The Falcon at the Portal - Elizabeth Peters [79]
He emphasized the order by catching hold of Geoffrey’s coat and dragging him bodily out of the trench. Dropping neatly down into the excavation, he began to dig Ramses out with the strength and skill only he could have demonstrated. The greater part of the debris was confined to Ramses’s legs and lower back. For once he had been wearing his pith helmet, and I observed that his head was resting on his folded arms, so that it was entirely possible that his nose and mouth were not full of sand. He appeared to be unconscious, however. Emerson ran anxious hands over his arms and legs before turning him carefully onto his back.
Ramses’s pith helmet immediately fell off. He had not buckled the strap. There was only a little blood on his face, which was not nearly as pale as that of his father, and I could see that he was breathing nicely, but Emerson lost his head just a bit; he slipped his arms under Ramses’s knees and shoulders, and I do not doubt that his well-nigh supernatural strength, intensified by parental anxiety, would have been sufficient to raise the lad bodily out of the excavation, if a duet of cries from Nefret and me had not stopped him.
“Don’t move him yet!” was the gist of our remarks.
Ramses’s eyes opened. He looked at his father and then turned his head to examine his surroundings. “Damn it, Father!” he gasped. “You’ve smashed that pot! It was a perfect specimen of blue and buff Eighteenth Dynasty ware!”
“Impossible,” said Emerson. “What would such a thing be doing here?”
“The burial is intrusive. I would tentatively date it to—”
“Stop it!” Nefret’s face was crimson. “Ramses, you bloody fool, is anything broken? Professor, don’t let him sit up! Aunt Amelia—”
“Calm yourself, my dear,” I said, watching Ramses, assisted by his father, rise stiffly but steadily to his feet. “And don’t swear. There appears to be no serious damage.”
Nor was there. After we had retired to the shelter he submitted with ill grace to Nefret’s attentions. The shirt would have been ruined even if she had not insisted on cutting it off him. Nefret was almost as destructive with a pair of scissors as she was with a knife. She finally admitted—grudgingly, I thought—that scrapes, scratches, and bruises were the extent of his injuries. Ramses denied this was due to luck or the grace of God; he insisted he had seen the prop give way and had immediately assumed a position that offered the greatest protection to the most vulnerable areas of the body. He sounded so smug I could hardly blame Nefret for accidentally spilling half a bottle of alcohol down his front.
Ramses was determined to go back to his mastaba and I could think of no way of preventing him. He condescended to accept a sip of brandy from the flask I always carry and stalked off, bare to the waist and trying not to limp. A nod from Emerson sent Daoud and Selim trotting after him. I hoped they would be able to prevent him from doing something foolish.
“I’ll give him a hand, shall I?” Geoffrey, who had been sitting on the rug, got to his feet.
“I am glad to see you were wearing gloves,” I said. “I can never get Ramses and Emerson to do so, and they are always mashing their fingers and scraping their knuckles.” Gloves did offer some protection, but in Geoffrey’s case I suspected a harmless touch of vanity. He had slender, aristocratic hands, and his nails were always carefully manicured. “We are indebted to you, Geoffrey, for your quick thinking and prompt action.”
“I fear I was of little use.”
“And I was of no use at all,” said Karl heavily. He had flung himself down on the rug, his head in his hands. “Ach, Gott, it was a frightful thing to see. I felt certain he would be crushed from head to feet. I could do nothing. It happened so quickly …”
Emerson had taken out his pipe and was smoking. He claimed this dirty habit calmed his nerves, and it may have been so. Only I could have detected the effort it cost him to remain seated and speak quietly.
“Did you see what happened?” he asked.
Karl threw out his hands. “It happened so quickly! He had gone down