Sheba. Part 21

He nodded. 'I don't see why not. We've got plenty of fuel and water. If we start now, we should be there by dawn. There's enough moonlight, and it would be a d.a.m.ned sight more pleasant than travelling during the day.'

Marie got to her feet. 'That settles it, then. We pack up and move on right away.' As Kane turned away, she caught his sleeve. 'You need some sleep, Gavin. I'll drive for a couple of hours - you can take over later.'

For a moment, he was going to refuse, and then tiredness dropped about his shoulders like a heavy blanket. When they drove off half an hour later, he was sprawled amongst the baggage in the rear and already asleep.

He awakened with a bad taste in his mouth. It was bitterly cold and he sat up and leaned forward. Jamal dozed beside him and Ruth Cunningham was asleep, her head lolling backwards.

He scrambled over into the front seat. When Marie turned to smile at him, he saw the lines of fatigue on her face and a strange and immediate rush of tenderness moved inside him.

'What time is it?' he said.

'About three-thirty.'

He reached across and took the wheel in his hands. 'Slide out of the way and I'll take over. You should have wakened me an hour ago.'

She lit a cigarette and placed it in his mouth and then she folded her arms and leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. 'All at once I feel tired.'

He inhaled the fragrance of her and smiled. 'Lucky me.'

She sighed contentedly. 'This is nice.'

They were crossing an area of flat scrubland and he drove with one hand, sliding the other about her shoul- der, pulling her close. There were many things he could have said, but there was really no need to say anything.

After a while, she raised her face and kissed him gently on one cheek. 'My poor Gavin,' she said and there was a glint of amus.e.m.e.nt in her eyes.

'd.a.m.n you!' he said. 'd.a.m.n all women!'

She laughed softly. 'What are we going to do about it?'

He sighed. 'The usual thing, I suppose. There's Father O'Brien at Mukalla. Will he suit you?'

'Admirably - I like Father O'Brien,' she said. 'And afterwards?'

He shrugged. 'That can take care of itself.'

She seemed about to argue the point and then she shrugged as if content for the moment. 'We'll see.'

After a while, she slept and Kane held her close as he stared out through the windscreen, and told himself wryly that life was catching up on him again. It was rather pleasant to find that he didn't really mind.

The scrubland came to an end and he eased Marie into the corner, changed to a lower gear, and took the truck up the steep side of a dune.

The moon grew paler, and in the east, tiny fingers of light appeared above the horizon as dawn touched the sky. His eyes were gritty and sore from lack of sleep and his arms ached with the driving of the past few hours.

He halted on top of a large dune for a moment or two and searched the desert with field gla.s.ses. As the sun lifted above the horizon, flooding the sky with light, it glinted on something in the distance. He focused the gla.s.ses. Rearing out of the desert five or six miles away, was a great outcrop of reddish stone.

He engaged a low gear and took the truck down the steep side of the sand dune. Once at the bottom, he drove through a gap which brought him to another flat plain of sand and scrub. He accelerated and drove towards the distant outcrop of rock at high speed.

As the truck lurched forward, the others came awake quickly. 'What's happening?' Marie demanded anxiously.

He nodded into the distance. 'We're almost there.'

Ruth Cunningham leaned forward, her hands gripping the edge of the seat so strongly that her knuckles showed white.

The outcrop increased in size until it towered above them and then they entered the deep gorge which twisted into the heart of it. Kane braked to a halt and switched off the engine. It was completely quiet, and after a moment, he took down one of the rifles and stepped to the ground. 'It might be an idea if we left the truck here. There's no knowing what we might find up ahead.'

Jamal took the other rifle and they started to walk along the firm bed of the gorge. After a while, Ruth

Cunningham gave a startled exclamation and pointed upwards. 'Isn't that an inscription on the face of the rock?'

As the sun's rays penetrated the gorge, they picked out the rock inscriptions with startling suddenness. Kane moved closer and gazed up. After a moment or two, he nodded. 'They're Sabean all right. We've certainly come to the right place.'

He moved on, the others at his shoulder. They pa.s.sed several more inscriptions and then rounded a shoulder of rock and paused.

Before them stretched a broad avenue of pillars, some in varying stages of ruin, others still intact. At the end of the avenue there was the crumbling facade of a mighty temple built into the face of the gorge itself.

Kane's mouth went dry. He could remember no other moment in his life quite like it. He started forward quickly and the others trailed after him.

At the end of the avenue of pillars, and directly in front of the temple itself, was a deep pool of water, crystal-clear and fed from some invisible spring. He flung himself down by its side and drank from his cupped hands.

He could hear the others coming up behind him, the two women talking excitedly, and he cried out, 'This water is as cold as ice.'

Their voices ceased abruptly and, as Kane started to get up, a reflection in the water in front of him caused him to grab for his rifle.

A bullet chipped the stone edge of the pool, and he raised his arms above his head and climbed slowly to his feet. On the other side of the pool were at least a dozen half-naked Bedouins, and they were holding the very latest Lee Enfield rifles. Standing in front of them, a sardonic smile on his face, was Selim.

'Please do not try anything foolish,' he said in his careful, clipped English.

The Bedouins moved quickly round the pool, splitting into two groups and effectively surrounding Kane and his party. Selim followed at a more leisurely pace, one hand toying with the hilt of his jambiya, the other tugging gently at his beard.

He paused a foot or so away and Kane said softly, 'It's a small world.'

Selim nodded. 'You are a hard man to kill.' He sighed heavily and his right fist shot out, catching Kane full in the mouth.

Kane lay on the ground for a moment, shaking his head and conscious of the threatening muzzles of the rifles that had swung towards him. He wiped blood from his mouth and got to his feet slowly.

Selim smiled. 'The down payment on an old score. The rest will come later. I never forget a debt.' He gave a quick command and the Bedouins closed in, urging their prisoners forward with shrill cries.

As he stumbled towards the great flight of steps which led up to the temple, Kane considered the unexpected turn events had taken. From the beginning, he should have realized there was the possibility that John Cunningham had survived the desert crossing - that some human agency had prevented his return. But why Selim? It didn't make sense.

As he mounted the top step and crossed the terrace, the closer view of the temple drove other considerations from his mind. It had been built into the face of the rock wall itself, and the great pillars that supported the portico and flanked the entrance were at least sixty feet high.

Marie appeared at his shoulder and her voice was filled with awe. 'I've never seen anything like it. There's nothing to touch this in the whole of Arabia.'

Kane nodded. 'Strong Egyptian influence, I would say. Same style of portico as the temple at Karnak.'

It was cool and very quiet inside and his eyes soon became accustomed to the dim light. The floor was constructed of rose-coloured marble, and pillars of well-cut blocks of drafted masonry, towered into the gloom. At the other end of the imposing nave, a great statue loomed out of the darkness.

The party paused, as Selim called a halt and ordered most of his men outside except for three who were obviously to be their guards. He turned to Kane. 'You will all stay here. If you attempt to escape, or make a suspicious move of any sort, the guards have orders to kill you at once.'