Death On The Nile - Christie Agatha - Страница 21

Miss Bowers, momentarily released by the peremptory summons of Cornelia, was standing in the middle of the temple looking about her with her cool incurious gaze.

Her reaction to the wonders of the past was succinct.

"The guide says the name of one of these gods or goddesses was Mut. Can you beat it?" There was an inner sanctuary where sat four figures eternally presiding, strangely dignified in their dim aloofness.

Before them stood Linnet and her husband. Her arm was in his, her face lifted a typical face of the new civilisation, intelligent, curious, untouched by the past.

Simon said suddenly: "Let's get out of here. I don't like these four fellows--especially the one in the high hat."

"That's Amon, I suppose. And that one is Rameses. Why don't you like them?

I think they're very impressive."

"They're a damned sight too impressivethere's something uncanny about them. Come out into the sunlight."

Linnet laughed, but yielded.

They came out of the temple into the sunshine with the sand yellow and warm about their feet. Linnet began to laugh. At their feet in a row, presenting a momentarily gruesome appearance as though sawn from their bodies, were the heads of half a dozen Nubian boys. The eyes rolled, the heads moved rhythmically from side to side, the lips chanted a new invocation.

"Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray! Very good, very nice. Thank you very much."

"How absurd! How do they do it? Are they really buried very deep?"

Simon produced some small change.

"Very good, very nice, very expensive," he mimicked.

Two small boys in charge of the "show" picked up the coins neatly.

Linnet and Simon passed on.

They had no wish to return to the boat, and they were weary of sightseeing.

They settled themselves with their backs to the cliff and let the warm sun bake them through.

"How lovely the sun is," thought Linnet. "How warm how safe How lovely it is to be happy How lovely to be me--meme--Linnet-" Her eyes dosed. She was half asleep, half awake, drifting in the midst of thought that was like the sand drifting and blowing.

Simon's eyes were open. They, too, held contentment. What a fool he'd been to be rattled that first night There was nothing to be rattled about.

Everything was all right After all, one could trust Jackie- There was a shout-some one running towards him waving their arms-shouting.

Simon stared stupidly for a moment. Then he sprang to his feet and dragged Linnet with him. e- Not a minute too soon. A big boulder hurtling down the cliff crashed past them. If Linnet had remained where she was she would have been crushed to atoms.

White-faced they clung together. Hercule Poirot and Tim Allerton ran up to them.

"Ma foi, Madame, that was a near thing." All four instinctively looked up at the cliff. There was nothing to be seen. But there was a path along the top. Poirot remembered seeing some natives walking along there when they had first come ashore.

He looked at the husband and wife. Linnet looked dazed still bewildered.

Simon, however, was inarticulate with rage.

"God damn her," he ejaculated.

He checked himself with a quick glance at Tim Allerton.

The latter said: "Phew, that was near! Did some fool bowl that thing over, or did it get detached on its own?" Linnet was very pale. She said with difficulty: "I think-some fool must have done it." "Might have crushed you like an eggshell. Sure you haven't got an enemy, Linnet?"

Linnet swallowed twice and found difficulty in answering the lighthearted raillery.

Poirot said quickly: "Come back to the boat, Madame. You must have a restorative." They walked there silently, Simon still full of pent-up rage, Tim trying to talk cheerfully and distract Linnet's mind from the danger she had run, Poirot with a grave face.

And then, just as they reached the gang-plank, Simon stopped dead. A look of amazement spread over his face.

Jacqueline de Bellefort was just coming ashore. Dressed in blue gingham she looked childish this morning.

"Good God," said Simon under his breath. "So it was an accident, after all." The anger went out of his face. An overwhelming relief showed so plainly that Jacqueline noticed something amiss.

"Good-morning," she said. "I'm afraid I'm a little on the late side." She gave them all a nod and stepped ashore and proceeded in the direction of the temple.

Simon clutched Poirot's arm. The other two had gone on.

"My God, that's a relief. I thought-I thought-"

Poirot nodded.

"Yes, yes, I know what you thought." But he himself still looked grave and preoccupied.

He turned his head and noted carefully what had become of the rest of the party from the ship.

Miss Van Schuyler was slowly returning on the arm of Miss Bowers.

A little farther away Mrs. Allerton was standing laughing at the little Nubian row of heads. Mrs. Otterbourne was with her.

The others were nowhere in sight.

Poirot shook his head as he followed Simon slowly on to the boat.

Chapter 10

"Will you explain to me, Madame, the meaning of the word fey?" Mrs. Allerton looked slightly surprised.

She and Poirot were toiling slowly up to the rock overlooking the Second Cataract. Most of the others had gone up on camels, but Poirot had felt that the motion of the camel was slightly reminiscent of that of a ship. Mrs. AileRon had put it on the grounds of personal dignity.

They had arrived at Wadi Halfa the night before. This morning two launches had conveyed all the party to the Second Cataract with the exception of Signor Richetti, who had insisted on making an excursion of his own to a remote spot called Semna, which he explained was of paramount interest as being the gateway of Nubia in the time of Amenemhet III, and where there was a stele recording the fact that on entering Egypt negroes must pay custom duties. Everything had been done to discourage this example of individuality but with no avail. Signor Richetti was determined and had waved aside each obi ection-(1) that the expedition was not worth making--(2) that the expedition could not be made owing to the impossibility of getting a car there (3) that no car could be obtained to do the trip-(4) that a car would be a prohibitive price. Having scoffed at 1, expressed incredulity at 2, offered to find a car himself to 3, and bargained fluently in Arabic for 4, Signor Richetti had at last departed his departure being arranged in a secret and furtive manner in case some of the other tourists should take it into their heads to stray from the appointed paths of sightseeing.

"Fey?" Mrs. Allerton put her head on one side as she considered her reply.

"Well, it's a Scotch word, really. It means the kind of exalted happiness that comes before disaster. You know-it's too good to be true." She enlarged on the theme. Poirot listened attentively.

"I thank you, Madame. I understand now. It is odd that you should have said that yesterday-when Madame Doyle was to escape death so shortly afterwards." Mrs. Allerton gave a little shiver.

"It must have been a very near escape. Do you think some of those little black wretches rolled that stone over for fun? It's the sort of thing boys might do all over the world-not perhaps really meaning any harm." Poirot shrugged his shoulders. "It may be, Madame.' He changed the subject, talking of Majorca and asking various practical questions from the point of view of a possible visit.

Mrs. Allerton had grown to like the little man very much partly, perhaps, out of a contradictory spirit. Tim, she felt, was always trying to make her less friendly to Hercule Poirot whom he had summarised firmly as "the worst kind of bounder." But she herself did not call him a bounder-she supposed it was his somewhat foreign exotic clothing which roused her son's prejudices. She herself found him an intelligent and stimulating companion. He was also extremely sympathetic. She found herself suddenly confiding in him her dislike of Joanna Southwood. It eased her to talk of the matter. And, after all, why not? He did not know Joanna-would probably never meet her. Why should she not ease herself of that constantly borne burden of jealous thought.