Legend of the Lost Page #3

Please, let me tell you. Then you decide.

I am going to the lost city of Ophir.

It was a city that vanished

2,000 years ago.

My father found its secret in the Bible.

The city of Ophir flourished

in a part of the Sahara

when the desert was green with forests

and bright with lakes and rivers.

There's no lost city in the Sahara.

Thousands of caravans have traveled

over it for thousands of years.

And your father comes up from

the Somaliland and walks into a lost city?

Don't be so naive.

Everyone knew about ancient Troy

for thousands of years

but nobody knew where to find it.

A few years ago, a German named

Schliemann walked up and found it.

He also found a king's treasure,

and it wasn't luck.

He knew where it was.

The desert is full of bones

that went looking for treasure.

Because they didn't know where to look.

I know!

Joe, listen, what can you lose?

Look, here is the rest of your fee.

And I will give you a third of the treasure.

- You're offering me a third of a goose egg.

- No.

There is gold, silver, ivory, gems.

A pile of treasure.

He described it.

"I held rubies in my hand the size of eggs

"and emeralds

as big as the palm of my hand. "

My father wrote that,

and he was a man who never lied.

I listened too long.

Timbuktu or the Somaliland,

what's the difference?

I'll take a third of your hole in the sand.

And I guess I've got to buy you, too.

A lost city and a batty dame.

You work on her soul,

and I'll take care of the desert.

You're tired, Dita.

Why don't you go to sleep?

I can't.

He reminds me.

- Of what?

- Timbuktu. All the places I've been.

Foul places.

Tell me.

About me?

Mmm-hmm.

You wouldn't like it.

Talk.

It will comfort you.

My mother taught me only one thing.

Not to cry.

Every time I cried,

she slapped me till I stopped.

She said, "Men don't buy cry-babies. "

We lived in Algiers.

I ran away.

I never saw my mother again.

Was your father alive?

Who knows?

I went to different towns.

I met men.

The pictures stay in my head,

always the same.

Same hands,

crawling all over me like bugs.

I'd like to peel off my skin and be new.

Give me the knife.

Tears are better than a knife for cleansing.

Oh, brother!

Sinful girl sobbing on your shoulder.

You must feel about 10 feet tall.

You believe in nothing!

You believe in nobody!

You drink and sneer and hurt!

Leave her alone.

Sure.

She's all yours.

We must be off our course.

There shouldn't be a city there.

There isn't.

Look at the horizon,

floating a little above it.

It's a mirage.

- A mirage?

A place called Bandiagara,

it's about 200 miles from where you see it.

It looks real.

It's as real as that lost city of yours.

What do you say we head for it,

and walk off with one of its ivory towers?

We'd better shelter here in the canyon.

No.

A little further on.

All the wind.

Are you ill?

No. I'm dizzy. I can't breathe.

Make him stop for a while, please.

Of course, as long as you wish.

I'll talk to him.

Paul!

- What? What is it!

- Take it off. Take it off me!

They were crawling on me.

Don't let them touch me, please!

Finally got your man? Good work.

She had a fright. There were some spiders.

That's why I didn't stop here.

This place is called Tarantula Canyon.

- I'd be a little careful with that.

- Her face is bruised.

That much water could save a life.

It's from my canteen.

And whose will you drink out of

when that's gone? Both of you?

Not yours! Not if I was dying of thirst!

If you're through with your

"Fainting Bertha " tricks, we can move on.

You must stop talking to her like that.

- I must?

- Yes. You will respect her.

Him? Respect a woman?

You're a couple of fakes. Both of you.

I'm sick of watching you moaning

about your souls and pawing each other.

Since I came, he keeps sneering at me,

calling me names.

Only one, Dita.

We are a little world by ourselves

in the desert, Joe.

Let's be a civilized world.

A couple of men and a dame

are a strain on any civilization.

Stay down.

That's their death fires.

They dig a grave in the sand and they keep

the drums going till the sick man is dead.

I know.

You know? If you were scared

when we saw those other Tuaregs,

you ought to be shaking now.

Those are Hoggars.

We're stuck.

We can't bypass this water hole.

- Where are you going?

- I might be able to help.

- It's wrong to interfere with death.

- I must do what my father did.

Stop him.

- How?

- They'll kill him, he doesn't know.

- He knows.

- Paul!

Easy!

He's all wound up to do something.

Your yelling will only make it worse.

He's making himself understood.

Throwing some kind of language at them.

He's wonderful.

You're kind of slow grabbing him.

You're not fit to talk about him.

Do you believe in him now?

His city of Ophir,

and rubies and emeralds, no!

But I'll tell you one thing, he's got guts.

I wouldn't go down there.

We'd better make camp up here.

Coming?

No, I'll wait for him.

If I know Tuareg hospitality,

he won't be back before dawn.

I'll wait.

We're in for it. It's heading our way.

Give me a hand. Hold on to this.

Spread this out between those mounds.

Joe.

Look!

This is the rest of our map.

You memorized it pretty well.

This is Mount Tahat.

My father went west, toward In Zize.

Between In Zize and Bidon,

there is a plateau. He went there.

That's a lot of empty country, mister.

Nobody's been over it in my time.

My father has.

The city lies here.

I'm telling you, that's a long haul.

We'll need something better than gold

to get us back.

What?

Water. If that city is dry, we're cooked.

There will be water. My father said so.

Hey! Need any help?

- Don't embarrass her.

- It's all right.

I'm pretending it's a mirage.

Have you got some flour?

Sure, why?

We have water to waste.

I'll make some biscuits.

You can cook?

I can cook, I can breathe, I can live!

What is the matter with you?

Are you sick?

- Why?

- You haven't sneered at me the whole day.

Maybe I'm recovering

some lost virtue myself.

Yes, and you could use some, too.

It is amazing to walk alone in the desert.

It is like walking over the face of a clock

that has stopped.

We can have fire all night long, and we...

Your dress is torn.

I'll sew it.

- What's the matter?

- Come on, I want to talk to you.

Well?

Well,

how about a drink?

No.

What do you want, Joe?

Just a little friendliness.

I'm not afraid of you anymore.

- That's smart.

- Or angry.

I'll drink to that.

Nice night.

Hmm.

How high it is.

Like a big high bed,

with a clean sheet every night.

It makes me feel so little.

I do a little shrinking out

in the desert myself.

The drink makes you feel bigger?

Why don't you have a taste?

Make you listen better.

Hmm?

- No. Hurry. What do you want to tell me?

- No hurry. He sleeps like a rock.

He has got a good conscience.

I don't know.

Can't tell about a fella like that,

what he is or isn't.

I'll not listen to talk against him.

He's a pure man.

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