broke the spell. Nahoot ran forward, and threw himself on his knees in
front of the stele. He clasped it with both arms, like a lover too long
deprived. He sobbed softly, and with amazement Nogo saw tears streaming
unashamedly down his cheeks. Nogo himself had considered only the value
of the reward that it would bring. He had never thought that any man
could long so deeply for an inanimate object, especially something so
mundane as this pillar of ordinary stone.
They were still posed like this, Nahoot kneeling at the stele like a
worshipper and Nogo standing silently behind him, when the lieutenant
ran back into the cavern.
Somewhere he had found a rusty mattock with a raw timber handle.
His arrival roused both men from their trance, and Nogo ordered him,
'Break open the gate!'
Although the gate was antique and the wood brittle, it took the efforts
of several men working in relays to rip the stanchions out of. their
foundations in the rock of the cavern wall.
At last, however, the heavy gate sagged forward. As the workers jumped
aside it fell with a shattering crash to the slabs, raising a mist of
red dust that dimmed the light of the lamps and the electric torch.
Nahoot was the first one into the tomb. He ran through the veil of
swirling dust and once again threw himself to his knees beside the
ancient crumbling wooden coffin.
'Bring the light, he shouted impatiently. Nogo stepped up behind him and
shone the torchlight on the coffin.
The portraits of the man were three dimensional, not only on the sides,
but on the lid too. Clearly the artist was the same as the one who had
executed the murals. The upper portrait was in excellent condition. It
depicted a man in the prime of life with a strong, proud face, that of a
farmer or a soldier with a calm and unruffled gaze. He was a handsome
man, with thick blond tresses, skilfully painted as if by someone who
had known him'well and loved him.
The artist seemed to have captured his character, and then eulogized his
salient virtues.
Nahoot looked up from the portrait to the inscription on the wall of the
tomb above it. He read it aloud, and then, with tears still backing up
behind his eyelids, he looked down again at the coffin and read the
cartouche that was painted below the portrait of the blond general.
Tanus, Lord Harrab.' His voice choked up with emotion, and he swallowed
noisily and cleared his throat.
This follows exactly the description in the seventh scroll.
We have the stele and the coffin. They are , great and priceless
treasures. Herr von Schiller will be delighted.'
'I wish I could believe what you say,' Nogo told him dubiously. 'Herr
von Schiller is a dangerous man.'
'You have done well so far,' Nahoot assured him. 'It remains only for
you to move the stele and the coffin out of this monastery to where the
helicopter can fly them to the Pegasus camp. If you can do that, you
will be a very rich man. Richer than you ever believed was possible.'
This spur was enough for Nogo. He stood over his men as they laboured
around the base of the stele, digging in clouds of dust, levering the
