‘Strangely enough,’ rejoined Watson, ‘it was my part in that case — passive as it was really — that brought about my adventures in Palestine . . .’
‘Palestine?’ I gasped in wonder.
‘Why yes. Surely you had deduced that already? Still, as I was saying, even the War Cabinet conceded that I could be trusted to carry out the mission after my role in that convoluted affair was revealed to them. Particularly as two of them were related to the politician in question. The way they behaved I wondered if they were related to the cormorant. However, as I was to discover it proved to be a back-handed compliment.’
‘But Palestine, at your age?’
‘At my age.’
‘How?’
‘Mycroft.’
‘Then why not Holmes himself ?’
‘He could not be spared.’
‘So he has not been simply observing bees these last four years?’
‘Presumably not.’
‘But why not anybody else?’
‘I was the only one who was trusted by all.’
‘All?’
‘Indeed. But before I continue I must warn you that I swore never to reveal my role in the Middle East. No general’s memoirs or historian’s account of the war in the desert will ever mention Dr John H. Watson and nor must you until the War Office releases its own papers. Is that understood?’
‘Perhaps you would prefer not to say anything?’
Watson pondered again for a moment as he had done earlier but he soon looked up and said, ‘No, I made my mind up earlier, yesterday in fact. I must tell my side. It is only fair.’
‘Why not write it down and leave it in your despatch box?’
‘No time for that I’m afraid, but let’s get on, the street lamps are already long lit and this historic day will soon be no more if we delay.’
Watson refilled his pipe and coughed throatily.
‘You must know if you have followed my accounts of the cases of Mr Sherlock Holmes that in recent years I have taken a great interest in motor cars and have owned several in the past ten years or so. My favourite has always been the cars manufactured by the Rolls-Royce Company. I have owned several and have been considered quite an enthusiast in my own way. When the war broke out I tried to enlist in the Medical Corps but I was rejected on the grounds of my age; nevertheless a friend of mine got in touch with me and thought of a way around it. I say a friend, he was more an acquaintance whom I had met at several functions. He had got together a group of fellow Rolls-Royce enthusiasts and they were going out to the front in Flanders in their cars. As fate would have it I could not join them then because I was involved in a very important medical case which involved the royal families of two of the most powerful countries in the world. The case was long and involved calling for a great deal of discretion. My time was fully occupied until the very end of 1917.
‘Eventually I returned to London, my work complete although I feared even more for my patient’s life, but it was out of my hands by then. My name was on the reserve list for the Medical Corps in France and I expected to be on my way to Flanders by spring 1918 at the latest. However, events had overtaken me and I received a note to call upon Mycroft Holmes at the Diogenes Club. We met in the committee room as we knew we would not be disturbed there — those unclubbable fellows never held a committee meeting to my knowledge.
‘There he outlined my duties to me. It was a call to my patriotism and I could not disobey. It is from that meeting that I date my loss of innocence in this world of ours.’
Watson paused, gripped by some great emotion.
Suddenly he grasped his shoulder again and coughed a terrible cough that seemed to shake his entire being. I rushed to him but he signalled me back to my chair. He took a deep swallow of his drink and asked me for a refill.
‘Excuse me, Stamford, but these fits have come and gone recently. Let us hope that that is the end of them for today.’ He composed himself and continued.
‘You know Mycroft of course. When we met he was grosser than ever and the years were crowding in on him. His voice revealed a bronchial disorder but his eyes still retained that far away, introspective look that I had first noticed in the case of the “Greek Interpreter” when we had originally met.
‘He soon came to the point. “What do you know of near Eastern politics and the Ottoman Empire?”
‘Apart from Metternich’s phrase beaten into me at school about Turkey being the “sick man of Europe”[1] I had to confess, very little.
‘ “Well, perhaps that is as well,” replied my host.
‘ “All you need to know is that Turkey must fall now that she has thrown in her lot with our German cousins. We have another front in the Holy Land that needs very careful handling. The entry into Jerusalem was a major morale-booster for our troops on the Western Front and Allenby has shown himself to be a great talent after all. He has been able to orchestrate his forces as diverse as regular army, navy, merchant ships, aeroplanes, Indians, Australians and Arab irregulars as though he understands why a field marshal has a baton as his symbol. Do you know him? No? It is of little moment.
‘ “Not only have you heard of the fall of Jerusalem to our latter day Lionheart but you may also have heard of the fall of Akaba despite your recent state of incommunicado. It was taken from the Turkish regular army by a group of Arab irregulars. The British Royal Navy was not ten miles away when this group of thirty-five skirt-wearing desert dwellers against all orders of their British superiors broke camp and went on a forced camel ride of some two hundred miles through uncharted wasteland in order to take the Turks by surprise from behind. As it turns out they were right to do so. All the Turks’ weapons were trained on the sea so that they were completely exposed on the land flank. The Turks surrendered without a struggle, and the Arabs only lost two men in an earlier skirmish. The leader of these Arabs was a former archaeologist from Oxford whom they call ‘Aurens’ but is better known as Colonel T.E. Lawrence. It is with him that your assignment begins.”
