Affair in Araby - Talbot Mundy
Ye know that in that fashion, and not otherwise, the accursed conquerors
were driven forth and our sacred banner was set on high over the
Damascus roofs, where by Allah's blessing may it wave for ever!
Ye know how those who claimed to be our friends have since proven
themselves foes, so that the independent state for which we fought is
held today in ignominious subjection by aliens, who deny the true Faith
and hold their promises as nothing.
Ye know how Damascus is beset by the French, and Palestine is held by
the British who, notwithstanding the oath they swore to us, are daily
betraying us Arabs to the Jews.
Know now, then, that the hour has struck when, again in the name of
Allah, we must finish what we formerly began and with our true swords
force these infidels to yield our country to us. Nor on this occasion
shall we sheathe our swords until from end to end our land is free and
united under one government of our own choosing.
Know that this time there shall be no half-measures nor any compromise.
It is written, Ye shall show no quarter to the infidel. Let no Jew live
to boast that he has footing in the land of our ancestors. Leave ye no
root of them in the earth nor seedling that can spring into a tree!
Smite, and smite swiftly in the name of Him who never sleeps, who keeps
all promises, whose almighty hand is ready to preserve the Faithful.
Whereunto ye are bidden to take courage. Whereunto our army of Syria
stands ready. Whereunto the day has been appointed.
Know ye that the tenth day from the sending of this letter, and at dawn,
is the appointed time. Therefore let all make common cause for the
favour of the Most High which awaits the Faithful.
In the name of God and Mohammed the Prophet of God, on whom be
blessings."
There followed the Moslem date and the numerical signature over Feisul's
indubitable seal. Grim figured a moment and worked out the
corresponding date according to our western calendar.
"Leaves six days," he said pleasantly. "It means the French intend to
attack Damascus seven days from now."
"Let 'em!" Jeremy exploded. "Feisul'll give 'em ----! All they've got
are Algerians."
"The French have poison gas," Grim answered dourly. "Feisul's men have
no masks."
"Get 'em some!"
That was Jeremy again. Grim didn't answer, but went on talking:
"They're going to get Damascus. All they've waited for was poison gas,
and now there's no stopping 'em. They forged this letter after the gas
arrived. Now if they catch Feisul in Damascus they'll put him on trial
for his life, and they probably hope to get this letter back somehow to
use as evidence against him."
"Go slow, Jim!" Mabel objected. "Where's your proof that the French are
jockeying this? Isn't that Feisul's seal?"
"Yes, and it's his paper. But not his handwriting."
"He might have dictated it, mightn't he?"
"Never in those words. Feisul don't talk or write that way. The
letter's a manifest forgery, as I'll prove by confronting Feisul with
it. But there's a little oversight that should convince you it's a
forgery. Have you a magnifying glass, doc?"
Ticknor produced one in a minute, and Grim held the letter under the
lamp. On the rather wide margin, carefully rubbed out, but not so
carefully that the indentation did not show, was the French word
magnifique that had been written with a rather heavy hand and one of
those hard pencils supplied to colonial governments by exporters from
stocks that can't be sold at home.
"That proves nothing," Mabel insisted. "All educated Arabs talk French.
Somebody on Feisul's staff was asked for an opinion on the letter before
it went. My husband's Arab orderly told me only yesterday that a sling
I made for a man in the hospital was magnifique."
The objection was well enough taken, because it was the sort the forger
of the letter would be likely to raise if brought to book. But Grim's
argument was not exhausted.
"There are other points, Mabel. For one thing, it's blue metallic ink.
Feisul's private letters are all written with indelible black stuff made
from pellets that I gave him; they're imported from the States."
"But if Feisul wanted to prove an alibi, he naturally wouldn't use his
special private ink," objected Mabel.
"Then why his seal, and his special private notepaper? However, there's
another point. Feisul writes the purest kind of Arabic, and this isn't
that sort of Arabic. It was written by a foreigner--perhaps a
Frenchman--possibly an Armenian--most likely a Turk--certainly one of
the outer ring of politicians who have access to Feisul and seek to
control him, but are not really in his confidence. Damascus is simply a
network of spies of that kind--men who attached themselves to the Arab
cause when it looked like winning and are now busy transferring their
allegiance.
