They trouped out with the bones and hurled them into the sea while Croomes said a long prayer over them. The skeleton nearest the tunnel had to be Blessed's mother, but no one mentioned this, and she would certainly have wept if she had suspected it. Burton and some of the others knew from Paheri's story that, when the Egyptians had come here, they'd found some pieces of scalp which hadn't rotted away entirely. These had held black kinky hair.
They returned and loaded up one of the thirty-person boats with their possessions and sixty cans of food. Four men picked up the big but very light craft and carried it down the tunnel to the cave. Two men and two women brought out a smaller one to be attached by a rope to the other.
When asked why the extra was needed, he replied, "Just in case."
He had no idea what the case might be. It couldn't hinder them, though, to take extra precautions.
The last to leave the chamber, he gave it a final look. It was very quiet and eerie here with the nine glowing lamps and the empty boats. Would anyone follow them? He didn't think so. This was the third expedition and the most successful, so far. Things went by threes. Then he thought of Joe Miller, who had twice fallen into the sea. Surely he wouldn't do it again?
Not unless we give him a chance, he thought.
All but Ah Qaaq and Gilgamesh got into the big boat. They pushed it into the water, climbed aboard, and began drying off their feet. Burton had studied the picture-chart in the craft until he knew what to do by heart. He stood on the raised deck behind the steering wheel and punched a button on the control panel. A light sprang out from the surface of the panel itself, a glow which enabled him to see the buttons. They had no markings, but the diagram showed the location and purpose of each.
At the same time, a bright orange outline of a cylindrical shape, the tower, sprang out on a screen just above the panel.
"We're ready," he called back. He paused, punched another button, and said, "We're off!"
"Off to see the Wizard of Oz, the Fisher King!" Frigate said. "Off to find the holy grail!"
"May it be holy," Burton said. He burst out laughing. "But if it is, what are we doing there?"
Whatever the propulsive power was—there was no trembling of the boat from propellers nor wake from a jet—the vessel moved swiftly. Its speed was controlled by a curious device, a plastic bulb attached to the rim of the wheel on the right side. By squeezing or releasing his grip, Burton could control the speed. He turned the wheel until the image of the tower moved from the right to the center of the screen. Then he slowly increased the pressure on the bulb. Presently, the boat was cutting through the waves at an angle. Spray drenched those behind him, but he would not slow down.
Now and then he looked behind him. In the dark fog he could not even see to the stern of the boat, but its passengers were huddled closely at the edge of the control deck. They looked in their shroudlike cloths like souls being ferried by Charon.
They were as silent as the dead, too.
Paheri had estimated that it had taken Akhenaten's boat about two hours to get to the tower. That was because he had been afraid to make the boat go at top speed. The sea, as reported by the Parseval radarman, was thirty miles in diameter. The tower was about ten miles in diameter. So there were only about twenty miles to go from the cave. The Pharaoh's vessel must have crawled at ten miles per hour.
The tower rapidly grew larger on the screen.
Suddenly, the image burst into flame.
They were very close to their goal.
The direction sheet indicated that now was the time to punch another button. Burton did so, and two extremely bright bow-lamps shot their beams into the mists and lit upon a vast curving dull surface.
Burton released all pressure on the bulb. The boat quickly lost speed and started drifting away. Applying power again, he swung the boat around and headed it slowly for the dim bulk. He punched another button, and he could see a big port, thick as the door in a bank vault, open in the seamless side.
Light streamed out through the O.
Burton cut off the power and turned the wheel so that the side of the boat bumped against the lower side of the open port. Hands seized the threshold and steadied the boat.
"Hallelujah!" Blessed Croomes screamed. "Momma, I'll soon be with you, sitting on the right hand of sweet Jesus!"
The others jumped. The stillness, except for the slight thudding of the boat against the metal, had been so impressive and their wonder that the way was finally open for them had been so overpowering, they felt that her cry was near sacrilege.
"Quiet!" Frigate shouted. But he laughed when he realized that no one could hear them.
"Momma, I'm coming!" Blessed shouted.
"Shut up, Croomes!" Burton said. "Or by God I'll throw you into the water! This is no place for hysterics!"
"I'm not hysterical! I'm joyous! I'm filled with the glory of the Lord!"
"Then keep it to yourself," Burton said.
Croomes told him he was bound for Hell, but she subsided.
"You may be right," Burton said. "Let me tell you though, that we're all going to the same place now. If it's Heaven, we'll be with you. If it's Hell..."
"Don't say that, man! That's irreverent!"
Burton sighed. She was, on the whole, sane. But she was a religious fanatic who managed to ignore the facts of-life and also the contradictory elements in her faith. In this, she was much like his wife, Isabel, a devout Roman Catholic who had managed to believe in spiritualism at the same time. Croomes had been strong, enduring, uncomplaining, and always helpful during their struggles to reach this place except when she was trying to convert her crewmates to her religion.
Through the port he could see the gray-metaled corridor which Paheri had described. Of his companions who had collapsed near its end, there was no sight. Paheri had been too frightened to follow the others. He'd stayed in the boat. Then Akhenaten and his people fell to the floor, and the port had swung shut as silently as it had opened. Paheri had been unable to find the cave, and he had finally gone over the first of the cataracts in his boat and had awakened on some far bank of The River. But now there were no more resurrections.
Burton unbuttoned the strap on his holster.
He said, "I'll go first."
He stepped up over the threshold. Moving air warmed his face and hands. The light was shadowless, seeming to emanate from the walls, floor, and ceiling. A closed door was at the end of the corridor. The entrance port had been opened by thick gray-metal curving rods that disappeared inside a sixfoot-high cube of gray metal by the outer wall. The base of the cube seemed to be part of the floor. No welding or bolts held it.
Burton waited until Alice, Aphra, Nur, and de Marbot had entered. He told them not to go more than ten feet from the port. Then he called out, "You fellows bring in the small boat!"
Tai-Peng said, "Why?"
"We'll wedge it in the door. It should keep the door from swinging shut."
Alice said, "But it'll be crushed."
"I doubt it. It's made of the same substance as the grails and the tower."
"It still looks awfully fragile."
"The grails have very thin walls, and the engineers in Parolando tried to blow them up, to crush them with powerful machinery, and to dent them with triphammers. They had no effect whatsoever."
The corridor light shone on the faces of the men in the boat below. Some looked surprised; some, delighted; some, emotionless. He wasn't able to determine by their reactions who X might be.