She looked at me. ‘Like this?’ And I knew she meant the two of us and the old bus. She smiled. ‘Yes, let’s do that.’ And she looked away again towards the mountains.
The desert sand dried quickly and by midday we were able to travel on it. As I drove across the open space between the forts, I saw that the French truck was still parked outside the Bureau. Its bonnet was up and both the orderly and Bilvidic’s assistant were working on the engine. There was a big crowd gathered by the ruins of the souk. They stared at us in silence as we drove by, a sullen, menacing group. And as we skirted Ksar Foum-Skhira along the edge of the palmerie there seemed a brooding stillness. There was nobody drawing water at the wells and, apart from a few children, nobody moved outside the walls.
‘The village looks deserted,’ Julie said. ‘It’s too quiet.’ Her voice sounded taut and strained and I remembered her reaction on our first arrival.
‘They’re short of food,’ I said. ‘That’s all. As soon as the piste is open again and the food trucks — ‘
‘It isn’t that. Something’s happened. They wouldn’t all be gathered round the souk like that if it hadn’t.’
I thought her sudden change of mood was due to the fact that in a few minutes now we should have rejoined Jan and Karen and that the reality of the situation would have closed round us again. ‘I’d rather be here than in Casablanca anyway,’ I said, trying to make a joke of it.
But all she said was, ‘I wish Legard were here.’
The camp looked empty when we reached it. The sides of the tents had been rolled up; clothes and bedding were laid out to air in the sun. The stream was much wider now, a surging flood of rustred water. As we got down, Karen appeared at the entrance to the cook tent and waved to us. I barely recognised her. She was wearing a pair of Ed White’s khaki trousers and a bush shirt several sizes too large for her. She was barefoot, trousers rolled up almost to her knees and the waist held in by a broad leather belt. ‘You look like a castaway,’ Julie said.
She laughed. ‘I’m cooking. Isn’t it wonderful!’ She tossed back her hair, her eyes sparkling. I tried to see in her the girl who had sat waiting in Jose’s cafe in Tangier. But it was impossible. She was somehow different, more alive, almost beautiful. ‘Where’s your husband?’ I asked.
‘He is up in the gorge.’ The laughter died out of her eyes. ‘And please, you must not call him my husband. He has told Ed that his name is Wade. We are sleeping in different tents and we came here together only because we got separated from the rest of you coming down the mountain.’ She hesitated. ‘I have to be very careful not to give Jan away. I keep my eyes on the ground and never look at him when he is here. It is not easy after so long.’
‘Good God!’ I said. I was appalled at the self-control required. It shocked me that he’d asked it of her. ‘And what about Ed?’ I asked. ‘Is he convinced?’
‘I.don’t know whether he is convinced or not. He doesn’t say much. He thinks only of the work up there in the gorge. I don’t think he cares.’
‘Jan’s being a fool,’ I said. ‘You know about this body they’ve found. You realise the risk he’s running?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. I realise.’
‘Have you talked to him about it?’
‘Yes, we have talked.’
‘And you didn’t try to dissuade him?’
‘No.’ She hesitated, and then said, ‘Please. You must try to understand. They think Jan Kavan is dead. It is the answer to everything.’ She stared up into my face, her eyes pleading. ‘You saved his life. You got him out of Tangier. You must help him now.’
‘How?’ I asked. ‘What does he want me to do?’
From the entrance to the gorge came the muffled thud of an explosion. Karen turned her head sharply, an anxious expression on her face.
‘What are they doing?’ Julie asked.
‘Blasting. He and the American. They have cleared the entrance to the mine and they are blasting to break up the rock falls inside the shaft so that they can clear it away by hand. He warned me what they were doing, but I don’t” like it. When we came down last night we went too far to the right and had to come down the shoulder of the gorge. All the rock there is crumbling away and the stones kept moving under our feet.’
‘Have you been up into the gorge?’ I asked her.
‘Yes.’ She gave a shudder. ‘I don’t like the place. It is cold and a little frightening. I prefer to cook.’ She said it with a little laugh. And then she looked at me, her face serious again. ‘That American — why is he so afraid?’
‘Afraid of what?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know. But last night, when we got here, he was waiting for us by his tent with a gun in his hand. He was terribly pleased to see us. I think he’s frightened to be here by himself.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ Julie said. ‘I would be myself.’
They were both of them looking up towards the gorge. Then Karen began to collect the blankets and fold them. Julie went to help her and I walked up the track into the gorge. Water was pouring in a cascade over the lip of the lake. It was a violent brick red. The whole gorge was full of the sound of water seeping down from above and it was cold and dank despite the noonday heat of the sun. The bulldozers stood idle. There was no sign of Jan or Ed White. But the rubble had been cleared from the base of the cliff to expose a round opening from which a cloud of rock dust drifted. It was like the entrance to a cave. ‘Jan!’ I shouted. ‘Jan!’ There was no answer, but back from the wall of the gorge opposite came the echo — Jan! Jan!
I walked towards the entrance to the mine. A little pile of clothing lay beside a plain deal box which was marked in red — explosives: Danger — Handle with Care. The top of it had been ripped off to expose cartridges of dynamite with slow-match fuses. The dust was thick by the shaft entrance, hanging like an iridescent cloud where the sunlight struck through from above. There was the sound of a stone shifting and Ed White appeared, staggering under the weight of a rock he was carrying. ‘Oh, it’s you, Latham.’ He dropped the rock on to a pile they had made just outside the entrance. ‘I thought I heard somebody call.’ He glanced up at the cliff top on the far side of the gorge, and then he gave a quick, nervous hitch to his trousers and came over. He was stripped to the waist and the dust had caked on the sweat of his body in a white film. He had his gun fastened to his belt. ‘Well, we’ve made some progress since yesterday. We’ve cleared the entrance and we’re working on the rock falls now. But we need some local labour. Wade thought you might help there. You know the language.’
‘He’s told you then?’ I asked tentatively. ‘About his name? Yeah, he told me.’ ‘It must have come as a bit of a shock to you.’ He looked at me for a moment and then said, ‘Between you and me I don’t care what he calls himself. All I’m interested in is getting through those falls before my dough runs out. This is a new country and what a man was before he came out here doesn’t interest me. All I know is I like the guy and we get on together. Have done from the first. Which was more than I expected from the tone of his letters,’ he added. And then he hitched up his belt and turned away towards the entrance to the shaft.
At that moment Jan emerged, blinking in the sunlight. ‘Philip!’ He came quickly forward. He, too, was stripped to the waist and the dust was white on his thick, hairy body. ‘I’m so glad you’ve come. We need your help.’ He stopped and his voice was suddenly nervous. ‘Bilvidic isn’t down at the camp, is he?’
‘No.’
‘That’s all right.’ It was almost a sigh of relief. ‘Look! We need men up here. There’s tons of rock to be hauled. We need twenty men at least.’ The eagerness was back in his voice again. ‘I thought if you could go down and have a word with Moha, maybe we could hire men from his village.’ He seemed to have no thought in his mind except the opening up of the shaft. ‘Come here. I want to show you something.’ He switched on the big torch he had slung on his belt and dived back into the shaft.
‘What is it?’ I asked Ed, for Jan’s voice had been excited.