Amelia Peabody Omnibus 1-4 (17 page)

‘Enough of this equivocation,’ I cried impatiently. ‘What you saw resembled … was like … seemed to be … in short – a mummy!’

Evelyn stared at me.

‘You saw it too! You must have done, or you could not accept this so readily. When? How?’

‘One might add, “why?”’ I said wryly. ‘Yes, I saw such a form last night. This morning I found scraps of rotted wrappings on the ledge outside our chamber.’

‘And you said nothing of this to Walter – or to me?’

‘It sounded too ridiculous,’ I admitted, ‘particularly after I learned that the mummy we discovered had mysteriously disappeared in the night.’

‘Ridiculous, Amelia? I wish I could think so. What are we to do?’

‘I will have the courage to speak now that I have you to support me. But I shudder to think what Emerson will say. I can hear him now: “A walking mummy, Peabody? Quite so! No wonder the poor fellow wants exercise, after lying stiff for two thousand years!”’

‘Nevertheless, we must speak.’

‘Yes. In the morning. That will be time enough for my humiliation.’

But the morning brought a new sensation, and new troubles.

I was up betimes. Emerson, another early riser, was already pacing about near the cook tent. A pith helmet, set at a defiant angle, proclaimed his intentions for the day. I glanced at it, and at his haggard face, and sniffed meaningfully; but I made no comment. Breakfast was prepared; we returned to our table on the ledge, where Evelyn and Walter joined us; and the meal was almost finished when Emerson exploded.

‘Where are the men? Good God, they should have been here an hour ago!’

Walter withdrew his watch from his pocket and glanced at it.

‘Half an hour. It appears they are late this morning.’

‘Do you see any signs of activity in the direction of the village?’ Emerson demanded, shading his eyes and peering out across the sand. ‘I tell you, Walter, something is amiss. Find Abdullah.’

The foreman, who slept in a tent nearby, was nowhere to be found. Finally we made out a small white figure crossing the sand. It was Abdullah; he had apparently been to the village in search of his tardy work force. We were all at the bottom of the path waiting when he came up to us. He spread out his hands in an eloquent gesture and looked at Emerson.

‘They will not come.’

‘What do you mean, they won’t come?’ Emerson demanded.

‘They will not work today.’

‘Is there some holiday, perhaps?’ Evelyn asked. ‘Some Moslem holy day?’

‘No,’ Emerson answered. ‘Abdullah would not make such an error, even if I did. I would think the men are holding out for higher pay, but … Sit down, Abdullah, and tell me. Come, come, my friend, let’s not stand on ceremony. Sit down, I say, and talk.’

Thus abjured, Abdullah squatted on the bare ground, in that very same posture in which his ancestors are so often depicted. His English was not very good, so I shall take the liberty of abridging his remarks.

A conscientious man, he had set out for the village when the workmen failed to appear on time. The squalid little huddle of huts presented a disquieting appearance. It was as deserted and silent as if plague had struck. No children played in the dusty streets; even the mangy curs had taken themselves off.

Alarmed, Abdullah had gone to the house of the mayor – who was, I learned for the first time, the father of Mohammed. He had to pound on the barred door before he was finally admitted, and it took him some time to extract the facts from the mayor. At first he said only that the men would not come. Upon being pressed, he said they would not come the next day either – or any other day. His son was with him; and it was from Mohammed that Abdullah finally received a statement. As Abdullah repeated this, his face retained its well-bred impassivity, but his eyes watched Emerson uneasily.

The workers had been disturbed by the mummy Mohammed had found. The man repeated his absurd claim – that the mummy was that of a princely priest-magician, a servant of the great god Amon whom Pharaoh Khuenaten had toppled from his spiritual throne. The deposed god’s wrath found a vessel in his priest; through him, Amon had cursed the heretic city and anyone who set foot on its soil to resurrect it, forever. The villagers knew that none of them had made off with the mummy. Its disappearance could be accounted for in only one way; restored to the light of day, and animated by its discovery that new heretics were at work to uncover the accursed city, it had taken to its feet and left the camp. But it had not left the city – no, indeed. It walked by night, and on the previous midnight it had visited the village. Its moans had awakened the sleepers, and a dozen men had seen its ghostly form pacing the streets. The villagers were too wise not to heed the warning, which Mohammed helpfully interpreted: no more work for the infidels. They must leave Khuenaten’s unholy city to the desolation of the sands, and take themselves off. Unless they did so, the curse would be visited on them and all those who assisted them in the slightest way.

