They_Came_to_Baghdad-Agatha_Christie

'I suppose you're the anthropologist.' said Richard, as she sat down in the back seat. 'I didn't expect
you so soon.'
He stood for a moment sorting through various pieces of broken pottery which he removed from his
pockets. Victoria now realized that this was what he had been picking up on the hill.
'Most of it is late Assyrian,' he said, pointing towards the hill. He smiled as he added, 'I'm glad to
see that in spite of your troubles your archaeological instincts led you to examine a tell.'
Victoria opened her mouth and then shut it again.
What, after all, could she say?
Fortunately, for a short time she had been a typist at the Archaeological Institute in London. So at
least she knew that a tell was a hill made by people rebuilding their houses again and again in the same
place. They just levelled the ruins of old buildings and built on top of them. Over time this made a special
kind of hill. So when people like Richard Baker dug into a tell, the deeper they dug, the older the
buildings they discovered.
It was also true that he would discover she was a liar as soon as they reached the dig. But it would
be much, much better to be sorry there, than to confess the truth to Mr Richard Baker in the middle of
nowhere. 'And, anyway,' thought Victoria, 'perhaps before I get there, I will have thought of something.'
Her busy imagination got to work immediately.
After a while Mr Baker said something to Abdul and the car turned off the track and into the desert.
With nothing to guide him, as far as Victoria could see, Richard Baker directed Abdul. Soon Richard said
with satisfaction, 'Going the right way now.
Victoria could not see any way at all. But sometimes she saw vague tyre marks. Then they crossed a
slightly clearer collection of tyre marks and Richard called out for Abdul to stop.
'Here's an interesting sight for you,' he said to Victoria.
Two men were coming towards them. One man carried a short wooden seat, the other a big round
wooden object.
They welcomed Richard warmly. He produced cigarettes and soon a party atmosphere developed.
Then Richard turned to her. 'Do you like the cinema? Then you shall see a performance.'
He spoke to the men and they smiled with pleasure. They set up the seat for Victoria and Richard to
sit on. Then they set up the round wooden box on a stand. It had two little holes covered with glass and as
Victoria put her eyes to them, one man began to turn a handle, and the other began to sing.
Richard translated, 'Come near and prepare yourself for much delight. Prepare to see ancient
wonders.'
Victoria could see a coloured picture. 'The wife of the great Shah of the Western world,' said
Richard. Then the Empress Eugenie touched one of her long curls; next came a picture of the King's
Palace in Montenegro, another of the Great Exhibition. A strange collection of pictures followed, all
different and sometimes announced with the strangest of descriptions. People skating on ice completed
this strange collection of old photographs.
When the show ended, Victoria smiled with pleasure. 'That was marvellous!'
The owners of the travelling cinema smiled proudly. Richard gave them some money. Richard and