Complete Works of Talbot Mundy

by Talbot Mundy

  “I don’t pretend to know what’s going on in your mind,” Grim continued. “But supposing I were you, and you were I, it may be I might feel revengeful. I might think in that case outside interference of any sort was impertinence to be punished without gloves. But, you see, you’re a foreigner, too, Jael; you’re from the Balkans, with a New York education; and Ali Higg’s from the South of Arabia, which is a mighty long way off, so he’s as good as a foreigner, in the bargain. So I guess, as far as impertinence goes, the lot of us are in one boat. Let’s call that account balanced, and draw a line under it.

  “Then there’s the personal side of it, and that’s not so easy to argue about. I never met anyone of spirit who enjoyed to take a defeat sitting. You’ve got spirit, and so has that husband of yours, and I can figure how you both feel. I’m sure sorry to hurt anybody’s feelings. I know, when any of these brass hats in Jerusalem puts one over on me, I feel mad all through. There’ve been occasions when I’ve watched my chance and got even, with a shade the advantage by way of compound interest. That’s human. And I’m pretty sure you’d like to knock the props from under me. Well, you’re going to get the chance tomorrow morning.”

  Her thin lips quivered into a smile. It was frank, too; there was nothing furtive about it. You couldn’t rightly call her treacherous, because she didn’t pretend to be other than an enemy, seeking her own advantage in every circumstance. But she was longer-sighted than the Lion of Petra and, having lived in America, understood something of the theory, at any rate, of giving the under-dog a chance. She knew enough to know Grim wasn’t setting traps for her.

  “D’you mean to expect me to kiss and be friends?” she answered. “Bah! I gave you that chance once. I offered to put you into Ali Higg’s shoes, and you refused it. Now you think my position is beginning to be stronger than it was, with a hundred and forty men almost within reach, and you plan to make terms. Thanks! I think I realize the strength of my position, too.”

  “I guess I’ll have to disillusion you,” said Grim. “You think your men will have captured Yussuf and that the order on the bank for fifty thousand pounds will be safely torn up or burned tomorrow morning. You’ll have to guess again. I don’t care how much money you gave my man Ali Baba; it wasn’t enough. He had orders from me to accept any bribe you might give him, and to destroy in the desert whatever secret message you might send to Ibrahim ben Ah. So, you see, the men in the oasis weren’t on the lookout for Yussuf after all, and it’s a safe bet that he got through. So we’re just where we left off, aren’t we? If you should turn on me — as you might, and scupper my outfit — as is just possible, you’d lose that fifty thousand, Jael, to say nothing of being bombed out of Petra by aeroplanes. Now — are we quite clear on that point?”

  “Well? What then?” she answered in a dry voice. Grim had played the hand well. He had finessed the trick. She hadn’t a trump left; or so she seemed to admit.

  “Why — hadn’t you better sit into the game and help me euchre this Avenger person, than spoil the game for everyone, yourself included? I’m going to put you in charge of the hundred and forty men tomorrow morning!”

  “Whether I promise or not?”

  “Sure. What is your bare promise worth to me? You’re a woman of the world enough to know I’m playing square; and you’ve got too much sense to suppose I’d trust you without some sort of guarantee. I’ve kind o’ proved that, haven’t I, by making you give that order on the bank.”

  “Well, what more guarantee d’you want?” she demanded tartly.

  “None, except — you keep on saying I don’t know on which side my bread’s buttered — I’ll feel safer when I’m sure you know where the grease collides with your piece. Once you understand thoroughly that I’m out to see you score off the Avenger person, and that if you put a stick in my wheel you’ll be stalling your own wagon, you and I are going to pull together right well.”

  At that Narayan Singh saw fit to lend his counsel. “All well and good, Jimgrim sahib; but let me go with her. She knows you for a man of peace, who hates to inconvenience a woman; but me she knows for a Pathan, to whom it would be small inconvenience, and in certain circumstances quite amusing, to rid the earth of any enemy of yours. Send me with her, sahib! I will be the guarantee! Then if she plays you a trick there will be one more head in the world without a pair of shoulders under it!”

