The Rings of Poseidon (11 page)

"I'll give you a hand," said Steve, taking
Frank's spade. The latter stood back and watched. "Two in fact, to
find one!" Steve continued and Frank laughed.

Steve and Gill shovelled madly. Between them
they moved back the loose sand in no time at all and stood back
panting. "Right," Steve continued, "which of you experts is going
to break the ground?"

Frank broke the turf very gently and knelt
down to peel it back while the others watched intently. "Pass me a
sieve," he said, and Gill did. The small crowd grew as Alicia's
team wandered over.

About three or four feet from the doorway,
just beyond the area dug so far and some six or so inches down,
Frank began to uncover a bone. There was a fascinated silence as he
gradually uncovered more and more of what was obviously a hand and
arm. Alicia herself said absolutely nothing as Frank worked, until
he had uncovered everything, including the very rusted remnants of
an iron sword.

"Right," she said, "Let's get some
photographs of this, then we'll break for lunch."

Steve didn't move immediately to deal with
lunch. Instead he frowned for a moment looking at the hand, lost in
thought and contemplation. The hand was exactly where he had
described. That implied ... but what did it imply? If that bit of
his story were "true", what about the rest? And what about Gill's
story? He looked across at Gill and caught her eye. She was
wondering much the same thing.

As he slowly turned and walked back to the
group of caravans, he noticed the bird watcher, watching them
through binoculars and wondered why that gentleman wasn't busy
watching birds.

Nobody at the dig actually said anything and,
as if by agreement, the subject of the find and what it might mean
were not raised over lunch. That Steve's story was more or less
'true' nobody doubted any more, but there was enough uncertainty
over the meaning that nobody wanted to speak out yet.

"The bits of your story we can check up on
seem to be true." remarked Gill to Steve as she helped clear up
after lunch.

"Did you doubt it?" he asked.

Gill thought for a moment. "Not really," she
said. "Your story had a ring of truth about it even before I
experienced mine."

"Your story rang true as well."

"It did for me, and the detail was so vivid
that I couldn't have made it up, but there isn't any way I can
prove it."

Steve looked her full in the face and their
eyes met momentarily. "You don't have to prove anything to me."

"I think that's why I enjoy talking to you,
but I was referring to my story," she answered, meeting his gaze
straight on.

"So was I just then. I meant that my
experience was enough to make me believe yours. It's true more
generally as well though."

"Oh."

"Now, you'd better join the others before
they start looking for you."

She gave him a quick smile and left across
the field.

Alicia got everyone to work again. Since the
second house appeared to be intact she put Gill in charge of
numbering and stacking the roofing stones as the roof was removed
for better access.

"You can cover over the first part of the
entrance tunnel again." said Frank, on his hands and knees in the
trench. "It's only about four feet to the first house and I can see
daylight already."

Alicia scrambled down to look. "You're
right," she said. "Do you think the stonework's safe enough to
allow us to clear the passage?"

"Seems it. It's not carrying any great weight
and the stonework's strengthened by bones across the passage."

Alicia looked more closely. "So it is," she
said. "They used whale bones at Scara Brae but these look shorter.
More like cattle bones."

"Mebbe I should clear the passage before the
sand and soil go back on top, just to be safe." Frank squatted on
his heels and turned to Alicia. "What do you make of Steve's story
now that we've found the hand?" he asked her.

"The whole thing bothers me," she answered.
"It isn't logical that we remember what the ring wants us to. I
mean, a ring doesn't have a mind of its own and yet how else could
Steve have known the hand was there?"

"All the same, his story checks out with
every fact we know - and we know quite a lot."

"But if Steve's story is true, then Gill's is
too." Alicia sounded just a little pathetic as she gave an airing
to what was really worrying her. "Where did a copper ring come from
in the stone age?"

"Well," he answered slowly, "we might get one
answer to that if somebody else tried on the ring. Now," he
brightened, "would you like me to clear the passage of sand?"

Alicia was glad enough to think of something
else for a while. "If you're volunteering, OK," she said. "I'll
find you somebody to sieve the sand before we tip it," and she
scrambled out of the trench.

Alicia had set Manjy and the two volunteers
on to the job of tracing the route of the passageway but they found
it rather dull.

"I've known more interesting ways of spending
my time," she told Alicia when she asked how they were getting on.
"Incidentally," she added, nodding his head vaguely, "the bird
watcher over there with the binoculars seems to be taking an awful
lot of interest in what we're doing here."

Alicia looked at the direction of her nod.
The 'bird watcher' was still looking at the dig. When he saw Alicia
watching him, he turned away and focused his binoculars out to sea.
"Probably just curious about us," she said at length, and turned
her attention elsewhere.

By the end of the day Frank had cleared the
passageway not only as far as the first house but several feet
beyond it. The sand had drifted like snow through the openings and
further in there were a couple of stretches which were almost
clear, enabling Frank to make much quicker progress than either he
or Alicia had expected.

While Frank didn't find anything new that
afternoon, Alan's team did. Of course, things which would burn had
burnt, but there was a lot left. They uncovered the bronze blade of
a knife, various household oddments and some pots, one showing
signs of having been exposed to heat. When Alicia stopped to look
at their handiwork Alan asked her about removing the remains of the
human.

"You've cleared up around the remains," she
remarked. "I'll get a board and lay out the bones in their present
position and see if they can tell us anything."

It was not as easily done as her words
implied. Although a section of the roof had collapsed, the hole was
still a bit small for the board to negotiate on the level
horizontally, so it proved necessary to number and remove a few
stones first. Alicia called Manjy over to help her and while they
worked on the remains Alan's gang sorted through the stones from
the collapsed roofing section with a view to rebuilding later.

