Free The Eye of the Serpent by Philip Caveney Page B

comfortable?’
    â€˜We’re fine,’ said Alec. He was so pleased to be getting out of these wide open spaces, he wasn’t about to start complaining about a little discomfort.
    â€˜I’m glad,’ said Mohammed. ‘And because you are not properly seated, I am only going to charge each of you half fare.’

C HAPTER S IX
The Valley of the Kings

    IT WASN’T A huge distance by automobile but Alec knew that they would have been totally exhausted if they’d attempted to walk through the blazing heat of the afternoon.
    After some thirty minutes’ drive they came upon an unusual sight. A large grey biplane was parked on a small area of flat land beside the road. There didn’t seem to be anybody with it. Mohammed slowed the Ford to a halt so his passengers could step down and take a closer look. Llewellyn declined to get out of the car, saying that it would be too much effort.
    â€˜Any idea who this belongs to?’ Ethanasked Mohammed as he approached the plane.
    â€˜No, Mr Wade. I’ve never seen it before.’
    â€˜Hmm.’ Ethan walked around the plane and reached up a hand to stroke its fuselage. ‘Not a model I recognize,’ he said. ‘Foreign, I’d say. I used to fly these things during the war,’ he told Alec. ‘Spotter planes, mostly. My job was to go out over the enemy trenches and take photographs of their positions.’
    â€˜That sounds dangerous,’ said Alec.
    â€˜It could be,’ admitted Ethan. ‘Came close to being shot down a couple of times, but I guess my luck held. Say, maybe you and me should take this bird up for a quick spin!’
    â€˜Really? Could we?’ Alec was delighted at the notion but Ethan just grinned and shook his head.
    â€˜I’m only pulling your leg,’ he said. ‘You can’t just up and take somebody’s plane without permission. Where I come from, that’s called theft.’ He tilted his stetson back a little and gazed up at the sky. ‘Maybe that dust storm forced the plane down,’ he said. Alec didn’t say anything but it was already beginning to feel as though they had imagined the whole thing. ‘Come on,’ said Ethan after a short silence. ‘Let’s get going.’
    The two of them strolled back to the Ford and resumed their places on the running boards.
    â€˜Fancy just leaving a plane standing there,’ said Alec. ‘What d’you suppose happened to the pilot?’
    Ethan shrugged. ‘Beats me,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s something to do with Tutankhamun. There’s all kinds visiting the site these days. Maybe some Hollywood movie star dropped by to get photographed with Howard Carter. OK, Mohammed, let’s drive on.’
    They continued on their way and after another half-mile they crested a rise and Alec saw the familiar limestone hills of the eastern Valley of the Kings below him, dominated by the high peak of Al-Qurn, the distinctive pyramid-shaped hill that many historians believed was the chief reason why this valley had been chosen as the burial place for so many Egyptian kings and nobles. Alec knew that there were over sixty tombs in this valley alone, with Tutankhamun’s the most recently discovered, and the only one that had survived with most of its artefacts intact – at least, until Uncle Will and Tom Hinton had opened the new tomb. But that was still a secret.
    Mohammed took the car slowly down thetricky winding road. The steep stone cliffs rose up on either side of them, shielding them from the full glare of the sun. The ramshackle car moved with difficulty across the rough terrain travelling at little more than walking speed. They passed a few people on the way – guides from a nearby village escorting tourists around the tombs, some of them mounted on camels, others on donkeys. Alec knew that since the discovery of Tut’s tomb the previous year, this site had become the most