radiant she looked. It was that bright shiny look of happiness which you cannot fake with cosmetics and eyeliner.
‘We had ten days on the islands, Ben. It was wonderful.’ She went all misty and soft at the memory. ‘Our anniversary. Look!’ And she held up her left hand which was overburdened with a ring of red gold and a solitaire diamond. I was accustomed to Louren’s style of living, but even I blinked. The diamond was bluey-white in colour and looked good, it was certainly not a shade less than twenty-five carats.
‘It’s beautiful, Hilary.’ And for no good reason I thought, ‘The deeper the guilt, the bigger the gift.’
When we reached the Dorchester Hilary gasped and covered her mouth with surprise at the baroque super- abundance of the Oliver Messel suite.
‘It’s not true, Ben,’ she laughed, ‘It just can’t be!’
‘Don’t laugh,’ I warned her. ‘We must be costing Louren over ?100 per day.’
‘Wow!’ She flopped into one of the enormous armchairs ‘You can get a drink, Ben, my love. I need it.’
While I poured I asked unnecessarily, ‘Your problems were of a temporary nature then, Hil?’
‘I have forgotten I ever had any, Ben. He’s better than he ever was.’
When Louren arrived I saw what she meant. He was in high humour, laughing and restless with energy, sleek and hard and tanned. He disposed of the last two BYM while I poured him a Glen Grant, then he threw his coat and tie over a chair, rolled his sleeves up over brown bulging muscle and settled with the drink.
‘Okay, Ben. Show it to me.’ And we plunged into an examination and discussion of the scrolls and their translation.
Louren picked on the first line of the first page.
‘Go thou unto my store and take from thence five hundred fingers of the finest gold—’ He repeated the line, then looked up at me. ‘That’s right from the old boy’s mouth, Ben.
‘Suddenly your Punic is pretty hot,’ I commended him.
‘Well, tor cat’s sake, Ben, when did you ever send down to a store for your gold?’ He tasted the Glen Grant. ‘If your theories are correct—’
‘Don’t give me that
‘All right, let’s accept that there was a violent and sudden death to our city. Fire and dead men, the archives which they obviously held so dear are untouched, then there is a better than ever chance the treasury was untouched also. We’ve just got to find it.’
‘Great!’ I nodded, and grinned sarcastically. This is a major breakthrough. I’ve been breaking my heart searching for it these last six months.‘
‘It’s there, Ben.’ He did not answer my grin.
‘Where, Lo? Where?’
‘Close. Somewhere within the main walls, probably within the cavern area.’
‘Hell, Lo. I’ve been over every inch of it fifty times.’ I spoke with mild but rising irritation.
‘And when you’ve been over it for the hundredth time, you’ll realize how blind you’ve been.’
‘Damn it, Lo!’ I started. ‘I don’t think—’
‘Get yourself a drink, partner, before you blow up.’
I did as he advised, and Louren went on. ‘I’m not knocking what you’ve done, Ben. But let me just remind you that in 1909 Theodore Davis ended his book by saying, “I fear that the valley of the kings is now exhausted.”’
‘Yes, I know, Lo, but—’
Ignoring me Louren went on, ‘And it was thirteen years later that Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen, the greatest treasure that the valley had ever yielded.’
‘Nobody is talking about giving up the search, Lo. I’ll go on just as long as you keep paying.’
‘And I’ll bet that my cheque book is more tenacious than your resolve.’
‘That’s a bad bet,’ I warned him, and we were laughing again.
We parted in the middle of the afternoon. Louren being borne away in a flood of BYM, across the lobby to where a black Rolls waited in front of the hotel, and I slipping out the side entrance to hail my own taxi in Park Lane.
Eldridge Hamilton was waiting for me on the pavement outside the Royal Geographical Society, having motored up from Oxford in his bright red mini. He was dressed as always in his tweed with the elbow patches, but was feverish with anticipation of the morrow.
‘I can hardly wait for it, Ben,’ he chortled with malicious glee. ‘Have they arrived at the hotel yet?’
‘No, but Snell is due in this evening.’
Eldridge did a little hop and skip of excitement and said. ‘Like a hippopotamus lumbering into the dead fall.’ Cruel but apt, I thought, and we went up through the double oaken doors into the panelled hall which is a high temple of our profession. There is a hushed dignity about the building which I find reassuring and permanent in this insane and transitory modern world
Side by side we climbed the sweeping staircase, past the portraits of great men and the lists of former medallists honoured by the Society.
‘You’ll have to give some thought as to who should paint you, Ben.’ Eldridge indicated the portraits. ‘They do
