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challenge.
    Frawley scuttled to a corner. "I’ll take care of the coffee," he said, heavily jocose. "That’s an assistant director’s primary responsibility." He busied himself with the coffee things that are as omnipresent as calipers or acetone in archaeology workrooms all over the world.
    Nate stared at Gideon, his eyes inexpressive. "Okay, Gid, what do you want?"
    Even for Nate this was pretty brusque, and there was an increasing prickle of irritation at the back of Gideon’s neck. Or was he being unduly sensitive? He had been irritated by Leon; he hadn’t liked Sandra; he found Frawley odious; and now Nate seemed even ruder than usual. Maybe Gideon was just having one of his misanthropic days and it was all in his mind. On the other hand, he reassured himself charitably, he hadn’t disliked Barry, had he? No, it wasn’t his perception; there was something uneasy, something off-key in the atmosphere of Stonebarrow Fell.
    "I don’t want anything," he said evenly. "I was traveling
    in the area with my wife, so I thought I’d say hello. And Abe Goldstein wanted me to give you his best."
    There was a ponderous silence while Frawley brought back three mugs of coffee clutched insecurely in his white hands. He set them carefully on the table. "There we go. See, even assistant directors are good for something." He sat on Nate’s other side, around the corner of the table.
    Nate continued to glower at Gideon. "You thought you’d drop in," he finally said.
    "Yes."
    When Nate just kept staring at him with a crooked, unfunny smirk on his face, Gideon stood up, puzzled and angry. He had paid his duty call and had no wish to be glared at by a contentious and hostile colleague who might once have been a friend, but who clearly had no use for him at the moment.
    "You don’t have anything to do with the inquiry?" Nate said sharply as Gideon pushed his chair back. "Is that what you’re telling me?"
    "The what?"
    "The Stonebarrow Fell inquiry," Frawley said.
    Gideon shook his head. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."
    "No?" Nate looked at him quizzically. "Okay, have a read." He reached to the shelf behind him, got a newspaper, and tossed it onto the table in front of Gideon, who dropped back into his chair. It was the previous day’s
West Dorset Times,
and the headline ran across the two leftmost columns.
     
CRISES MOUNT AT STONEBARROW FELL

Professor Nathan G. Marcus, the outspoken and controversial director of the archaeological excavation at Stonebarrow Fell (Charmouth) is set for his most critical test thus far.

The
Times
has learned that the Wessex Antiquarian Society (WAS) and the New York-based Horizon Foundation for Anthropological Research, which cosponsor the expedition, will shortly conduct a joint inquiry, to be held in Charmouth, into charges against Professor Marcus of maladministration and unprofessional behavior. The charges stem from a confidential letter of complaint sent by the WAS to the Horizon Foundation.

The secret letter, of which the
Times
has managed to obtain a copy, protests Professor Marcus’s "animadversions upon the Society in particular and English archaeology in general." It also alleges that "his unsubstantiated and incredible claims regarding a Mycenaean settlement of southern England discredit all concerned and tarnish the reputation of archaeology itself." Further, the unprecedented letter expresses "gave reservations about Professor Marcus’s competence and objectivity."

Professor Marcus, in a statement to the
Times,
said that his claims are consistent with the facts, and that "the Wessex Antiquarian Society has been out to get me from Day One…They won’t admit the obvious truth even when the d–n thing stares them in the face, just because an American came up with it. Look, I’m glad they’ve got a lot of practice eating their own words, because I’m going to dump a big plateful right in front of them."

These charges and countercharges fly amidst growing rumours