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constituted his character, and it was highly unlikely that he
would be "seeing" a sphinx and three pyramids now.
He decided that the best way to find out whether or not he
was imagining them would be try to walk right through them,
280 Robert F. Young
and with this in mind, he forced himself to go on, even though
he knew that he would do better to return to his ship and
forget about the whole thing.
Gradually, the pyramids took on greater detail, particularly
the largest of the trio. It stood in the foreground, and several
hundred yards to the east of it stood the Sphinx, The Gizeh
sphinx measured in the neighborhood of 189 feet in length,
70 in height, and 30 from forehead to chin. If anything, this
one exceeded those dimensions- Lord, suppose it were to stand
up. Hall thought. Why, it would tower almost a hundred feet
above the ground!
Had the Sphinx read his mind? It would seem so. At any
rate, the huge head had turned and the great golden eyes were
fixed upon his face. As he watched in disbeliving fascination,
it stood erect on its four legs and regarded him contempla-
tively across the half a hundred yards of tableland that sepa-
rated them.
Everything caught up to Hall then his weakness, the rays
of NRGC 984, the heat rising from the white sand, the doubts
that had been multiplying in his mind ever since he had
participated in the destruction of the Deimos Dissenters and
he sagged to the ground. The ground, he discovered pres-
ently, was trembling. Well it might. The creature walking
over it probably weighed several thousand tons.
He felt the coolness of shade. Looking up, he saw the
massive humanoid face looming above him, the great golden
eyes gazing down into his own. Slowly, the huge head began
to lower, relentlessly, the gigantic jaws began to open. Belat-
edly, Hall tried to draw his laser pistol, only to discover that
he no longer had charge of his right arm. He retreated way
back into his mind then. found a deep dark cave, crawled into
it, and closed his eyes-
THE PYRAMID PROJECT 281
CHEOPS' DAUGHTER
Wherever else he might be, Hall decided some time later, he
was no longer in the cave. Nor was he, apparently, in the
belly of the Sphinx. There was the softness of eiderdown
beneath his back and a pleasant perfume upon his nostrils. He
was completely relaxed, and the throbbing in his arm had
died away. Feeling fingers lightly touch his forehead, he
opened his eyes.
There was a girl standing over him. Her face was narrow,
the forehead high and rounded, the nose high-bridged and
slender, me chin somewhat pointed. She had night-black hair,
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and her head was fitted with a ridiculous headdress that flared
up into a flat crown. She was stim, but startlingly well-
developed, and she was wearing a tight-fitting hatter and a
tight-fitting knee-length skirt. The headdress, the hatter, and
the skirt were golden in color, and, peering over the edge of
the padded platform on which he lay. Hall saw that webbed
sandals of similar hue encased her small feet. Her skin was
the color of olives.
Despite her unusual attire and her equally unusual develop-
ment, plus a queenly hauteur that somehow went well with
both, her eyes still managed to be the most remarkable items
in her feminine inventory. They were almond-shaped, slightly
slanted, golden brown, and pretematurally large. In addition,
there was a liquid quality about them that came close to
devastating the defenses which Hall made haste to throw up
around himself.
Well anyway, she made as much sense as the pyramids and
the Sphinx did, he thought resignedly. As a matter of fact,
she seemed to belong in such a setting. "I suppose you're
going to tell me your name is Cleopatra," he said, even
though he knew that the all-purpose English words were
bound to be Greek to her.
She had withdrawn her hand from his forehead and had
282 Robert F. Young
stepped back from the platform the minute he opened his
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