A Cleft Of Stars

'In that case Praeger's bound to see us crossing the wadi.'

'In about six hours it'll be dark. We'll cross then. We'll use your hollow baobab to keep watch on von Praeger.'

I had a brainwave and the whole operation fell into place. '

Nadine! Wheels! What a clot I've been!'

'Where, Guy?'

'The plane wreck! The undercarriage was torn off when it first hit the trees! It's lying there for the taking — two wheels and an axle!'

'The tyres wouldn't have survived the fire'

'It doesn't matter about the tyres. The wheels alone are enough for our purpose. We'll fix them to his stretcher and we'll have a mobile litter. We'll make him fast to it with some of the plane's strut wires which are also lying around. It'll be a piece of cake hauling him across the wadi and on to the boat.'

'It's perfect, Guy!' She kissed me lightly. 'Absolutely perfect!'

However, a sense of caution curbed my enthusiasm. 'Don't let's get carried away too soon. Praeger still holds Rankin. We haven't beaten that part of the problem yet. We've got to get our hands on him, which means that somehow or other we must overpower Praeger — and his hyena.'

'If only we could lure Praeger out of the command-post for long enough, we could manage Rankin.'

'It bristles with difficulties. We'll have to be on the alert, to act fast. We'll also have to construct the litter in the dark almost under Praeger's own nose.'

I kicked at the Land-Rover wreck. 'What we need is weapons. We're pitting our bare hands against guns.' '

Plus our wits.'

'Do you remember if the tools were removed from these wrecks?'

'No. Only the petrol'

I reached into one of the mid-section tool compartments as far as I could and after a while I managed to extract a rusty tyre lever. I had no luck with some other things I could only touch. However, with the lever I prised loose a heavy mesh grille protecting a radiator.

'If we wedge that across the narrow section of the stairway it'

ll make an effective seal,' I told Nadine. 'It's not part of the Rankin kidnap plan — at this stage. It's merely an insurance in case things go wrong and we have to use your hide-out on the summit.'

'As I understand it, we cross the wadi tonight, somehow or other overpower von Praeger, grab Rankin, put him on the litter and make all speed for the boat?'

'Correct.'

I was peering under the crumpled bonnet at the engine compartment when, at the sight of the plastic brake fluid reservoir, a thought struck me like a sledgehammer.

'Fire!' I exclaimed. I've got the answer to what we can use for weapons! I'll make a petrol bomb out of my empty brandy bottle. If Praeger and his pet start getting tough, I'll toss it into the enclosure like a grenade. That'll bring 'em up short! They'll have to get out, with flaming fuel all over the place!'

'Where's the petrol coming from? There's none in these tanks.'

'From the boat,' I answered. 'We can come and go to it as. we wish.'

My mind was on the technicalities of fixing a wick through the brandy bottle cork when an odd thought made me burst out laughing.

'I've just thought of something else for our arsenaclass="underline" a minibomb using Koen's brandy! That stuff of his is practically pure alcohol. Like my petrol bomb, it'll kick up hell's delight. I'll reserve it specially for Dika!'

Nadine did not share my enthusiasm: 'It all sounds very ingenious and terror-like, but where does it get us? A petrol bomb in the command-post won't entice von Praeger out long enough for us to do anything about Rankin. We want him out of the way — well out of the way — for a long time. Instead, why not burn his plane tonight and create a major diversion that way?'

'Sounds good, but the time factor's against it. We'd never make it from the burning plane near the river to the command post and back again to the boat with Rankin. And we'd lay ourselves wide open to bumping into von Praeger somewhere along the line. Also he'd be sure to discover our boat if he passed near the river on the way to his plane. In which case our whole plan is shot.'

'We seem to be going round in circles.'

'No. The main plan's straightforward, but if things start getting snarled up we'll have to improvise, and improvise quickly.'

'What's the alternative if we have to?'

'It's all yours. Your cubby-hole on the summit of The Hill.' 'I don't like it, Guy, because it presupposes that we must abandon Rankin.'

'Not necessarily. Assume we transport him safely as far as The Hill en route for the boat, then have to take emergency action and hole up on the summit for some reason we can't foresee at this stage. We hide Rankin in the root cage as a temporary measure while we shoot up to your hideout. We'll block the secret stairway with this radiator grill. We'll take the litter with us. Praeger is bound to find Rankin but his problem then will be exactly what ours was without the plane's wheels: he can't move Rankin without killing him.'

'Checkmate.'

'Just the contrary. We can stand a siege on the summit by taking up food from my camp. The spring will give us water. We'll hamstring von Praeger and Koen as far as food goes by dumping the contents of Rankin's kitchen over the cliff. They haven't any other provisions that we know of.'

'Then let's hump some of your supplies up to the summit right away,' she answered. 'I think it would also be a good thing if you made yourself familiar with the layout there.'

She tried to smile but it didn't come off. 'As a matter of tactics, not of the heart.'

CHAPTER TWELVE

After our return to the root screen I checked the command post again with the glasses before beginning the food-lift operation. I was uneasy about von Praeger, of whom there was no sign. The place was too far away for him to be able to distinguish individuals but it would be possible for him to see figures moving about, and the nature of our various movements might have aroused his suspicion. I did not want anything to foil our main plan now that we had firmly decided upon it. After a couple of minutes the bright, hard light hurt my eyes too much for me to go on looking; moreover the heat waves reduced the outlines of the rock to vagueness. Nadine also took a long look but could see nothing. Somewhat reassured, we crossed to the camping-spot and quickly loaded the gunny sack which was our sole container with a manageable weight of supplies for the stiff climb. We reckoned they would last us about five days if rationed carefully. I was of two minds about Koen's machine-pistol. It was too heavy and cumbersome to take along and yet it was a big risk leaving it I didn't want to smash it in case I should find a spare magazine when we broke into the command-post; something which would completely alter the balance of power in our favour. I compromised by removing the empty clip and part of the firing mechanism, which I pocketed.

Koen, lying at the foot of the stairway, still showed no signs of consciousness. We left him there and started off, Nadine leading and carrying his boots to stash away in some rocky niche high up out of sight and reach. She outdistanced me but waited at the tricky section which had been Koen's downfall. We worked through this bit together; then she went on ahead to the top.

This was new territory to me and I became strongly aware of that sense of being watched which had struck me previously, as if the long-dead sentries' eyes had burned something of the intensity of their vigil into the rocks themselves. This impression was heightened by the sight of the empty ladder-sockets cut into the rock on either side of the passageway; the rungs had apparently been removable when danger threatened in order to isolate the summit to withstand siege. My idea of the radiator grille was a variation on this same theme. There was also another sensation — less tangible and a little chilling — especially where the ascent straightened out for the final few yards. I imagined that a pilgrim seeking oracular guidance from the great king would have felt it strongly: something vaguely ominous and awe-inspiring about the threatening dark jaws of the cliffs on either hand. I also thought grimly of the other side of the coin — if one had come in the role of an attacker-above me were several piles of stone missiles stacked ready and a natural slot between giant boulders guarding the head of the stairway where bowmen could have fired into the faces of any enemy who got that far. On the very edge of the cliff top there was also a man-made fortification, terminating in a tall stone pillar. Nadine did not hear me reach the summit; she was standing staring abstractedly at what appeared to be an irregular pyramid-shaped heap of bright, small stones of the kind I had seen below the river terrace. Some of them reflected colour from blue and green inset crystals. It was a puzzling little edifice whose purpose I couldn't guess.