By knocking-off time Alicia was able to view
the whole project with some satisfaction. Steve had set up a second
generator to feed lights into the passage, a good crop of intact,
interesting remains had been found and the early, exploratory
diggings not now needed had been filled in. One house had been well
excavated, a second was being dug and a third discovered.

* * *

A station wagon pulled into the yard beside a
farm and the 'bird watcher' strode into the farmhouse. He pulled
off his boots in the porch, went in his stocking feet to the
telephone and punched in the digits of midlands number. The phone
at the other end rang and a man answered.

"Hello Robert ... I believe they've found
something significant. I would say it was time to come and see how
they're getting on ... Well I can't see how I can tell through
binoculars! ... I can't look at their computer file, I don't know
the first thing about the damn things. No, you'll have to come up
if you're interested ... Right then, I'll be seeing you in a day or
two ... Bye for now, then." And he rang off

* * *

It had been a pleasant day and it was still a
pleasant evening, so most of the group tramped a couple of miles to
the pub. Alicia, Frank and Gill stayed behind in the cabin. They
were joined by Manjy and Steve. Manjy was about to bring the
computer record up to date. She had just switched the machine on
when Gill interrupted.

"Right!" she said, "We can't pretend it
didn't happen or that Frank didn't discover a hand today. What do
we make of Steve's story now?"

Frank studied his fingernails intently for a
moment or two and then said, without looking up, "Steve 'knew'
where the hand would be. Did he know because he guessed or because
he dreamed it somehow or ..." Frank paused and looked even more
absorbed in his fingernails, "... or because he somehow WAS that
person?"

"It's a pretty involved guess with no clues
that I could see," said Gill. "You must have remembered
somehow."

"I dreamed the story but I also dreamed I was
the storyteller." said Steve.

"A guess would be stretching it," ruminated
Alicia. "I can't see how Steve could possibly have known all that
detail by guesswork, so we can more or less rule that out. Either
he somehow read memories stored by the ring or, if you believe in
reincarnation, he relived a past life."

"That's absurd," said Frank. "There's Gill's
story as well. It's a bit of a coincidence, to say the least, if
they both had a past life involving the ring."

"The whole thing's absurd."

Frank was impatient. "Mebbe it was the late
stone age. There'd be some overlap."

Gill shook her head at him. "No," she said,
"I had the distinct impression the ring was already very old."

Frank was insistent. "You were old at forty,"
he told her, "It wouldn't take many years for the ring to be very
old."

"There's one way to find out," remarked
Steve.

"I know. I've been thinking about it." Frank
turned to Alicia. "Where's the ring?"

She stood up to open a cabinet drawer.
"Here," she said and gave it to him. Frank examined it again. Apart
from its good condition there was nothing remarkable at all about
it.

"Go on," Gill urged him and he pushed the
ring onto the little finger of his hairy hand.

Chapter 9

I threw the six half sticks: three flat sides
and three curved sides. I needed two curved sides to finish, so I
took another drink from the goatskin while Po-atl picked up the
sticks.

"Five to finish," he said, and threw them.
They all landed curved side up. "A kill," he shouted in excitement,
"I throw again."

This time he threw the two I had needed, and
moved his counter two holes up the spiral. "Pity I didn't throw
three," he remarked as he picked up the sticks.

I glanced towards the skyline at the crest of
a long, low hill, where fourteen or fifteen men sweated into sight,
hauling and pushing a large, long stone. They were using logs
underneath it, to help it move along and two of the men were
picking up the logs behind the stone and running round to lay them
down in front. That is a wearisome job at the best of times and I
suspect it was the nearness of a meal and a rest which kept them
going. They would be with us in about ten minutes because, though
the hill was gentle, there was enough slope to make the work easy.
Well, easier.

"Come on," said Po-atl, "we have time enough
to finish."

I threw four curved sides and, as I only
needed two of them, I couldn't move up the spiral. I had two
counters home and so did Po-atl so, as we had lost two counters
each already, everything depended on the final counter.

I say 'everything' but nothing depended on the
outcome of what was, after all, just a game. I mean the counters
were just pebbles and the playing area was drawn in the dirt. I was
rather bored because we had waited some time for the stone and the
sun was now high in the sky. I would be fortunate if I completed my
part in the work before sunset. So it was that I threw the stick
without much enthusiasm.

"Four curved." I said, and waited for Po-atl
to throw.

I looked again at the huge stone, larger now
that it was nearer. For the most part those pushing and hauling
were men of our tribe. They were two thirds of three villages. The
remainder and some of the women were out gathering food, mostly
hunting.

I had been told that our ancestors didn't eat
meat, or indulge in human sacrifices either, but I couldn't see
that myself. I mean, how could they possibly gather enough food
without meat?

Several of the team hauling the stone were
prisoners taken in war with some other tribe. They were well enough
fed, didn't work any harder than our own men and were moderately
interested in what they were doing. I'm not sure they would have
been so willing if they'd known we intended to sacrifice them at
the next eclipse though.

Po-atl threw the sticks. "One!" he shouted
and moved his counter one hole up the spiral to take my stone.

"I win," he said triumphantly, throwing the
captured pebble - counter, sorry - and catching it in
jubilation.

"You do indeed. Congratulations," I took
another drink from the goatskin, passed it over and got up to meet
the team with the stone, giving the stew a quick stir as I
passed.

There was a wooden post a couple of feet in
front of the spot where the stone was going. It wasn't marking the
place as such. We used the wooden stake to mark a line used in the
reckoning of cycles. That is not my job, so I'm not sure which one.
The moon I think. Anyway, it was used by the astronomer in
predicting eclipses and we were going to use a stone in its place,
because she thought something more durable would be 'better' and
would last through the lives of hundreds of astronomers, not just a
few. Well, that's the theory anyway.