I ran into the house, opened my safe and got two hundred thousand lira and put it in a big sack and came back.
The taxi driver peeked in. He nodded.
The old chauffeur laughed an evil laugh.
"See you when I blow the horn!" yelled the taxi driver and drove off in his cab.
I could hardly wait.
Eight-thirty came. No signal to come.
I was waiting in the patio, all steamed up to go. I looked at my watch. It was eight thirty-one and ten seconds.
The car had left on time, sliding smoothly out onto the road, running very quietly in the night.
Eight thirty-two. No signal to come.
I began to pace. I was very eager to get going, in no mind whatever to suffer through delay.
Eight thirty-six. No signal to come.
I paced faster.
This was cruel. I was beginning to ache.
Eight forty-six. No signal to come.
What could be keeping them? Had the girl said no? Oh, if she knew what Prahd had given me she would certainly never say no! Maybe I should have given Ahmed a portrait of it.
But never mind. After this once, word would get around!
Eight fifty-one. Still no signal to come!
I was beginning to perspire. My hands were shaking.
Eight fifty-nine. No call as yet!
Nine o'clock.
THE HORN!
It blasted hard as an earthquake!
I went out of there like a racehorse from the starting gate.
Racehorses, however, usually don't run into camel drivers, nor camels, or donkeys, either. I did. For some reason, the farmers along that road must have decided it was a superhighway. Caravan after caravan, lanterns bobbing in the moonlight, was choking the thoroughfare with slow-moving, evil-smelling traffic. Drivers fended me off with sticks and even a camel took a nip at me.
I dived into a ditch to avoid the lashing heels of a donkey and looked wildly about for the Daimler-Benz.
Anxiously, thrusting caravans out of my road with threatening yells, I rushed on.
Just short of the cedar tree, I ran into Ahmed. He stopped me. It was moonlight. The car was very visible from the road. You could even see the eagle on the door. The dome light showed there was somebody inside.
"What was this delay!?" I said, trying to get away from him and to the car.
"She is a new girl. An untried maiden. She was shy. I had to convince her all over again when she got here. It took both old Ters and myself to keep her from bolting. But we convinced her. Let me introduce you."
He took me to the car.
I pushed an inquiring camel out of the way and got the door open.
Reclining on the ledge under her cloak, still veiled, dimly seen by the dome light, a woman lay.
"Blank Hanim," said Ahmed. "This is Sultan Bey." He pointed his finger at her. "Remember what I told you and be good. You please him, you hear me?"
Her eyes were big as saucers above the veil. I heard her swallow convulsively. A good sign.
I started to get in but a camel thought my coattail was edible and pulled me back.
I whirled to free myself. I cocked a fist, but a donkey was standing there. I thought better of it.
"Get in, get in!" said Ahmed. "Don't be shy. She's all yours!"
"Get these beasts out of here!" I yelled at him. "I don't want any (bleepety-bleep) audience! And you get out of here, too! I'm shy!"
"Oh, well, if you say so," Ahmed said. He helped me in and banged the door.
Unfortunately, when he slammed it, the side curtain rolled up. I turned to yell at him to be careful of the car and found I was staring at a camel's face. I tried to get the curtain down: the bottom snap had parted. After two tries, I gave up. To Hells with the camel. I had more interesting things to do!
The woman's great black eyes were pools of passion– or terror. I did not bother to decide which.
With a ripping yank, I got the veil off her face.
"O Allah," she said.
She was beautiful.
I started to get out of my clothes.
"O Allah," she said.
There was a tap at the window. I faced it in a rage. A donkey was standing there, staring.
I rolled down the window.
I still held the veil. I hit him in the face with it.
He deafened me with a bray.
He didn't go away.
To Hells with him.
I grabbed the woman.
"O ALLAH!" she screamed.
The car springs began to rock.
"OOOO ALLLLLLLAAAAAAAH!" screamed the woman.
The moonlit world went into a spin for me.
There was a hissing sound. I listened to it a while.
I looked up.
The donkey and two camels were looking in the window.
I yelled at them.
They raced away.
The hissing sound continued.
I realized a car tire was going flat.
To Hells with it.
Once more the car springs began to rock.
The sound of the woman's voice racketed clear to the road. "I'm drowning! I'm drowning!" The caravans dodged.
A camel driver came up to the car. He saw the springs rocking.
He stuck his head in the window.
"O Allah!" he said.
I was able to set up again. I saw what the trouble was. The dome light was still on. I reached over and hit it savagely. It went off.
The camel driver raised his lantern up, flooding the interior again with light.
I grabbed the woman's cloak and threw it in his face.
I got busy again.
Above the squeak of car springs, I could hear him outside talking.
To Hells with them.
"O ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" screamed the woman.
It was dark and it was quiet.
There seemed to be a chinking sound.
I looked out of the window.
A donkey and three camels were standing there. The chinking was from their bridles as they chewed the woman's cloak. An entirely different camel driver was trying to get it away from them. He succeeded, put it under his arm and walked off.
The donkey and three camels all tried to get their noses through the window.
I was too tired to argue with them. I climbed over the front seat back and got out of the other side of the car. I hadn't fastened my belt buckle and I tripped.
I stumbled around the car and tried to shoo the onlookers away. They ignored me. Then I shrugged. Let the animals gratify their voyeur tendencies: it had been great.
Ters appeared from somewhere and gave vent to his evil laugh.
Not even that fazed me.
Ters saw that a tire was flat, got out a pressure can with goo and inflated it.
He got in the car, gave another evil laugh and drove off.
In the back window, lit by moonlight, I could see the woman staring back at me. She had a very beseeching look.
Ah, I thought triumphantly, there goes a VERY satisfied female!
Despite all the disturbance, it had been quite a night!
The very next night was quite similar to the first. The half-hour delay was the same. This girl looked a little plumper and a little older. She seemed, however, strangely tired and wan when I arrived.
The caravan traffic was even more intense and its interest in the car was just as great, but I did not let little things bother me. I am the sort of man who stays right on course, regardless of minor disturbances, and gets the job done.
The only major difference between the first and second nights was that a donkey, since the window had stuck open, reached right in and nipped me. I got rid of him with a punch in the nose.
But Ters had at last driven the second woman away with her staring out the rear window, her eyes and gestures pleading. I felt I was really making a hit!
The third night had some variation. Some camel drivers had built a campfire near the car and were sitting around it. The red eagles and the gold letters of my name were really prominent in the leaping firelight.
Ahmed came to me where I eagerly waited, just outside the gate before he blew his horn.
"I've got to get rid of them first," he told me. "Give me a few lira and go back inside the villa compound: these rendezvous of yours are secret and mustn't be seen.