He was, after all, the military commander of the southern Gojam. No
doubt once he had served his purpose he could be taken care of Helm
would see to that. He would not have to bother himself with the details.
Von Schiller looked now at the last man at the table. Here was another
who was indispensable for the time being. Nahoot Guddabi was the one who
had brought the existence of the seventh scroll to his attention.
Apparently some English author had written a fictionalized version of
the scrolls, but von Schiller never read fiction of any sort, either in
German or in any of the four foreign languages in which he was fluent.
Without Nahoot bringing the existence of the Taita scrolls to his
notice, he might have overlooked this opportunity of his lifetime.
The Egyptian had come to him as soon as the original translation of the
scrolls had been completed by Duraid Al Simma, and the existence of an
unrecorded Pharaoh and his tomb had been mooted. Since then they had
been in constant contact, and when the time.came that Al Simma and his
wife had started to make too much headway with their investigations, von
Schiller had employed Nahoot to get rid of them and to bring the seventh
scroll to him.
The scroll was now the shining star of his collection, safely housed
with his other ancient treasures in the steel and concrete vaults below
the Schloss in the mountains that was his private retreat, his Eagle's
Nest.
Despite this, the choice of Nahoot to under-take the more sensitive work
of ridding him of Al Simma and his wife had proved to be a mistake. He
should have.. sent a professional to take care of them, but Nahoot had
argued that he was capable of seeing it through, and he had been well
paid for the work that he had mismanaged so ineptly.
He 'too would be disposable in time, but right now von Schiller still
needed him.
There was no question that Nahoot's understanding of Egyptology and
hieroglyphics was far in advance of von Schiller's own. After all,
Nahoot had spent most of his life studying them, while von Schiller was
an amateur and only a comparatively recent enthusiast. Nahoot was able
to read the scrolls and this new material that they had acquired as
though they were letters from a friend, whereas von Schiller was obliged
to puzzle over each symbol and resort frequently to his reference books.
Even then, he was not capable of picking up the finer nuances of meaning
in the text.
Without Nahoot's assistance he could not hope to solve the riddles which
confronted him in the search for Mamose's tomb.
This was the team who were now assembled beneath him, waiting for him to
start the proceedings. 'Sit down, please, Fr5ulein Kemper,' he said at
last. 'You too, gentlemen. Let us get started.'
Von Schiller remained standing on his block at the head of the table. He
enjoyed the feeling of superior height.
His short stature had been a source of humiliation ever since his
school-days when he had been nicknamed Tippa' by his peers.
'Fr-dulein Kemper will be recording everything which is said here this
afternoon. She will also issue each of you with a folder of documents
