wigs of eighteenth-century French aristocrats.
'You are bleeding,' Royan whispered, her voice husky with dust and
terror.
Nicholas lifted his hand to his face and it came away covered with a
paste of dust and blood. 'It's just a nick,' he said. 'How are you!'
'I think I may have twisted my knee. I felt something give when we fell.
I don't think it's serious. There is very little pain.'
'Men we have both been ridiculously lucky,' he told her. 'Nobody
deserved to survive that.'
She made an effort to stand, but he restrained her with a hand on her
shoulder. 'Wait! The entire slope above us is broken and unstable. Give
it time. There will be loose rocks coming down for a while yet.' He
untied the Paisley bandana from around his throat and handed it to her.
'Besides which, we don't want-' But he changed his mind and did not
finish his sentence, While she wiped her face she asked shakily, 'You
were going to say, besides which-?'
don't want to give those bastards
'Besides which, we up there any idea that we have survived their little
party.
Otherwise we will have them down here finishing the job, cutting
throats. Much better they believe that we snuffed it, as intended.'
'Do you think- they are still up She stared at him.
there, watching us?'
'Count on it,' he answered grimly. 'They must be pretty chuffed with the
fact that they have at last succeeded in getting rid of you. We don't
want to pop our heads up right now and spoil it for them.'
'How did you know what was going to happen?' she asked. 'If you hadn't
grabbed me-' Her voice petered out.
In a few words he explained about the scrap of gelignite wrapping.
'Simplest thing in the world to pick one of the narrowest sections of
the trail and mine the cliff-' He broke Off as, faintly but
unmistakably, there came the sound of an aircraft engine and the flutter
of rotors in fully fine pitch for takeoffs
'Quickly,' he snapped at her. 'Get in as close as you can to the
overhang.' He pushed her back against the sheltering boulder. 'Lie flad'
When she obeyed without question, he lay beside her and piled loose
rubble over them both.
'Lie still. Don't move, whatever you do.'
They lay and listened to the sound of the helicopter approaching, and
circling overhead. It moved up and down the valley, flying a few feet
above the surface of the river.
At one point it was directly above the ledge on which they lay, and they
were buffeted by the down-draught of the rotors.
'Looking for survivors,' said Nicholas grimly. 'Don't move. They haven't
spotted us yet.'
'If they were watching us before the blast, they should have been able
to come directly to where we are,' she whispered. They seem confused.'
'They must have lost us in the dust of the avalanche and the break-up of
the cliff face. They aren't sure where we are lying.' The sound of the
helicopter moved off slowly along the river, and Nicholas told her, 'I
