“I was being cagey, Arthur,” she said. “There is some obsidian and garnet there, and green tourmaline, too. But a lot of that stuff’s the real thing. There are six pigeon’s blood rubies in that throne room that must be over twenty carats apiece. Do you know what just one ruby like that is worth, Arthur? And the emeralds on those Koran caskets! My God!”
Harper laughed. “All right, honey, I think Arthur has the picture. Now”-he turned again to the plan-“there are civilian watchmen on duty, but not very many of them, and the night shift comes on at eight. You give them an hour to settle down. At nine you move. You go up the stairs to the roof and turn left. There are three little domes- cupolas, they call them-on the roof there, and you walk along to the right of them. After that the roof is more or less flat until you get to the gate arch. You go around that over the roof of the Audience Chamber and on until you see the chimneys of the kitchens on your right. Then you turn left again, cross the roof of the place where they have the miniatures and tapestries. At the end of it there’s a three-foot drop onto the roof of the Treasury Museum. That’s where you have to be careful. The Treasury roof is thirty-five feet wide, but it’s vaulted. There is a flat area around the cupola though, so you climb down there. All quite safe. The cupola is ten feet in diameter and that’ll be your anchor for the tackle. Mr. Miller’ll tie the knots for you. When he’s got the sling hooked up, he’ll sit in it. Then all you have to do is lower him over the side until he’s level with a steel shutter eighteen feet below. He’ll do the rest.”
“Mr. Miller will?”
He looked at me with amusement. “You think he’s too old for that sort of thing? Arthur, when Mr. Miller gets busy he makes a fly look like a man in diving boots.”
“You said there was a steel shutter?”
“You could open it with a toothpick. The wall’s four feet thick and solid stone. I guess it’d stand up to a six- inch shell. But the shutters over the window apertures are just quarter-inch plate with ordinary draw bolts on them. They don’t even fit properly. And no alarm system.”
“But if this jewelry is so valuable…”
“Have you ever looked through one of those window apertures, Arthur? There’s a sheer drop of three hundred feet below. It’s quite impossible to get up or down there. That’s why we’re going in from above. The trick is getting out again. What their security setup relies on is the fact that the whole area is walled like a fortress. There are gates, of course, and the gates have troops guarding them at night; but gates can be opened if you know how. That’ll all be taken care of. You’ll walk out of there just aseasily as you walked in.” His eyes found mine and held them. “You see, Arthur, we’re professionals.”
I forced myself to look away. I looked at Miss Lipp; but her eyes had the same intent look as his. “I’m sorry,” I said; “I’m not a professional.”
“ You don’t have to be,” she said.
“I can’t do it, Mr. Harper.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’d be too afraid.”
He smiled. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard you say, Arthur. You had me quite worried for a moment.”
“I mean it.”
“Sure you do. Who wouldn’t be scared? I’m scared. In a few hours’ time I’ll be even more scared. That’s good. If you aren’t a bit scared you don’t stay on your toes.”
“I’m not talking about being a bit scared, Mr. Harper. I’m talking about being too scared. I’d be no use to you.” And I meant it. I was thinking of myself on top of that roof with a three-hundred-foot drop down to the road. I can’t stand heights.
There was a silence, and then she laughed. “I don’t believe you, Arthur,” she said. “You? You with two good arms and hands to hold on with, scared of going where Hans Fischer isn’t afraid to go with only half a hand? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again.
There was another silence and then he glanced at her and moved his head slightly. She walked out onto the terrace.
“Let’s get a couple of things straight, Arthur,” he said. “All I’m asking you to do is take a little ride and then a little walk, and then handle a rope for twenty minutes. You’ll be in no danger. Nobody’s going to take pot shots at you. And when it’s done you get two thousand bucks. Right?”
“Yes, but…”
“Let me finish. Now, supposing you chicken out, what do we do?”
“Get someone else, I suppose.”
“Yes, but what do we do about you? ” He paused. “You see, Arthur, it’s not just a question of getting the job done. You know too much now not to be a part of it. If you’re going to be on the outside, well, we’ll have to protect ourselves another way. You follow me?”
He could see that I did. I had a choice: I could either frighten myself to death on the roof of the Seraglio or take a shorter, quicker route to the police mortuary.
“Now go get yourself another drink and stop worrying,” he said; “just think of the two thousand bucks.”
I shrugged. “All right. I’m merely telling you how I feel, that’s all.”
“You’ll be okay, Arthur.” He led the way back onto the terrace.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him how okay Mr. Miller would be if the height got me down and I passed out while I was handling the tackle; but I thought better of it. If he realized that I really wasn’t just being timid, that I really couldn’t stand heights, he might decide that I was too dangerous a liability in every way. Besides, I was coming to my senses again now. Tufan’s “politicals” had turned out to be big-time crooks after all. I had been right all along, and he had been hopelessly wrong; but he was still a powerful ally, and I still had a good chance of being able to stop the whole thing. All I had to do was add just three words- raiding Seraglio treasury- to the note in the cigarette packet and drop it for the surveillance people. After that, my worries would be over, and Harper’s would begin. I had a pleasing vision of the lot of them, rounded up and in handcuffs, watching Tufan hand me a brand-new British passport.
“What are you grinning at, Arthur?” Harper asked.
I was pouring myself the second drink he had prescribed. “You told me to think of the two thousand dollars, Mr. Harper,” I answered. “I was just carrying out orders.”
“You’re a screwball, Arthur,” he said amiably; but I saw a reflective look in his eyes and decided that I had better watch myself. All the same, I couldn’t help wondering what he would have said and done if he had been warned, at that moment, that the customs people in Edirne had looked inside the doors of the car, and that every move he had made since had been made with the knowledge and by permission of the security police-if, in other words, he had been told how vulnerable he was. Not that I had the slightest desire to warn him; I hadn’t forgotten the caning he had given me in Athens; but if it had been safe to do so, I would have liked to tell him that it was my lousy out-of-date Egyptian passport that had done the job. I would have liked to have seen the bastard’s face.
Hamul shuffled out and made signs to Miss Lipp that lunch was served. She glanced at me. “Bring your drink in with you, Arthur.”
Presumably I was being promoted to eating with the gentry so that they could keep an eye on me.
Miller was a gloomy feeder, and made the omelet less appetizing than it could have been by talking about infectious diseases all the time. How did they grow virus cultures in laboratories? Why, in eggs, of course! He discussed the possible consequences at length. The others took no notice; evidently they were used to him; but it got me down. I hadn’t felt much like eating anyway.
When the fruit came Harper looked across at me. “As soon as the Hamuls have cleared away,” he said, “you had better start getting the bags down. They think we’re going to Ankara for a couple of days, so it doesn’t matter if they see us. The important thing is that we leave ourselves time to clean up the rooms.”
“Clean them up?”
“For fingerprints. With any luck we’ll never be connected with this place. The rent was paid in advance and the owner couldn’t care less if we don’t show up again. The Hamuls will dust off most of it automatically. They’re great polishers, I’ve noticed. But things they could miss, like window handles and closet mirrors, we should take care of ourselves-just in case.”
By two o’clock I had all the bags down and asked Harper if I could go to my old room to clean up there. He nodded. “Okay, Arthur, but don’t be long. I want you to give Mr. Fischer a hand.”
