Amelia Peabody Omnibus 1-4 (33 page)

‘I can manage.’

Emerson turned Michael over; with a single heave of his broad shoulders he lifted the dragoman’s slight form into his arms, and rose.

And then – dear Heaven, I can scarcely write of it now without a reminiscent shudder. Screams – the high, agonized shriek of a woman in the extremity of terror! They died in a long, wailing moan.

Emerson bounded forward, carrying the unconscious man as if he weighed no more than a feather. I followed; and as we came around the corner of the cliff, the whole hideous tableau burst upon our eyes, like a scene from the worst conceptions of Madame Tussaud.

On the ledge above us stood the mummy. The blind, bandaged head was turned toward us; one stubby leg was lifted, as if our sudden appearance had stopped it in midstep. To the crumbling, rotting bandages of its breast, the horror clasped the unconscious form of Evelyn.

Her tumbled golden curls hung down over its arm; her little white feet peeped pathetically out of the folds of her nightdress. After the first scream of terror she had fainted dead away, as any girl might, finding herself in the arms of such a suitor.

I began pounding on Emerson’s back. He was barring the entrance to the narrow path, and I was frantic to pass him and attack the thing. I remembered poor Evelyn’s exclamation on that far-off day, when a ghoulish peddler had tried to sell us a mummified hand. She would die, she said, if the withered flesh should touch her…. Well, we had it trapped now. If it had supernatural powers, it would need them all to escape
me
.

The passage of time seemed to halt; I felt like one trapped in quicksand, or the slow, floating motion of a dream, where enormous effort is required to make the slightest movement. Then all sorts of things happened at once.

Lucas came out of the tent, which was not far from us. I assumed he had been asleep, had been wakened by Evelyn’s screams, and, his senses dulled by wine, had been slow to respond. He took in the situation at a glance, and moved more quickly than I would have expected. In his haste, he collided with us. Emerson kept his feet with difficulty, falling back against the cliff face with the body of the dying man still in his arms; I was thrown to the ground. While we were tumbling about, the mummy took advantage of our confusion. Flexing its stiff knees, the creature jumped – actually leaped from the ledge. Such was my state of mind, I half expected to see it take wing and soar through the air like a giant bat. Alighting, still erect, amid the tumble of rocks at the base of the cliff, it scrambled down the slope and ran. Evelyn’s fair hair streamed out behind.

‘Pursue it!’ I shrieked. ‘Do not let it escape!’

At least that is what I believe I shrieked. Emerson informs me that my language was less coherent, and so inflammatory that he positively blushed, despite the urgency of the moment. He, of course, was in a dreadful predicament; encumbered by the injured man, he could hardly fling him to the ground. I was so entangled in the abominable garments forced on women by the decrees of fashion that I could not arise. It all depended on Lucas; and after the first confused moments, he rose to the occasion.

‘Never fear,’ he cried, leaping up. ‘It will not escape me! Remain here – we must not all abandon the camp – I will rescue Evelyn – ’

Running fleetly, he was already several yards away as his last words reached my ears.

An echoing cry came from above. Looking up, I saw Walter, who had just emerged from his sleeping chamber. If he had been drugged, the vision before his eyes woke him with a vengeance; with another shout of mingled rage and horror, he flung himself down the slope and followed Lucas.

As I started after them, Emerson kicked me in the shin. I must confess he could not have stopped me in any other way, since his arms were occupied.

‘This is madness,’ he groaned. ‘Keep your head, Peabody; someone must act sensibly – follow me, you must remain with Michael.’

The advice was excellent; the difficulty was in following it. The folly of pursuit was manifest; if the young men could not catch up with the mummified miscreant, it was futile for a woman, hampered by her skirts, to try and do so. I could still see the pale shape of the mummy, as it flitted in and out among the rocks. Walter stumbled along behind, waving his arms and shouting. All this happened, of course, in far less time than it takes to write it down.

