"Gun or rifle, but I don't understand why you would want to deliberately
kill any of God's creatures," she protested.
"That I can never explain to you." He aimed deliberately and fired once.
Even through the lower magnification of the sight lens he could see that
the bullet had struck exactly three inches high.
"It is something to do with an atavistic urge that few men, no matter
how Cultured and civilized they deem themselves, can deny completely."
He fired a second time.
"Some of them work it out in the board room, others on the golf course
or the tennis court, and some of us on a salmon river, in the ocean
deeps or in the hunting field."
He fired a third shot, merely to confirm the previous two, and then went
on, "As for God's creatures, he gave them to us. You are the believer.
Quote me Acts 10, verses 12 and 13."
"Sorry." She shook her head. "You tell me.
... all manner Of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and
creeping things, and fowL of the air,"'
Nicholas obliged her. "'And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter;
kill, and eat., "You should have been a lawyer," she moaned in mock
despair.
"Or a priest," he suggested, and went forward to retrieve the target. He
found that his last three shots had punched a tiny symmetrical rosette
three inches above the bull, all three bullet holes just touching each
other.
He patted the butt stock of the little rifle, "That's my lovely darling,
Lucrezia Borgia." He had named the rifle for her beauty and for her
murderous potential.
He slid the rifle back into its leather slip case and they walked back
together. As they came in sight of the camp, Nicholas pulled up short.
"Visitors," he said, and raised his binoculars. "Aha! We have flushed
something out of the undergrowth. That is a Pegasus truck parked there
and, unless I am much mistaken, one of our visitors is the charming
laddie from Abilene.
Let's go down and find out what is going on."
As they drew closer to camp, they realized that there were a dozen or
more heavily armed, uniformed soldiers clustered around the red and
green Pegasus truck, and that Jake Helm and an Ethiopian army officer
were seated under the awning of the dining tent in serious and intent
conversation with Boris, A
s soon as Nicholas entered the tent, Boris introduced him to the
bespectacled Ethiopian officer. "This is Colonel Tuma Nogo, the military
commander of the southern Goiam region."
"How do you do?" Nicholas greeted him, but the colonel ignored the
pleasantry.
"I want to see your passport, and your firearms licence, he ordered
arrogantly, while Jake Helm chewed complacently on the evil-smelling
butt of an extinguished cigar.
"Yes, of course," Nicholas agreed, and went to his own tent to fetch his
briefcase. He opened it on the dining table, and smiled at the officer.
"I am sure you will also want to see my letter of introduction from the
British Foreign Secretary in London, and this one from the British
Ambassador in Addis Ababa. Here is another from the Ethiopian Ambassador
to the Court of St. James, and this is from your own Minister of
Defence, General Abraha."
The colonel stared in consternation at this fruit salad of ornate
official letterheads and scarlet beribboned seals.
Behind the gold-rimmed glasses his eyes were bemused and confused.
"Sir!" He jumped to his feet and saluted. "You are a friend of General
Abraha? I did not know. Nobody informed me. I beg your pardon for this
intrusion."
He saluted again, and his embarrassment made him awkward and ungainly.
"I came to warn you only that the Pegasus Company is conducting drilling
and blasting operations. There may be some danger. Please be alert. Also
there are many bandits and outlaws, shufta, operating in this area."
Colonel Nogo was flustered and barely coherent.
He stopped and drew a deep breath to steady himself. "You see, I have
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