The Golden One (17 page)

After dinner, when we had retired to the parlour, and Jumana had gone to her room to study, I managed to get Emerson off the subject of archaeology. ‘I hope you convinced Selim that he
must leave Jamil to us. If he and the other men injured the boy, it would split the family apart. Not all of them take the matter as seriously as Selim does; some may even sympathize with
Jamil.’

‘Why do you suppose I was talking so loudly to Selim? I wanted the others, especially Jumana, to overhear. The boy has done nothing except bully his sister and play the fool – if it
was he we saw. We don’t know that. We don’t know that he killed that fellow, or even that murder was committed! It may have been an accident, or self-defence. These beggars squabble
constantly amongst themselves. All we know for certain is that some person unknown placed the body in position, possibly as a warning or a threat, possibly only to hide it.’

‘That is all very well, Emerson, but two of the original thieves have met a violent death. In criminal investigation – ’

‘This is not a criminal investigation,’ said Emerson, with a snap of his teeth. ‘We have no proof of murder.’

Undeterred, I proceeded. ‘Then how do you explain the position of the body? It is a most inconvenient hiding place. How did Jamil – oh, very well, whoever it was – how did he
get the body there?’

Emerson replied with a rhetorical question. ‘How did the ancient workmen get that damned sarcophagus of Hatshepsut’s into her tomb in the cliff? That tomb is even less accessible
than this one, and a stone sarcophagus is considerably heavier than a man.’

‘Perhaps it was meant to warn us, and others, away from the place.’

‘There was nothing of value left in the tomb,’ Emerson said. ‘Anyhow, Jamil knows better than to threaten
me
.’

The shrubbery outside rustled, and Horus came in through the open window. He was carrying something in his mouth.

‘Oh, my goodness,’ I exclaimed. ‘It’s not a mouse – it’s too big. A rat. Disgusting. Emerson – ’

Emerson was too slow. Horus darted past him and laid the object at Nefret’s feet. He then sat down and stared fixedly at her.

‘It’s not a rat,’ Ramses said. He reached down and scooped the motionless form into his hands. ‘It’s a cat – a kitten. I’m afraid it’s . .
.’

A faint but unmistakable purr contradicted his assumption. The small creature was so dirty I could not make out its markings.

Nefret said gently, ‘Cats sometimes purr when they are frightened or in pain. If it is beyond help, we had better put it out of its misery.’

The parlour door opened. Sennia stood on the threshold, rubbing her eyes. ‘Horus woke me up. He had . . . Oh!’

Emerson caught hold of her. ‘Now, child, don’t touch it. It is sick, or hurt, or . . .’

Sennia leaned against Emerson. She looked charming, her hair ruffled with sleep and the hem of her white nightdress baring slim brown feet and ankles. ‘If it is sick, Aunt Nefret will make
it well.’

‘Oh, Sennia . . .’ Nefret glanced at the motionless body Ramses cradled in his cupped hands. ‘I’ll try. I’ll do my best. Go back to bed, darling.’

‘Yes, Aunt Nefret. Horus, you are a good boy. Come to bed now, Aunt Nefret will take care of the kitty.’

Horus considered the suggestion. With what looked alarmingly like a nod of acquiescence, he got up and followed Sennia out.

‘Oh, dear,’ I said. ‘Nefret, do you think you can . . . What is wrong with it?’

‘I don’t know yet.’ Nefret shrugged helplessly. ‘But I’ll have to find out, won’t I? Bring it along, Ramses.’

As I might have expected, Sennia was the first one down next morning. Gargery was trying to get her to eat her porridge – never an easy task – when we entered the dining room. She
bounced up from her chair and ran to me. ‘How is the kitty? When can I see it?’

‘I don’t know, Sennia. Ramses and Nefret have not come yet. Sit down and eat your breakfast. Where is Horus?’

‘Under her chair,’ said Gargery grimly. ‘As usual. Madam, what is all this about another cat? We don’t need one. We don’t need
that
one,’ he added,
with a baleful look at Horus.

‘It is only a little cat,’ said Sennia. ‘It is sick, but Aunt Nefret is going to make it well.’

Her bright, confident face made my heart sink. What she expected, in her innocent fashion, might be impossible, even for Nefret. Emerson cleared his throat. ‘Er – Sennia, the cat was
– er – very sick. It may not . . .’

