'We'll buy extra time by making him search for Koen,' I replied. 'I'll gag Koen and hide him in my holkrans sandsteen shelter. Praeger must find him eventually, of course, but it will take time.'
'I've got butterflies in my stomach already.'
'Let's go,' I said. 'Once we have Rankin, we're on our way.' '
Where to, Guy? In the river, or back here? What about food?'
'There's a little left which we can stretch for the river trip. We'll pick that up now. As I see it, The Hill falls out of our plan. We strike for the river during the night as fast as we can manage with Rankin to carry. There's nothing to bring us back here.'
She didn't respond and I looked at her sharply.
'I'm just being silly I suppose, darling, but I feel rather let down that The Hill isn't part of it.'
'It's the cut of the cards, I'm afraid. Now fetch the gunnysack and we'll be on our way.'
While she went for it I kept tab on Praeger moving with antlike deliberation down the K2 path. He was taking his time and I noticed that he carried the Mauser at the ready. I checked again on the sun. The light wasn't sharp but sickly and hazed and it appeared as if the high cloud cover had thickened during the day. The heat remained overpowering in spite of it, but there was also a new, added feeling of oppressiveness. It was as if everything was cringing away, waiting for something to happen.
During the descent we both had to hold ourselves back from rushing it and courting unnecessary risks. Praeger seemed to our over-anxious eyes to be making fast progress, whereas, in fact, he was not. He too wasted time by checking frequently in the bush about him. I was careful to keep my lenses out of the sun for fear of a giveaway flash.
By the time we reached the root cage we were completely exhausted. Koen was still unconscious, though he groaned when I moved him to tie his hands more securely. Then I bundled him unceremoniously into the holkrans sandsteen shelter, removed his shirt and tore off a wide strip to gag him with. As a further precaution I used some of the material as a running noose round his neck and secured it to a stone. The idea was that if he moved his head or upper body the noose would choke him; if he kept still he would come to no harm. While I was busy with Koen Nadine crawled on hands and knees to the camping-spot and collected the remaining pro-visions. We met again in the root cage, both tense.
'How's von Praeger progressing?' she asked.
'Slower than-expected. He's not reached the edge of the wadi yet. He's like a cat on hot bricks about being ambushed.'
'He couldn't have watched us crossing in the first place or he'd have known that Koen was all right up to the point where he himself is now.'
We exchanged a glance of unspoken fear for Rankin. Nadine said with a shudder, 'I think he tortures for kicks, Guy.'
'More than ever I wish I had some ammunition for this gun of Koen's. But since I haven't, I'm in two minds about taking it. An empty gun may bluff a human but it won't frighten Dika. It's fire we need for her.'
As I reluctantly shouldered the M-25. and the tyre lever, I saw a possible answer in the form of a dried branch of the fig tree. This soft wood would flare up if we needed it in a hurry. We'd each carry a piece of it and if Dika attacked we'd light it and keep her at bay. I hacked off two lengths but retained the machine-pistol.
Then we set off, moving cautiously from rock to rock. Von Praeger began the wadi crossing, obviously following our tracks in the sand, for he headed towards the first blocked-off gully which we had been unable to get through. I was pleased at the thought that this would mean a further delay for him. We moved as quickly as we dared, certain that we had not been spotted. When we arrived at The Hill's westernmost limit we had the benefit of the deep shadow cast by the tabletop while Praeger was open to view in full sun plodding across the wadi, Dika at his side.
By the time we reached a point where we considered it safe to descend from the terrace, von Praeger was lost to view. We didn't attempt to force one of the wire-blocked gullies but plumped for an unguarded spot which offered likely-looking rock holds for the 30-foot drop. We pitched our gear and the M-25 on to the sand below and were about to start our climb down when von Praeger's signal shots echoed again through the hills.
'He's very worried about Koen,' I remarked. 'I'll see what he's up to now.'
I crawled back a short distance with my binoculars until I could see him. He had stopped, and was staring at The Hill. His pockets bulged.
