Kenkenes passed by on the outskirts of the encampment and went
on.
Deep shadow lay on the stone-pits when Kenkenes reached the mouth of
the gorge, and a cool wind from the Nile swept across the grain. The
day's work had been prolonged in the lowering of a huge slab from its
position in its native bed. The monolith was already on the brink of
the wooden incline, and every man was at the windlasses by which the
cables controlling its descent were paid out. Kenkenes saw at a glance
that none of the water-bearers was present, and he knew the lovely
Israelite was with them. He did not pause.
Before the sound of the quarry stir had been left behind he heard a
sharp report, the frightened shrieks of women and shouts of warning.
He looked back in time to see the huge stone turn part way round on the
chute and rush, end first, earthward. Expectant silence fell, broken
only by the vicious snarl of a flying windlass crank. But in an
instant the great slab struck the earth with a thunderous sound that
reverberated again and again from the barren hills about. A vast
all-enveloping cloud of dust and earth filled the hollow quarry like
smoke from an explosion. But there was no further outcry, and through
the outskirts of the lifting cloud men were seen making deliberate
preparations to repair the parted cable.
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