concluded. Gamoudi, in different but soon to become beloved mountains, had never been happier.
With his great fortune, he had bought the big house and a large ski chalet over in Sun Valley, and set up a chain of three ski shops and mountain guide centers, which immediately prospered.
The boys, now Andy and John, had settled in swiftly in American schools. Gamoudi spent hundreds of cheerful hours with them and Giselle, exploring the great Idaho peaks above the hundreds of cold, blue lakes.
There were a few very large bears up there, which meant he never ventured far without his old hunting knife, the one that long ago had ended the life of the Mossad hit man at the Marseille restaurant, in a faraway country to which he would never return.
Gamoudi and Giselle had found a special place in the southwest of the state where so many Basque immigrants had once arrived from the Pyrenees in search of cheap land to raise sheep on the mountainside.
There was evidence of Basque culture everywhere here in Idaho — food, restaurants, and timeless stories handed down among the local farmers. You could even buy the famous Basque spicy sausage
The McCaffreys had found an earthly paradise among people of a distant but often shared culture. Even the towering mountains, in certain light, looked much the same as the Pyrenees.
And suddenly, here was the King of Saudi Arabia, dressed in Western clothes but waving the distinctive greeting of the Bedouin as he walked down the aircraft steps. He wore the smile of a man whose oil economy has been rebuilt and is back on track and he walked onto American soil as the confident political partner of the U.S. President.
A few local photographers took pictures as the King walked straight up to his old rebellion tank commander in Riyadh and hugged him.
In his left hand the King carried a gift — a gilt-edged, leather-bound first edition of E. M. Forster’s
About the Author
PATRICK ROBINSON is the
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