The Ape Who Guards the Balance - Elizabeth Peters [68]
“I don’t want diamonds, my dear. You have given me everything I want and more.”
“Ah,” said Emerson. “Shall we go home, Peabody, so that I can give you—”
“That would be very agreeable, Emerson.”
:
You may be certain, dear Reader, that Emerson had not allowed us to neglect our professional activities. I have not reported on them in detail because they produced nothing of interest. While the rest of us toiled in the remote corners of the Valley, Ramses and David worked at the Seti I temple copying inscriptions.
The weather had turned unusually warm, which did not lighten our labors. Under the burning rays of the solar orb the bare rock walls of the Valley absorb heat as a sponge soaks up water—a commodity, I might add, that is in exceedingly short supply there. We all felt it excepting Emerson, who appears to be impervious to temperatures hot or cold.
I attempted to find little tasks for Abdullah that would keep him from overexertion, but eventually he saw through my schemes and went at it harder than ever, his aristocratic nose pinched with indignation. I kept a close eye on him, therefore, and so was the first to see him fall.
He sat up when I ran to him and tried to tell me there was nothing wrong, but he could not summon up enough breath to speak. Nefret was at his side almost as soon as I. From her shirt pocket she took an envelope and reached into it.
“Hold his mouth open,” she ordered, in the tone she would have used to a servant. Naturally I obeyed at once. In went her fingers and out they came; she clamped her small brown hands around Abdullah’s bearded jaws and brought her face so close to his that their noses were almost touching.
Abdullah stared as if mesmerized into her intent blue orbs. Gradually his breathing slowed and deepened, and Nefret released her grasp and sat back on her heels. Abdullah blinked. Then he looked at me.
I gave him a reassuring nod. “It is well, Abdullah. Nefret, go and tell the Professor we are stopping work.”
So she did, and as soon as Emerson learned what had happened he came out of the tomb and lectured Abdullah, which made him sulk, and sent Selim to ask Cyrus for the loan of his carriage, which made Abdullah swear.
“We are finished for the day,” Emerson said, in the voice that brooked no argument. “Go home and rest, you stubborn old villain.”
“Why not?” Abdullah said tragically. “I am old and of no use to anyone. It is a sad way to end, sitting in the sun like a toothless infant . . .”
Daoud took him by the arm. We watched them walk slowly away, Abdullah irritably swatting at Daoud.
“What the devil am I going to do with him?” Emerson demanded. “He will drop dead in his tracks one day and it will be my fault.”
“Perhaps he would prefer it that way,” Nefret said. “Wouldn’t you?”
Emerson’s worried face softened, and he put an affectionate arm around her. “You are very wise for such a young creature, my dear. What was it you gave him?”
“I knew he would lose or throw away those nitroglycerine tablets I gave him, so I brought a fresh supply. I always carry them with me.”
The boys had returned to the house by the time we got there, and when Nefret said she wanted to ride to Gurneh and make sure Abdullah was all right, they went with her.
From Manuscript H
The house, one of the largest in Gurneh, was midway up the hill, near the tomb of Ramose. Abdullah shared it with his nephew Daoud and Daoud’s wife Kadija, a tall, gray-haired woman with dark brown skin and muscles almost as impressive as Daoud’s. Nefret claimed she was a very entertaining conversationalist, with a delightful sense of humor, but Ramses had to take her word for it since Kadija never unveiled in his presence or spoke more than a murmured greeting.
They had to pretend they had dropped in for a social call while exercising the horses. Kadija served them with cups of dark sweet tea and then retired to a corner. After Nefret had watched Abdullah for a while without seeming to, she joined Kadija and a murmured undercurrent of conversation began, broken at intervals by Nefret’s musical chuckles.
They took