Catacombs (62 page)

"Matt?"

"The one and only."

"Are you drunk?"

"Gosh no."

From outside came the sound of wind in the trees, the bark and yowl of animals in the wild. He sat down clumsily on the bed beside her and put the bottle to his lips.

"Have you had enough yet?" She sighed.

"Of whiskey?"

"No. I mean–enough of flying up His nose."

"Whose nose?"

"His. You know. Him with the scythe."

"Oh." He realized how hard he'd been thinking about that himself. "Yeah. Good odds, anyway."

"I'm glad," Raun said. "Matt?"

"Yes?"

"Take me home with you."

"Why?"

"It's time we got acquainted."

He thought about that too, and stretched out beside her, trying not to jostle his bad leg. He was too tired to tell himself anymore that it didn't hurt.

"This must be my lucky day," he said.

She smiled and moved her head against his shoulder and drifted to sleep again.

I
n the preparation and writing of Catacombs I'm indebted to more literary and personal sources than I can (or should) name here. At the risk of offending some of those I must leave out I want to thank Dick Winston, of the firm of Harry Winston in New York, who has studied countless diamonds from all over the world. It was Dick who, in casual conversation, mentioned the single red diamond he has seen in the course of his career, a diamond with strange and indecipherable markings, and thus unwittingly initiated the processes that became Catacombs.

For the reader who has more than a casual interest in Africa, and the dilemma its diverse peoples' face in coping with each other as well as the demands of the present and future, two books are highly recommended. One is the E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., combined edition of Peter Matthiessen's
The Tree Where Man Was Born
and Eliot Porter's
The African Experience
. The text, by Matthiessen, is the result of a remarkable fusion of the naturalist's eye and the mind of a poet: Here is a formidable creative power at work, informed by rare intelligence. The photographs, by Porter, particularly of elephants in their habitat, have the unobtrusive impact of enduring art.

Among the Elephants
, published in the U.S. by The Viking Press, Inc., is by Iain and Oria Douglas Hamilton. Their book, unfortunately, is not widely known. It vividly shares a life in the wild unavailable to the majority of us, and introduces two people with nerve, wit, and a passion for the huge beleaguered animal that is, like Kilimanjaro, a symbol of the magnitude and latent power of an entire continent.

JOHN FARRIS

NOVEMBER 1980