'That doesn't mean much to me.'
The centre of Copan is over seventy-five acres,' said Fallon. 'But you mustn't confuse a Mayan city with any other city you've seen. The centre of the city -- the stone structures we are looking for -- was me religious and administrative centre, and probably the market-place. Around it, for several square miles, lived the Mayas of the city. They didn't live in neat little houses built into streets as we do but in an immense system of small-holdings. Each family would have its own little farm, and the household buildings were very little different from the huts that the Mayas now build, although probably more extensive. There's nothing wrong with the Mayan hut -- it's ideally suited to this climate.'
'And the population?'
'Chichen Itza was about 200,000 according to Morley,' said Halstead. 'Uaxuanoc might run upwards of a quarter-million.'
'That's a devil of a lot of people,' I said in astonishment.
To build the immense structures they did required a lot of hands,' said Fallon. These were a neolithic people, remember, using stone tools to carve stone. I expect the centre of Uaxuanoc will be about one hundred acres, if we can rely on Vivero's map, so the outer city would have been populous, with more people in it man in the whole of Quintana Roo .now. But there'll be no trace left of the outer city, timber buildings don't last in this climate.'
He tapped with the pointer again. 'Let's get on with it. So we have fifteen cenotes to look at, and if we don't find what we're looking for we'll have to go further afield. That will be unfortunate, because within twenty miles of here there are another forty-nine cenotes and it's going to take a long time if we have to investigate them all.'
He waved the pointer at the pilot. 'Fortunately we have Harry Rider and his helicopter so we can do it in reasonable comfort. I'm getting too old to tackle the forest.'
Rider said, 'I've already had a look at some of those water-holes, Mr. Fallon; in most of them there's no place to put down -- not even my chopper. It's real thick.' Fallon nodded. 'I know; I've been here before and I know what it's like. We'll run a preliminary photo survey. Colour film might show up differences in vegetation due to underlying structures, and infra-red might show more. And I'd like to do some flights early morning and late evening -- we might get something out of the shadows.'
He turned and regarded the photo-mosaic. 'As you can see, 'I've numbered the cenotes under consideration. Some are more likely than others. Vivero said there was a ridge running through Uaxuanoc with a temple at the top and a cenote at the bottom. Cenotes and ridges seem to be associated in this area, which is bad luck; but it cuts the possibles down to eleven. I think we can forget numbers four, seven, eight and thirteen for the time being.' He turned to Rider. 'When can we start?'
'Any time you like -- I'm fuelled up,' said Rider.
Fallon consulted his watch. 'We'll fix up the cameras, and leave directly after lunch.'
I helped to load the cameras into the helicopter. There was nothing amateurish or snapshottery about this gear; they were professional aerial cameras and I noticed that the helicopter was fitted with all the necessary brackets to receive them. My respect for Fallen's powers of organisation grew even more. Allowing for the fact that he had more money to chuck about than appeared decent, at least he knew how to spend it to the best advantage. He was no playboy of the jet-set circuit spilling his wealth into some casino owner's pocket.
After a quick: lunch Fallon and Halstead made for the helicopter, I said, 'What do I do?'
Fallon rubbed his chin. 'There doesn't seem to be anything you can do,' he said, and over his shoulder I saw Halstead grinning widely. 'You'd better rest up this afternoon. Stay out of the sun until you're used to this heat. Well be back in a couple of hours.'
I watched the helicopter take off and disappear over the trees feeling a little silly and like an unwanted spare part. Katherine was nowhere to be seen -- I think she'd gone into the hut she shared with Halstead to unpack their personal gear. I wondered what to do and wandered disconsolately to the far end of the clearing to look at the Mayan building Fallon had mentioned.
The cenote was about thirty feet in diameter and the water lay about fifteen feet down in the pit. The sides of me pit were almost sheer, but someone had cut rough steps so as to get to the water. I was startled by the sudden noisy throb of an engine close by and found a small pump run by a petrol engine which had apparently come into operation automatically. It was pumping water from the cenote up to the camp -- another bit of Fallonese efficiency.