Emerson listened to this bizarre hodgepodge without the slightest change of expression.

‘Do you believe this, Abdullah?’ he asked.

‘No.’ But the foreman’s voice lacked conviction.

‘Nor do I. We are educated men, Abdullah, not like these poor peasants. Amon-Ra is a dead god; if he could once curse a city, he lost that power centuries go. The mosques of your faith stand on the ruins of the temples, and the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. I do not believe in curses; but if I did, I would know that our god – call him Jehovah or Allah, he is One – has the power to protect his worshippers against demons of the night. I think you believe that too.’

I had never admired Emerson more. He had taken precisely the right tone with his servant, and as Abdullah looked up at the tall form of his employer, there was a glint of amused respect in his dark eyes.

‘Emerson speaks well. But he does not say what has become of the mummy.’

‘Stolen.’ Emerson squatted on his lean haunches, so that he and Abdullah were eye to eye. ‘Stolen by a man who wishes to cause dissension in the camp, and who has invented this story to support his aim. I do not name this man; but you remember that Mohammed was angry because I brought you in to be foreman instead of giving him the position. His doting father has not disciplined him properly; even the men of the village resent him.’

‘And fear him,’ Abdullah said. He rose to his feet in a single effortless movement, his white robes falling in graceful folds. ‘We are of one mind, Emerson. But what shall we do?’

‘I will go down to the village and talk to the mayor,’ Emerson said, rising. ‘Now go and eat, Abdullah. You have done well, and I am grateful.’

The tall foreman walked away, not without an uneasy look at Emerson. Evelyn glanced at me. I nodded. I had not wished to speak in front of Abdullah, but the time had come to tell my story. Before I could start, Walter burst out.

‘What an incredible tale! You would think I should be accustomed to the superstitious folly of these people, but I am constantly amazed at their credulity. They are like children. A mummy, walking the village streets – could there be anything more absurd?’

I cleared my throat self-consciously. This was not a good prelude to the tale I was about to tell.

‘It is absurd, Walter, but it is not imagination. The villagers are not the only ones to see the mummy. Evelyn and I both saw such a shape here in the camp.’

‘I knew you were hiding something,’ Emerson said, with grim satisfaction. ‘Very well, Peabody, we are listening.’

I told all. I did not tell the story well, being only too conscious of Emerson’s sneer. When I had finished, Walter was speechless. My support came, unexpectedly, from Emerson himself.

‘This proves nothing, except that our villain – and we have a good notion as to his identity, have we not? – has gone to the trouble of dressing up in rags and wandering around in order to frighten people. I confess I am surprised; I had not thought Mohammed would be so energetic, or so imaginative.’

As he spoke the last word, a memory popped into my mind. In the hotel in Cairo another imaginative miscreant had penetrated my room, dressed as an ancient Egyptian. I started to speak and then changed my mind; there surely could be no connection between the two events.

‘I am off to the village,’ Emerson said. ‘I have dealt with these people before; I think I can persuade the mayor. Walter?’

The distance to the village was several miles. I am sure I need not say that I made part of the expedition. Evelyn remained behind, feeling herself unequal to the exertion; with Abdullah and Michael in camp, she was amply protected. Emerson, who had opposed my coming with his customary temper tantrum, was annoyed that I kept up with him easily. Of course I could not have done so if he had been at his normal strength, and I was increasingly concerned for him as he plodded through the sand.

The brooding silence of the village was most disturbing. I thought at first we would not be admitted to the slightly more pretentious hovel that housed the mayor of the village, but Emerson’s repeated blows on the rickety door finally produced a response. The door opened a mere crack, the sharply pointed nose and wrinkle-wrapped eyes of the old sheikh peered out. Emerson gave the door a shove. He caught the old gentleman as he staggered back and politely set him on his feet. We were in the house.

