I studied it for a while.
‘Perhaps.’ I was dubious.
‘You know we have never tried to find where the cavern opens out onto the top of the hills, Ben.’ Sally sat up excitedly. ‘Can’t we do that. Let’s go up and look at that piece of square stone. Can we, Ben?’
‘Of course.’ I agreed readily.
‘Today. Now! Can we go now?’
‘Hell, Sal. It’s after two o’clock already. We will be out after dark.’
‘Oh, come on! We can take torches with us.’
The growth of vegetation at the crest of the hills was dense and spiny. I was glad of the machete I had with me, and I hacked a path for us through it. We had marked the approximate position of the hole from the plain below, but even then we blundered about in the undergrowth for two hours before I nearly walked into it.
Suddenly the earth opened at my feet in that frightening black shaft, and I threw myself backwards, nearly knocking Sally down.
‘That was a near one.’ I was shaken, and I kept a respectful distance from the edge as we worked our way around to where a slab of stone jutted squarely out into the void.
I knelt on the lip to examine the stone. Far below, the surface of the emerald pool glowed in the gloomy depths. I do not like exposed heights, and I felt distinctly queasy as I leaned out to touch the flat surface of the stone.
‘It is certainly regular. Sal.’ I ran my hands over it. ‘But I can’t feel any chisel marks. It’s been badly weathered though, perhaps—’
I looked up and froze with horror. Sally had walked out onto the stone platform as though it were a diving- board. She stood now with her toes over the edge, and as I watched in horror she lifted her hands above her head. She pointed them straight at the sky with all her fingers and both thumbs extended stiffly in that same gesture she had used when first she saw the emerald pool.
‘Sally!’ I screamed, and her head jerked. She swayed slightly. I scrambled to my knees.
‘Don’t. Sally, don’t!’ I screamed again, for I knew she was about to plunge into the hungry stone mouth. Slowly she leaned out over the gap. I ran out onto the stone platform and as she went forward beyond the point of balance my hand closed on her upper arm. For brief unholy seconds we teetered and struggled together on the lip of stone, then I dragged her back, and pulled her to safety.
Suddenly she was shaking and weeping hysterically, and I clung to her, for I also was badly scared. Something had happened that was beyond my understanding, something mystical and deeply disturbing.
When Sally’s sobs had abated, I asked her gently, ‘What happened, Sal? Why did you do it?’
‘I don’t know. I just felt dizzy, and there was a black roaring in my head, and - oh, I don’t know, Ben. I just don’t know.’
It was another twenty minutes before Sally seemed sufficiently recovered to begin the journey back to camp, and by then the sun was setting. Before we reached the path down the cliff face it was completely dark.
‘The moon will be up in a few minutes. Sal. I don’t fancy going down the cliff in the dark. Let’s wait for it.’
We sat on the edge of the cliff huddled together, not for warmth, for the air was still hot and the rocks were sunbaked, but because both of us were still a little shaken from the experience we had just come through. The moon was a big silver glow beneath the horizon, then it pushed up fat and yellow and round above the trees, and washed the land with a soft pale light.
I looked at Sally. Her face was silver-grey in the moonlight with dark bruised eyes, and her expression was remote and infinitely sad.
‘Shall we go, Sal?’ I hugged her lightly.
‘In a minute. It’s so beautiful.’ I turned to stare out over the moon-silver plain. Africa has many moods, many faces, and I love them all. Here, before us. she put on one of her more enchanting displays. We were silent and engrossed for a long time.
Suddenly I felt Sally stir, against me, half rising.
‘Ready?’ I asked her, rising with her.
‘Ben!’ Her hand closed on my wrist with surprising strength, she was shaking my arm.
‘Ben! Ben!’
‘What is it, Sal?’ I was seized with dread that her earlier mood had returned.
‘Look, Ben. Look!’ Her voice was choked with emotion.
‘What is it, Sal? Are you all right?’
With one hand she was shaking my arm, with the other she was pointing down at the plain below us.
‘Look, Ben, there it is!’
‘Sally!’ I put both arms around her to restrain her. ‘Easy, my dear. Just sit down quietly.’
‘Don’t be a fool, Ben. I’m perfectly all right. Just look down there.’
Still holding her securely. I did as she asked. I stared and saw nothing.
‘Do you see it, Ben?’
‘No.’ And then, like the face in the picture-puzzle, it was there. It was there, as it should have been from the beginning.
