When had he left?
When it began to get dark; which would have put it at just about the time that Leila was setting out for the souk.
‘Did you leave with anyone?’
Ahmed Uthman; but then they had parted, Ahmed to his house, Ali Khedri to his.
‘Ahmed Uthman confirms that,’ said Mahmoud. ‘But what of course we don’t know is what happened after they separated.’
According to Ali Khedri, he had stayed at home. He had made himself some supper. He had not gone out. No one had called; until that silly bitch Fatima had burst in with all her shouting.
‘I’ve had people out checking if anyone saw him that night,’ said Mahmoud. ‘So far without success.’
‘Why are you asking me these questions?’ Ali Khedri had shouted in the end.
‘You attacked one,’ Mahmoud had said. ‘Might you not have attacked another?’
‘My own daughter?’
‘From the way you have spoken of her,’ said Mahmoud, " yes."
‘It’s not me you want to be talking to,’ Ali Khedri had shouted. ‘It’s that boy!’
Chapter 11
It was the last time-or so everyone present hoped-that they would have to meet, the last occasion, as McPhee, with a sense of history, pointed out, on which there would actually be a meeting of the Cut Committee.
‘When will they start filling in the canal?’ asked the Kadi. ‘Oh, not for some months yet,’ said the Minister. ‘We’re still not quite sure of the money.’
‘Surely some has been set aside?’ said Paul.
‘Yes, but there’s talk of raiding it. To pay for the new Manufiya Regulator, you know.’
‘Is there any chance of the whole thing being put off?’ asked the Kadi. ‘At least for another year? That would be very popular.’
‘I doubt it,’ said the Minister. ‘The contracts have been let.’ They had reviewed the arrangements for the day. It would start early. During the night the workmen would have been busy cutting away the dam until only the thickness of a foot was left. At sunrise the Kadi’s barge would appear and the Kadi would read a proclamation.
‘The usual turgid stuff, I’m afraid,’ said the Kadi.
Then a boat would be pushed through the remaining earth wall.
‘Not mine, I hope?’ said the Kadi anxiously.
‘No, a small one,’ said McPhee, ‘with an officer inside it.’
‘Stout fellow!’ murmured the Kadi, relieved.
‘Then the water will pour through and demolish “The Bride”.’
‘That will be all right, will it? I mean, it will be demolished?’
‘Oh yes.’
‘We wouldn’t want anything to go wrong. The Bride’s been a bit unfortunate this year.’
‘Look,’ said McPhee, ‘they’ve been doing this for nearly two thousand years.’
‘Just making sure.’
‘What about the gold?’ said McPhee.
‘Gold?’
‘They used to distribute purses of gold among the crowd.’
‘Well, they’re not going to this time!’ said Paul. ‘The treasury would have a fit.’
‘What about policing?’ asked Garvin.
‘All ready, sir,’ said McPhee. ‘I’ve got extra men out this time. In view of-well, you know.’
‘What about that?’ asked Paul. ‘Where have we got to over who is going to do the actual Cut?’
‘Still dangling. The Jews are still making up their minds about whether they’re prepared to do it but for no extra money. And the Muslim gravediggers are still hoping they’ll say no.’
‘Well, they’ll have to make up their minds tomorrow evening.’
‘That’s when we can expect trouble,’ said Owen.
‘We’ll be ready for them,’ promised McPhee, grim-faced, however.
Actually, I’ve got a suggestion,’ said Owen.
‘So long as it doesn’t cost money,’ said the Minister.
‘Well, it needn’t cost any extra money. It’s more a question of cost displacement.’
‘My God!’ said Paul. ‘He’s talking like an accountant! And I thought he was a friend of mine!’
‘It was your saying that they might raid the money to pay for the regulator that gave me the idea,’ said Owen, turning to the Minister.
‘Look,’ said the Minister, ‘one raid is enough!’
‘No, no. That wasn’t the idea. The thing is, the Canal is going to have to be filled in. And they’re going to have to pay people to do that. Well, why shouldn’t we promise that work to the Jews and the gravediggers? On condition that they don’t cause trouble tomorrow? The work will have to be done by someone, won’t it?’
