CHAPTER 11
Bartlett had dually arrived for his visit which was just the one evening in Shushtar. Whilst Bartlett was sympathetic about Edrich’s threatened murder his orders were to go through Bakhtiari territory, not hunt Lurs. Bartlett told Edrich that whilst he had no instructions to visit the main Lur camp, Captain Yardley leading a different patrol had been given other orders. Yardley was ordered not to travel any further south from Dizful than the Lur camp. Yardley was to arrest the three Lur assassins if he found them provided he avoided any risk of a battle between the tribe and the British soldiers. Edrich hoped that the mere fact that Yardley was actively looking for the three men would mean that Bakir Khan might suspend his murder threat.
Bartlett told Edrich that on his way to Shushtar he had met a caravan going to Dizful led by the merchant Abdul Aziz. Aziz told Bartlett that he had passed a small Lur encampment of three or four men about a day's ride out from Shushtar. Bartlett decided to visit the camp site but when he and his patrol arrived where the caravan had seen the men it was empty. Tracks indicated that if it were the three Lurs then they had gone west and not towards the town.
As each day passed Edrich scanned telegrams for his orders to move, none came. Edrich had been in the army long enough to know either that its wheels were grinding extremely slowly or the journey had been cancelled and the army had forgotten to inform him. Whenever he thought about the telegram he had received from Basra asking for a reply immediately he reminded himself of what an army colleague had called this situation namely, ‘The hurry up and wait syndrome”.
Edrich made himself busy each day, as he waited for his orders or news of the Lurs. One thing he instituted were patrols through the town each day either taking the patrol himself or, putting the Havildar in charge. Each patrol went on a different route through the town. If Edrich led the patrol he would stop randomly at an inn leave his troops outside and enter the place on his own. Once within the inn Edrich would keep his back to the wall as he discussed the events of the day, the price of food and animals before he would raise the question of the three Lurs with the innkeeper. The Havildar because of the antipathy between the locals and the Indian troops never entered any of the inns’ rooms merely asked the innkeeper whether the Lurs were either staying there or had been seen – the answer was always no.
Edrich contrary to what might have been expected of him also visited teahouses and many of the merchants in town. He did this to show everyone that he wasn’t afraid - he was but he felt that he couldn’t afford to show it. Edrich also felt that in the narrow streets of the town he would be safe believing rightly or wrongly that if the assassins were to open fire too many bystanders could get injured and if that were to happen then the Lurs would be involved in one or more feuds. Edrich felt as he had told the governor that the Lurs would be unlikely to try knives as he would not give them the chance of getting that close to him. On his travels about the town Edrich discovered that though some of its inhabitants had sympathy for the Lurs for whatever reason the majority of the townsfolk were pro-British or at least they said they were. The reason the local people inevitably gave for supporting the British was that since they had arrived banditry had diminished significantly resulting in better trade for the town and cheaper goods for the townsfolk. The support for Edrich in his search turned out more positively than he imagined.
The arrival of the Lurs in the second week of his search, were reported to him by three different sources. The men had arrived in disguise as part of a caravan run by a Lur, Gholam Rajabzadeh; who when challenged by Edrich confirmed that they had been with him. Gholam also said that the three had not told him why they were coming to town and that if he had known of their intentions he would not allowed them to accompany him. The following day the owner of an inn contacted Edrich saying that the Lurs had stayed the previous night; they had left by the time Edrich had arrived at the inn. When Edrich asked the innkeeper why he had not let him know about the presence of the Lurs sooner the man said.
‘They arrived in the dark, Major Edrich. Only when I saw them in the daylight did I see that they were the men you seek. I am poor and I needed their lodgings money before I could send word to you.’
Edrich had noticed that the inn was particularly run down and that the man probably did need the money so he kept his temper under control and gave the man ten tomans. It was clear that the three Lurs were moving about the town as surreptitiously as possible. From the information received from his sources the three Lurs sought accommodation with fellow tribesmen who had houses in the town. Edrich felt that the best people to search private houses were Ravgani’s men. Ravgani surprised Edrich and probably the whole town by activating the police when he received the news from the British Consul about the men’s presence there.
Edrich was concentrating doing paperwork that afternoon when his office door received such a pounding that he felt it might fall down. Before he could issue a command to enter Roy had leapt in bursting with excitement.
‘I can’t believe it. It’s a miracle. It’s fantastic. The most amazing thing has happened. You won’t believe it.’ Roy slumped in a chair without even being asked. He shook his head, ‘I never thought I would live to see this.’
