packed them into boxes and the soldiers are guarding them.'
'Soldiers? What soldiers?'
'Soldiers of Mek Nimmur, the. shufta commander that I told you about. He
is still with Harper.'
'How many boxes are thereP In his impatience von Schiller went up to
where the woman sat and prodded her with the toe of his boot. 'How many
statues are there?'
The woman waited with terror and shrank away from him. Von Schiller
recoiled from her at the same time, with an expression of disgust.
'Gott im HimmeW He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and patted his
mouth and nose with it. 'She stinks like an animal. Ask her how many
boxes.'
'Not many,' Nogo translated, 'perhaps five, not more than ten. She is
not sure.'
'What size? How big are they?'
When Nogo put the question to her, the w6man indicated the length of her
arm. Von Schiller's disappointment registered clearly in his face.
'So few pieces, and so insignificant.' He turned away from the woman and
went to stare out of the south-facing window of the hut, down over the
escarpment rim into the wilderness of the gorge. 'If what this creature
says is true, then Harper has not yet discovered the treasure of Mamose.
There should be more, much more.'
Nogo was talking rapidly to the woman again, and now he turned back to
von Schiller. 'She says that one of Harper's party has left the camp in
the gorge, and gone to Debra Maryam.'
Von Schiller spun away from the window and stared at him. 'One of his
party? Who? Which one!'
'She is an Ethiopian woman. The concubine of Mek Nimmur. A woman she
calls Woizero Tessay. I know of her. She was married to the Russian
hunter, before she became Mek Nimmur's whore.'
Von Schiller rushed across the room and seized the woman by the front of
her robe. He hauled her to her feet with such violence that the infant
was jerked from her grip and fell howling to the floor.
'Ask her where the woman is now,' he instructed Nogo.
The mother pulled free from his grip and grovelled on the floor, trying
to pick up and console her screaming infant, Nogo grabbed her and
slapped her face resoundingly to get her attention. She clasped her baby
to her breast and gabbled out a reply.
'She does not know,' Nogo admitted. 'She thinks she is still at Debra
Maryam.'
'Get that filthy bitch out of here!' Von Schiller jerked his head at the
woman and her child. Nogo dragged them from the hut.
'What else do you know of this woman of Mek Nimmur's?' he asked in
milder tones when Nogo returned.
'She is from one of the noble families in Addis Ababa, a blood relative
of Ras Tafari Makonnen, the old Emperor Haile Selassie.'
'If she is Mek Nimmur's woman, and has come directly from Harper's camp,
then she will be able to ' answer the questions that this other creature
could not.'
'That is true, Herr von Schiller. But she may not wish to tell us.'
