The Great White Space by Basil Copper Read Free Book Online

the fruit and vegetables for which Zak was locally famous; Van Damm and the others worked on the maintenance of the tractors, in preparation for the desert crossing, while I recorded our new surroundings on film. The Professor held several conferences during the week we were resting and though he and the others went into great detail on the technical problems we might encounter, not once did anyone deal directly with what faced us or indeed what was the exact purpose of the Great Northern Expedition.
     
    This was one of the main curiosities of the business, but on one of our last evenings Scarsdale did draw me aside to reiterate the importance - and the secrecy — of our project. Here, for the first time in Zak, our great water tanks, each capable of holding over a thousand gallons, were filled for the desert crossing. The water was first boiled and then chemically purified according to an elaborate ritual laid down by Van Damm and the Professor.
     
    The people of Zak, who were a curious race with long, pointed heads something like the ancient Egyptians were the most stolid and indifferent people I had ever encountered; not only were they completely unco-operative so far as photographs of themselves were concerned, but completely uninterested in ourselves or in the doings of the Great Northern Expedition. This was all the more astonishing to me as they had never even seen a motor vehicle in their lives, let alone such remarkable vehicles as those we were driving.
     
    With their dark, conical hats, and white, beribboned clothing very much like pyjama tops worn with plus-fours and soft leather bootees, they were a reserved and sullen lot, though the women included some notable beauties. The girls particularly were white-skinned and given to revealing one nipple only, in their specially designed clothing, which to a Westerner was extremely provocative. Not that Scarsdale had any need to issue the warning he felt necessary to mention the first evening we were there; the hard, proud attitude of the men and the murderous disembowelling knives they carried sheathed in brass-studded scabbards at their belts would have discouraged the most ardent admirer of their womenfolk.
     
    They were, however, among themselves completely polygamous. Though some women preferred three or four husbands and to reserve their favours alone for them, we did note some of the more prominent citizens who had eight or more wives, all under the age of twenty. Fortunately for us, such co-operation as we needed from the populace, was secured by the local ruler, the Mir of Zak, whom Scarsdale had met on his previous visit. He was an extremely jovial man, for these people, that is; over seven feet tall and proportionately broad, he made us welcome and insisted that we park our vehicles within the walls of his palace.
     
    This extraordinary building had six courtyards with very fine tesselated pavements; the Palace itself was surrounded by a wall of pink granite over twenty feet high and the sun beat back pitilessly from the pavement of the enclosure so that we at first regretted the hospitality which had forced us to accept this arid spot. However, when Scarsdale had pointed out our difficulties to the Mir, he had our tractors removed to a shady inner court, where fountains of clear water tinkled into lead basins and where strange vegetation, with scarlet and green fruits, grew in riotous profusion.
     
    The Palace itself was built of some sort of white volcanic rock or ash, compressed into bricklets, so that it looked like nothing more than a giant wedding cake; at certain times of day it was dangerous to the eyes to look directly at it, so blinding was the light it reflected from the sun, and our party had to wear smoked goggles when we were within the Palace grounds.
     
    The town of Zak bestrode the plateau in a commanding position; it was a very ancient and even handsome place with its white and honey-coloured buildings and the clouds of pink birds,