  Jael Higg laughed outright at that, and I think she was really amused at the notion of anybody acting as a check on her if Grim should let her go.

  “Did you ever see a lamb act gaoler to a she-wolf ?” she asked; and at that it was the Sikh’s turn to roar with laughter.

  “Man, woman, or child, you are the first who called me a lamb!” he answered. “Blood of Allah, but that is a good one!”

  Like most Sikhs, he thoroughly despises the Moslem creed, and made up for having to pretend to be a follower of the Prophet by using the most atrocious oaths. They even set Jael Higg’s teeth on edge, and she was no mealy-mouthed Puritan.

  “I’ll set no watch on you, Jael,” Grim went on. “It’s up to you whether you ride straight or not. My game must be pretty obvious. I’m going to pretend I’m Ali Higg. Ibrahim ben Ah, or any of those hundred and forty, would detect me in a second if they saw me by daylight, or even at close quarters in the dark. So what I want you to do is to maneuver them according to orders that I’ll send you by messenger from time to time. They’re plenty used to obeying you, and there’ll be no trouble if you’re so minded. You’ll bear me out that first and last I’ve done nothing to discredit you with Ali Higg, or your men either. Now which is it to be?”

  “What’s your plan?” she asked. And I took that for a good sign. If she had intended treachery, she would almost certainly have agreed first and asked for particulars afterwards.

  “We’ve got to make the Avenger person believe we’re stronger than we are, and force a guarantee from him, too. I guess you’ve never studied the Duke of Wellington? You’d better do it, Jael, if you hope to succeed at your business. He claimed that he beat Napoleon by not having cast-iron plans. He said, if I recall it right, that the plans of either side were like their mule harness. Napoleon’s mules were all turned out perfectly with fine, strong leather harness; but when the leather busted they couldn’t fix it; and so with their plan of campaign. But the Iron Duke’s mule-harness was all ropes and string; when any part gave out they tied a knot in it and went on. Same with his plan of campaign. Same with mine. I’ve got a good general idea of what to do, but it’s no part of my method to spoil prospects by being too darned definite in advance. You see, if you’ve a tight-drawn plan the enemy can find it out and run a spike into it. I’ve got all this Abu Lissan country in my head, because one of my jobs during the War was to make a map of it. I’ll pass you the word from time to time where to go, where to hide, where to show yourselves, and what to do next; and if you keep your men in hand I think I can guarantee there won’t be one casualty.”

  “And you’ll leave me free to return to Petra afterwards?” asked Jael.

  “Why not?”

  “With all my men?”

  “Sure, if they care to follow you.”

  “Very well,” she answered. “You’re a fool, James Grim, but I think you’re honest. There’s no such fool as an honest one! I’ll play your game this once. But I give you warning: if you lose it, I’ll leave you in the lurch; and if you win, that’s the end of it and we cry quits. Thereafter, if I ever get you in my power don’t count on my forgiveness! You had your last chance of making a friend of me when you turned down my offer.”

  “Sure,” he answered, “I can sympathize with your personal feelings.”

  “A cent for your sympathy!” she snapped, and I think she was on the verge of tears, although she was too proud, and too much a termagant to let them fall.

  “Suppose you go and sleep, Jael,” he suggested. “We’ll all need our wits tomorrow morning.”

  She rose without answering, started for the stepping-
stones that led down into the bed of the fiumara, and turned again suddenly.

  “What about the woman Ayisha?” she demanded. “Am I to be saddled afterwards with her? I warn you —

  Grim laughed and shook his head.

  “I allow she’d be more nervous about that than you,” he answered. “No. I won’t saddle you with her. Good night, Jael.”

  She didn’t answer, but dropped down into the darkness, finding her footing with the nimbleness and lack of hesitation that typified her mental qualities by which she had established a position in the desert.

  As soon as she had gone Grim turned to Narayan Singh and me.

