The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Author:Eloise Jarvis McGraw [McGraw, Eloise Jarvis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: ePub Bud (www.epubbud.com)
Published: 1961-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter IX following morning Ranofer crept to the shop sore in every muscle, with the old, familiar strips of fire across his shoulders. As he had expected, Gebu had not believed the simple truth, that he had forgotten to collect his wages. The added truth which might have convinced him, the story of the visit to Zau, Ranofer had stubbornly withheld. He had paid a high price for his silence, but even a beating was preferable to turning his heart and hopes inside out for Gebu's scornful inspection, seeing them withered with ridicule and blown away like dust before his eyes. He had little enough hope left in him as it was, after the conversation with Zau.

Gebu came into the shop in the middle of the morning, snarled ill-naturedly at Pai and stalked about inspecting the work in a manner that caused every man to bend closer to his chisel or drill and all conversation to cease. Ranofer, scrubbing away with sandstone at a chunk of quartzite, dared not glance around when Gebu paused beside a half-finished stone coffin only a few feet away from him. His very skin shrank in an effort to put more distance between himself and his half brother, but he

could not help being aware of the voices of Gebu and Pai, gradually raised in argument until they could be heard even over the clatter of the shop.

"You, Ranofer!" Pai roared suddenly.

Ranofer dropped his sandstone and looked around fearfully.

"That scroll on the lower shelf, the plan of the judge's tomb. Fetch it. Hurry."

Ranofer hurried, as much as the soreness of his legs allowed, to the storeroom at the far end of the shop. There were five scrolls on the lower shelf. With hands made clumsy by haste, he unrolled one after another. From being ordered often to bring some particular scroll to Pai, he had become superficially familiar with these drawings, which at first had looked like meaningless bird tracks to him. All tomb plans were similar in design, but he could now tell one from another by recognizing some detail. The judge's was the one with the narrowest entrance passage and only two rooms beside the burial chamber. It was the last he picked up. He snatched it and returned to Pai, who took it without a glance.

Ranofer was glad to be ignored; gladder still to be safely back at work when a moment later Gebu's voice rose in an angry bellow directed at Pai.

"You see, imbecile? The coffin is too wide. I told you. Perhaps you would care to chip away the sides of this passage on the day of the burial!"

"It is easy enough to alter the coffin," Pai answered sulkily.

"Then alter it, and hereafter heed what I say, or I will find a foreman who will."

Gebu stalked past Ranofer with nothing more than a glare, and Pai followed, thrusting the scroll at Ranofer as he went by. As Ranofer scrambled down from his stone to take the scroll back, he saw Pai at the pay box, counting out to Gebu the coppers from yesterday, and those for today as well.

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