I did as he told me. An awful lot of time passed: another half hour. Eventually the horn was sounded. I rushed out again.
The fire that had been flaming there was almost out: just a few sparks remained.
"What was the delay?" I demanded. "Those camel drivers are long gone!"
"It's the woman," Ahmed said. "She's a very virtuous girl, this one. Terrified of her reputation. When we arrived and she spotted the camel drivers and fire, she fainted. It took us until just now to bring her to!"
I was eager to get down to business and leaped into the car. But they hadn't done a very good job in bringing her around. She still seemed to be unconscious.
I yanked the veil off her face. This third one had a tawny complexion. She seemed to be quite young. Then I saw that tears were running out of her eyes.
I understood at once. She had just worn herself out in the eagerness of waiting.
Well, here was one that wasn't waiting!
The car springs began to rock.
"O Allah!" sobbed the girl.
After a while, I heard an evil laugh. I saw that Ters was standing, leaning against the tree, watching the road.
A passing caravan suddenly veered when the girl screamed "O ALLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAH!"
A little later, I looked up and Ters was actually herding some camels and donkeys closer to the car!
"Get them away from here!" I screamed at him. "How can I concentrate!"
"The animals hide the car!" said Ters. "Ahmed said it must be secret." He gave his evil laugh.
But even so, despite the camels, the evening came off all right.
And once more Ters drove away with the girl looking out the back window, the moonlight plainly lighting the pleading look she was giving me.
Contented, I knew I was really a hit amongst hits! Every night, that same beseeching look. These women must be going absolutely insane over me!
What a beautiful idea, the car and the women!
All the third morning, I slept a dreamless sleep. I awoke and had a bounteous breakfast served by a cringing staff. Totally enjoyable.
Torgut, who was standing there with a club in his hand in case the waiter tried to get off his knees, asked, however, an unfortunate question. "Will it be the same schedule tonight, O Master?" he said.
I was about to say yes when a thought suddenly struck me. I must be almost out of money!
I rushed to my safe.
Fatality! I didn't have two hundred thousand lira left!
However, that was soon handled. I was a very rich
Gris and had not drawn my million-lira allowance for the week.
I dressed in a purple silk shirt and a charcoal suit with purple pinstripes. I put on my bearskin coat and my karakul hat. Because I would be carrying money, I picked the FIE shotgun out of the case and checked its load.
Word had been taken to Ters. The Daimler-Benz was already warming up.
The back seat was all cleaned up. I got in. He closed the door. He got under the wheel. He gave his evil laugh. I shuddered at it a little bit but away we went.
We tore along the road remarkably fast. We spilled a camel load of opium and it cheered me greatly when the donkey who had been leading the camel bucked and brayed. It was a beautiful if bitterly cold day. And that little drama made it perfect. Nobody was going to argue with this huge, bulletproof limousine and its red eagles!
We blocked the traffic before the Piastre Branch Bank in Afyon and I went in.
The teller recognized me on sight. He called the manager. The manager beckoned me into his office and set a chair for me.
"Mudur Zengin in Istanbul asked for you to call when you came in," he said. "If you..."
"I don't want to talk to Zengin," I said. "I just want my million-lira allowance for the week. I can't send a messenger, you know. Only I can pick it up."
"Please," he said.
He got Mudur Zengin on the phone quite quickly for Turkey. I put the shotgun down on a chair and took the proffered instrument.
"Hello, Zengin," I said. "I trust there's no hanky-panky about my weekly allowance."
"No," said Mudur Zengin. "That is, not at the moment. I wanted to tell you personally and in confidence that your concubine is not following your orders completely. While all purchases have stopped elsewhere, they are still coming in from the Bonbucks Teller Central Purchasing agent on the Squeeza credit card. We've just gotten one here for nearly a hundred and eighty thousand dollars."
"Look at the date," I said. "I think you will find it predates my orders to her. They simply sent it in late." (Bleep) that Krak!
"Do you mind if I call Squeeza on the other phone? They did not give me the exact date of invoice at the store."
Go ahead, I thought. That's pretty ancient history.
He came back on. "You were right about the date of that one. But what they told me was correct. They have quite a few coming in since. They are small. But they exist. Your concubine has not obeyed your orders and is still purchasing, evidently by phone to New York." (Bleep), (bleep), (bleep) that Krak!
"I wanted to be sure you knew," said Zengin. "You see, this pulls down the amount of money I can invest from the sums you left me and if it keeps up, it will reduce the allowance. In fact, it already has. And I can only authorize eight hundred thousand this week to protect your capital here. Unless of course, you wish to drive up and give me further money, which I don't advise."
"(Bleep), (bleep), (bleep), (bleep), (bleep) that Krak!" I inadvertently said aloud.
"I beg your pardon?" said Zengin.
"It's just that I'm mad at the concubine," I said.
"Well, I would advise you to really get onto her about it," said Zengin.
I couldn't. And if I went to Istanbul I would miss a night of ecstasy. And I could see Zengin pulling down my deposit box to grains of dust.
"Authorize the eight hundred thousand," I snarled. I handed the phone to the manager and Zengin did.
I went home with my slightly lesser bale of lira. I put it in the safe. It was only four days' worth.
I tried to reason with the taxi driver when he came at six. "You've got to get a cheaper rate!" I said.
He stood there, staring at me. "Boss, I know for a fact that you have no complaints at all. That's because the merchandise is such top quality." He shook his head. "No, I cannot let you cheapen your delight."
"Listen," I said. "Those first three girls were over the wall about me. They were looking through the back window when they drove away. Why can't you persuade one of them to come back?"
"Alas," he said, "that parting glance you see is the look of forlorn, never-never again. They were taken back to their homes. They have their dowries now. And I know very well you don't want to marry one of them."
I turned ice-cold at the very thought of marriage. It sends shivers of horror through me any time I hear the word.
"Did you know that that first girl was married just today? To a fine young fellow. And the second girl is now going to go away to join her sweetheart who is an immigrant worker in Germany. That's what we're up against: prior commitments. That's the only type I can get. We could, however, cut it down to once a week...."
"No!" I shouted. "Never! Here's a girl's two hundred thousand for tonight. And get one who is less tired to begin with. They are cheating me with the first go.
The following ones are okay but that first one needs pepping up."
He rushed off in a blast of Citroen smoke.
And that night, again half an hour late, I was back under the cedar tree with a sloe-eyed creature, dusky in the dim light of the limousine. Tired out at the start but gathering energy as we engaged, she tried to claw my eyes out as we progressed. She screamed "Allah!" so loud that at the night's end I hardly heard the old man's evil laugh.