"I think I could name the man who wrote this; I think I know the man
who wrote that magnifique. If I'm right, Yussuf Dakmar will notify the
French tonight through their agents in Jerusalem. The man who wrote
that magnifique will know before morning that the letter's missing; and
it doesn't matter how careful I may be, it'll be known as soon as I
start for Damascus.
"They'll dope out that our obvious course would be to confront Feisul
with this letter. The only way to travel is by train; the roads are
rotten--in fact, no auto could get through; they'd tip off the
Bedouins, who'd murder everybody.
"So they'll watch the trains and especially Haifa, where everyone going
north has to spend the night; and they'll stop at nothing to get the
letter back, for two reasons; as long as it's in our hands it can be
used to establish proof of the plot against Feisul; once it's back in
theirs, they can keep it in their secret dossier to use against Feisul
if they ever catch him and bring him to trial. You remember the Dreyfus
case?
"I shall start for Damascus by the early train--probably take an auto as
far as Ludd. If I want to live until I reach Damascus I shall have to
prove conclusively that I haven't that letter with me. Anyone known to
be in British service is going to be suspected and, if not murdered,
robbed. Ramsden has been seen about too much with me. Jeremy might
juggle by but he's already notorious, and these people are shrewd.
Better hold Jeremy in reserve, and the same with Narayan Singh. A
woman's best. How about you, Mabel?"
"What d'you mean, Jim?"
"Do you know a woman in Haifa?"
"Of course I do."
"Well enough to expect a bed for the night at a moment's notice?"
"Certainly."
Mabel's eyes were growing very bright indeed. It was her husband who
looked alarmed.
"Well, now, here's the point."
Grim leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette, not looking at
anybody, stating his case impersonally, as it were, which is much the
shrewdest way of being personal.
"Feisul's up against it, and he's the best man in all this land, bar
none. They've dealt to him from a cold deck, and he's bound to lose
this hand whichever way he plays it. To put it differently, he's in
check, but not checkmated. He'll be checkmated, though, if the French
ever lay hands on him, and then good-bye to the Arab's chance for twenty
years.
"I propose to save him for another effort, and the only way to do that
is to convince him. The best way to convince him is to show him that
letter, which can't be done if Feisul's enemies discover who carries it.
If Ramsden, Jeremy, Narayan Singh and I start for Damascus, pretending
that one or other of us has the letter concealed on his person, and if a
woman really carries it, we'll manage. Is Mabel Ticknor going to be the
woman? That's the point."
"Too dangerous, Jim! Too dangerous!" Ticknor put in nervously.
"Pardon me, old man. The danger is for us four, who pretend we've got
the thing."
"There are lots of other women and I've only got one wife!" objected
Ticknor.
"We're pressed for time," Grim answered. "You see, Ticknor, old man,
you're a Cornstalk and therefore an outsider--just a medico, who saws
bones for a living, satisfied to keep your body out of the poorhouse,
your soul out of hell, and your name out of the newspapers. Your wife
is presumably more so. There are several officials' wives who would
jump at the chance to be useful; but a sudden trip toward Damascus just
now would cause any one of them to be suspected, whereas Mabel wouldn't
be."
"I don't know why not!" Ticknor retorted. "Wasn't she in here when
those three murderers came to finish the lot of us? If Yussuf Dakmar
makes any report at all he'll surely say he traced the letter to this
house."
"Yussuf Dakmar came no nearer than the street," Grim answered. "He has
no notion who is in here. His three friends are in jail under lock and
key, where he can't get at them. How long have you had this house?
Since yesterday, isn't it? D'you kid yourself that Yussuf Dakmar knows
who lives here?"
"I can get leave of absence. Suppose I go in Mabel's place?" suggested
Ticknor, visibly worried.
"The mere fact that she goes, while you stay here, will be presumptive
evidence that she isn't on a dangerous mission," Grim answered. "No. It
has got to be a woman. If Mabel won't go I'll find someone else."
You could tell by Mabel's eyes and attitude that she was what the
salesmen call "sold" already; but you didn't need a magnifying glass to
detect that Ticknor wasn't. Men of his wandering habit know too well
what a brave, good-tempered wife means to encourage her to take long
chances; for although there are lots of women who would like to wander
and accept the world's pot luck, there are precious few capable of doing
it without doubling a fellow's trouble; when they know how to halve the
trouble and double the fun they're priceless.
Grim played his usual game, which is to spank down his ace of trumps
face upward on the table. Most of us forget what are trumps in a
crisis.
