of coarse brown grass.
Then lifted its head again and came on down the clearing in the Thorn
scrub, stepping daintily, pausing every few paces to feed again.
'Go back. She tried to will it into safety, but it kept on coming,
meandering towards the edge of the chasm.
Nicholas rolled on to his stomach and settled himself behind the trunk
of the tree. He screwed up his hat into a soft pad on which to rest the
rifle.
'Two hundred yards,' he muttered to himself 'That's a fair shot. No
further.' Resting the cushioned rifle on the twisted root, he aimed
through the telescopic sight. Then he lifted his head, waiting to let it
come within certain range.
Abruptly the dik-dik lifted its head again and came to a halt, quivering
with tension.
'Something he doesn't like. Dammit all, wind must have changed again,'
Nicholas growled. At that moment the little antelope bolted. It streaked
across the clearing, back the way it had come, and disappeared into the
thorn scrub.
'Go, dik-dik, go!' said Royan smugly, and Nicholas sat up and grunted
with disgust.
'I can't make out what frightened him.' Then his expression changed and
he cocked his head. There was an alien sound on the air growing each
second - a harsh, rising clatter and a shrill, whining whistle.
'Chopper! What the hell!' Nicholas recognized the sound immediately. He
took the binoculars from Royan's hand and turned them to the sky,
sweeping the cloudless blue emptiness above the tops of the escarpment.
'There it is,' he said grimly, adding, 'Bell Jet Ranger,' as he
recognized the profile. 'Coming this way, by the looks of it. No point
in drawing attention to ourselves. Let's get under cover.'
He shepherded Royan and the boy under the spread branches of the thorn
tree. 'Sit tight,' he told her. 'No chance they will spot us under
here.'
He watched the. approaching helicopter through the binoculars. 'Probably
Ethiopian air force,' he said softly.
'Anti-shufta patrol, most likely. Both Boris and Colonel Nogo warned us
that there are a lot of rebels and bandits operating down here in the
gorge-' he broke off abruptly.
'No. Hold on. That's not military. Green and red fuselage, and the red
horse emblem. None other than your old friends from Pegasus
Exploration.'
The sound of the rotors crescendoed, and now with her naked eye Royan
could make out the flying horse on the fuselage of the helicopter as it
flew low across their front, half a mile out, headed down towards the
Nile.
Neither of them paid any attention to Tamre as he crouched behind Royan,
trying to hide behind her body.
His teeth were chattering with terror and his eyes rolled until the
whites showed.
'It looks as if our friend Jake Helm has got himself some fancy
transport. If Pegasus is in any way connected with Duraid's murder and
