shoulders to console her, and after a moment she relaxed and leaned
against him. They stared down into the chasm in silence.
At last she drew back from him gently, and stood up.
'I suppose we should start back to camp. How long will it take us?'
'At least three hours.' He stood up beside her. 'You are right. It will
be dark before we get back, and there is no moon tonight.'
'Funny how tired you feel after a disappointment,' she said, and
stretched. 'I could lie down and sleep right here on one of Taita's
stone blocks.' She broke off and stared at him. 'Nicky, where did he get
them?'
'Where did he get what?' He looked puzzled.
'Don't you see! We are going at it from the wrong end.
We have been trying to find out what happened to the blocks. This
morning you mentioned the quarries at Aswan. Shouldn't we consider where
Taita found the blocks for his dam, rather than what happened to them
afterwards?'
'The quarry!' Nicholas exclaimed. 'My word, you are right. The
beginning, not the end. We should be looking for the quarry, not the
remnants of the dam wall.'
'Where do we start?'
'I hoped you were going to tell me.' He laughed out loud, and
immediately Tamre bubbled with sympathetic laughter. They both looked at
the boy.
'I think we should start with Tamre, our faithful guide,' she said, and
took his hand. 'Listen to me, Tamre. Listen very carefully!' Obediently
he cocked his head and stared at her face, summoning all his errant
concentration.
'We are looking for a place where the square stones come from.' He
looked mystified, so she tried again. 'Long ago there were men who cut
the rock from the mountains.
Somewhere near here, they left a big hole. Perhaps there are still
square blocks of stone lying in the hole?'
Suddenly the boy's face cleared and split into a beatific smile. 'The
Jesus stone!the cried happily.
He sprang to his feet without relinquishing his grip on her hand. 'I
show you my Jesus stone.' He dragged her after him as he bounded away
down the valley.
'Wait, Tamre! she pleaded. 'Not so fast.' But in vain.
Tamre kept up the pace and burst into an Amharic hymn as he ran.
Nicholas followed at a more sedate pace, and caught up with them a
quarter of a mile down the valley.
There he found Tamre on his knees, pressing his forehead against the
rock wall of the valley, his eyes shut tightly as he prayed. He had
dragged Royan down beside him.
'What on earth are you doing?'Nicholas demanded, as he came up.
'We are praying,' she told him primly. 'Tamre's instructions. We have to
pray before we can go to the Jesus stone.' She turned away from
Nicholas, closed her eyes and clasped her hands in front of her eyes,
then began to pray softly.
Nicholas found a seat on a boulder a little way from them. 'I don't