  “It hardly seems fair, you fellows,” he said, smiling. “You’re sleepy and tired as I am. But tomorrow I’ve got to have my brains awake or we’ll all go fluey. You’ve got to stand watch tonight between you, and no argument. Better stay up here, where you can get a good view all around. My tent is that one beside the big boulder in the fiumara bed; if anything happens, don’t yell, but throw rocks until I wake and come and join you. You’ll be so ‘all in’ by tomorrow that you’ll be able to sleep on camel-back. Good night, I’m off!”

  “Nevertheless, our Jimgrim has a plan all cut and dried,” said Narayan Singh, as soon as Grim was out of earshot. “Only he knows that that she-wolf is the enemy, and will not risk telling her. Moreover, he said stand watch between us. There was nothing about being both awake at once. Have you a coin, sahib? I have only nine piastres and the Prophet of these people couldn’t tell the head from the tail of any one of them. Let us take four-hour watches, turn and turn, and toss to see who sleeps first.”

  “I’ll toss you,” said I, “but let’s take half-hour turns. It’s easier to keep awake for thirty minutes than four hours.”

  He agreed to that, so I spun a coin, and won the first spell of sleep. Maybe I’m an expert. At the end of six or seven seconds he awoke me, and swore he had allowed me several minutes more than half an hour. Then he took a turn, and when I shook him awake he vowed I wasn’t playing fair.

  “Sleeping or waking, I know the length of a second and a half!” he grumbled. But I showed him the watch. When he accused me of having moved the hands I showed him how the shadow of the moon had traveled, and demanded time out, in the bargain, to compensate for the minute we had wasted arguing. It was like a game of cat-naps.

  All the same, however short the snatches of sleep seemed, I’m convinced that in circumstances like that short turns are always best. Anything may happen in the night, and it’s better then that each should have slept a little than that one should have had four hours, say, and the other none. Events proved that I was right in that instance, anyhow.

  CHAPTER V. “May you deal with your enemies like iron, even as you deal with me.”

  We took turns until midnight, when the moon, a day or two past full, was almost overhead, bathing the desert with honey-colored light in every direction. The desert is more full of night sounds than a forest, if you listen intently enough, for the sand creeps musically and there is no rustling of trees to cover up the infinitely tiny noises of the lesser prowlers. After ten minutes or so of sitting motionless a hyena becomes a lumbering rowdy, a jackal a clumsy clod-whalloper, and a mouse seems to make as much noise as a man. But when a man moves, all is instant silence by comparison.

  I was making the most of one of my short turns of sleep when Narayan Singh awoke me by the practical expedient of laying his right hand across my mouth. I deduced that he did not want me to swear out loud; so I bit his finger pretty sharply to prove I was awake, and lay and listened.

  There was something moving sure enough, and it wasn’t an animal. The sound was too irregular and stealthy for that of any creature with a right to be at large. It was a human, trying not to attract attention — than which there is nothing more compelling of attention in the whole wide world, unless you are one of those folk who live forever in the cities with their ears and eyes shut.

  As I lay I could see Narayan Singh sitting absolutely motionless, shrouded so as to look shapeless in his Bedouin cloak. I imagine he and I together might have been mistaken for a lump of rock unless either of us moved. And there are two tricks of moving that hunting teaches you: one is to do it suddenly and then be absolutely still again; the other is to change position so slowly that no eye not deliberately measuring your outline against a fixed mark can detect the motion. If you know you are being watched, the first is usually best, because if you are absolutely still again the moment afterwards the watcher will doubt the evidence of his own eyes. But it needs practice. The one thing not to do is to change position in jerks, or moderately slowly.

  You can’t judge much from a superficial glance at such a veteran scout as Narayan Singh. He was facing pretty nearly due east; but that didn’t mean he was looking in that direction. Almost the surest means of allaying the suspicion of man or animal is to seem to look another way. Most Sikhs are past-master experts at that. I lay and studied Narayan Singh for about two minutes before I was sure he was watching something over to his left. And it was another two minutes before I made out the head of a kneeling camel protruding from behind a rock at about the farthest range of vision in that peculiar light. It might have been half a mile away, or less.

