'That makes it a lot-easier,' he told Royan. 'The reed mat will help to
hold the plaster together and prevent it cracking and breaking up.'
He kept working the point of the awl deeper, until suddenly the
resistance gave way and the blade ran in Its full length.
'Six inches,' he said, measuring the thickness of the door off the
blade. 'Taita never skimps, does he? It's a heavy bit of work.'
Still using the awl, Nicholas drilled all four corners of the square
opening he intended cutting. Then he stepped back and gestured for
Hansith to bring up the heavy four-inch gimlet to enlarge them. This was
the type of drill that fishermen use for cutting through lake ice in
winter.
As soon as the gimlet broke through, Nicholas impatiently pulled Hansith
aside and peered into the hole.
Beyond the opening all was completely dark, but he caught a whiff of the
faint breath of ancient air that washed through the opening. The odour
was dry and dead and austere, the smell of the ages long past.
'What do you see?' Royan demanded at his elbow.
'The light! Give me the light!' he ordered, and when Sapper handed it to
him, he held it to the opening.
'Tell me!' Royan was dancing beside him with impatience. 'What do you
see now?'
'Colours!' he whispered. 'The most marvelous, indescribable colours.' He
stepped back and, lifting her around the waist, held her so that she
could look into the aperture.
'Beautiful!' she cried. 'It's so beautiful.'
The men rigged up the heavy-duty electric blower fan which would
circulate the air in the shaft, while Nicholas prepared the chain-saw.
When he was ready, Nicholas handed Royan a pair of goggles and a dust
mask and helped her to adjust them. Then he made her fit a pair of wax
ear plugs.
Before he started the chain-saw, he sent the rest of them back down the
tunnel as far as the causeway over the sinkholes In the confined space
the exhaust fumes from the chain-saw and the dust, together with the
noise of the petrol engine, would be overpowering, but apart from that
he wanted only Royan with him at the moment of the break'in.
When they were alone, Nicholas switched the blower fan to its highest
speed, then donned his own mask and goggles and plugged his ears. He
pulled the starter cord of the chain-saw motor and it burst into life in
a cloud of blue exhaust smoke.
Nicholas braced himself and pressed the spinning chain blade into the
gimlet hole in the plastered doorway.
It cut through the thick white plaster and the laths beneath it like a
knife through the icing on a wedding cake.
Carefully he ran the cutting edge down the line he had marked out.
A cloud of flying white plaster dust filled the air.
Within seconds they could see only a few feet in front of their eyes.
Doggedly Nicholas kept the cut going, down the right -hand side, across
the bottom, then up the left side. Finally he made the last cut across
the top, and when the square trapdoor began to sag forward under its own
weight he killed the engine of the chain'saw and set it aside.
