of monks and drawing Christians from all over this land. Now that it is
gone, the very existence of the monastery is threatened.
They have lost their reason for continuing.'
'So you are tempting them with a false promiseP Royan was still angry.
'The body of Mamose is every bit as authentic as the one they lost. What
does it matter if it is the body of an ancient Egyptian rather than that
of an ancient Christian, just as long as it serves as a focus for the
faith and if it is the means by which the monastery might survive for
another five hundred years?'
'I think Mek is making sense.' Nicholas gave his opinion.
'Since when have you been an expert in Christianity?
You are an atheist,' Royan flashed at him, and he held up his hands as
if to ward off a blow.
'You are right. What do I know about it anyway?
You argue it out with Mek. I am going to discuss the theory of
dam-building with Sapper Webb.' He sauntered up to the head of the file
of men and fell in beside his engineer.
From time to time he heard heated voices raised behind him, and he
grinned. He knew Mek, but he was also beginning to understand the lady.
It would be fascinating to see who would win this argument.
They reached the head of the chasm in the middle of the afternoon, and
while Mek 6.. searched out a campsite Nicholas took Sapper immediately
to the narrow neck of the river just above where it plunged over the
waterfall. While Sapper set up the theodolite, Nicholas took the
graduated levelling staff.
Sapper ordered him up and down the face of the cliff with peremptory
hand signals, all the while peering into the lens of the theodolite,
while Nicholas teetered on insecure footing and tried to keep the staff
upright for Sapper to take his sightings.
'Okay!' Sapper bellowed, after taking his twentieth shot. 'Now I want
you on the other side of the river.'
Tine!' Nicholas bellowed back. 'Do you want me to fly or swim?'
Nicholas hiked three miles upstream to the ford where the trail crossed
the Dandera river, and then fought his way back through the tangled
river in undergrowth to the point on the bank opposite which Sapper lay
in the shade smoking a soothing cigarette.
'Don't rupture yourself, will you?' Nicholas yelled across the water at
him.
It was almost dark before Sapper had made all the shots he wanted, and
Nicholas was still faced with the long return trip over the ford. He
covered the last mile in almost total darkness, guided only by the
flicker of the campfires.
Wearily he stumbled into the camp and flung down the levelling staff.
'You had beer tell me that it was worth it,' he tt growled at Sapper,
who did not look up from his slide rule.
He was working over his revised drawings by the glaring light of a small
butane lantern.
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'You weren't too far out in your estimates,' he congratulated Nicholas.