'I might as well ditch the machine-pistol,' I told Nadine when I returned to her side. 'Praeger seems to have all the spare ammunition.'
'They seem to have all the cards, Guy. I daren't even think what might happen if von Praeger catches us.'
'He won't. In a couple of hours it'll be completely dark. We'll hole up until then.'
She glanced up at the soaring tabletop.
'I felt safe up there. It's like abandoning a friend.'
I looked into her eyes. 'We'll come back when this is over, I promise you.'
She did not reply, so I said gently, 'This is the only way, you know.'
It was a difficult rather than a dangerous descent, the main hazard being the crumbly sandstone which several times nearly let us down but eventually we reached the bottom safely. A temporary hiding place was provided by a huge rock close to the edge of the wadi. We lay face down in the sand behind it until the sun went down. Although we had lost sight of Praeger, we knew that by now he must hold the advantage of height on the terrace: his present position and ours were reversed.
I finally got rid of the M-25 by burying it deep in the sand. We had a drink of water and set off across the wadi, heading for the same group of hills which had sheltered me from Rankin and following approximately the same course. After a time Nadine asked, 'What when the moon comes up? Surely the light will give us away?'
'We must reach the post before then. We're making good time.'
I aimed to pick up hard ground on the K2 side of the wadi and then make our way quickly parallel to The Hill until we struck Rankin's path to the command-post which both we and Praeger had used. As we progressed farther into the thick sand our fig-tree branches became a nuisance, and I was considering abandoning them also like the machine-pistol, when the chilling laugh of a hyena echoed through the still night. It appeared to come from The Hill.
Nadine stopped in her tracks. 'Dika! It's Dika, Guy!' '
There are scores of other hyenas about,' I comforted her. 'It's not necessarily Praeger's.'
The sobbing scream echoed and re-echoed again.
'They sound worse than they really are,' I went on. 'They're not near enough for us to worry about.'
We trudged on but Nadine remained apprehensive as a general chorus got under way. It was impossible to pinpoint where any one scream originated because of the cross-echoes. After what seemed an interminable time the going underfoot started to harden and we knew we were across. Then some dead trees loomed and we changed direction, using them as cover to work our way eastwards towards where we knew Rankin's path must intersect our course. The Hill blanked out a slice of star-horizon; we could not distinguish it clearly beyond a dark looming mass.
'Guy,' observed Nadine. 'There's no light in the command post.'
I didn't want to let my fears regarding Rankin run away with me. 'Perhaps Rankin's in his cave. A light wouldn't show. The whole place is too high to see from our present angle anyway.'
'I don't like it,' she said,-with a shiver.
'We'll know pretty soon what's happening. We should hit the path any moment now. Praeger and Koen seem to be keeping mighty low, too.'
'Do you think Koen's come round by now?'
'Sure to have. He'll be after our blood for sure.'
'What if the two of them are also heading for Rankin's cave?'
We've got a good start. By the time we reach the cave the moon will be up. We're bound to sight them crossing the wadi – if they are.'
Despite our long trudge, Nadine managed to put on speed. We kept on for a while but t
hen I began to worry that we might overshoot the path. The sky was somewhat lighter in anticipation of the approaching moonrise, but we dared not risk showing a light. However, our anxiety vanished when we found the big rock where we had sold Koen the phoney treasure story. We gave ourselves a short rest and then set off on the steep climb. It took longer than we had expected and by the time we reached the top the moon was above the horizon. By its light we found the plane's wheels for our litter, and some strut wire. As we suspected, the tyres had been destroyed but the wheels themselves were undamaged. The command-post lay in a shadow unbroken by any gleam of light.
'It's too easy!' Nadine said in a low voice. 'I don't like it, Guy. Something's wrong.'
'Let's get up higher where we can see down into the post.' '
Look, the door's open!'
The handlines, we saw, were still in position and our uneasiness grew. We made a circuit to reach higher ground. The Hill became visible as the moon grew stronger but of Praeger and Koen there was no sign. We were feeling our way over the rough going when I stumbled over a mound of earth. There was no mistaking its grave-shape.
