"But-and this is the point I want to make clear to you, young lady." Holroyd had lit his pipe and was puffing at it happily. "Whilst I was in Athens I was able to convince both the Ministry and the Security Police that Dr. Van der Voort has broken with the Russians and that his presence here in Greece is entirely innocent."
I don't think Sonia believed him even then. "But why-" she said. "Why should you do that?"
"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?"
"Yes, but-"
"You have to have a reason, do you?" He was smiling at her, perfectly relaxed now. "Try looking at it from my point of view. Without Dr. Van der Voort this expedition will achieve nothing. And I had great hopes of a break-through, something new. I've been asked to read a paper at the Pan-European Prehistoric Congress in May and this would be an ideal platform from which to launch Dr. Van der Voort's new theory. And Mr. Leonodipoulos here is keen, very keen, that his country should be involved in any scientific advance in our evolutionary knowledge."
The Greek official nodded. "That is quite correct. Despite Dr. Van der Voort's political background, my Ministry is now satisfied that it is important for Greece that he continues his work here."
Holroyd smiled and got to his feet. "You think about that," he told her, "while we go up and look at this cave-dwelling. And remember, the Congress meets in less than two months. There's not much time."
"You mean-when he's found-he's free to go on with his work?"
"You heard what Mr. Leonodipoulos said."
"But then you don't need information from me. You will be able to talk to him personally."
"Perhaps. I hope so." He patted her arm in a fatherly way. "Well, we'll see, eh?" He turned to Cartwright, gave a peremptory jerk of his head, and as the party began to move oflF through the olive grove, he began explaining the cave to Leonodipoulos. "I'm afraid this may not appear to you very impressive, accustomed as you are to tholos tombs and the glories of Ancient Greece. But Greek civilization stemmed
from successive waves of primitive people coming down from the Black Sea coasts and the Caucasus. What Alec Cartwright hopes to unearth here, and perhaps elsewhere, is the original souce of your civilization. This may be the first of a whole series of exciting discoveries-"
His voice faded and I looked round for Sonia. She was walking slowly down to the stream. Her long bare legs, her fair hair, the white tunic of her dress-in that setting she looked like one of the early Greeks. I started to go after her, but Hans stopped me. "We go up to the dig now," he said. "She wants to be alone." That surprised me, that he should be so considerate. "She is concerned about Van der Voort."
I nodded. "She behaves as though …" I didn't know quite how to put it to him. "How did they come to meet in the first place?" I asked. "I suppose she was also studying anthropology?"
"No. Biology."
"It was through you then?"
"Partly."
I continued to question him as we started up the track to the dig, but he was not very communicative. And yet her concern had been so deeply emotional. . "Tell me about your own father," I said finally.
"My father is dead. A car accident. It happened three years ago." The tone of his voice discouraged further questions and we walked on in silence.
When we reached the cave Holroyd was standing back, sucking at his pipe and looking up at the overhang, his eyes narrowed against the glare. Cartwright was watching him anxiously. "I think you're going to have trouble here." Holroyd turned to Leonodipoulos. "What we are concerned with is the fate of Neanderthal man when the oceanic climate changed to a continental one. The Neanderthalers went into a sort of decline and a new race of man-the Cro-Magnon or Aurignacian type-began to take over."
"I do not understand." Leonodipoulos was frowning. "Why does this new type, this Cro-Magnon, take over?"
"Aye, well, there you've put your finger on it." Holroyd nodded. "That's the question we've all been asking ourselves. Mousterian man-the Neanderthalers-had been in existence a long time, sixty thousand years at least. We've found traces of him all over Europe, in Russia, in the Near East, in Africa, and with the passage of time you would expect his artefacts, his chippings of flint and chert and obsidian for use as weapons, to show a gradual improvement. And yet the reverse is the case, particularly after the emergence of Cro-Magnon man."
"You have told me," Leonodipoulos said, "that this Cro-Magnon is our own species."
"Yes. Homo sapiens sapiens. He's named after the Cro-Magnon cave-shelter at Les Eyzies in the Dordogne. That was where the first skeletons were unearthed, in 1868. But where he came from, that too is a mystery. The general view is that he came from Asia. Dr. Van der Voort thinks from Africa." He put a match to his pipe. "So there you have it-two mysteries. Where did he come from? Why did Mousterian man disappear? Did this taller, more intelligent type of man-a man with a bigger brain capacity, with a head like ours, no ape-like brow ridges and a square jaw-destroy the Neanderthalers, or did Mousterian man just fade away naturally, a sort of death wish, like an African under the spell of a witch doctor?" His pipe was drawing again, his round babyish face smiling. "Fascinating, isn't it? But whether this cave-shelter will throw any light on it-" He took his pipe out of his mouth, shaking his head, still smiling. "Difficult to say. But perhaps Van der Voort will be able to tell us."
His inspection of the dig took about half an hour and most of his comments were directed to Leonodipoulos. He seemed very anxious to establish the importance of the research they were doing into the prehistory of man in Greece. Several times he referred to the tourist attraction of the caves in the Dordogne region of France. But what interested me, as I stood there listening to him, was the way he managed to convey how primitive man, and the animals he hunted, could be associated, through the juxtaposition of bone remains, with definite climatic conditions and the period of their existence established in geological time by relating each new find to others of the same period. It was, in fact, a short lecture on how early man had developed along similar lines in different parts of the world, and the way he put it, in his slow, matter-of-fact North Country voice, even I could understand and appreciate why, once all the correlated parts of a discovery-human bones, animal bones, artefacts and the soil in which they had been found-had been established and the date determined, then the name given to that discovery was used to describe others of a similar type.
Finally, standing once again on the slope below the cave, he pointed the stem of his pipe at the overhang and said, "There's been a lot of water coming down this hillside. The evidence is there at the back of the cave." He turned to Cartwright. "I'm afraid, when you get down a little deeper, you'll find that whole layers of occupation have been washed down the slope or are interspersed with detritus from above. It looks as though Van der Voort has put you to work on a dig of extreme complexity."
We went back to the camp then. It was pleasant under the trees and Sonia had prepared a cold lunch. Holroyd seated himself next to me. "Now about your father. . you will appreciate from what I've been saying that the whole success of this expedition depends on him." His eyes were fixed on me. "You saw him yesterday?"
I nodded. In view of what he had said earlier there seemed no point in denying it.
"Where?" And when I told him, he said, "Good. Then they'll pick him up today. Did he talk to you about the future at all? Did he say whether he planned to concentrate on this cave site or move on to another area?"
"We were interrupted."
"I see. Well, it doesn't matter. He'll be able to tell us that himself, I hope." He concentrated for a moment on his food. He was a very purposeful eater, the sort of man who regards
food solely as fuel for his energy, and he talked and ate at the same time. "How did you know where to find him, eh?" He seized a glass of water and drank deeply, his little eyes watching me. "Alec didn't know. Nor did that Greek fellow-he had to follow you. Well?"