‘ “With him? The man seems more than capable to me.” ’
‘ “Indeed he is very capable. Almost too capable. He is going to be a hero and heroes can be very dangerous. After the fall of Akaba he went back to GHQ in his Arab garment — barefoot, too — and on the way refused to salute any officers. When asked by the military police to explain who he was he said that he was in the Meccan army. When they said it did not exist and certainly did not know the uniform he asked them if they would recognize a Montenegrin dragoon if they saw one.
‘ “You might think it humorous, Dr Watson, but the Eastern Question has been the ruin of many a diplomat by its sheer complexity. We cannot allow any young Alexander to go cutting Gordian knots without regard for the consequences. He must be watched and influenced to keep to the government’s line to keep his Arabs in order and subject to Allenby.
‘ “You have been chosen, Dr Watson, because you are one of the most reliable men in the Empire as you have recently proved on your last case. Not only that, you have experience of hot climates, you are well up on nervous disorders and this new psychology — skills which you may well need in dealing with this man if reports of his behaviour are to be believed. You were my brother’s companion for twenty-three years so you should be used to dealing with eccentrics. In conclusion I would point out that I think that he would listen to you above all others, apart possibly from Sherlock but he is too busy to be spared at the moment.”
‘ “But why do you think that I could influence him?” ’
‘ “Because among his baggage he has various books, the most thumbed being the Morte d’Arthur and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.”
‘ “I will do it, of course.” ’
‘ “Good, good. I knew I could rely on you, doctor. The other thing that strongly recommends you is that you have a Rolls-Royce.”
‘ “How does that recommend me?” ’
‘ “Don’t think that I don’t know about your desire to join up w
ith a certain duke’s private detachment of armoured Rolls-Royces. After Flanders they were posted to Cairo where they have distinguished themselves against the Senussi. Colonel Lawrence was very impressed by them and has been able to take over the duke’s Rolls-Royces. I am sure that he could do with another, if you get my meaning, Dr Watson. Thus you will be able to join up with Colonel Lawrence and exert a calming influence on him before he goes too far. Your papers will arrive tomorrow and you will be aboard your ship the day after. Good luck.”
‘I left the Diogenes full of elation. Action at last. Useful at last. But when I got back here the more I thought about it the more I found it somehow distasteful. Really I was nothing more than a spy on a fellow British soldier. This was not my idea of fighting. However, when I thought along those lines I kept reminding myself of Mycroft’s final words to me as I left the club that my mission was vital to the safety and morale of the entire British Empire. If Allenby could succeed where the Crusaders of Richard the Lionheart had failed by conquering the Holy Land and turning it into a British sphere of influence with all that entailed — peace and progress — then not only Britain but Mankind would be the winner. With that logic I could not argue. It became my duty to carry out this mission successfully. It was also to be my very secret duty and I was to go under an alias for the others only revealing my identity to Lawrence. It appeared that my recent medical case might have made me enemies and my whereabouts would be under surveillance from foreign unfriendly agents.
‘In two days I was on my way to Egypt with my Rolls safely stowed below deck with a new brass name plate on the driver’s door — “Bull Pup”.
‘Why “Bull Pup”, Stamford? Two reasons. Apparently the duke had given his cars names and they all began with “B” such as “Bloodhound” and “Blast”. My name was in memory of the bull pup I had kept when I was in the hotel after returning from Afghanistan. When I moved in with Holmes to 221B I brought the little chap with me but the poor creature must have got confused about where he was. One day he got out and tried to find his way back to the hotel. Need I spell out what happened to him in London’s traffic congestion in his confusion? Poor little fellow. I never had a dog again — just couldn’t face it after what had happened to him.
‘Now where was I? Oh yes, Egypt. What a magnificent civilization that must have been. Their buildings dwarf modern man. We British still have a lot to learn about Empires if we take the Pharaohs as our spirit guides. However, there was no time for sightseeing, Lawrence was far away near the Jordan and I had to catch up with him.
‘I first got to Beersheba to present my compliments to General Allenby. What a fine figure of a man he was. Tall and powerful, healthy and impeccably turned out despite the heat, sand and dust. We discussed my mission and he confessed that he understood London’s concern all those miles away but Colonel Lawrence had been through a lot and he had never let the side down yet. So Allenby obviously felt that Lawrence could be relied upon to do his duty.
‘Next I spoke to B-----. He was a keen young man helping to set up the Rolls-Royce cars. He spoke in awe of both the cars and Colonel Lawrence. First he told me about the duke’s Royal Automobile Volunteers and their tangles with the Senussi. Apparently their Sheikh had taken some shipwrecked sailors prisoner and was holding them in what he thought was an inaccessible part of the desert. The duke and his cohorts thought differently and went over two hundred miles across the desert where they liberated the sailors. They then pursued the Senussi to their even more isolated stronghold and after a long gun battle they completely routed them. Not one man or car was lost. This was more like it, I thought.
