in front of the primitive altar. He felt deeply moved by this evidence
of the boy's faith, and by his childlike trust in bringing them to this
place.
At last Royan stood up and came to join him. Together she and Nicholas
began to make a slow circuit of the quarry floor. They spoke little, and
then only in whispers as though they were in a cathedral or some holy
place. She touched his arm and pointed. A number of the square blocks
still lay in their original positions in the quarry walls. They had not
been completely freed from the mother rock, like a foetus attached by an
umbilical cord which had never been severed by the ancient masons.
It was a perfect illustration of the quarrying methods used by the
ancients. Work could be seen in progress in all the various stages, from
the marking out of the blocks by the master craftsman, the drilling of
the tap holes, the wedging of the cleavage lines, right up to the
finished product lifted out of the wall and ready for transport to the
dam site.
The sun had set and it was almost dark by the time they came round to
the entrance of the quarry again. They sat together on one of the
finished blocks, with Tamre sitting at their feet like a puppy, looking
up at Royan's face.
'If he had a tail he would wag it,'Nicholas smiled.
'We can never betray his trust, and desecrate this place in any way. He
has made it his own temple. I don't think he has ever brought another
living soul here. Will you promise me that we will always respect it, no
matter what?'
'That is the very least I can do,' he agreed. Then, turning to Tamre, he
said, 'You have done a very good thing by bringing us here to your Jesus
stone. I am very pleased with you. The lady is very pleased with you.'
'We should start back to camp now,' Royan suggested, looking up at the
patch of sky above them. Already it was purple and indigo, shot through
with the last rays of the sunset.
'I don't think that would be very wise,' he disagreed.
'Because it is a moonless night one of us could very easily break a leg
in the dark. That is something not to be recommended out here. It might
take a week to get back to any adequate medical attention.'
'You plan to sleep here?' she asked, with surprise.
'Why not? I can whip up a fire in no time and I also have a pack of
survival rations for dinner - I have done this kind of thing before, you
know! And you have your chaperon with you, so your honour is safe. So
why not?'
'Why not, indeed?' she laughed. 'We will be able to make a more detailed
inspection of the quarry tomorrow early.'
He stood up to start gathering firewood, but then stopped and looked up
at the sky. She heard it too, that now familiar fluttering whistle in
the air.
'The Pegasus helicopter once again,' he said unnecessarily. 'I wonder
what the hell they are up to at this time of day?'
They both stared up into the gathering darkness and watched the
navigational lights of the aircraft pass a thousand feet overhead,
flashing red and green and white as it headed southwards in the