"I guess it's up to you, doc," he said, turning toward Ticknor. "There's
nothing in it for you. Feisul isn't on the make; I don't believe he
cares ten cents who is to be the nominal ruler of the Arabs, provided
they get their promised independence. He'd rather retire and live
privately. But he only considers himself in so far as he can serve the
Arab cause. Now, you've risked Mabel's life a score of times in order
to help sick men in mining camps, and malaria victims and Lord knows
what else. Here's a chance to do the biggest thing of all--"
"Of course, if you put it that way..." said Ticknor, hesitating.
"Just your style too. Nobody will know. No bouquets. You won't have
to stammer a speech at any dinner given in your honor."
"D'you want to do it, Mabel?" asked Ticknor, looking at her keenly
across the table.
"Of course I do!"
"All right, girl. Only, hurry back."
He looked hard at Grim again, then into my eyes and then Jeremy's.
"She's in your hands. I don't want to see any of you three chaps alive
again unless she comes back safe. Is that clear?"
"Clear and clean!" exploded Jeremy. "It's a bet, doc. Half a mo', you
chaps; that's my mine at Abu Kem, isn't it? I've agreed to give the
thing to Feisul and make what terms I can with him. Jim and Rammy divvy
up with me on my end, if any. That right? I say; let the doc and
Mabel have a half-share each of anything our end amounts to."
Well, it took about as long to settle that business as you'd expect.
The doctor and Mabel protested, but it's easier to give away a fortune
that is still in prospect than a small sum that is really tangible--I
mean between folk who stand on their own feet. It doesn't seem to
deprive the giver of much, or to strain the pride of the recipient
unduly.
I've been given shares in unproven El Doradoes times out of number, and
could paper the wall of, say, a good-sized bathroom with the stock
certificates--may do it some day if I ever settle down. But the only
gift of that sort that I ever knew to pay dividends, except to the
printer of the gilt-edged scrip, is Jeremy's gold mine; and you'll look
in vain for any mention of that in the stock exchange lists. The time
to get in on that good thing was that night by Mabel Ticknor's teapot in
Jerusalem.
It was nearly midnight before we had everything settled, and there was
still a lot to do before we could catch the morning train. One thing
that Grim did was to take gum and paper and contrive an envelope that
looked in the dark sufficiently like the alleged Feisul letter; and he
carried that in his hand as he took to the street, with Narayan Singh
following among the shadows within hail. Jeremy and I kept Narayan
Singh in sight, for it was possible that Yussuf Dakmar had gathered a
gang to waylay whoever might emerge from the house.
But he seemed to have had enough of bungling accomplices that night.
Grim hadn't gone fifty paces, keeping well in the middle of the road,
when a solitary shadow began stalking him, and doing it so cautiously
that though he had to cross the circles of street lamplight now and then
neither Jeremy nor I could have identified him afterward.
Narayan Singh had orders not to do anything but guard Grim against
assault, for Grim judged it wise to leave Yussuf Dakmar at large than to
precipitate a climax by arresting him. He had the names of most of the
local conspirators, and if the leader were seized too soon the equally
dangerous rank and file might scatter and escape.
Down inside the Jaffa Gate, in a dark alley beside the Grand Hotel,
there are usually two or three cabs standing at any hour of the night
ready to care for belated Christian gentlemen who have looked on the
wine when it was any colour that it chanced to be. There were three
there, and Grim took the first one, flourishing his envelope carelessly
under the corner lamp.
Yussuf Dakmar took the next in line, and ordered the driver to follow
Grim. So we naturally took the last one, all three of us crowding on to
the rear seat in order to watch the cabs in front. But as soon as we had
driven back outside the city gate Yussuf Dakmar looked behind him and,
growing suspicious of us, ordered his driver to let us pass.
It would have been too obvious if we had stopped too, so we hid our
faces as we passed, and then put Jeremy on the front seat, he looking
like an Arab and being most unrecognizable. Yussuf Dakmar followed us
at long range, and as the lean horses toiled slowly up the Mount of
Olives to headquarters the interval between the cabs grew greater. By
the time we reached the guard-house and answered the Sikh sentry's
challenge there was no sign of Grim in front, and we could only hear in
the distance behind us the occasional click of a loose shoe to tell that
Yussuf Dakmar was still following.
CHAPTER VI
"Better the evil that we know..."