‘He then told me about Colonel Lawrence. How highly strung he seemed these days. They had first met when B----- was on sentry duty. Colonel Lawrence had just materialized out of the night with his thirty bodyguards. “Don’t wake the boys,” he had said. “It’s quite all right. I’m Lawrence.” He then had a talk with the officer commanding but as he left he did not forget to ask the sentry’s name and wish him well. B----- said that he had felt inspired by him. A sort of Nelson touch from the poop deck of a ship of the desert, I suppose you could say.
‘But on the other hand, when they had blown up a bridge a huge piece of masonry and metal missed Lawrence by inches but instead of being shocked or whatever, he simply giggled like a girl. He seemed to be getting reckless somehow. Putting himself in danger for some reason. Forcing himself to the limits of his endurance. Everyone admired him but many were afraid for him.
‘Next I spoke to H-----. He was very understanding about Colonel Lawrence and spoke of him like a brother and not in the awed, reverential tones of B-----. He told me of the occasion when Lawrence had come to see him to complain bitterly about his position. He had spoken out against what he saw as simply playing a role, acting as the leader of someone else’s rebellion which involved daily deception, posturing and preaching in alien speech, while behind it all was fraud and dishonour. Would the Arabs be really free and self-governing when the war was over as the Allies had promised them? As he himself had promised them? Lawrence had said that he felt his will leaving him, he had been under strain too long and now with a price on his head of £20,000 he found himself tempted to take on more danger in order to prove himself. He had even confessed to a fear of being on his own in case he was finally blown away and his empty soul dispersed like so much sand. H----- agreed that Lawrence needed my help very soon.
‘Next I went to see the Intelligence staff. D----- curtly asked me if I read the newspapers. Needless to say I found his manner impudent and answered that since arriving back in London at the end of 1917 I had not had time to read an up-to-date edition so I was a little out of touch with the latest court circulars. With that he tossed a bundle of cuttings onto the table between us. All were full of reports concerning the new revolutionary government of Russia which had been publishing the diplomatic papers of the ousted tsar’s foreign office. The reports were full of secret negotiations which “betrayed the people” or “exposed the proletariat (whatever that was) to the machinations of imperialist aggression and subversion.”
‘D----- impatiently directed my attention to certain paragraphs that he had underlined in blue pencil. When I read them I could see clearly why that symbol of the censor had come so readily to D-----’s hand. There was a long exposition of a certain Sykes-Picot Plan that had been drawn up in 1916 by His Majesty’s Government and the French by which France would take over Syria and the Lebanon at the fall of the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain would take over Iraq, Transjordan and most of Palestine.
‘Now I understood Colonel Lawrence’s words in his conversation with H-----, and why he had felt so dishonoured. I then realized how I too was equally dishonoured. So this was the government’s line that Mycroft had spoken of. Promise one thing to these wretched Bedouins while all the time preparing to carve up the Ottoman Empire with France. I was numb with shock at this duplicity which was on a personal and national level all in one.
‘ “Where does that leave Colonel Lawrence?” I asked.’
‘ “Where indeed?” D----- replied. “It has certainly made his task with the Bedouin far more difficult. I am sure that he can handle the Sherif of Mecca, exalted, cantankerous, old man that he is, but what of Feisel, Tallal of Tafas, Auda abu Tayi and all the other leaders? They are not to be trifled with. Yet Lawrence must keep them sweet or we will be fighting Arabs as well as Turks and only the Kremlin will win.”
‘ “I thought that Russia was our ally.”
‘ “So Russia was, but who is in charge now? Presumably this new Bolshy lot or whatever they call themselves.”
‘ “If it is the Bolsheviki,” I replied, “then they have no allies.”
‘ “Indeed so. When they took over in the Winter Palace last November they spouted all manner of things about the French Revolution, workers of the world uniting, and even offering to help other revolutions if the workers rose up against their rulers.”
‘ “Sounds
a bit extreme to me.”
‘ “A bit extreme? Good heavens, man, it could destroy the world as we know it if it happens. It has been no secret that ally or not Russia has wanted control of the Dardanelles for years so that she has access to the Mediterranean. We can’t have that. They’ll be using the Canal next, then where would we be?”
‘ “Hold on a moment, D-----,” I cut in, “these Bolsheviki fellows only took over a few months ago and this Sykes-Picot Plan was drawn up in 1916 according to this report. In other words when Tsar Nicholas was still on the throne. Does that mean that two allies of the triple Entente did not trust the third all along?”
‘ “A good general guards his back as well as his front, doctor. A lesson Colonel Lawrence taught the Turks at Akaba.”
‘ “This sounds like a whole web of deception to me — with the British Government as culpable as the others. In fact more so considering our reputation for fair play.”
‘ “Fair play? The French have envied us for years, these Bolsheviks don’t even know the rules so they can’t begin to play fair, and we’re at war with our own relatives. How can there be fair play?”
Watson's Last Case Page 2