The Eye of the Serpent by Philip Caveney Read Free Book Online Page B

winked. ‘Not a very nice welcome, Alec. But don’t worry, we’ll be OK.’
    Alec hoped the American was right. He hunched down in his seat and stared out at the seemingly endless ribbon of road unwinding in front of them. Whenever he glanced over his shoulder, he could see that the storm was getting closer by the minute.

C HAPTER F OUR
Hostile Reception

    THEY HAD JUST made it back to the fork in the road where they had parted company with Mickey and Coates when the storm began to close in on them, the sound of the wind rising to a howl. Ethan and Alec had already put up the roof and secured it in position and now there was nothing to do but bring the Crossley to a halt and wait for things to improve. Visibility had already dropped to just a few yards and it was hard to even see the road through the rising blizzard of sand. Then the storm struck and Alec could feel the heavy vehicle shifting beneath the force of it. It felt as though it might flip over at any moment.
    With the windows closed it grew intolerably hot and Alec and Ethan sat side by side, sweating profusely.
    â€˜This is screwy,’ muttered Ethan, having to shout over the noise of the wind. ‘Damned storm just seemed to come out of nowhere.’ He glanced apologetically at Alec. ‘Sorry, kid. If we’d headed straight for the dig, we’d be there by now.’
    â€˜It’s all right,’ Alec assured him. ‘I’m glad we went to see Uncle Will, even though he wasn’t on great form. How did you come to know him?’
    Ethan smiled, remembering. ‘It was after the war,’ he said. ‘I’d seen some bad things and I guess it affected me more than I knew. I went off the rails for a while. I had trouble sleeping. Got a little too fond of hard liquor and gambling – couldn’t seem to hold down a steady job. My debts got so bad in the end, I had to get out of the country fast. I took work as a deck hand aboard a cargo ship bound for Cairo. I ended up hanging around the docks doing odd jobs to get enough money to eat.’
    He shook his head. ‘I was at rock bottom,’ he went on. ‘Then I met Will. He was in town to take care of some business. He weighed me up pretty quick – must have realized I was in a badway. He said he could always use more help over at the dig. So I figured, what the heck, I’d give it a try.’ He shrugged. ‘I knew nothing about ancient Egypt, and Will realized that, but he was prepared to give me a chance when everybody else had given up on me, so I’ll always be in his debt for that.’
    â€˜That’s Uncle Will,’ agreed Alec. ‘Always likes to help others.’
    Ethan nodded. ‘Well, things finally started to work out for me. Will and Tom gave me more responsibility; I finally felt like I was doing something worthwhile. Oh, we weren’t having much success back then, just a few small finds. I worked with them for the first year and a half, but then something came up back in the States. My dad was pretty ill and I needed to go back and settle his affairs. Will made me promise to come back just as soon as I could and even lent me the money to get back to the States. It took a while to straighten things out.’
    Alec gave him a questioning look. ‘Your father died?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yeah.’ Ethan looked sad for a moment. ‘He was a good age, and I guess it wasn’t unexpected but . . . well, it’s a sad time in anyone’s life.’
    â€˜And your mother?’ asked Alec.
    â€˜She was long gone.’ He glanced warily at Alec, remembering that the boy had recently lost his own mother. ‘Anyhow, I didn’t get back to Egypt for a long time. I went up to Wyoming for a year and worked as a cowboy.’
    â€˜Wow! Honestly?’
    â€˜Sure. There’s still big herds of cattle out there, need taking from place to place. It’s a hard life, but it can be