The Last Camel Died at Noon - Elizabeth Peters [34]
“If that’s your excuse for going into winter quarters instead of continuing to Khartoum…” began Emerson.
“Our excuse is that we wish to save lives, Professor. I don’t want to lose a single brave man through stupidity or lack of preparation.”
“Hmph,” said Emerson, who could hardly deny the sense of this. “Well, then, to business. You are a busy man and so am I.”
Upon inquiry, Slatin told us that Mr. Budge had already investigated the pyramid fields of Nuri, Kurru, Tankasi, and Zuma, and was now working at Gebel Barkal. “There is, or was, a temple of considerable size there,” Slatin said. “Mr. Budge believes it was built by the pharaoh Piankhi—”
“Mr. Budge doesn’t know what he is talking about,” Emerson interrupted. He turned to me. “Good Gad, Peabody, can you believe it? Four separate cemeteries in a few months! And now he is ransacking the temple, scooping up objects for his bloo——his precious museum. Curse it, we must go there at once! I’ll run him off before he can do any more damage, or my name—”
“Now, Emerson, remember your promise,” I said in some alarm. “You said you intended to stay away from Mr. Budge.”
“But curse it, Peabody—”
“Pyramids, Emerson. You promised me pyramids.”
“So I did,” Emerson grumbled. “Very well, Peabody. Where shall it be?”
Slatin had followed the exchange with openmouthed interest, “You make the decisions, Mrs. Emerson?”
Emerson’s brow darkened. He is a trifle sensitive about being considered henpecked. Before he could comment, I said smoothly, “My husband and I have discussed the subject at length. He is making a courteous gesture, that is all. We had agreed on Nuri, Emerson, had we not?”
In fact, the decision was not a difficult one; the only thing that could have kept me from Nuri was learning that Budge was there. Nuri had a number of advantages. In the first place, it was ten miles away from the military base. That made it inconvenient from the point of view of fetching supplies, but the distance reduced the chances of unpleasant encounters with Mr. Budge and with the army. In the second place, the reports I had read, by Lepsius and others, made me suspect that the Nuri tombs were the oldest and hence the most interesting, dating, as they might, from the period of the Nubian conquest of Egypt in 730 B.C. They were also more solidly built, being of cut stone throughout instead of a mere outer layer of stone over a core of loose rubble.
“It makes no difference to me,” Emerson said moodily.
It was therefore decided that we would leave the following morning, which gave me the rest of the afternoon to shop and make arrangements for transport. Slatin informed us that the trip across the desert by camel required approximately two hours, but he recommended that we go by water instead, even though it would take longer. Camels were very hard to find, owing to the devastation wrought by the rebels and the fact that the army had first call on them.
After I had appealed to him as a gentleman and a scholar, he promised to do all he could to help us. Men are very susceptible to flattery, especially when it is accompanied by simpers and fluttering lashes. Fortunately Emerson was still brooding on the sins of Mr. Budge and did not interfere.
In fact, it was after noon the next day before we got under way. Washing the camels took longer than I had anticipated.
“We’ll pitch our tent between the two southernmost pyramids.”
Where Yussuf had found them I did not ask, but they were a sorry-looking group of animals, which had obviously never been under the care of the officer in charge of the military camels. I had had a most interesting chat with this gentleman; he operated a kind of hospital for ailing camels outside the camp, and I was pleased to find that his views on the care of animals agreed with mine. I had had the same problem with donkeys while in Egypt. The poor beasts were shamefully overloaded and neglected, so I had made it a policy to wash the donkeys and their filthy