The Ape Who Guards the Balance - Elizabeth Peters [60]
“We made it back to the boat without further incident,” Ramses concluded.
“Further incident,” Emerson repeated. “Hmmm, yes. There had been incidents enough. Well, well. It is not the first time you have behaved recklessly, and it will probably not be the last. There is only one thing I fail to understand.”
“Yes, sir?” Ramses said warily. He was not deceived by Emerson’s mild tone.
“I do not understand why . . .” Emerson’s voice broke with sheer fury and then rose to a roar that rattled the cups in their saucers. “Why in the name of God you took your sister with you!”
The cat Horus shot out from under the table and headed for the door, his ears flattened and his tail straight out. There he encountered Abdullah, who had been waiting for us on the verandah and who had, I supposed, been alarmed by Emerson’s shouts and hurried to discover what disaster had prompted them. The cat got entangled in Abdullah’s skirts and a brief interval of staggering (by Abdullah), scratching (by Horus) and swearing (by both parties) ensued before Horus freed himself and departed.
So Ramses had to go over it again, while I applied iodine to Abdullah’s shins. Ordinarily he would have objected to this procedure, but the interest of the narrative distracted him; his eyes got rounder and rounder and when Ramses finished he gasped, “You took Nur Misur with you?”
“They didn’t take me,” Nefret said. “We went together. Abdullah, please don’t get excited. It is not good for you.”
“But—but—Yussuf Mahmud,” Abdullah exclaimed. “That crawling snake . . . Into el Was’a At night . . .”
“If you don’t calm down I am going to get my stethoscope and listen to your heart.” She pressed him back into his chair with one small brown hand and offered him a glass of water with the other.
The threat was sufficient. Abdullah viewed modern medical procedures with deep suspicion, and the very idea of being examined by a young woman filled him with horror.
“If she had not been with us, I might not be here with you now, Grandfather,” David said. “She is as quick as a cat and as brave as a lion.”
I decided it was time for me to take charge of the discussion, which had degenerated into a series of emotional exchanges. This is often the case when men carry on a conversation.
“Let us hear the rest of it, Ramses,” I said.
Emerson, who had begun to relax, came to attention with an audible snap of muscles. “There is more?”
“I rather think so. We will have to call Ibrahim to repair the hinges of Nefret’s door. Well, Ramses?”
“I’ll tell it,” Nefret said.
Emerson must already have reached the pinnacle of outrage, for his only reaction was to twitch a bit. Abdullah sipped his water, watching Nefret suspiciously over the rim of the glass. Nefret did not give either of them the opportunity to comment.
“I admit we ought to have told you about the papyrus earlier,” she said. “But that’s over and done with, and we know how you feel, and you know how we feel, so let us not waste time shouting at one another.”
“Now see here, young lady,” Emerson began.
“Yes, Professor darling, we all know you never shout. The question is, what are we to do now? As I see it,” she continued, without waiting for a reply, “there are two questions to be answered. First, who was the man who entered my room last night? Second, where did the papyrus originate? Has a new tomb been discovered?”
“Well-reasoned,” I said approvingly. “I was about to put the same questions myself. You think the intruder was Yussuf Mahmud?”
“It was not an ordinary thief,” Abdullah grunted. “No man of Thebes would risk the anger of the Father of Curses.”
Emerson growled agreement. “He left no clue?”
It was Ramses who answered. “I searched the area under Nefret’s window this morning. The sand had been disturbed, but it does not take footprints. He was not