‘Well that is interesting, perhaps, my dear excitable chief clerk, you will tell me what you’d thought you’d never see,’ Edrich said laughing
‘Ravgani and his police doing something - they have arrested the three Lurs.’ He looked at Edrich, ‘major, it is true. I don’t know how but they are under lock and key - all three. We are invited to go and see for ourselves.’
Edrich who had been just about to total the numbers of caravan animals that had arrived in Shushtar that week put his pen down, put on his cap and was out the door with Roy in less than five minutes. When they reached the police building they found Ravgani, as to be expected, was like a dog with: two tails; a bone; a cowardly cat cornered against a huge wall. Whilst Edrich and Ravgani discussed how efficient the police had been in finding the men Roy went to the cells to confirm that the three Lurs were there. Roy was also to verify that because he knew Issa Bamdad by sight that he was indeed one of the men in custody.
Edrich had decided not to see the men but let local justice take its course. Not seeing the men had its drawbacks because Edrich had to listen as Ravgani sing his own praises. After what he considered a reasonable length of listening time he pleaded pressure of work and set out to return to the British Consulate with Roy.
‘I can’t believe it, major. I just can’t.’
‘What can’t you believe this time, oh unbeliever! That the police actually found and arrested the men?’
Roy laughed. ‘No, I admit that the police have those three men in gaol.’
Edrich stopped in the street and looked at Roy with puzzlement, ‘what do you mean? You said that one man was known to you and he was Issa Bamdad.’ Roy nodded vigorously, ‘and we were told the other two were Habib Kirmani and Riza Ali Dastgirdi. Do you think they are not?’
Roy could not stop laughing, ‘you are missing the point, Major Edrich. Yes it is the three men who were sent to kill you. However,’ he paused.
‘However what, Roy! Come on out with it!’
‘The police never arrested them.’
Edrich looked perplexed, ‘Roy you are not making sense. Ravgani has told me they are under arrest and they are in gaol – where you saw them. If there are no current charges against them some will be found. You think he is a liar?’
‘No. What happened was that the three men actually went to the police station and surrendered. It seems that they had so many people looking for them that they feared they might be killed by people keen to get in the British good books or, for the sheer fun of it.’
Edrich looked at Roy studiously for a moment before laughing ironically. ‘Why do I just know you are telling the truth? Who told you they surrendered?’
‘The policeman who took me to the cells to see them, told me.’
‘I don’t
care. They are under lock and key. Every dog has his day. Let Ravgani have his.’
‘You think Ravgani is a dog?’
‘No,’ replied Edrich who spent much of the rest of the morning trying to explain to Roy exactly what the phrase, “Every dog has his day,” meant but got nowhere because both of them were too light hearted to take anything seriously. After lunch Edrich tried and failed to get back to his statistics; he just couldn’t concentrate so he switched to painting and drawing. Edrich had finished his drawing of Mousafi the week before now he took it out and yet again made changes that he decided would be the last. The problem was he had done at least four final changes already; the paper was beginning to suffer from the alterations. Edrich had just switched to his watercolour of the King based on the photograph that hung in his office when Roy entered the room one afternoon with a telegram. Edrich had a premonition and tore the telegram open like a jackal on a carcass.
To Major Edrich British Consul at Shushtar
First return to India to receive orders stop Then proceed Kashgar Chinese Turkestan on mission stop Do you want to do this stop Reply immediately stop
Colonel Leach Indian Expeditionary Force Basra Stop
Kashgar not the Caucuses! He had not been to Kashgar but he knew where it was and what it was. He pored over a small-scale map of Russia and China. Robbins had been British Consul General there for donkey’s years why on earth would they want him, Edrich, to go there? God it was a remote place and his heart sank at the thought. On the other hand it was a long way from India and he could be as independent as anyone could be; his spirits lifted at that thought. He looked at the painting, grimaced before he picked up his pen paused for a moment and wrote:
To Colonel Leach Indian Expeditionary Force Basra
Am willing to go Kashgar stop Await your orders
Major Edrich Political Officer Shushtar
The telegram ordering him to report to Basra arrived the following day. The speed of communication staggered Edrich he had never known the army move so fast. Edrich’s replacement was to be a Captain Pimms to whom he was to hand over in Basra rather than at Shushtar, which would have been the normal practice. Another surprise was that a motor car was being provided to take him to Basra.
The Cotton Spies Page 12