‘I quite like this idea,’ said Paul.
‘It would get us off the hook,’ said Garvin.
‘Wouldn’t it be merely postponing trouble?’ asked the Kadi. ‘I mean, they’re still going to find it difficult to work together.’
‘They wouldn’t need to work together,’ said Owen. ‘The Jews could start at one end, the Muslim gravediggers from the other.’
‘I think this is a brilliant idea!’ cried the Kadi. ‘We could make it a race!’
‘First to get there gets a bonus, you mean?’ asked the Minister.
‘I was thinking of honour and personal satisfaction,’ said the Kadi reprovingly.
‘I was thinking that if they got to the middle at different times, they need never actually meet,’ said Owen. ‘And then there would be no trouble.’
‘You know,’ said Paul, ‘this suggestion has considerable merit.’
‘It is a suggestion,’ said the Kadi, admiring, ‘worthy of the Mamur Zapt.’
‘Right, then,’ said Paul briskly. ‘That settled? Anything else?’
‘Well, there’s the Lizard Man,’ said the Kadi.
‘Yes,’ said the Minister. ‘There’s the Lizard Man.’
‘Lizard Man?’ said Paul.
Active around “The Bride of the Nile”, apparently.’
‘I’ve got a guard on,’ said McPhee.
‘Against the Lizard Man?’ said Paul.
‘I hope there’s going to be no diversion of resources away from the dams,’ said the Minister. ‘Guards are needed there, too, you know.’
‘I thought the chap was in prison?’
‘No, no. Against the Lizard Man.’
‘Just a minute,’ said Paul, pulling himself together; ‘we’ve got guards everywhere against the Lizard Man?’
‘At the Cut, certainly.’
‘Exacdy why-would you tell me exacdy why-it has been found necessary to have guards against-against a-a Lizard Man?’
‘There have been rumours that he’s taking an interest in the Cut this year.’
‘It’s not the Cut I’m bothered about,’ said the Minister. ‘It’s the dams. We’ve got a lot of money tied up there, you know. If another went-’
‘I think the Cut is the more immediate danger,’ said the Kadi. ‘What makes you think a threat is posed to-to either the Cut or the dams by-by-by a Lizard Man?’
‘There have been incidents,’ said the Kadi.
‘Have there?’ Paul was looking at Owen.
‘Sort of.’
‘He’s blown one up,’ said the Minister. ‘He could blow up another.’
‘But I thought-?’
‘I doubt if the incidents themselves amount to anything,’ said Owen. ‘The point is, though, that the public thinks they do.’
‘I see. And you hope that when it sees a guard, it will feel reassured?’
‘I hope so. Actually,’ said Owen, ‘it’s a bit more complicated than that. As I say, I don’t think the incidents themselves amount to anything, but it’s what, in a way, they express that is important.’
‘And what is that?’
‘Anti-Government feeling,’ said the Kadi.
‘Anti-British feeling,’ the Minister corrected him hurriedly. ‘You think the Lizard Man is a Nationalist?’ asked Paul. ‘Well, no,’ admitted the Minister. ‘It’s just that there’s a lot of popular unrest at the moment over the ending of the Cut and they blame-’
‘There’s a lot of feeling, too, about the dams,’ said the Kadi.
‘Well,’ said Paul, beginning to gather up his papers, ‘I don’t know that there’s a lot this Committee can do about either of those. As for the Lizard Man,’-he took care not to meet Owen’s eye-‘that, I feel, is the sort of thing that is best left to the Mamur Zapt.’
When Owen got back to the Bab-el-Khalk he found his orderly, Yussef, fussing around in his office, changing, among other things, the water in the earthenware pitcher which, as in all Cairo offices, stood in the latticed window. The theory was that the breeze would cool it but that, of course, worked only when there was a breeze. Today there wasn’t and the water was on the hot side of lukewarm. It had, moreover, a fly in it, which Yussef dispatched, with the water, out of the window. Then he refilled the pitcher from the big brass-beaked jug that he was carrying.