The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur (бесплатные полные книги .TXT) 📗

valley, and to check that Nogo had not left men to guard the dam,

although he considered this unlikely.

He could see that the yellow front-loader tractor was still parked on

the bank high above the wall where Sapper MET &

had left it. He could also see no sign of any human presence, no armed

Ethiopian army guards. He grunted with relief and wiped the sweat out of

his eyes with his shirtsleeve.

Even with his naked eye he could see that the water was lapping the top

of the wall and squirting through the gaps and chinks between the

gabions. Yet from where he stood the wall still seemed to be holding

well, and it would need another foot rise in the level of the backed-up

river to overturn it.

"Well done, Sapper," he thought, grinning. "You did a hell of a job."

Nicholas studied the level of the river and the condition of the waters

that were being held back by the wall.

The flow down from the mountains was much stronger than when he had last

been here. The river bed was brimming from bank to bank, and some of the

trees and bushes at the edge were already partially submerged, bowing

and nodding as the swift current tugged at them. The flood was a sullen

grey colour, fast and hostile, swirling into the pond of the dam before

finding the outlet into the side channel and tearing down it, growling

like a wild animal released from its cage, brimming into spume and white

water as it felt the sharp fall into the valley.

Next he looked towards the escarpment of the gorge.

It was blotted out by banks of dark, menacing cloud that obscured the

northern horizon. At that moment a squall of wind swept over him, cold

with the threat of rain. He needed no further urging and started down

the slope towards the dam, slipping and sliding in his haste. Before he

reached the bottom, the squall of wind had turned to cold rain. It flung

needles into his face and plastered his shirt to his body.

He reached the tractor and scrambled up into the t. There was a moment

of panic when he driver's sea AL

 Wor thought that Sapper might have removed the key from its

hiding-place under the seat. He srabbled for it for a few seconds until

his fingers closed over it, and then let out a sigh of relief.

"Sapper, for a moment there you were very close to death. I would have

broken your neck with my own hands." He thrust the key into the ignition

lock and turned it to the pre-heat position, waiting for the coil light

on the dashboard to turn from red to green.

"Come on!" he muttered impatiently. Those few seconds of delay seemed

like a lifetime. Then the green light flashed and he twisted the key to

start.

The engine fired at the first turn and Nicholas hooted, "Full marks,

Sapper. All is forgiven."

He gave the machine time to warm up to optimum operating temperature,

slitting his eyes against the rain as he waited and looking around at

the hills above him, fearful that the sound of the engine might bring

Nogo's gorillas swarming down on him. However, there was no sign of life

on the rainswept heights.

He eased the tractor into her lowest gear and turned her down the bank.

Below the dam wall the water that was finding its way through the gaps

was less than hub-deep.

The tractor bounced and ground its way through the boulder-strewn

watercourse. Nicholas stopped the machine in the middle of the river bed

while he studied the downstream face of the dam wall for its weakest

section.

Then he' lined up below the centre of the wall, at'the point where

Sapper had shored up the raft of logs with rows of gabions.

"Sorry for all your hard work," he apologized to Sapper, as he

manoeuvred the steel scoop of the tractor to the right height and angle

before attacking the wall. He worried the gabion he had selected out of

its niche in the row, reversing and thrusting at it until he could get

the scoop under it and drag it free. He pulled away and dropped the

heavy wire mesh basket over the waterfall, then drove back and renewed

the attack.

It was slow work. The pressure of the water had wedged in the gabions,

keying them into the wall so it took almost ten minutes to free the

second basket. As he dropped that one over the waterfall, he glanced for

the first time at the fuel gauge on the dashboard of the tractor and his

heart sank. It was registering empty. Sapper must have neglected to

refuel it: either he had exhausted the fuel supply or he had not

expected ever to use the machine again when he abandoned it.

Even as Nicholas thought about it the engine stuttered as it starved. He

reversed it sharply, changing the angle of inclination so that the

remaining fuel in the tank could slosh forward. The engine caught and

cleared, running smoothly and strongly once again. Quickly he changed

gear and ran back at the wall.

"No more time for finesse," he told himself grimly.

"From here on in it's brute force and muscle."

By removing two of the gabions he had exposed a corner of the log raft

behind them. This was the vulnerable and part of the wall. He worked the

hydraulic controls lifted the scoop to its highest travel. Then he

lowered it carefully, an inch at a time; until it hooked over the end of

the thickest log in the jam. He locked the hydraulics and thrust the

tractor into reverse, gradually pouring on full power until the engine

was roaring and blowing out a cloud of thick blue diesel smoke.

Nothing gave. The log was jammed solidly and the wall was held together

by the keying of the gabions into each other and the enormous pressure

of water behind them. Despairingly, Nicholas kept the throttle wide

open.

The lugged tyres spun and skidded on the boulders under them, throwing a

tall shower of spray high into the air and churning out loose rock and

gravel.

"Come on!" Nicholas pleaded with the machine. "Come on! You can do it."

The engine beat faltered again as she starved for fuel.

She spluttered and coughed, and almost stalled.

"Please!" Nicholas begged her aloud. "One more try." Almost as if it had

heard him, the engine fired again, ran unevenly for a few moments, and

then abruptly bellowed at full power again.

That's it, my beauty," Nicholas yelled, as it lurched  hammered against

the wall.

an With a sound like a cannon shot the log snapped and the top end of it

flew out of the wall, leaving a long, deep hole through which the river

poured triumphantly, a thing -'solid column of dirty grey water.

"Thar she blows!" Nicholas shouted, jumping down from the driver's seat.

He knew there was not enough time left for him to drive the tractor out

of the river bed. He could move more quickly on his own feet.

The current seized his legs, trying to pull them out from under him. It

was like one of those childhood nightmares when monsters were pursuing

him and, despite his every effort, his legs would only move in slow

motion.

He glanced back over his shoulder, and at that instant he saw the

central section of the dam wall burst, blowing outward in a violent

eruption of furious waters. He struggled on another few paces towards

the bank before the deep and turbulent tide picked him up. He was

helpless in its grip. It swept him away, over the waterfall and down,

down into the hungry maw of the chasm.

these are the royal crook and sceptre of the Pharaoh," cried von