Yussuf Dakmar had his nerve with him that night, or possibly desperation
robbed him of discretion. He may have been a more than usually daring
man with his wits about him, but you'd have to hunt down the valley of
death before you could bring the psychoanalytic guns to bear on him for
what they're worth. I can only tell you what he did, not why he did it.
The great hospice that the German nation built on the crown of the Mount
of Olives to glorify their Kaiser stood like a shadow among shadows in
its compound, surrounded by a fairly high wall. There was a pretty
strong' guard under an Indian officer in the guard-house at the arched
main gate where the sentry challenged us.
A sentry stood at the foot of the steps under the portico at the main
entrance, and there was another armed man on duty patrolling the
grounds. But there were one or two other entrances, locked, though
quite easy to negotiate, which the sentry could only observe while he
marched toward them; for five minutes at a time, while his back was
turned, at least two gates leading to official residences offered
opportunity to an active man.
One lone light at a window on the top floor suggested that the officer
of the night might be awake, but what with the screeching of owls and a
wind that sighed among the shrubs, headquarters looked and sounded more
like a deserted ancient castle than the cranium and brain-cells of
Administration.
We heard Yussuf Dakmar stop his cab two hundred yards away. The cabman
turned his horses and drove back toward Jerusalem without calling on
Allah to witness that his fare should have been twice what he received;
he didn't even lash the horses savagely; so we supposed that he hadn't
been paid, and went on to deduce from that that Yussuf Dakmar had driven
away again, after satisfying himself that the Feisul letter had reached
headquarters. It was lazy, bad reasoning--the sort of superficial,
smart stuff that has cost the lives of thousands of good men times out
of number--four o'clock o' the morning intelligence that, like the
courage of that hour, needs priming by the foreman, or the
sergeant-major, or the bosun as the case may be.
The sentry turned out the guard, who let us through the gate after a
word with Narayan Singh; and the man who leaned on his bayonet under
the portico at the end of the drive admitted us without any argument at
all.
I suppose he thought that having come that far we must be people in
authority. Ever since then I have believed all the stories told me
about spies who walked where they chose unchallenged during wartime;
for we three--a Sikh enlisted man, an Australian disguised as an Arab,
and an American in civilian clothes--entered unannounced and unwatched
the building where every secret of the Near East was pigeonholed.
We walked about the corridors and up and downstairs for ten minutes,
looking in vain for Grim. Here and there a servant snored on a mat in a
corner, and once a big dog came and sniffed at us without making any
further comment. Jeremy kicked one man awake, who, mistaking him for an
Arab, cursed him in three languages, in the name of three separate gods,
and promptly went to sleep again. The sensation was like being turned
loose in the strong-room of a national treasury with nobody watching if
you should choose to help yourself. There are acres of floor in that
building. We walked twice the whole circuit of the upper and lower
corridors, knocking on dozens of doors but getting no answer and finally
brought up in the entrance hall.
Then it occurred to me that Grim might have gone into the building by
some private entrance, perhaps round on the eastern side, so we set out
to look for one.
We had just reached the northwest angle of the building, when Narayan
Singh, who was walking a pace in front, stopped suddenly and held up
both hands for silence. Whoever he could see among the shadows must
have heard us, but it was no rare thing for officers to come roistering
down those front steps and along the drive hours after midnight, and our
sudden silence was more likely to give alarm than the noise had been. I
began talking again in a normal voice, saying anything at all, peering
about into the shadows meanwhile. But it was several seconds before I
made out what the Sikh's keener eyes had detected instantly, and Jeremy
saw it before I did.
There was a magnolia shrub about ten paces away from us, casting a
shadow so deep that the ground it covered looked like a bottomless
abyss. But nevertheless, something bright moved in it--perhaps the
sheen of that lone light in an upper window reflected on a knife-hilt or
a button--something that moved in time to a man's breathing.
If there was a certainty in the world it was that somebody who had no
right to be there was lurking in that shadow, and he was presumably up
to mischief. On the other hand, I had absolutely no right in that place
either. Jeremy and Narayan Singh, being both in the British Army, were
liable to be disciplined, and I might be requested to leave the country,
if we should happen to blunder and tree the wrong 'possum, revenge being
more than usually sweet to the official disturbed in the pursuit of
unauthorized "diplomacy." It might even be some clandestine love
affair.
So I took each of my companions by the arm, gripping Jeremy's
particularly tightly, and started forward, whispering an explanation
after we had turned the corner of the building. "Let one of us go and
warn the guard," I suggested. "If we should draw that cover and start a
shindy, we're more likely to get shot by the guard than thanked."
