The same way he reached the bottom of the pool without the benefit of
diving equipment?"
"By George! I think she's got itV Nicholas put on a convincing Rex
Harrison imitation.
"A dam." Royan clapped her hands. "You propose to redam. the river at
the same place where Taita built his dam four thousand years ago."
"She's got it Nicholas laughed. "No flies on our girl!
Show her your drawings, Sapper."
Sapper Webb made no attempt to disguise his selfsatisfaction as he went
to the board that stood against the facing wall. Royan had noticed it,
but had paid no attention to it, until now he pulled away the cover and
proudly displayed the illustrations that were pegged to it.
She recognized immediately the enlargements of the photographs that
Nicholas had taken at the putative site of Taita's.dam on the Dandera
river, and others that he had taken in the ancient quarry that Tamre had
shown them. These had been liberally adorned with calculations and lines
in thick black marker pen.
"The major has provided me with estimates of the dimensions of the river
bed at this point, and he has also calculated the height that we will
have to raise the wall to induce a flow down the former course. I have,
of course, allowed for errors in these calculations. Even if these
errors are in the region of thirty percent, I believe that the project
is still feasible with the very limited equipment we will have available
to us."
"If the ancient Egyptians could do it, it will be a breeze for you,
Sapper."
"Kind of you to say so, major, but "breeze" is not the word I would have
chosen."
He turned to the drawings pegged beside the photographs on the board,
and Royan saw that they were plans and elevations of the project based
upon the photographs and Nicholas's estimates.
"There are a number of different methods of dam construction, but these
days most of them presuppose the availability of reinforced concrete and
heavy earth-moving Al.
equipment. I understand that we will not have the benefit of these
modern aids."
"Remember Taita," Nicholas exhorted him. "He did it without bulldozers."
"On the other hand, the Egyptians probably had unlimited numbers of
slaves at their disposal."
"Slaves I can promise you. Or the modern equivalent thereof. Unlimited
numbers? Well, perhaps not."
"The more tabour you can provide, the sooner I can divert the flow of
the river for you. We are agreed that this has to be done before the
onset of the rainy season."
"We have two months at the most." Nicholas dropped his flippant
attitude. "As regards the provision of tabour, I will be relying on
enlisting the aid of the monastic community at St. Frumentius. I am
still working out a sound theological reason that might convince them to
take part in the building of the dam. I don't think they will fall for
the idea that we have discovered the site of the Holy Sepulchre in
Ethiopia and not in Jerusalem."
"You find me the tabour, and I will build your dam," Sapper grunted. "As
you said earlier, the old ways are the best. It is almost certain that
the ancients would have used a system of gabions and coffer dams to lay
the foundations of the original dam."
"Sorry," Royan interrupted. "Gabions? I don't have an engineering
degree."
"I am the one who must apologize." Sapper made a clumsy attempt at
chivalry. "Let me show you my drawings." He turned to the board. "What
this fellow Taita probably did was to weave huge bamboo baskets, which
he placed in the river and filled with rock and stone. These are what we
call gabions." He indicated the plans on the board. "After that he would
have used rough-cut timber to build circular walls between the gabions -
the coffer dams. These he would also have filled with stone and earth."
"I get the general idea," Royan said, sounding dubious, "but then it is
not really necessary for me to understand all the details."
"Right you are!" Sapper agreed heartily. "Although the major assures me
that there is all the timber we will need on the site, I plan to use
wire mesh for the construction of the abions and human tabour for the
filling of the mesh 9 nets with stone and aggregate."
"Wire mesh?" Royan demanded. "Where do you hope to find that in the
Abbay valley?"
Sapper began to reply, but Nicholas forestalled him."
will come to that in a moment. Let Sapper finish his lecture. Don't
spoil his fun. Tell Royan about the stone from the quarry. She will
enjoy that."
"Although I have designed the dam as a temporary Structure, we have to
make certain that it is capable of holding back the river long enough to
enable the members of our team to enter the underwater tunnel in the
downstream pool Safely-'
"We call it Taita's pool,'Nicholas told him, and Sapper nodded.
"We have to make sure that the dam does not burst while people are in
there. You can imagine the consequences, should that happen."
He was silent for a moment while he let them dwell upon the possibility.
Royan shuddered slightly and hugged her own arms.
"Not very pleasant," Nicholas agreed. "So you plan to use the blocks?"
he prompted Sapper.
"That's right. I have studied the photographs taken in the quarry. I
have picked out over a hundred and fifty granite blocks lying there
completed or almost completed, and I calculate that if we use these in
combination with the steel mesh gabions and the timber coffer walls,
this would give us a firm foundation for the main dam wall."
"Those blocks must weigh many tons each," Royan pointed out. "How will
you move them?" Then, as Sapper opened his mouth to explain, she changed
her mind. "No!
don't tell me. If you say it's possible, I will take your word for it."
"It's possible," Sapper assured her.
"Taita did it," Nicholas said. "We will be doing it all his way. That
should please you. After all, he is a relative of yours."
"You know, you are right. In a strange sort of way, it does give me
pleasure." She smiled at him. I think it's a good omen. When does all
this happen?".
"It's happening already," Nicholas told her. "Sapper and I have already
ordered all the stores and equipment that we will be taking with us.
Even the mesh for the gabions has been precut to size by a small
engineering firm near here. Thanks to the recession, they had machines
standing idle."
"I have been down there at their workshop every day, supervising the
cutting and packing," Sapper butted in.
"Half the shipment is already on its way. The rest of it will follow
before the weekend."
Sapper is leaving this afternoon to take charge and get it all loaded.
You and I have some last-minute arrangements to see to, and then we will
follow him at the end of the week. You must remember I was not expecting
you back from Cairo so soon,'Nicholas said. "If I had known, I could
have arranged for us all to fly down to Valletta together."
"Valletta?" Royan looked mystified. "As in Malta? I thought we were
going to Ethiopia."
"Malta is where Jannie Badenhorst has his base."
"Jannie who?"
"Badenhorst. Africair."
"Now you have really lost me."