‘There they are!’ Sennia was out of her chair again, running to them. She threw her arms round Nefret’s waist. ‘Why didn’t you bring the kitty, Aunt
Nefret?’

‘It needs to rest,’ Nefret said, after the obligatory grunt of expelled breath. ‘But it is better. Much better.’

Emerson’s face displayed his relief. He is such a sentimentalist about children, he could not bear to see Sennia disappointed. He did not even object when the entire conversation centred
on the cat, for Sennia would talk of nothing else. She demanded a detailed diagnosis.

‘Malnutrition and dehydration,’ Nefret said. ‘With the attendant infections. The little creature has quite a will to live, though. The first thing it did was stagger to the
food we put out for it and gulp it down. Then it tried to climb up Ramses’s leg.’

Sennia laughed. ‘Did it scratch, Ramses?’

‘Not really. Its claws aren’t any longer than your eyelashes.’

‘It thinks Ramses is its mother,’ Nefret said. Sennia chortled, and Nefret added, ‘He sat up most of the night holding it.’

‘It needed to be kept warm,’ Ramses mumbled, looking embarrassed. ‘And it wouldn’t stay in its basket.’

‘I am going to see it now,’ Sennia announced. ‘You want to see it, too, don’t you, Gargery?’

Gargery tried to think of something that would express his feelings to the rest of us without betraying them to Sennia. He failed. ‘Yes,’ he said resignedly.

The kitten served one useful purpose. I did not want to take Sennia with us on our first day at the dig, and she would have insisted on coming but for the distraction. Nefret offered to give her
her first lesson in bones after the patient had been inspected, and Sennia promised to leave it alone the rest of the day. A convalescent does not fare well with an enthusiastic child poking at it,
however good the child’s motives, and I took it for granted that the creature was not housebroken.

Naturally Ramses stayed with them, and Sennia kindly agreed to let Jumana join her biology lesson. They were to bring the horses and meet us later at Deir el Medina, where Selim and Daoud were
waiting for us with the men they had hired.

Few tourists visit the site, which is tucked into a little valley in the hills of the West Bank. The only attraction for them is the Ptolemaic temple at the north end of the valley. It is a nice
enough temple in its way, but it is too late in date to interest us. The people who do go there follow the route that includes more popular tourist attractions, from Deir el Bahri to Medinet
Habu.

There is another path, however, that ascends one of the hills enclosing the settlement and continues at a considerable elevation, passing above the temples of Deir el Bahri on its way to the
Place of Truth, as the Valley of the Kings was called in ancient times. We had often followed part of this route, climbing the slope behind the temple and going on to the Valley – or, as we
had done two days earlier, striking off on that hair-raising climb over the plateau.

It was not the easiest way of getting to Deir el Medina, but Emerson proposed we follow it that first morning. He wanted to see what condition the southern section of the path was in, he
explained. I was reasonably sure it was in exactly the same condition it had been the previous year and for countless years before, but I did not demur. When we reached the top of the hill above
Deir el Bahri we stopped for a moment, as Abdullah and I had so often done.

I knew that Emerson was also thinking of Abdullah as we stood looking out across the desert and the cultivation. The air was clear that morning; we could see the miniature shapes of the temples
on the East Bank, with the eastern cliffs behind them. However, his only audible expression of emotion was a loud clearing of his throat.

Instead of turning south towards Deir el Medina, Emerson set off along the trail that led to the Valley. He had not gone far before he stopped with a grunt of satisfaction. I could not see what
had occasioned the satisfaction; he was looking at what appeared to be a row of tumbled stones, half-buried in sand.

‘Emerson, what are you doing?’ I demanded, as he knelt and began scraping away sand. ‘Stop that at once. You aren’t even wearing gloves.’

Emerson rose, not because I had told him to, but because he had had second thoughts. ‘They will have to be properly excavated.’

‘Those rocks? Why?’

‘Good Gad, Peabody, what has become of your trained excavator’s eye? That’s a wall, or what is left of one, and there are others hereabouts. I noticed them some time ago, but
saw no reason to investigate them.’

‘I don’t see any reason to do it now.’

‘Think about it. It’s quite a distance from the Valley to Deir el Medina. Wouldn’t it be logical for a gang of workmen to camp here, close to the job, part of the time? A few
smallish huts, such as these appear to be, would not be difficult to construct.’

His eyes sparkled. Emerson is one of the few excavators in the business who derives as much pleasure from the humble minutiae of archaeology as from impressive temples and rich tombs. If he was
correct, a small bit of the puzzle of the past would be filled in – and he usually was correct about such things.