So Narayan Singh started off for the guard-house, he being the one most
capable of explaining matters to the Sikh officer, and Jeremy and I
crept back through the shadows to within earshot of the dark magnolia
tree, choosing a point from which we could see if anybody bolted.
You know how some uncatalogued sense informs you in the dark of the
movement of the man beside you? I looked suddenly sideways toward
Jeremy, knowing, although I couldn't see him, that his eyes were seeking
mine. It is only the animals who omit in the darkness those instinctive
daylight movements; men don't have sufficient control of themselves.
We had both heard Grim's voice at the same instant, speaking Arabic but
unmistakable.
There were three men there. Grim was talking to the other two.
"Keep your hands on each other's shoulders! Don't move! I'm going to
search all your pockets again. Now, Mr. Charkian. Ah! That feels like
quite a pretty little weapon; mother o' pearl on the butt? Have you a
permit? Never mind; not having the weapon you won't need a permit,
will you? And papers--Mashallah! What a lot of documents; they must
be highly important ones since you hide them under your shirt. I expect
you planned to sell them, eh? Too bad! Too bad!
"You keep your hands on Mr. Charkian's shoulders, Yussuf Dakmar, or I'll
have to use violence! I'm not sure, Mr. Charkian, that it wouldn't be
kinder to society to send you to jail after all; you need a bath so
badly. It seems a pity that a chief clerk to the Administration
shouldn't have a chance to wash himself, doesn't it? Well, I'll have to
read these papers afterward--after we've usurped the prerogative of
Destiny and mapped out a little of the future. Now--are you both
listening? Do you know who I am?"
There was no answer. "You, Mr. Charkian?"
"I think you are Major Grim."
"Ah! You wish to flatter me, don't you? Never mind; let us pretend
I'm Major Grim disguised as an Arab; only, I'm afraid we must continue
the conversation in Arabic; I might disillusion you if I tried to talk
English. We'll say then that I'm Major Grim, disguised. Let's see
now... What would he do in the circumstances? Here's Yussuf Dakmar,
wanted for murder in the city and known to be plotting a massacre, seen
climbing a wall when the sentry's back was turned, and caught in
conference with Mr. Charkian, confidential clerk to the Administration.
I'm sorry I didn't hear all that was said at your conference, for that
might have made it easier to guess what Major Grim would do."
"Don't play with us like a cat playing with a mouse!" snarled somebody.
"Tell us what you want. If you were Major Grim you'd have handed us
over to those officers who passed just now. You're just as much
irregular as we are. Hurry up and make your bargain, or the guard may
come and arrest us all!"
"Yes, hurry up!" complained the other man. "I don't want to be caught
here; and as for those papers you have taken, if we are caught I shall
say you stole them from the office--you and Yussuf Dakmar, and that I
followed you to recover them, and you both attacked me!"
"Very well," said Grim's voice pleasantly. "I'll let you go. I think
you're dangerous. You'd better be quick, because I think I hear the
guard coming!"
"Give me back the papers, then!"
"Aha! Will you wait and discuss them with the guard, or go at once?"
The Armenian clerk didn't answer, but got up and slunk away.
"Why did you let that fool go?" demanded Yussuf Dakmar. "Now he will
awaken some officer and start hue and cry with a story that we robbed
him. Listen! There comes the guard! We had better both run!"
"Not so fast!" Grim answered.
And then he raised his voice perceptibly, as if he wished to be
overheard:
"I think those men who passed just now were not officers at all. Perhaps
they were strangers. It may be that one of them is confused, and is
leading the guard in the wrong direction!"
"Don't make so much noise then!" retorted Yussuf Dakmar. Jeremy, who
thinks habitually about ten times as fast as I do, slipped away at once
into the shadows to find Narayan Singh and decoy the guard elsewhere. I
didn't envy him the job, for Sikhs use cold steel first and argue
afterward when on the qui vive in the dark. However, he accomplished his
purpose. Narayan Singh saved his life, and the guard arrested him on
general principles. You could hear both Jeremy and Narayan Singh using
Grim's name freely. Yussuf Dakmar wasn't deaf. He gave tongue:
"There! Did you hear that? They are speaking of Major Grim. You are a
fool if you wait here any longer. That fellow Grim is a devil, I tell
you. If he finds us we are both lost!"