lagoon. The hotel is actually in the middle of it. He’s got a hydro in there and a Turkish bath, even a mikveh – a ritual bath for women. Also a bowling alley, a cinema, an observatory, four restaurants, two ballrooms and a synagogue. And from his Hanging Gardens on the roof you’ll be able to see the Dead Sea together with the Mountains of Moab on the other side. He believes in making the desert bloom, does Teitleman. What can you do with such a man?’
The question admitted of ready answer for at that moment Teitleman himself materialized, like some pantomime fairy on cue – and was almost done to death. He seemed to spring out of a crevice at the side of the road, missing the braking jeep by an inch. The crevice turned out to be a section of the lagoon, as yet dry, the walls of which Teitleman had been inspecting with a brigade of architects and foremen.
‘Ah, Agrot!’ he said, and came forward, no whit disturbed by his close escape, one cotton-gloved hand extended.
The inspirer of these constructional marvels was not himself designed on the grand scale. He was a small man, very small, and his bow-tie and glasses were very big; but there was an overall neatness and completeness about his specification that made up for the lack of inches. A certain stony greyness about the face told of a stoical quality in Teitleman, of vicissitudes endlessly endured; so that despite his grey city suit he did not, among his sweat-streaked and begrimed entourage, look a dude. He looked a dangerous little bastard.
‘You didn’t need to come – we could have done it on the phone. Never mind, I’ll show you,’ he said to Agrot, and in a trice, uninvited, had sprung into the jeep.
‘Almost I didn’t bother you at all,’ he said, turning in his seat. ‘I could have fixed it with your beautiful wife – how is she? Ah. All right. I see. Very good. Hello,’ he said, and made tiny flapping motions with his cotton-gloved hand at the following jeep, mouth opening suddenly in a dog-like grin to reveal a double row of unexpectedly powerful-looking teeth.
‘So what’s the trouble?’ Agrot said.
‘No trouble.’ The grin went as suddenly as it had come. ‘Readjustments. They’re just now held up here so they want to do a try-out for the fountains. The same supply is serving the lagoon and the mikveh, for which the water has to be pure. It’s simply a matter of running power and water lines through from the filtration beds at the other side of the fountain site.’
‘That would be under my tel,’ Agrot said.
‘Under that part of it you finished last season.’
‘Mr Teitleman,’ Agrot said mildly, ‘I have an Order, as you know, that applies to all of the tel.’
‘And Professor Agrot, as you know,’ Teitleman said, his little month hardening slightly, ‘I can go in a case of emergency to any court in the land who will tell you what to do with your Order.’
‘It would have to be a funny court that saw a delay to your mikveh as a national emergency.’
‘So we won’t argue about it,’ Teitleman said, the stoical quality stealing more greyly about his face as he strove to retain a degree of amiability.
The tel was long, shaped like a hog’s back and rounded with the rubbish of three and a half thousand years. The soft detritus, as the open workings showed, went down to a depth of thirty feet or so. At the bottom, the first level of human habitation, a pattern of worked stones showed the crude outlines of the ancient settlement, built on the same hard limestone and marble as the rest of the plateau.
Because of its length, the tel had been divided into three sections , and because of Teitleman the Agrots had dealt with the two westerly ones first. Both of these had been opened up the previous season, and now the whole expedition was engaged on the third. Several dozen young men and women with some Beduin day labourers were swarming on the far slope, their camp visible at the foot of it.
‘We want to run
The question admitted of ready answer for at that moment Teitleman himself materialized, like some pantomime fairy on cue – and was almost done to death. He seemed to spring out of a crevice at the side of the road, missing the braking jeep by an inch. The crevice turned out to be a section of the lagoon, as yet dry, the walls of which Teitleman had been inspecting with a brigade of architects and foremen.
‘Ah, Agrot!’ he said, and came forward, no whit disturbed by his close escape, one cotton-gloved hand extended.
The inspirer of these constructional marvels was not himself designed on the grand scale. He was a small man, very small, and his bow-tie and glasses were very big; but there was an overall neatness and completeness about his specification that made up for the lack of inches. A certain stony greyness about the face told of a stoical quality in Teitleman, of vicissitudes endlessly endured; so that despite his grey city suit he did not, among his sweat-streaked and begrimed entourage, look a dude. He looked a dangerous little bastard.
‘You didn’t need to come – we could have done it on the phone. Never mind, I’ll show you,’ he said to Agrot, and in a trice, uninvited, had sprung into the jeep.
‘Almost I didn’t bother you at all,’ he said, turning in his seat. ‘I could have fixed it with your beautiful wife – how is she? Ah. All right. I see. Very good. Hello,’ he said, and made tiny flapping motions with his cotton-gloved hand at the following jeep, mouth opening suddenly in a dog-like grin to reveal a double row of unexpectedly powerful-looking teeth.
‘So what’s the trouble?’ Agrot said.
‘No trouble.’ The grin went as suddenly as it had come. ‘Readjustments. They’re just now held up here so they want to do a try-out for the fountains. The same supply is serving the lagoon and the mikveh, for which the water has to be pure. It’s simply a matter of running power and water lines through from the filtration beds at the other side of the fountain site.’
‘That would be under my tel,’ Agrot said.
‘Under that part of it you finished last season.’
‘Mr Teitleman,’ Agrot said mildly, ‘I have an Order, as you know, that applies to all of the tel.’
‘And Professor Agrot, as you know,’ Teitleman said, his little month hardening slightly, ‘I can go in a case of emergency to any court in the land who will tell you what to do with your Order.’
‘It would have to be a funny court that saw a delay to your mikveh as a national emergency.’
‘So we won’t argue about it,’ Teitleman said, the stoical quality stealing more greyly about his face as he strove to retain a degree of amiability.
The tel was long, shaped like a hog’s back and rounded with the rubbish of three and a half thousand years. The soft detritus, as the open workings showed, went down to a depth of thirty feet or so. At the bottom, the first level of human habitation, a pattern of worked stones showed the crude outlines of the ancient settlement, built on the same hard limestone and marble as the rest of the plateau.
Because of its length, the tel had been divided into three sections , and because of Teitleman the Agrots had dealt with the two westerly ones first. Both of these had been opened up the previous season, and now the whole expedition was engaged on the third. Several dozen young men and women with some Beduin day labourers were swarming on the far slope, their camp visible at the foot of it.
‘We want to run
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