Seized with a sudden inspiration, Roger replied, 'You're right. I've taken a fancy to this girl. But I've no mind to have her on the bare boards in a hovel. I want her to myself in my own lodging, so I'll buy her from you.'
' No you won't,' growled a thick-set man who had not so far spoken. 'I haven't had a plum like her since I was a jailer at Nantes, way back in '93, and made a little Countess jig with me in prison before Carrier sent her to be drowned. The floor is good enough for us and it's good enough for you.'
'You shut your trap,' snapped the Sergeant, rounding on him. ' This might be good business. What'll you give for her, Colonel? '
Roger decided that a gold piece per man with something extra for the Sergeant should do the trick, so he said, 'Ten louis.'
The Sergeant spat. 'Then your luck's out. She's worth twenty times that. Just look at her, and think what she'll be like when you've got her clothes off.'
'All right. Twenty-five, then.'
' You're wasting my time, Colonel. When we've had our fill of her we'll bring the other lads along. Plenty of them will cough up ten francs a go to put her on her back. She'll earn us twice that in a week, and more.'
It had not occurred to Roger that they would force the girl to prostitute herself to every man who wanted her, but he now recalled hearing that some of the troops had done that with good-looking girls they had got hold of in Italy. And the Sergeant was right. Many of the men had pockets full of money, taken from the bodies of the Mamelukes. When the news got round that such a ravishing beauty was to be had they would queue up for her and she would be* lucky if she did not die from exhaustion.
'There's something in what you say,' he admitted reluctantly. ' But, remember, the General-in-Chief is not given to standing still. It's quite on the cards that you'll be ordered out of Cairo within a few days and you won't be allowed to take her with you. The odds are that you won't be here long enough for her to earn you more than twenty-five; but I want her, so I'll make it fifty.'
' Why should we sell her? ' growled the thick-set man, appealing to his companions. 'We've got money enough, Comrades, and what better could we buy with it than this wench? I'm for sending the Colonel about his business.'
Again the Sergeant rounded on him. 'Keep your big mouth shut, Vachot, or I'll shut it for you. We'll still have the other filly and one pair of girls' legs is as good as another in the dark.' Turning back to Roger, and now obviously delighting in his role of Oriental slave-dealer, he went on:
'Come now, Colonel. Fifty's not enough by half, and you know it.' Tears were now welling from the girl's eyes, and her head hung down; so he thrust a hand beneath her chin and turned up her lovely face. ' Just look at her! Why, she's fit meat for the " Little Corporal" himself, God bless him. I wouldn't be surprised if she was a Sultan's daughter. Yes, that's what she is, a Sultan's daughter. Must be from her looks and the rings we took off her fingers. Don't take no notice of what she said about her father being a French merchant. That's just eyewash because she's afraid we might ask a fortune for her ransom. She's an aristo' to her fingertips. Anyone could see that. But I'll let you have her for a hundred louis. Just think what a night you'll have with her. And maybe you could get your money back a hundredfold by returning her to the Sultan afterwards.'
Roger hesitated only a moment. Two of the others had muttered approval of Vachot's protest against relinquishing the girl for money. The sum was far more than he had meant to pay, but if he did not clinch the deal now he might still lose her. And apart from his natural unwillingness to abandon her to weeks of suffering at the hands of the brutal soldiery, he did not disguise from himself that the reason his heart was beating so quickly was because of his eagerness to have her for his own mistress.
' Very well,' he said. ' 111 pay your price. Wait here till I get out my money.'
Turning his back he walked a few paces away, undid the clothes about his middle and began to fish coins out of the pockets of his money-belt. Counting them as he did so, he stuffed them into the side pocket of his uniform coat. By the time he had transferred a hundred the weight of the belt was reduced by half; but that did not worry him, for he could draw more pay from Andreossi. Moreover in one of the pockets of the belt reposed a packet of small diamonds, some of which he could always sell in an emergency. Returning to the Sergeant, he counted the gold out into his eager hands under the light from the lantern.
The girl stood by, limp now, but her face expressed intense relief. When the counting was done she said to Roger in her husky voice, with the strange French accent, ' May Allah bless you, my Lord, for ail your days, and give you many splendid sons as a reward for what you have done this night. But will you not also please buy my maid? For her, I feel sure, they would accept a far lower price.'
Knowing that even if he were willing to part with another considerable sum the men would never agree to give up altogether the night of licentiousness to which they were looking forward, he replied shortly, ' No, I regret; but that cannot be done. Come now.'
As he took her by the arm and led her away down the cul-de-sac, the maid cried in Arabic, ' Lady, I beg you not to forsake me.' But her plea was half drowned by the Sergeant and his men shouting after them, with much laughter, bawdy jests and obscene instructions on how they should spend the night.
When the shouts had died down Roger said, ' I'm sorry about your maid; but our soldiers have been starved of women for many weeks, and they would never have let her go.'
The girl beside him shrugged. ' No matter. She is country bred, strong and no longer a virgin; so she will come to little harm and may, perhaps, even enjoy herself. Had not my . . . my father bought her, she might well have been sold into a brothel.'
Her attitude struck Roger as, to say the least, unfeeling; but her looks had already so bewitched him that he was eager to make allowances for her view of life being very different from his own. Although she was light-skinned and spoke French fluently she had a marked accent, and the words with which she had thanked him for saving her had disclosed that she was a Muslim. Every Mohammedan of standing owned slaves, and he knew that many regarded them as little better than valuable cattle.
He had no time to ponder the matter further, for they had reached the entrance to the street and she made a move to turn left.
Tightening his grasp on her arm, he drew her back and said, ' That's not the way. We turn right here.'
' It is the way to my home,' she replied. ' Please escort me to it.'
Smiling down at her, Roger shook his head. ' No, no; we are going to my lodging, and it lies in the opposite direction.'
For a moment she stared at him, then she said, ' Just now you behaved like a true Effendi, with . . . what is the French word . . . yes, with chivalry. I beg you, do not now disappoint me. Take me to my home and . . . and if you wish you shall be well rewarded.'
' The only reward for which I wish is your company,' he returned smoothly, ' and that I can best enjoy in my own lodging.'
Her mouth hardened and her eyes darkened angrily. Suddenly, she attempted to pull away from him.
Jerking her back, he said sharply, 'Stop that! No nonsense now! You will come with me quietly. If not I'll return you to the Sergeant and his men. I've not a doubt that they'd be willing to give me back half the money I paid for you.'