The Seventh Scroll

trouble." Blood was trickling from one nostril into her mouth, and

dyeing her teeth pink.

"You heard'my wife, English bastard. Go away! Mind your own business. Go

away, before I give you a little lesson in good ma

Boris staggered forward and thrust his open hand against Nicholas's

chest. Nicholas moved as smoothly and as effortlessly as a matador

avoiding the first wild charge of the bull. He swayed to one side, and

used Boris's own momentum to send him on in the direction in which he

was already committed. Completely off balance, the Russian reeled across

the open ground in front of the tent until he collided with one of the

camp chairs and went down in a sprawling heap.

"Royan, take Tessay to your tent!" he ordered softly.

Royan ran into the tent and pulled a sheet from the nearest cot. She

spread it over Tessay's shoulders and lifted her to her feet.

"Please, don't do this," Tessay sobbed. "You don't know him when he gets

like this. He will hurt somebody."

Royan dragged her, still protesting and weeping, out of the tent, but by

now Boris was on his feet again. He bellowed with rage and picked up the

camp chair that had tripped him. With a single jerk he tore off one of

the legs and hefted it in his bunched fist.

"You want to play games, English? All right, we play!" He rushed at

Nicholas, swinging the chair leg like a Ninja baton, so that it hissed

with the force with which he aimed it at his head. As Nicholas ducked

under it Boris reversed the swing, going for the side of his chest,

under his upraised arm. It would have staved in his ribs if it had

landed, but again Nicholas twisted away.

They circled each other warily, and then Boris charged again. If it had

not been for the effect of the vodka on the Russian's reflexes Nicholas

would never have taken a chance with an adversary of this calibre, but

Boris was just loose enough in his control to allow him to duck in under

the swinging chair leg. He straightened, with all his weight rolling

into the punch, and his fist slogged into the pit Of Boris's belly just

under the sternum. The Russian's breath was driven out of him in a great

gusty belch.

The chair leg flew from his grip, and he doubled over and collapsed.

Clasping his middle, and heaving and wheezing for breath, Boris lay

curled in the dust. Nicholas stooped over him and told him softly in

English, "This sort of behaviour simply isn't good enough, old chap. We

don't bully-girls. Please don't let it happen again."

He straightened up and spoke to Royan, "Get her to your tent and keep

her there." He combed his hair back from his face with his fingers. "And

now, if you have no serious objections, may we get a little sleep?"

It rained again during the early hours. The heavy drops drummed down on

the canvas and the lightning lit the interior of the tents with an eerie

brilliance. However, by the time that Nicholas went through to the

dining tent for breakfast the next morning, the clouds had cleared and

the sunshine was bright and cheering. The sweet mountain air smelt of

wet earth and mushrooms.

Boris greeted Nicholas with hearty good fellowship.

"Good morning, English. We had some fun last night. I still laugh to

remember it. Very good jokes. One day soon we will have some more vodka,

then we will makesome more good jokes." And he bellowed through to the

kitchen tent, "Hey! Lady Sun, bring your new boyfriend something to eat.

He is hungry from all the sport last night."

Tessay was quiet and withdrawn as she supervised the' servants handing

round breakfast. One eye was swollen almost closed, and her lip was cut.

She did not look at Nicholas once during the meal.

"We will go on ahead," Boris explained jovially as they drank coffee.

"My servants will break camp, and follow us in my big truck. With luck,

we will be able to camp tonight on the rim above the gorge, and tomorrow

we will begin the descent."

As they were climbing into the truck, Tessay was able to speak to him

softly for a moment, without danger of Boris overhearing her. "Thank

you, Alto Nicholas. But it was not wise. You don't know him. You must be

careful now. He does not forget, not does he forgive."

From the village of Debra Maryarn Boris took a branch road that ran

alongside the Dandera river directly south, wards. The road they had

followed the previous day from Lake Tana was shown on the map as a major

highway. It had been bad enough. But this track that they were now on

was marked as a secondary road "not passable in all weather'. To

compound matters, it seemed that most of the heavy traffic that had torn

up the main road had followed this same track. They came to a place

where some huge vehicle had become bogged down in the rain-saturated

earth, and the efforts to free it had left areas of ploughed land and an

excavation like a bomb crater that resembled an old photograph of the

battlefields of First World War Flanders.

Twice during the day the Toyota too became stuck in this foul ground.

Each time this happened, the big truck that was following them came up

and all the servants swarmed down from the cargo body to push and heave

the Toyota through. Even Nicholas stripped to the waist to work with

them in the mud to free it.

"If you had only listened to my advice," Boris grumbled, "we would not

be here. There is no game where you want to go, and there are no roads

worth the name either."

In the early afternoon they stopped beside the river for an alfresco

lunch. Nicholas went down to the pool beside the road to wash off the

mud and filth of the morning's labours. He had been in the forefront of

the efforts to keep the truck moving. Royan followed him down the slope

and perched on a rock above the pool while he stripped off his shirt and

knelt, at the verge to splash himself with the cold mountain water. The

river was muddy yellow and swollen from the rainstorms.

"I don't think Boris believes your story about the striped dik-dik," she

warned him. "Tessay tells me that he is suspicious of what we are up

to." She watched with interest as he sluiced his chest and upper arms.

'"ere the sun had not touched it, his skin was very white and

unblemished.

His chest hair was thick and dark. She decided that his body was good to

look at.

"He is the type that would go through our luggage if he gets a chance,'

Nicholas agreed. "You didn't bring anything with you that has any clues

for him? No papers or notes?"

"Only the satellite photograph, and my notebooks are all in my own

shorthand. He won't be able to make anything of them."

"Be very careful of what you discuss with Tessay."

"She is a dear. There is nothing underhand about her." Heatedly Royan

came to the defence of her new friend.

"She may be all right, but she's married to my chum Boris. Her first

allegiance lies there. No matter what your feelings towards her, don't

trust either of them." He dried himself on his shirt, slipped it on and

then buttoned it over his chest. "Let's go and get something to eat."

Back at the parked truck Boris was pulling the cork from a bottle of

South African white wine. He poured a tumbler full for Nicholas. Chilled