Nadine sat ahead of me on a small stool, her chin, characteristically, cupped on her interlocked fingers. She was so still that for a moment I wondered if she too were asleep but she was in fact awake and staring fixedly at The Hill. It looked uglier and more menacing with, behind it, a setting sun as lurid as a film fake. A splendid tower of smoke hung over K2 and the remains of the plane. Its tip was chalk-rose in the sunset.
I remained motionless, not wishing to break the spell and wondering whether the things I had been through had really happened. There was only the faintest nimbus round her hair, which merged into the gathering darkness; her shirt was tinted yellow-gold at the shoulders. For a brief respite I felt good, good simply to be with her.
'Guy!'
The vignette of a few precious moments vanished: she swung round and got up. My sleep-soothed mind jerked into action at the imperative note in her voice.
I too now heard the distant sound and in a second was on my feet and with her at the parapet. It came intermittently, echoing among the fading hills.
'That's an airscrew.'
'Yes, Guy, it is! Listen! It's coming from somewhere over by the river!'
This could be salvation for Talbot and Rankin. We held our breaths. One moment the sound seemed close, the next far away. It was higher pitched than the Tiger Moth's engine.
'Someone must have spotted the smoke,' I said.
'It's much too soon for an air search; they won't know until tomorrow at the earliest that the Tiger Moth is missing. Peter and I flew from Pietersburg and that's hundreds of miles away to the south. We checked out a false destination on purpose to hide our trail. They won't dream of looking here.'
'I'd guess then that some other plane has come to investigate the smoke — we're right on the frontier.'
'The regular air route's far away near Messina. . listen, Guy, it's stopped!'
The minutes ticked by. 'Nadine,' I said slowly. 'The most likely thing is that it's a relief plane come to pick up the guard.. I explained briefly about the murder at the hut.
'I begin to understand better now,' she replied sombrely. I wished I could see the expression on her face but it was really dark now.
'If it had been the guard plane, surely it would have made some signal to the hut?' she argued. 'And anyway it doesn't seem a very likely time of day to come and fetch the guard.' '
There it is again!'
The noise came through clearly but we could not pinpoint it.
'It seems very light for an aeroplane engine,' she remarked. '
But that's the sound of a propeller all right.'
'It's stopped again.'
'If it's cutting on and off it means the machine's in trouble-perhaps it knows about the airstrip and is trying to locate it for an emergency landing.'
We waited for it to resume but after ten minutes there was still nothing.
'We would surely have heard it if it had crashed?' she asked.
'Yes. In this stillness you can hear a jackal bark miles away. Also, there's no sign of a fire. Think what a pyre the Tiger made — we're bound to see it.'
After keeping our eyes skinned for another ten minutes from our grandstand perch we gave up. The uncertainty disrupted our discussion of further plans for Rankin and Talbot. It would have been stepping from the frying-pan into the fire to leave The Hill when help might be at hand. Nadine held out her powerful torch, but I shook my head. Though as concerned as she for the plane's safety, I knew that any signal from where we stood would mislead the pilot into disaster. And any attempt to make our way to the airstrip miles away at night through the bush would be futile. We decided to stay where we were until morning.
The tip of the plane's smoke pyre vanished with the full onset of night. The stars grouped themselves in epaulettes on The Hill's shoulders. Its bulk was invisible but we still sensed its dominion. At moonrise it would re-emerge, like a centurion standing athwart Africa.
The disappearance of the need for further action or consultation over the injured pair inevitably brought about the confrontation between us. I dreaded it but there was no escape. The long silence before she began was an ominous curtain-raiser.
I half expected her to reproach me or plead but she did neither.
'Guy,' she said, 'What I am going to say now is something I was reserving for the night we first make love. I've thought all along that would be the moment but I've changed my mind. I think you need to know it now that we're faced with a crisis in our love.'
Her quiet almost detached words about her own body being pledged to mine and the strong physical pull of her presence sent a powerful shock-wave of sexual charge through me. I yearned to see her face and eyes and slim figure but the hazed stars were too dim. The soundtrack of the African bush was silent.
'The queen and her ring are of course at the heart of it.. She smiled slightly, the first time since the crash. . 'Oddly enough, those old dippers I stopped you drinking from are also involved. But I'm not doing this very well, kicking off at the end instead of the beginning.'
'The Hill's the start. I think we've all been so dazzled by its treasures — all that gold, the golden rhino and the crown and other stuff — that it's blinded us to another side which is equally important, if not more so.'
Her voice warmed and again I wished for some light, to see what I knew must be in her eyes.
'You remember how excited Dr Drummond became when I discovered the statuette?'
'I'll never forget that day, for more reasons than one.' She inclined towards me on her stool; the thing sparked between us like two joined electric terminals.
'Well, it was proof of something he had suspected for years although he'd no direct evidence. You were out for the count in hospital when this was going on. All the treasure was proof enough of The Hill's temporal power, but the statuette revealed the other side of the coin.'
'What do you mean, Nadine?'
'The Hill was a symbol of spiritual power throughout the whole of Africa south of the Sahara.'
'One statuette couldn't have proved all that.'
'No. But it confirmed Dr Drummond's suspicions. You see, years before, he'd found an ancient inscription hinting at a powerful force marching down Africa towards where we are now. It was led by a general or a king — maybe both offices were combined — who claimed he 'knew God'; and who demanded in the name of his God the allegiance of all the countries through which he travelled. And he got it. Backing this rallying-call was a quite remarkable political machine which enforced his rule. There's no doubt that he was some sort of oracular master-mind who gave supernatural revelations to the masses. Anyway, he surrounded himself with enough mystique and terror to ensure that long after he and his stronghold of The Hill had passed away he continued to hold superstitious sway over millions. Do you wonder The Hill is still regarded as taboo?'
'If all this is so, where is his grave? We both know that the one with the treasure was the queen's.'
'That's what is so curious-it never has been found'
I wondered where all this was leading. I couldn't see that it had much bearing on Nadine and myself.
I think she detected some impatience in my tone and hurried on.'Rankin's water dippers come into this — you wondered why I wouldn't let you use them?'
'I still do.'
'They're not for water at all. They're called funerary furniture. They come from a grave; not a human one.'