I wished immediately that I was out. The stench of the place was indescribable. Chickens, goats, and people crowded the dark little room; their eyes shone like stars in the shadows. We were not invited to sit down, and indeed there was no surface in the place on which I would have cared to sit. Obviously the chickens roosted on the long divan that was the room’s most conspicuous piece of furniture.

Emerson, arms folded and chin jutting, carried on the discussion in Arabic. I could not understand what was being said, but it was easy to follow the course of the conversation. The mayor, a wrinkled little old man whose pointed nose almost met his bony chin, mumbled his responses. He was not insolent or defiant; this attitude would have been easier to combat than his obvious terror.

Gradually the other human inhabitants of the place slipped away; only the goats and the chickens remained. One friendly goat was particularly intrigued with the sleeve of my dress. I pushed him away absentmindedly, trying to keep track of what was transpiring between the speakers, and slowly the truth dawned on me. The mayor could hardly bear to be in the same room with us. He kept retreating until his back was up against the wall.

Then someone slipped through the narrow aperture that gave entry into the back room – the only other chamber this mayoral palace contained. I recognized Mohammed. With his appearance the conversation took a new turn. His father turned to him with pathetic pleasure, and Mohammed took over his role in the argument. He
was
insolent; his very tone was an offence. Emerson’s fists clenched and his lips set tightly as he listened. Then Mohammed glanced at me and broke into English.

‘The mummy hate stranger,’ he said, grinning. ‘Stranger go. But not women. Mummy like English women – ’

Emerson was on him in a single bound. The poor old father squealed in alarm; but it was Walter who plucked his infuriated brother from Mohammed’s throat. The man collapsed, moaning, when Emerson’s fingers were detached, but even in the bad light I saw the look he gave his assailant; and a chill ran through me.

‘Come away,’ Walter said in a low voice, holding his brother’s rigid arm. ‘Come away, there is nothing more we can do here.’

We did not linger in the village, but traversed its single narrow street as quickly as we could. When we reached the clean emptiness of the desert, Emerson stopped. His face was shining with perspiration; under his tan he was a sickly grey in colour.

‘I think I owe you both an apology,’ he said thickly. ‘That was stupid of me; I have ruined any chance we might have had of convincing the mayor.’

‘I heard what the fellow said,’ Walter replied. ‘I don’t blame you, Radcliffe; it was all I could do to control myself. I feel sure Mohammed is out to drive us away; your action was ill advised, but I don’t think it mattered.’

‘I am amazed at his effrontery,’ I exclaimed. ‘Doesn’t he realize what he risks from the authorities in opposing you?’

Emerson’s face darkened.

‘Egypt is more unsettled than those complacent fools in Cairo realize. The mad dervish in the Sudan has stirred up the peasants; most Egyptians secretly yearn for his success and gloat at every British defeat. I wouldn’t give a shilling for the lives of foreigners here if the Mahdi should approach the First Cataract.’

‘But surely there is not the slightest danger of that! Gordon is still making a valiant defence at Khartoum, and Wolseley’s expedition is about to relieve him. How can unarmed native rebels succeed against British troops?’

Emerson’s answer was all the more convincing because I secretly believed it myself; but I would not give him the satisfaction of looking as if I agreed.

‘Those untrained rebels have already massacred half a dozen British-led armies, including that of Colonel Hicks. I have the gravest fears for Gordon’s safety; it will be a miracle if the relief expedition arrives in time. The whole business in the Sudan has been a masterpiece of blunders from start to finish. In the meantime, we seem to be facing a minor rebellion here, and I won’t tolerate it.’

Stumbling a little, he started walking.

‘Where are you going?’ I asked. ‘The camp is this way.’

‘There are two other villages on the plain. If the men of Haggi Qandil will not work, we will try el Till and al Amarnah.’

‘I fear it will be useless.’ Walter caught up with his brother and tried to take his arm. Emerson shook it off. ‘Radcliffe, stop and listen; you aren’t fit to walk all over the desert today, and you can be sure that Mohammed’s story has reached the other villages as well. They battle among themselves, but they are of the same stock. Your efforts will not avail there any more than they did at Haggi Qandil.’

Emerson’s feet were dragging, but his chin was set stubbornly. I decided to end the matter before he fell flat on his face.