed firmly enough anchored though its trunk was whipping and the tattered fronds streamed like a battle ensign. I was making the rope fast when a brilliant flash spotlit the streaming river front. By its light I saw a propeller turning in the wind some distance up the main river channel and I realized immediately that it was von Praeger's plane. I finished double-lashing the moorings and then hurried back to Nadine.
'Now we know where von Praeger landed,' I explained. 'I wouldn't have thought it possible unless I'd seen for myself.'
Nadine had changed into a shirt, sweater and pants of mine. She'd rolled tip the bottoms and tied back her wet hair. There was an air about her almost as withdrawn as on that day I had seen her in the trench during the expedition, and her eyes were equally inscrutable.