The Hippopotamus Pool - Elizabeth Peters [154]
Emerson was silent for a moment. ‘I see.’
‘I felt certain you would.’ Riccetti put his glass on the table and leaned forwards. ‘Working in haste, as illicit diggers must, my people would damage some of the articles, thereby reducing my profits. I can’t trust the swine, either,’ he added indignantly. ‘No matter how – er – forcefully I supervise them, there are always a few who will take the risk of robbing me.’
Astonishment and – yes, I admit – admiration robbed me of breath for a few moments. The fellow’s evil intelligence was brilliant. This scheme was worthy of Sethos himself – allowing us to carry out the work with the skill only we could demonstrate – then forcing us to hand the treasure over to him.
‘I hope,’ Riccetti went on, ‘that you now have a reason to speed the work. The sooner you finish, the sooner you will have your son with you again.’
‘Aren’t you afraid I will work too quickly?’ Emerson asked ironically. ‘A devoted father might shovel up the lot without worrying about your profits.’
‘Not you, my friend. Your principles are too well known. Flagrant violation of them would arouse suspicion. A deliberate speed – a careful compromise – that is all I ask. Shall we say two weeks?’
‘Two weeks? Impossible!’
‘Some of your colleagues would have it out in two days,’ Riccetti said with his saurian grin. ‘I don’t care about the broken scraps of pottery and wood. Pick the plums out of the pudding, you know what they are as well as I. And make sure you open that sarcophagus. I want what is inside, all of it – coffins, mummy and any other objects.’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What about David? He must be returned to us too.’
Riccetti appeared to be genuinely puzzled. ‘David? Oh – the native boy. Why should you ask about him?’ And then a slow, sneering smile spread across his face. ‘That famous British sentimentality! Would it distress you to learn, Mrs Emerson, that he does not feel the same loyalty towards you that you appear to feel for him?’
‘He is not your prisoner?’ Emerson demanded.
‘I don’t know where he is and I don’t care. No doubt he will return to you if he chooses. No more questions. Are we agreed?’
‘Yes,’ Emerson said.
‘Excellent. One final word of warning. I know you too well to suppose you have given up hope of finding the brat and freeing him. I would be seriously annoyed if you tried to do so. Let me make it perfectly clear, so there will be no unfortunate misunderstandings. If you are not, both of you, at your excavation every day, I will assume you are doing something else – something I have warned you not to do. Your first duty, my friends, is to your child. Should you lose sight of that, I will send you a little reminder. A finger, perhaps, or an ear.’
I cannot remember how I got out of the place. When I become aware of my surroundings I was sitting on the cracked rim of a fountain with water dripping off my chin and Emerson bending over me.
‘Say something, my love. Anything!’
‘Curse it,’ I muttered. ‘I didn’t faint, did I? If I gave that son of a dog the satisfaction of fainting . . .’
‘That’s my Peabody,’ Emerson said, with a long breath of relief. ‘No, my dear, you walked out on your own two feet, steady as a rock. It wasn’t until we got into the light and I saw your face that I realized you were not entirely yourself. Here, take my arm and let’s get out of this.’
He raised me to my feet. Though his voice was even, he was rather white around the mouth, and I said, ‘I am ashamed of myself, Emerson. Forgive me for behaving like a weak wom – Like a weakling. That terrible threat must have shaken you as much as it did me.’
‘Not quite so much, for I was expecting something of the sort.’ He managed a fairly convincing smile. ‘You have encountered a good many criminals in your time, Peabody, but never one so totally without scruples as Riccetti. Do you know, I almost find myself regretting our old adversary. At least Sethos was, in his own fashion, a man of his word.’
‘He would never have harmed a child,’ I said. ‘And he would have made short shrift of a creature