‘Well, my dear, that is very interesting,’ I said. ‘But hadn’t we better be getting on? Nobody is going to bother your – er – huts.’

Emerson tore himself away. The path was well travelled; we met goats and a few Egyptians afoot or on donkey-back. Emerson greeted them by name (except for the goats) but did not stop, though it
was clear to me that one or two of the men would have liked to have gossiped a bit. The news of what had happened the day before must be all over the West Bank by now. We had not gone far, however,
before we came upon persons of quite a different sort. There were nine of them, six donkey drivers and three people in European dress, and when they hailed us it was impossible to push on past. I
recognized the American party we had encountered on board ship and later in Cairo.

Mrs Albion’s tall, spare frame was clad in garments that were, I supposed, the latest in American notions of sporting attire for ladies. Her linen coat had the fashionable military cut and
her skirts were calf-length. Her head was so wrapped in veiling that her features were only a blur. She was sitting sideways on the donkey, her neat boots dangling. A true lady, of course, would
rather fall off than ride astride. It probably required two drivers to keep her in the saddle, and the same was true of Mr Albion, who rolled first to one side and then to the other, with his
drivers shoving him back and forth. The process seemed to entertain him quite a lot; he was red-faced with heat and laughter when the little cavalcade halted. The younger man was red, too, but with
sunburn, not amusement. He removed his hat and inspected me with cool curiosity.

Emerson, being Emerson, greeted the Egyptians first. ‘Salaam aleikhum, Ali, Mahmud, Hassan . . . Good morning, er – um – ’

‘Albion,’ the gentleman in question supplied, while his son stared curiously at us. ‘We met on the boat.’

‘No, we didn’t,’ said Emerson.

Albion chortled. His face turned even redder. ‘Not for want of effort on my part. Tried to track you down in Cairo, too, but didn’t succeed. Figured we’d run into you sooner or
later. How’s the rest of the family?’

‘Very well,’ I said. ‘Thank you. Where are you on your way to this morning?’

‘Just out for a little ride,’ said Mr Albion. He took out a large white handkerchief and mopped his face. ‘Say, you folks couldn’t introduce me to a few tomb robbers,
could you?’

Emerson had begun backing away. This remarkable request stopped him dead. ‘What did you say?’

‘Well, we’re collectors,’ Albion said calmly. ‘Especially Sebastian here. He’s just crazy about ancient Egypt.’

If I understood the meaning of that slang word, it did not suit young Mr Albion. He did not look like a man who would go ‘crazy’ over anything. His eyes were wide-set and somewhat
protuberant, and as cool as ice-clouded water, whose colour they matched.

‘Yessir,’ his father went on cheerfully. ‘We’ve been collecting for quite a while. That’s why we came out this winter, looking for more good stuff.’

Emerson was staring, his astonishment now mitigated by amusement. I feared annoyance would soon mitigate the amusement, when he realized, as had I, that Albion was absolutely serious.

‘The usual method of collecting antiquities,’ I said somewhat sarcastically, ‘is to buy from dealers. Mohassib in Luxor – ’

‘Been to see him already,’ said Albion. ‘ ’Scuse me for interrupting, ma’am, but I didn’t want to waste your time.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, taken aback.

‘You’re welcome, ma’am. Now Mohassib has some fine things, but he’s playing the dealer on me, trying to raise the price. I figure the best way is to go straight to the
people he gets his stuff from. Cut out the middleman, eh?’

I looked at Mrs Albion, wondering if she would display embarrassment at her husband’s outrageous speech. She had loosened her veils. There was no doubt which side of the family her son
favoured. She had the same long face and thin lips and pale grey eyes. They were fixed on Mr Albion with a look of fatuous admiration.

‘Well?’ said Mr Albion hopefully. ‘You’d get your cut, of course.’

‘We are not dealers,’ Emerson said. ‘And I must warn you, Mr Albion, that what you have proposed – in all innocence, I trust – is not only illegal but
dangerous.’

‘Dangerous?’ Mrs Albion transferred her stare to Emerson. Her lips straightened out and her eyes lost their warmth. ‘What possible danger could there be for us? We are American
citizens.’

‘The danger,’ said Emerson, ‘is me. If you have not heard enough about me to understand my meaning, ask your guides. Let us go, Peabody.’