which meant that Wolff could not go back to the houseboat, not yet. But he was exhausted, bruised and disheveled: he had to clean himself up and get a few hours' rest, somewhere.
He thought: I've been here before-wandering the city, tired and hunted, with nowhere to go.
This time he would have to fall back on Abdullah.
He had been heading for the Old City, knowing all along, In the back of his mind, that Abdullah was all he had left; and now he found himself a few steps from the old thief's house. He ducked under an arch, went along a short dark passage and climbed a stone spiral staircase to Abdullah's home.
Abdullah was sitting on the floor with another man. A nargileh stood between them, and the air was full of the herbal smell of hashish. Abdullah looked up at Wolff and gave a slow, sleepy smile. He spoke in Arabic. 'Here is my friend Achmed, also called Alex. Welcome, Achmed-Alex.'
Wolff sat on the floor with them and greeted them in Arabic. Abdullah said: 'My brother Yasef here would like to ask you a riddle, something that has been puzzling him and me for some hours now, ever since we started the hubble-bubble, speaking of which He passed the pipe across, and Wolff took a lungful * Yasef said: 'Achmed-Alex, friend of my brother, welcome. Tell me this:
Why do the British call us wogs?'
Yasef and Abdullah collapsed into giggles. Wolff realized they were heavily under the influence of hashish: they must have been smoking all evening. He drew on the pipe again, and pushed it over to Yasef. It was strong stuff. Abdullah always had the best. Wolff said: 'As it happens, I know the answer. Egyptian men working on the Suez Canal were issued with special shirts, to show that they had the right to be on British property. They were Working On Government Service, so on the backs of their shirts were printed the letters W.O.G.S.'
Yasef and Abdullah giggled all over again. Abdullah said: 'My friend Achmed-Alex. is clever. He is as clever as an Arab, almost, because he is almost an Arab. He is the only European who has ever got the better of me, Abdullah.'
'I believe this to be untrue,' Wolff said slipping into their stoned style of speech. 'I would never try to outwit my friend Abdullah, for who can cheat the devil' Yasef smiled and nodded his appreciation of this witticism.
Abdullah said. 'Listen, my brother, and I will tell you.' He frowned, collecting his doped thoughts. 'Achmed- Alex asked me to steal something for him. That way I would take the risk and he would get the reward. Of course, he did not outwit me so simply. I stole the thing-it was a case-and of course my intention was to take its contents for myself, since the thief is entitled to the proceeds of his crime, according to the laws of God.
Therefore I should have outwitted him, should I not'
'Indeed,' said Yasef, 'although I do not recall the passage of Holy Scripture which says that a thief is entitled to the proceeds of his crime. However.. .'
'Perhaps not,' said Abdullah. 'Of what was I speaking'
Wolff, who was still more or less compos mentis, told him: 'You should have outwitted me, because you opened the case yourself.'
'Indeed! But wait. There was nothing of value in the case, so Achmed-Alex bad outwitted me. But wait! I made him pay me for rendering this service; therefore I got one hundred pounds and he got nothing.'
Yasef frowned. 'You, then, got the better of him.'
'No.' Abdullah shook his head sadly. 'He paid me In forged banknotes.' Yasef stared at Abdullah. Abdullah stared back. They both burst out laughing. They slapped each other's shoulders, stamped their feet on the floor and rolled around on the cushions, laughing until the tears came to their eyes.
Wolff forced a smile. it was just the kind of funny story that appealed to Arab businessmen, with its chain of double crosses. Abdullah would be telling it for years. But it sent a chill through Wolff. So Abdullah, too, knew about the counterfeit notes. How many others did? Wolff felt as if the hunting pack had formed a circle around him, so that every way he ran he came up against one of them, and the circle drew tighter every day.
Abdullah seemed to notice Wolff's appearance for the first time. He immediately became very concerned. 'What has happened to you? Have you been robbed?' He picked up a tiny silver bell and rang it. Almost immediately, a sleepy woman came in from the next room. 'Get some hot water,'
Abdullah told her. 'Bathe my friend's wounds. Give him my European shirt.
Bring a comb. Bring coffee. Quick!'
In a European house Wolff would have protested at the women being roused, after midnight, to attend to him; but here such a protest would have been very discourteous. The women existed to serve the men, and they would be neither surprised nor annoyed by Abdullah's peremptory demands. Wolff explained: 'The British tried to arrest me, and I was obliged to fight with them -before I could get away. Sadly, I think they may now know where I have been living, and this is a problem.'
'Ah.' Abdullah drew on the nargileh, and passed it around again. Wolff began to feel the effects of the hashish: he was relaxed, slow-thinking, a little sleepy. Time slowed down. Two of Abdullah's wives fussed over him, bathing his face and combing his hair. He found their ministrations very pleasant indeed.
Abdullah seemed to doze for a while, then he opened his eyes and said -
'You must stay here. My house is yours. I win hide you from the British.'
'You are a true friend,' Wolff said. It was odd, he thought. He had planned to offer Abdullah money to hide him. Then Abdullah bad revealed that he knew the money was no good, and Wolff had been wondering what else he could do. Now Abdullah was going to hide him for nothing. A true friend. What was odd was that Abdullah was not a true friend. There were no friends in Abdullah's world: there was the family, for whom he would do anything, and the rest, for whom he would do nothing. How have I earned this special treatment? Wolff thought sleepily.
His alarm bell was sounding again. He forced himself to think: it was not easy after the hashish. Take it one step at a time, he told himself. Abdullah asks me to stay here. Why? Because I am in trouble. Because I am his friend. Because I have outwitted him.
Because I have outwitted him. That story was not finished. Abdullah would want to add another double cross to the chain. How? By betraying Wolff to the British. That was it. As soon as Wolff fell asleep, Abdullah would send a message to Major Vandam Wolff would be picked up. The British would pay Abdullah for the information, and the