  The rock was big enough to hide a dozen camels; so it seemed likely there was more behind it, because a man with only one camel, who wanted to conceal the beast, would have done the job thoroughly; whereas, if there were more than one there, the end one might have been crowded into view.

  Almost all the way along, between the camel’s head and the edge of the fiumara, there was a series of shadows cast by boulders and sand-heaps. They were short, because of the position of the moon, and considerably broken up; but they formed the only line along which animal or man might hope to approach us from the direction of that camel unobserved. There were occasional gaps in the shadow of as much as twenty feet of glistening sand. It wasn’t long before I made out a man’s shape moving swiftly from one spot of shadow to the next. He took his time in the shadows, kneeling down to crawl and becoming very difficult to see, but hurrying across the light after watching to make sure he was unobserved. The light was tricky, but I don’t doubt I could have put a bullet through him by the time he came within a hundred yards or so. However, there was no need. An occasional glance in the direction of that camel’s head was sufficient to make sure that none of his friends was prowling our way too; and it seemed wiser to discover what he was up to, than to stop him.

  But it wouldn’t have done to try and arouse Grim. If one of us had moved to throw a rock at Grim’s tent the man would certainly have seen us; and if we had called out loud enough to waken Grim the man would almost certainly have heard. We kept quite still, and let him come within twenty yards of the edge of the fiumara.

  Then he lay prone on his belly, watched like a leopard for at least five minutes, examining every detail of the ground in front of him, and began to crawl closer, advancing a yard at a time and pausing to rescrutinize each shadow. He did a pretty good job on the whole. If Narayan Singh were not a trained scout and I a hunter, he might very likely have reached our camp unseen.

  At last he reached the sharp brim of the fiumara, thrust his head and shoulders over it, and peered down; and then it became a problem what to do with him. If we once let him get down into the black shadow below the advantage would be all on his side. I could see the moonlight sheening on his long knife-blade. He might be an assassin sent by Ali Higg to murder Grim; but that was doubtful, because he dragged along a rifle with him as well, and the midnight murderers of that land don’t encumber themselves with long-range artillery that might get in their way in a scuffle and prevent escape. I judged he didn’t mean to take chances down in the dark, and it turned out I was right.

  He would have had two bullets in him the same instant if he had started down toward the tents, for Narayan Singh said afterwards that he had formed the same judgement and decision that I did.

  However,
he lay there and barked like a jackal instead. It was very well done. The pests had been snarling and yapping all around us on and off ever since the moon rose, and unless someone had been listening for a signal, or actually watching him as we were, that bark would have got by as a normal night noise. It only differed from a genuine jackal’s bark in its regularity; he made exactly the same succession of sounds four times at equal intervals — a thing a jackal never does.

  And somebody was listening below for just that signal. There was no answer, but he evidently saw somebody move down there in the darkness, for he was satisfied and drew back his head and shoulders. Because of our position in the middle of the island we couldn’t see down into the fiumara, but we heard footsteps; and presently the man spoke and was answered. We could hear both voices, but both failed to catch the words, or to distinguish whether the voice below was man’s or woman’s.

  However, we weren’t long in doubt. A head that was unmistakably Ayisha’s emerged above the edge of the bank, coming up the track our camels had used. The man spoke to her again, and crawled away toward a good-sized boulder to his left-hand and our right, fifty yards off along the bank. She followed him, bolt-upright, walking like a ghost. (It takes a woman to ignore possibilities that scare a man into all manner of precautions.)

  They both disappeared behind the boulder. The single camel’s head was still visible sticking out like a big snake’s from behind the rock in the near distance, and there was no other sign of activity; so Narayan Singh and I dared to breathe normally at last, and speak in low tones.

  “One of us should go close and listen to their talk, sahib,”said the Sikh. “Which of us shall it be?”

  “Both of us,” I answered. “You go ahead. I’ll wake Jimgrim and follow.”