'Oh God!' cried Nadine.
I took her by the arm and led her away.
'Peter – or Rankin?' she whispered.
'We'll soon find out.'
The better vantage position did not in fact provide the answer: the enclosure was deserted and the cave mouth was a black shadow. Yet the weak light and deep shadows made it impossible to pick out any details.
'I'm going in, Nadine.'
'No, Guy, it might be a trap.'
'I must risk it. Rankin's the key to everything.'
'Is–or was?'
If that's Rankin – ' I jerked my head in the direction of the mound – 'it changes everything. If it isn't, our original plan stands and we've got to get him out.'
I checked the wick of my improvised bomb and tested my cigarette lighter behind my hand to see if it was sparking properly.
'Do you see anything at The Hill, Nadine? Your eyes are better than mine.'
'No .. ' she replied, a little uncertainly. 'No, Guy, nothing. Von Praeger couldn't have doubled back and arrived here before us, could he?'
'He could, but it's unlikely.
'Don't go, Guy.'
'I must, my darling.'
'I'm coming too'
'I'd rather you stayed.'
'The whole plan's ours, not yours or mine.'
'Is this still the way you want it?'
'Yes. We could have run after we fixed Koen. We didn't.' I gave her the tyre lever. 'We won't want the truncheons: Dika's not here.'
She shivered and kept silent. We made our way quickly and quietly to the old wall and the rock crossing. The half-open door was unnerving; it beckoned yet repelled. We used the handlines and trod silently. When we reached the door I eased it wide and paused but there was neither sound nor movement. We gave it a few minutes and then, with the bomb at the ready, I led the way inside. The place was deserted; utterly silent.
We had begun to make our way towards the cave entrance when a subdued moan came from the interior. We froze, but when it was repeated we felt our way inside the kinked entrance until I was sure that a light could not be detected from the outside.
I flicked on my lighter: the tiny flame; by emphasizing the shadows, made Rankin's face look worse than it probably was. It was hideously pulped and his lips were swollen; he had dragged himself along the floor and had stripped off his bandages in doing so, leaving a blood-stained trail. He was spreadeagled on his chest with his right hand extended, the fist clenched, and the left doubled under him.
I knelt down and held the light close to his eyes. '
Rankin! It's Bowker - Guy Bowker!'
He moaned again and his face tied in a spasm.
'Water - quick!' I said to Nadine, who stood stunned at the sight. 'No, wait, he's trying to speak.'
Something incomprehensible bubbled from his lips but neither Nadine nor I could make it out.
His head did not seem able to support its own weight and fell sideways in my hand. I thought he was dead but he managed to speak, and this time we understood.
'They were cut diamonds, Guy - from The Hill.' Both of us craned towards him and we heard his next words distinctly. '
The hyena's blanket.'
'What does it mean, Rankin? What does it mean?' He tried to articulate again but it was lost.
'Water! Get some water, Nadine!'
She rose and he threw out his arm in a sort of jerky, uncontrolled movement as if to stop her and something fell out of his fist and rolled out of range of the tiny light. I had an inspiration. I passed Nadine the lighter and got the top off Koen's half-jack. We tipped back Rankin% head and poured some of the strong liquor into his mouth. He didn't open his eyes but said in a weak, faltering voice. '
It's the way in ... the King's Messenger takes you there . We couldn't get him to speak again, and ten minutes later he died. We found a lantern and watched him die without being able to do anything for him. After the final death-rattle we searched the floor for the thing which had fallen from his hand and found it easily because it shone faintly with a curious glow.
It was a large dark blue hexagonal bead.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The yellow flame of the lantern was an oasis of normality in the cave's grim interior and we clung to its slight cheer under the shock impact of Rankin's death. We knew we ran a risk in burning a light but this was masked by its position in the longer leg of the L-section. At the moment we simply couldn't bear the dark. We stood close together near the lantern for comfort, our backs turned on Rankin's body sprawled upon the floor.
