It was the question that Adam had been expecting and he had already made up his mind to refuse. `No darling,' he said gently. 'If you personally were in danger, I'd willingly risk my life to save you. I'm sure you know that. But to become involved in a political showdown that is none of my business is quite another matter. I'm afraid, too, that you are being over optimistic and that your attempt will end in a blood bath. I sympathise with the hard lot of the Indians, but in this affair I'm going to stand on the sidelines. Then, if things do go wrong, I'll still be on hand to do my damndest to get you out.'
She gave a heavy sigh. `I'm sorry you feel like that, because I'd rather counted on you. Still, there it is. Let's forget it for the moment and make love again.'
Grateful that she had not pressed him, he readily agreed and, without further serious conversation, they spent the rest of the night much as they had the previous one.
Next morning they drove to Monte Alban. It was much nearer than Mitla and the way led in snake like bends up a steep hillside. When they reached the top, Adam found the ruins and their situation overwhelming. They occupied a long, broad plateau, several hundred feet in height, enclosed on every side by deep valleys and, beyond them, great ranges of mountains. Pyramids had been constructed which framed an oblong area two hundred yards wide and half a mile long. Some were still grass covered; others had scores of steep steps leading down into the arena. It dwarfed any modern stadium and, when fully occupied, could have held countless thousands of people.
At the far end of it Chela showed Adam a row of flat, carved stones about five feet high, which had been set into the base of one of the low pyramids. On them were carved figures with a variety of features. One was obviously a Negro, another a Chinese, others clearly types of European, Asiatic and Indian. They represented a prehistoric gallery representative of a United Nations; but how an artist of that remote era could ever have known and portrayed such a variety of races seemed to Adam a mystery, and he exclaimed
`But this is extraordinary! The archaeologists say that this place was founded about 500 B.C. Another two thousand years elapsed before Cortes and his Spaniards arrived here. These are totally different types of men white, yellow and black so how could the early Mexican Indians ever have known about them?'
Chela smiled. `It is accepted now that Columbus did not discover America. He only rediscovered it after the appalling blackout of knowledge that descended on the peoples of Europe during the Dark Ages.'
`Yes, that's so. The Horsemen explored part of the North American coast, established colonies there and called it the Vineland. But that was not until the tenth century, only five hundred years before Columbus, and there is not even a suggestion that they knew of the existence of Mexico and South America.'
`But other people did, and hundreds of years earlier. In the time of Minos, the Cretans were a great sea faring people. It is quite probable that they crossed the Atlantic. That would not have been anywhere near so great a feat as that of Pharaoh Necho's sailors who sailed right round Africa and came home up the Red Sea. It is as good as certain that, long before Christ, the Phoenicians established trading posts here, because their alphabet and the Mexican had definite similarities. Then, much later still, but a thousand years before Columbus, there were the Irish. They colonized parts of the Amazon and it is said that tribes of white Indians still living there in the jungles are their descendants. The Horsemen, too, went right up the Amazon to Peru, then ventured on across the Pacific. It is recognised now that the Polynesians in Tahiti and other islands owe their fair skins and the roots of their language to them. So, you see, it is not really surprising that here on Monte Alban you should see the carved portrayals of many different races.'
Adam shook his head. `It is quite enough that you should be so beautiful. To be erudite as well is almost overdoing it. If Athene had been a man, I'd say he'd had a roll in the hay with Venus and you were the result of it.'
They passed the rest of their lovely day swimming, sunbathing and endlessly discussing the fascinating subject of their past lives. After they had dined she said to him, `I have some work to do, so I'm going up to my room. I'll be seeing you.'
For a while he read in the lounge, then he too went upstairs. In bed he lay forming exciting mental pictures of her with glowing anticipation of another glorious night of love making. Time passed, eleven o'clock, twelve, but still she failed to join him. At last, overcome with impatience, he got out of bed, put on his dressing gown and tiptoed along to her room.
Aghast and shattered, he found it empty and with no trace of her. Hurrying downstairs, regardless of what the night clerk might think, he verified the number of her room. He had been to the right one, but the desk clerk said, `The Senorita Enriquez left in her car for Mexico City an hour and a half ago.'
She had said `I'll be seeing you', but not when; so had practised a cheat upon him. Furious and inconsolable, he had to accept that, for the time being at least, he had lost her.
CHAPTER 9
A Dark Ceremony
IN THE morning, as early as he thought permissible, Adam telephoned the penthouse in the Avenida Presidente Masarik, only to be told that Chela was not there. Then, as it was a Sunday, thinking she might have gone to the house at Cuernavaca, he tried that, but with the same result. This led him to suppose that she had broken her journey to pass the night somewhere on the road, would attend Mass in the morning and would be back in Mexico City at latest by the afternoon.
On enquiry he found there was no morning flight to the capital, so he would have to take an evening plane. In an endeavour to distract his mind, he spent a couple of hours mooching round the town, bathed twice and tried in vain to settle down to a book; but the day seemed interminable. Hour after hour he badgered his wits for an explanation of Chela's extraordinary conduct. He could think of only one, and that made him utterly miserable.
She had asked for his help in the coming revolution and he had refused it. Bitterly he recalled the midnight meeting between her and Alberuque and overhearing the Monsignor speak of the `stranger' who could prove such a great asset to their cause, and how she must secure his help even if, by inference, she had to sleep with him. That he was that `stranger' he no longer had a shadow of doubt. Chela's revelation, that in his Mexican incarnation he had been Quetzalcoatl, was ample proof of that. They meant to use him as a figurehead with which to rouse the passions of the Indians. The sight of him, a near giant, with his red gold hair and beard, when presented to an already prepared mob, would send them into battle howling with fanaticism.
Yet it seemed impossible to believe that his beautiful Chela, who had given herself to him with such passion, was cold at heart, really cared nothing for him and had just allowed herself to be used as the tool of a scheming priest. There was, too, their wonderful link from the past. Their miraculous coming together again after nearly a thousand years. Surely that unique experience must mean as much to her as it did to him? Nevertheless, she had abandoned him without even a word of farewell, and on the evening after he had refused her his help; so what other explanation for her behaviour could there possibly be?
At last he was in the aircraft on his way back to Mexico City. As soon as he reached his hotel he telephoned the penthouse again, but she had still not arrived. On the chance that he might get news of her he asked to speak to either Bernadino or Ramon, but both were away and were not expected home until the following morning.
After another night of misery he rang up again. This time Ramon came on the line. He had just returned from spending the week end at Cuernavaca. No, Chela was not there and they were not expecting her. She was away on one of her tours inspecting schools, so might now be in any one of half a dozen towns. Then he asked, `Do you happen to be free for lunch today?'