A Cleft Of Stars

I could sense the conscious effort she made to bring her nerves under control.

'Shouldn't we try to bandage the wound and stop the bleeding first?'

'I don't know enough to judge. Perhaps carrying him will make it worse. At a guess I'd say the slug is lodged inside him.'

She buried her head suddenly in her arm and cried out brokenly. 'It was all so good until. . until.. I couldn't find it in myself to comfort her. There were a score of questions I dared not face. I had not even started to come to terms with the situation which had exploded the moment I saw Rankin's sights tracking the aircraft; the range of events which had taken over extended much beyond Rankin now. At the press of a trigger he had brought unguessed-at forces into play and The Hill was somehow one of them. Without further ado I shouldered the pilot's limp body.

'Keep on the top side of the ruined wall and don't look down,' I told Nadine. 'Stay put at the gap until I come back for you.'

Heat bounced off the rocks and seemed to distort their shape. Its intensity made my head swim. There was nothing I could do to ease Talbot's passage and I suspected that we must have left a trail of blood behind us. Nadine kept close to me until we reached the unprotected section between wall and door. There I shifted my grip to steady myself: my arm muscles were kicking from the weight of my burden. I wanted to turn and reassure Nadine before starting off, but didn't know what to say. Looking up to take my line for the crossing, all I was aware of was The Hilclass="underline" looming, blocking everything. Our Hill. I cannot pretend to remember staggering to the other side, blinded as I was by the insufferable light and my confused mental state, but the barred gate brought a return to reality. My earlier leap up the coping came back like a film flashback of which I was a spectator, not a participant. I put Talbot down and decided that once again I would have to attempt the stone face. This time, however, there was no revenge induced thrust to transform my hands and feet into automatic instruments finding their own holds. The ascent was painful, slow and energy-sapping. Once over the breastwork, however, it was only a matter of minutes before I had lifted the door's rough-hewn log catch.

To my astonishment, Nadine was crouched beside the airman. My general annoyance with her boiled over. 'My God! I don't want any extra casualties on my hands! I told you to wait for me!'

The sun was strong enough to burn all expression from her eyes except a bright carry-over of terror from her recent brush with death.

But her reply was a sensible one. 'You left a trail of blood all the way across. The sooner we do something for him the better'

'Come on then?

Together we hefted the inert body, Nadine carrying his feet and I his shoulders. We carried him into the 'command post'. But it was Rankin who held her attention. She became paler still at the sight of him, put down Talbot's feet, and went over to where he lay wheezing, standing back with a sort of shocked repugnance. She looked at me — reproachfully, I believed — and I stared back wordlessly.

'You did that to him, Guy? I wouldn't have believed it possible when I think of the gentleness I've known from you.'

I was in no mood for any criticism from her. 'Don't waste your sympathy on that hardline sonofabitch! He had two guns and a knife. There they are at your feet.'

She gathered up four shell cases-two stubby ones from the derringer and two lean ones from the Mauser-then with her earlier air of repugnance studied the fine 7 mm Mauser, with its ribbed barrel and glistening stock of African zebra wood, where Rankin had flung it before making at me. She nicked up the derringer by its flick-blade between thumb and forefinger holding it and the spent cases out to me. I read this as a further accusation.

'Guy, I'm not reproaching you. I. see the odds. I'm reproaching the whole situation we're in.'

'I'd cleaned it up — then you arrived.'

She turned away. The tension was punctuated by Rankin's gasps. I wondered if a rib had pierced one of his lungs. I added a little more kindly, 'That's all over now. Our immediate problem is Talbot.'

She pitched the derringer and shell cases away and came back to help the pilot. The command-post was backed by a hollowed-out cliff of holkrans sandsteen similar to my safe spot on The Hill. To the front the post dominated an area so extensive that one machine-gunner could have held a whole regiment at bay. At the rear the original roofline had collapsed centuries before, converting what must merely have been an overhang into a cave. The entrance was to one side, the interior out of sight. The place offered reasonable living quarters under the most trying weather conditions. Silently we carried Talbot into the shade.

We avoided each other's eyes.

'Let's see what's inside,' I suggested.

We edged past a rock pillar at the entrance and found ourselves in what was more a workshop than a home. A curious wooden structure, something between a bench and a skeletonized cupboard minus panelling, dominated the centre of the shadowy interior. Two wheels were set into openwork beams at the top. From them a long cogwheel spindle ran almost to the floor, where it was connected to a treadle which appeared to have come from a sewing-machine. On the surface of the bench a heavy balanced arm rested on a revolving disc. It looked like an outsize gramophone turntable. Set about it were a series of screw-clamps and large butterfly nuts. On the floor was a cast-iron pot with burned-out coals. Among them was a metal crucible filled with solder; and a similar empty vessel lay on the bench.

Nadine shivered, maybe because of the contrast with the heat outside; the coldness I felt was my recollection of Rankin's hands in the moonlight. I puzzled over what strange craft those hands might ply on the bizarre machinery before us. Nothing could have been in greater contrast to his hovel on the diggings than this neat, clean, trim abode.

'What is all this apparatus for, Guy?'

'It stumps me. But the place looks as if it's been lived in for a long time.'

'It must have been he who booby-trapped our expedition.' '

That's for sure. Other things too.'

She waited for me to explain further but I couldn't bring myself to muck-rake details of the guard's murder and Rankin's attempt on my life.

'What is it, Guy? What are you hiding from me? What has got into you?' She was obviously making an effort to keep her voice even.

I tried to lower the pressure between us. 'Let's take a look round. There may be something we can use to help Talbot.' '

Here's a camp-bed, and a stretcher too.'

'Perhaps there's some water. We'll need it if we're to clean up his wound.'

We went deeper into the cave. There were two chambers, a smaller one leading off the first, larger one. The inner room was clearly Rankin's kitchen.

'There's our water,' I said. 'And I could use a drop of brandy in it too.'

I went towards three or four large, buff-coloured. Aladdinlike storage jars. There were several dippers nearby, all decorated with a similar sort of triangular motif near the upper rim. There was also a spouted bowl with odd black markings.

'Guy! Please don't! Don't drink!'

Nadine was staring at the dippers as if they were instruments of torture.

'I doubt whether Rankin thought of poisoning me, among his other efforts,' I answered ironically. 'And by Heaven he owes me a drink! I intend to have it.'

'No, Guy!'

'Don't be ridiculous,' I said off-handedly. 'I haven't had any water since yesterday. Again because of Rankin all I've tasted is a lot of soapy pith.'

'Guy — what has been going on here at The Hill between you and Rankin? All I get from you are hints and a lot of evasions when I try to press my questions.'

'It can wait. If you won't let me use one of those things, I'll try my hands instead.'