whole day and night the monastery is deserted. Empty. Nobody there at
all."
He stared at her over the rim of his glass, and then slowly he began to
smile, "Now that is very interesting indeed," he admitted.
"Don't forget, I am coming with you," she told him severely. "Don't you
dare to even think of leaving me behind."
Nicholas went to her hut again that evening after dinner. This was the
only place in camp where they could be sure of privacy, and where they
were safe from eavesdropping. However, this time he did not make the
mistake of sitting on her bed.
While she perched on the end of it, he took the stool opposite her.
"Before we start planning this thing, let me ask you one question. Have
you considered the possible consequences?"
"You mean, what happens if the monks catch us at it?" Royan asked.
"At the very least we can expect them to run us out of the valley. The
abbot has a tremendous amount of power.
At the worst we can be physically attacked," Nicholas told her. "This is
one of the most sacred sites in their religion, and don't underestimate
that fact. There is a great deal of danger involved. It could go as far
as a knife between the ribs, or something nasty in our food."
"We would also alienate Tessay. She is a deeply religious woman,'Royan
added.
"Even more importantly, we would probably outrage Mek Nimmur as well."
Nicholas looked distressed at the thought. "I don't know what he would
do, but I don't think our friendship would stand the test."
They were both quiet for a while, considering the cost that they might
have to pay. Nicholas broke the silence.
"Then again, have you considered your own position?
After all, it is your own Church that we will be desecrating.
You are a committed Christian. Can you justify this to yourself?"
"I have thought about it, she admitted. "And I am not altogether happy
about it, but it isn't really my Church. It's a different branch of the
Coptic Church."
"Splitting hairs, aren't we?"
"The Egyptian Church does not deny anyone access to even the most sacred
precincts of its church building. I do not feel myself bound by the
abbot's prohibition. I feel that as a believing Christian I have the
right to enter any part of the cathedral that I wish."
He whistled softly, "And you are the one who once said that I should
have been a lawyer."
"Please don't, Nicky. It's not something you should joke about. All I
know is that, no matter what, I have to go in there. Even if I die to do
it."
"You could let me do it for you," he suggested. "After all, I am an old
heathen. It would not spoil my chances of salvation. I don't have any."
"No." She shook her head firmly. "If there is an inscription or
something of that nature, I need to see it.
You read hieroglyphics quite well, but not as well as I do, and you
don't know the hieratic script. I am the expert you are just a gifted
amateur. You need me. I am going in there with you."
"All right. That is settled, then," he said with finality.
"Let's start planning. We had better draw up a list of equipment that we
may need. Flashlight, knife, Polaroid camera, spare film-'
"Art paper and soft pencils to lift an impression of any inscriptions,'
she added to the list.
"Hell!" He snapped his fingers with chagrin. "I didn't think to bring
any."
"See what I mean? Amateur. I did."
They talked on until late, and at last Nicholas glanced at his
wrist-watch and stood up.
"Long after midnight. I am scheduled to turn into a pumpkin at any
moment. Goodnight."
"There are still two days of the festival before the tabot is taken down
to the river. Nothing we can do until then.
What are your plans
"Tomorrow I am going back after that damned little Bambi. It has made a
fool of me twice already."
"I am coming with you," she said firmly, and that simple declaration
gave him a disproportionate amount of pleasure.
"Just as long as you leave Tamre at home," he warned her as he stooped
out through the door.
The tiny antelope stepped out from the deep shadow of the thorn thicket,
and the early morning sunlight gleamed on the silky pelt, It kept
walking steadily across the narrow clearing.
Nicholas's breathing quickened with excitement as he followed it with
the telescopic sight. It was ridiculous that he should feel so wrought
up with the hunting of such a humble little animal, but his previous
failures had sharpened his anticipation. Added to that was the peculiar
passion that drives the true collector. Since he had lost Rosalind and
the girls, he had thrown all his energy into the building up of the
collection at Quenton Park. Now, suddenly, procuring this specimen for
it had become a matter of supreme importance to him.
His forefinger rested lightly on the side of the trigger guard. He would
not fire until the dik-dik came to a standstill. Even that walking pace
would make the shot uncertain. He had to place his bullet precisely, to
kill swiftly but at the same time to inflict the least possible damage
to the skin.
To this end he had loaded the Rigby with full metal jacket bullets -
ones that would not expand on impact and open a wide wound channel, nor
rip out a gaping hole in the coat as they exited. These solid bullets
would punch a tiny hole the size of a pencil that the taxidermist at the
museum would be able to repair invisibly.
He felt his nerves screwing up as he realized that the dik-dik was not
going to stop in the open. It made steadily for the thick scrub on the
far side of the clearing. This might be his last chance. He fought the
temptation to take the shot at the moving target, and it required an
effort of will to lift his finger off the trigger again.
The antelope reached the wall of thorn scrub -and, the moment before it
disappeared, stopped abruptly and thrust its tiny head into the depths
of one of the low bushes.
Standing broadside to Nicholas, it began to nibble at the pate green
tufts of new leaves. The head was screened, so he had to abandon his
intention of going for that shot.
However, the shoulder was exposed. He could make out the clear outline
of the blade beneath the glossy red-brown skin. The dik-dik was angled
slightly away from him, in the perfect position for the heart shot,
tucked in low behind the shoulder.
Unhurriedly he settled the reticule of the scope on the precise spot,
and squeezed the trigger.
The shot whip-cracked in the heavy heated air and the tiny antelope
bounded high, coming down to touch the earth already at a full run. Like
a rapier rather than a cutlass, the solid bullet had not struck with
sufficient shock to knock the dik-dik over. Head down, the dik-dik
dashed away in the typical frantic reaction to a bullet through the
heart. It was dead already, running only on the last dregs of oxygen in
its bloodstream.
"Oh, no! Not that way," Nicholas cried as he jumped to his feet. The
tiny creature was racing straight towards the lip of the cliff. Blindly
leaped out into empty space and flipped into a somersault as it fell,
dropping from their sight, down almost two hundred feet into the chasm
of the Dandera river.
"That was a filthy bit of luck." Nicholas jumped over the bush that had
hidden them and ran to the rim of the chasm. Royan followed him and the
two of them stood peering down into the giddy void.
"There it is!" She pointed, and he nodded. "Yes, I can see it."
The carcass lay directly below them, caught on an islet of rock in the