"Now that we have made this breakthrough, that is the only variable. We
are either right or Wrong. We will play work upper level, and if that
doesn' the sistrurn first as the lay it the other way round."
we can tricacies of the maze It was so much easier now. The in had
become less forbidding with familiarity. There were the large white
chalk signs in Nicholas's handwriting on each corner and at each fork
and T-junction of the tunnels.
They moved swiftly through the complex twists and turns, their
excitement rising sharply as they followed each notation and "i6und the
way still clear before them.
"The eighteenth move." Royan's voice trembled. "Hold both thumbs. If it
takes us into one of the open files that threaten the opponent's south
castle, then that will be the check coup." She drew a deep breath and
read it aloud to him. "The bird The numbers three and five. With the
lower level symbol of the three swords."
They paced it out and passed the five junctions into the lowest level of
the maze, reading their position from the chalk marks on the stone
blocks of the walls at each fork. "This is it!" Nicholas told her, and
they stood together and looked about them.
"There is nothing outstanding about this spot." Disappointment was
bitter in Royan's tone. "We have passed over it fifty times before. It
is just like any of the other turns."
"That is exactly what Taita would have wanted. Hell!
He wouldn't have put up a signpost saying " marks the spot", would he
now?"
"So what do we do?" She looked at him, for once at a loss.
"Read the last epigram from the stele."
S he had her notebook in her hand. "'From the black and holy earth of
dus very Egypt the harvest is abundant. I whip the flanks of my donkey,
and the wooden spike of the plough breaks new ground. I plant the seed,
and reap the grape and the ears of corn. In time I drink the wine and
eat the loaf. I follow the rhythm of the seasons, and tend the earth."'
She looked up at him. "The rhythm of the seasons? Is he referring us to
the four faces of the stele? The earth?"
she asked and looked down at the slabs beneath their feet, "The promise
of reward from the earth? Under our feet, perhaps?" she asked.
He stamped his foot on the slabs, but the sound was dull and solid.
"Only one way to find out." He raised his voice and it echoed weirdly
through the labyrinth. "Hansith! Come down here!'
apper sat on the high seat of his yellow frontend loader in the rain and
cheerfully cursed his gang of Buffaloes, secure in the knowledge that
they understood not a word of his insults. The rain swept over them in
intermittent gusts off the high mountains. It was not yet the solid,
drenching downpour of the true wet season. However, the river was rising
sullenly, turning dirty blue'grey with the mud and sediment that it was
bringing down.
He knew that the flood had not yet begun in earnest.
The thunder that growled ominously along the mountain peaks like a pride
of hunting lions was only the prelude to the vast celestial onslaught
which would soon follow.
Although the river was lapping the top course of gabions "s dam, and was
roaring through the bypass that of Sapper he had cut into the side
valley, he was still holding it at bay. His Buffaloes were packing more
baskets with aggregate, using up the last of the steel mesh from the
stores in the quarry. As soon as each of these was filled and wired
closed, Sapper picked it up in the front bucket of the tractor and drove
it down the bank of the Dandera. He reinforced all the weak spots in the
dam wall, and then he began raising it another course. Sapper was fully
aware of the overturning effect that the river would exert once it began
to pour over the top of the wall. Nothing would be able to withstand its
power once this happened. It would carry away a rock-filled gabion as if
it were the branch of a baobab tree. it needed only a single breach in
the wall to bring the entire structure tumbling and rolling down. He had
no illusions as to just how swiftly the river could do its fatal work.
He knew that he dared not wait for the first breach to develop in the
wall before he warned Nicholas and Royan in the chasm downstream. The
river could easily outrun any messenger he sent, and once the wall began
to go it would already be too late. It would be a matter of fine
judgement, and he slitted his eyes against another gust of slanting rain
that blew into his face. His instinct was to call them out of the chasm
now - there was already less than twelve inches of free-board at the top
of the wall.
However, he knew that Nicholas would be furious if he was made to
evacuate the workings prematurely, and in so doing aborted all their
efforts. Sapper was fully aware of the extreme risks that Nicholas had
taken and of the crippling expenditure he had made to reach this stage.
Before they had left England, he had hinted to Sapper of the straitened
circumstances in which he found himself.
Although Sapper did not understand the intricacies or the
responsibilities of being a "Name' at Lloyd's, there had been so much
publicity in the British press that he could not but realize that, if
their venture here failed, the next stop for Nicholas would be the
bankruptcy courts - and Nicholas was his friend.
The squall of. rain blew over, and a bright hot sun burst through the
low cloud banks. The flow of the river seemed undiminished, but at least
the water level on the dam wall was no longer rising, "I'll give it
another hour," he grunted, engaging the gears of the tractor and easing
her down the bank to place another gabion in position.
Nicholas worked shoulder to shoulder with Hinsith's gang as they began
to strip the paving slabs from the floor of the lowest level of the
maze. The joints between the slabs were so tight that, even using
crowbars, they had difficulty prising them apart, In order to save time,
Nicholas made the hard choice of going into a destructive search. He put
four of the strongest men in the team to work with home-made
sledgehammers, lumps of ironstone on wooden shafts, to break UP the
slabs so that they could be more readily levered out of the floor. He
felt guilty about the damage they were causing to the site, but the work
went ahead very much faster.
The high spirits and enthusiasm of the men were at last beginning to
wane. They had worked too long in the oppressive confines of the maze,
and every one of them was the head of the fully aware of the rising
level of the river at gorge, and of the mortal threat behind those
waters. Their expressions were surly and there was little laughter' or
banter, But more worrying for Nicholas was the fact that at ported the
first the beginning of this shift Hansith had re duty.
desertions. Sixteen of his men had failed to report for They had quietly
rolled their blankets during the night, picked up whatever items of
value or utility they found lying around the camp, and crept away into
the darkness.
Nicholas knew that it was no use sending anyone after them - they had
too much of a start, and would be halfway up the escarpment already.