I ran after Emerson, who was ascending the path in great leaps. If I was not wringing my hands, it was because I needed them to keep my balance. Emerson was correct; it was necessary for one of us to tend Michael’s wounds, but I really did not see how I could bear to remain there, in ignorance and forced inactivity.

Emerson laid his burden gently upon his couch. To do him justice, he had not wasted a moment, nor did he waste time now in unnecessary directions to me. Instantly he turned back to the entrance. I reached for the lamp, meaning to light it. As I did so, there came a crack and a whine from without. Emerson’s tall form, silhouetted in the doorway, staggered and fell.

I
T
is vain to attempt to describe my sensations at that moment. I had recognized the sound as that of a bullet. I dropped the lamp; I forgot my injured servant; for an instant I even forgot Evelyn and her deadly peril. I started toward the spot where I had seen Emerson fall.

My heart had not missed more than a few beats, however, when a hand caught my ankle and brought me crashing to the ground. I fell on top of Emerson, and heard him grunt with pain. My hands, fumbling at his face, encountered a wet, sticky flow.

‘You are wounded,’ I exclaimed. ‘My God, Emerson – ’

Emerson sneezed.

‘I beg that you will leave off tickling me,’ he said irritably. ‘The region around the chin and jaw is particularly sensitive. For God’s sake, Peabody, stop snivelling; it is only a cut from a bit of flying rock.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘But the shot was aimed at you! In heaven’s name, what are you doing now? Don’t go out there – ’

He was crawling toward the entrance.

‘The shot was meant as a warning,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘We are safe enough – for the moment – unless we try to leave the tomb. Hand me that shirt of Walter’s, if you please – it is lying across his bed – and my walking stick. Thank you. Now let us see – ’

A second shot rewarded his demonstration when he draped the shirt over the stick and extended it out the doorway. Emerson withdrew it.

‘He is there, among the rocks,’ he said calmly.

‘He? Who?’

‘You sound like one of the villagers’ donkeys,’ said Emerson. ‘Who else could it be? You must have deduced his identity by now. I have known it for some time; but his motive still eludes me. What the devil ails the fellow, to seek to win a wife by such means? I would not have thought him capable of the insane passion that prompts such acts.’

Once – even a few hours earlier – his calm, drawling voice would have driven me wild. Now I was seized by the same icy calm. We had already delayed too long; even if we could escape from this ambush uninjured, Evelyn and her abductor would be out of sight. It was up to Walter now. At least he had only one enemy to face. The other was below, with a rifle in his hands.

‘There is motive,’ I said. ‘I am only now beginning to see…. No, no, it is impossible. From the first I too suspected Lucas. But he was not here. He did not arrive until long after we did, long after the mummy made its first appearance. He did not know we would stop here – ’

‘I think it is high time we compared notes,’ said Emerson, recumbent before the entrance. ‘You might give Michael a little water, Peabody; I fear that is all we can do for the poor fellow now, since we dare not strike a light, and your medical supplies are in your sleeping chamber. Then come here and join me.’

I did what I could for Michael. It was little enough. He was still breathing, but that was about all I could say. I then crawled to the entrance and lay down flat, next to Emerson, who was peering out across the moonlit plain, his chin propped on his folded arms.

‘You and I have been at cross purposes since we met, Peabody,’ he said. ‘It is a pity; for we might have prevented this unfortunate business if we had taken the trouble to be civil to one another. You see, I have known for some days that his lordship has been lying. Reis Hassan talked to the reis of the
Cleopatra,
and passed some of the gossip on to me. His lordship’s payments to his crew have been princely. By means of exorbitant bribes, he got underway the very day after you left. He was moored downriver, at Minieh, the day you landed here.