I've never seen anything like this.' Nadine's voice was wobbly. 'What did he mean, King's Messenger?' 'I haven't a clue. It's as mysterious as hyena's blanket.' It cost me an effort not to turn towards the body, as though I was still hoping to extract the mystery from Rankin. Nadine said in a small voice, 'I wish we hadn't been here for . . . for his end. What he said means that hyena's blanket isn't just a phrase von Praeger cooked up. It's real, something terrible. I would rather not have heard.'
'Rankin knew he was finished by the time we found him. I believe he was trying to make amends for what he'd done to me. If only he'd gone a stage farther! What he did manage only serves to compound the mystery.'
'King's Messenger–my mind's a blank.'
The great bead was about two inches long and three quarters of an inch across, with a large hole through the centre. The hexagonal facets were beautifully worked. Even the poor light seemed to penetrate to its heart, which glowed with a kind of lustrous, regal hue somewhere between dark blue and indigo. We turned it this way and that.
'I simply can't think straight with Rankin lying there,' she said.
'I'm not too bright myself. Let's go into the kitchen cave.' 'I'd rather be outside.'
'The moonlight makes it too dangerous. It's anyway not strong enough if we want to examine this thing more closely.'
Rankin's last words churned in my brain and a score of might-have-beens crowded in at the sight of the twisted face as we stepped past the body on our way farther in. From the trail of bandages and bloodstains it was possible to reconstruct his last movements: they led from the stretcher into the inner cave and back.
I pointed this out to Nadine. It looks as though Praeger didn't get anything out of him. When he'd finished his hellishness he left, and Rankin somehow or other managed to make his way into the inner cave. I'd guess that he then collected the " King's Messenger" from some hiding place and was struggling with it again when we arrived.
It was a relief to reach the kitchen and be away from the body but I was still very uneasy.
'This place is a trap now, Nadine. If Praeger and Koen walk in we're sunk.'
'But you barred the door, Guy.'
'If I could climb over the gateway, so can Koen. We mustn't stay long. We'll throw everything away if we do.'
Nadine said quietly. 'The
re's only one place where we can go now, isn't there, after what Rankin said?'
'The Hill.'
'It holds the key to your innocence, somehow. Rankin made that plain.'
I echoed his words. 'They were cut diamonds – from The Hill.'
'Hyena's blanket – King's Messenger?'
'There can't be any diamonds at The Hill, Nadine! Dammit, it's sandstone: crumbly rotten sandstone, not diamond-bearing gravel!'
· 'If you're sure of that, then that leaves only the possibility of a cache there. That would tie in with Rankin's remark about the "King's Messenger" being the way in. But "hyena's blanket" . . . !'
'Let's keep our cool,' I interrupted. 'Let's also play this step by step and keep realities firmly in mind. That applies especially to the geography of The Hill. We must rule out linking the hyena's blanket with the sort of wild improbabilities von Praeger fell for–the Dika business, for example.'
'Let's accept it as a fact that your grandfather used the words as a code. He didn't know anything about hyenas or The Hill, as far as we know. He'd never been here : had your father?'
I gestured in the direction of Rankin's body. 'We'll never know, now.'
She tossed the 'King's Messenger' up and down and the blue fire burned in its heart.
'Why call a bead the King's Messenger? At least we can thank our stars that he came clean and revealed that it was linked with the way in.'
'To what? We know no more about that than about anything else in this infuriating business.'
'Cast your mind over The Hill's layout and it's pretty apparent that the way in to whatever Rankin intended must lie on the summit.'
My mind jumped ahead of our reasoning and I saw the answer in a flash.
Isifuba! The isifuba board! One of the pieces was missing!' I took the bead from her with excited fingers.
'It could be, Nadine! This could be it!'
'They were mosaic stones, Guy, not beads. They were decorative pieces in a pavement.'
'How do we know? We didn't explore. All we saw was a strange collection of coloured stones. We don't know what they really are.'
'Then the sooner we get back there and find out, the better!' '
A Cleft Of Stars Page 16
