The Rings of Poseidon Read Online Free PDF Page B

left of what was in the room."
    "Seems like you were right Jamie," Frank
remarked when Alicia had gone.
    "Aye. Maybe so," responded Jamie.
    "Keep at it carefully," said Frank "You've
every reason to be pleased with the day's work, but we don't want
to miss any clue there might be. At least we know that this home
wasn't given up voluntarily," he added.
     
    At the end of the day Alicia told the others
about this piece of evidence and what it appeared to mean for the
history of the village.
    "Of course," Alicia told her diggers, "you
can't jump to any conclusions from just one building or one set of
evidence, but it does look as if this was a village of some size
and that life here ended violently. What we don't know yet, of
course, is whether that violence was accidental or deliberate and
whether, if deliberate, an outside agency of some sort was
involved."
    "I presume that we're digging at the moment
through sand that has blown in through the centuries." Alan
remarked.
    "I'd expect you to come across charred
remains of anything flammable in the roof as the next significant
remains," Frank told him by way of answer, with a quick glance at
Alicia.
    "Grub up!" interrupted Steve, and the group
as one person trooped over to where he had been making supper.
    There was no shortage of help when it came to
serving , but a distinct lack of volunteers to help him wash
up.
    "Do you want to take your own pictures
to-day?" Steve asked Alicia quietly when a rota had been drawn up
for the dish-washing. "or do you want me to take them as
usual?"
    "I'll let you do the close ups," said Alicia,
"but I'll come with you when you do and point out what I want
taken. I think from now on we'll take pictures as soon as there's
anything to record."
    Steve nodded his agreement.
     
    Much later Gill walked by herself on the
sands, watching the waves break on the beach below the dunes. She
thought about the happiness in her life and about the foolishness
that had led her to think that all happiness was gone for good. She
had been very happy with him, and of course his going had left her
life empty and her alone - but had it justified an overdose? Gill
had only asked herself this question in the last few months and,
when she did, she couldn't escape the fact that it hadn't. Now, in
retrospect, she felt a bit of a fool over what she had tried so
hard to do.
    "Penny for your thoughts," said a voice. It
was Steve who had come upon her while she was lost in thought.
    "You startled me! I wasn't thinking anything
worthwhile. I was just wondering why I ever thought it was worth
it."
    "Whether what was worth it?"
    "Whether it was worth trying to kill myself
because my life seemed empty and worthless when he left," answered
Gill, after a pause to think about the question.
    "No one's worth that much," remarked Steve.
There was a long silence, broken only by the breaking of waves on
the beach. Finally he asked her, "Didn't you have any happy
memories?"
    "Oh yes," said Gill, smiling at her thoughts,
"I had lots. We were happy together and it was the happy memories I
couldn't take."
    "Well you should try not having happy
memories to look back on," he said wryly. "When I lay awake in
prison I could only think back on fights on the football terraces.
Fights aren't exactly restful, happy memories."
    "No," admitted Gill. "They aren't are they? I
suppose you think I've been a bit of a fool. Most people do." she
added.
    "I think I've been a bit of a fool," he said,
without answering her question one way or the other. There was
another silence, then he continued, "Would you go back to him
now?"
    Gill thought about this for a moment, then
shook her head. "I don't think there was ever any going back once
he'd left me and I wouldn't want him back now." She paused. "No,"
she added, then said, "And you. Do you want to fight on the
football terraces again.?"
    Steve laughed. "No chance," he said.
    Again there was a silence broken only by the
sound of the sea on the shingly beach. Gill