They_Came_to_Baghdad-Agatha_Christie

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The old car bumped madly over the rough road. The driver turned and smiled at them.
'Where are we going?'
'To Babylon,' said Edward. 'It's time we had a day out.'
'To Babylon?' cried Victoria. 'How lovely. Really, to Babylon?'
'Yes, but don't expect too much. Babylon isn't as impressive as it was.'
'The road isn't very good, is it?' gasped Victoria, bouncing in her seat.
'It gets worse later on,' said Edward.
They bounced along happily. The dust rose in clouds. Large lorries full of Arabs raced along in the
middle of the road, paying no attention to the other drivers. They passed walled gardens and groups of
women and children and donkeys - and to Victoria it was all delightful.
They reached Babylon in two hours and were happy to get out of the car. The pile of mud and ruins
was a disappointment to Victoria, who had expected columns and arches.
But her disappointment disappeared as their guide led them along the Processional Way to the Ishtar
Gate, with their pictures of unbelievable animals high on the walls. A sudden sense of a grand history
came to Victoria and a wish to know something about this huge, proud city that now lay dead and empty.
After a while, they sat down by the Babylonian Lion to eat the picnic lunch that Edward had
brought. The guide moved away, smiling and telling them firmly that they must see the museum later.
'Must we?' said Victoria dreamily. 'Things in glass cases don't seem real somehow. I went to the
British Museum once. It was very tiring for the feet.'
'The past is always boring,' said Edward. 'The future's much more important.'
'This isn't boring,' said Victoria, waving a sandwich towards the ruins. 'There's a feeling of- of
greatness here. A city of great Kings. Would you have liked to be a King of Babylon, Edward?'
Edward took a deep breath. 'Yes, I would. They understood how to be Kings in those days! That's
why they could rule the world and put everything in order.'
How strange, thought Victoria, to be sitting in the ruins of Babylon talking like this. The sun was
very hot and bright, and the ruins were pale and shimmering in the heat, with a background of dark palm
trees. How very nicely Edward's hair grew down, with a little curl into his neck, Victoria found herself
thinking. And what a nice neck - brown from the sun with no marks on it.
Suddenly Victoria sat up straight, wildly excited.
'I've just remembered, about Sir Rupert Crofton Lee.'
Edward looked at her blankly.
'He sat in front of me in the plane and I saw it - a boil on his neck.'
'Why shouldn't he have a boil? Painful, but lots of people get them.'
'Yes, yes, of course. But the point is that morning on the balcony he didn't have one.'
'One what?'
'A boil. Oh, Edward, do try and understand! In the aeroplane he had a boil and on the balcony at the