Stars of the Night

They got back to the tent before sunset and sat round the fire with worried faces.

"Nader Bek can't read inscriptions," said Dr Ruba. "But he heard us. Now he knows we're looking for the Pleiades and the mountain's mouth. And he has his drone, his fast car and lots of money."

"What if he finds the well before we do?" said Malik anxiously.

"He'll take everything he can carry," said Dr Ruba. "The ancient pots, the carvings, anything valuable. He'll sell it all abroad. He'll wreck the whole place with his digging. And our ancestors' story will be lost for ever."

Everyone was quiet. Then Grandpa Awwad said calmly, stirring the embers with his stick:

"Nader Bek knows how to fly his machine over the desert. But he doesn't know how to read the sky. And the sky is the real map, children."

When the sun had gone to sleep and the sky was completely black, Grandpa put out the lantern, let the fire burn very low, spread a rug on the sand outside the tent and said, "Lie down. And look."