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Halstead glanced aside at Albright as he shook Williams’s hand. “You and I are very lucky to have the presence of Mister Williams on this trip, Doctor. He was about to join the staff of National Geographic when I snatched him away for this one last freelance oppportunity.” Williams smiled sheepishly. “Mister Hitler has been quite generous.” “Perceptive, not generous. I like what he did for the Christian Herald, and I think he and his color camera are going to be excellent additions to this little expedition of ours.” Williams cleared his throat and intertwined his fingers behind the small of his back. “One thing you didn’t tell me in your letters was what we’re out to find.” Halstead’s smile returned with full force as he gestured to the steps leading back into the hotel. “You’ll find out when we find it, no pun intended. Let’s get some rest before tomorrow.”
############It was two days later that the four tourists arrived in Nag Hammadi by train, as night began to fall on the sleepy riverside town in Upper Egypt. Halstead and his three companions disembarked from the train before it crossed to the eastern bank of the Nile over a swing bridge, and the four found rooms in the town’s one inn. Halstead scarfed down a dinner with the others, then insisted that they retire as early as he did, citing the long day of search and travel that would be the morrow. Halstead banged on the doors of his companions’ rooms the next morning, soon after he himself had been woken by the sun rising over the opposite bank of the Nile. The party headed out on foot with Hess leading a rented and saddlebagged camel in the rear, and were already across the bridge when the heat of the day began to soak their shirts with perspiration. |