‘But that is not the important thing. His lordship has a confederate – not a hired native, but a man as dedicated to evil as he is. That confederate is the man who is playing the role of the mummy. This man’s whereabouts, prior to his public appearance here, are unknown. I believe he came here some time ago and set the scene for the drama – bribing Mohammed, introducing the mummy Walter found into an empty tomb. His costume, his role were planned well in advance – probably in Cairo, where, I imagine, young Lord Ellesmere arrived earlier than he led you to believe. Do you have an idea who this confederate might be?’

‘No. Lucas must have bribed him well. Of course it could be a friend of Lucas’s – one of his companions in vice. I do not know them. But, Emerson, there is one great flaw in your argument. How could they know where to set the scene? We did not plan to stop here – ’

‘Then Reis Hassan is a liar. He informs me that you laid out your itinerary while still in Cairo, and that he tried several times to dissuade you from it.’

‘Oh, that. I did mention the possibility of visiting Amarna – along with a number of other sites. But how could Lucas know?’

‘From Michael, I imagine. Did he have an opportunity to speak with him before you left Cairo?’

‘He did indeed,’ I said grimly. ‘And to think that we introduced them, so that Michael might assist Lucas in the selection of a dragoman…. Good God, what a fool I was!’

‘You had no reason to suspect any danger. Nor did Michael. His lordship was your friend, Evelyn’s relation. It was not until developments here became serious that Michael began to wonder about his harmless indiscretion. He is an intelligent man, and devoted to you body and soul; on the day of his disappearance he asked to speak to you alone – ’

‘And Lucas heard him! He struck him down and spirited him away.’

‘Not Lucas, but one of his men. He kept the poor fellow prisoner in one of the caves that are so common in these cliffs, and when we obstinately refused to succumb to the laudanum he had placed in our wine, he carried Michael here to distract us while his confederate reached Evelyn.

‘I must admit that the fellow has imagination; he acts brilliantly and unhesitatingly in emergencies, and makes good use of any fortuitous circumstances that can be turned to account. My illness was one such lucky accident – lucky for him – but I feel sure he and his confederate had planned some means of detaining you here – damage to the dahabeeyah, or to one of us. At that point in time, his lordship had not determined to commit murder. He hoped to attain his ends by less drastic means, although it seems clear he prepared for the worst, in case it should become necessary. And I was misled. Not until you were attacked this afternoon did I fully realize that Evelyn was the real object of the attentions we have been receiving, and even then I was fool enough to suppose that once she had accepted Walter, his lordship would give up his idiotic and dangerous games.’

Emerson extended his stick once again out the entrance. Another shot rang out, followed by the splintering of rock.

‘Still there,’ he said. ‘I wonder how long he means to keep us here. We are safe so long as we do not confront him. He will have some specious excuse to explain why he failed to rescue Evelyn; I think the fellow is actually vain enough to suppose he can get away with it. Shall we save our skins, Peabody, and sit still?’

‘While Evelyn is in the clutches of that monster?’ I demanded. ‘Don’t bait me, Emerson; you have no more intention of accepting this than I do. Do you think Walter – ’

‘I am extremely concerned about Walter,’ said Emerson; I knew him well enough now to hear the controlled agony under his calm tones. ‘But at the moment we can do nothing to help him or Evelyn until we understand what is behind this affair. There is some more desperate motive behind his lordship’s acts than frustrated love. Think, Peabody; if you have ever used your brain, now is the time.’

‘I have a faint inkling of the truth,’ I said, in a stifled voice. ‘I hate to contemplate it; for if I am right…. Emerson, you and I have behaved like fools. If I had known what you knew about Lucas’s movements; and if you had known what I am about to tell you – ’

‘Speak, then. That is the trouble with women, even the best of them,’ Emerson added. ‘They
will
indulge in vain cries of “if only” and “had I but known”.’

‘The criticism is justified,’ I said; my pride was thoroughly levelled by the magnitude of the disaster. ‘Listen, then, while I narrate Evelyn’s story.’

He listened. Only his eyes moved, so intent was he on what I had to say.