nightfall - whether he will be able to recognize the trail where it is very faint?’
Ibrahim received the question at first with incredulity and then with as decent a concealment of laughter as he could manage. ‘He says he is as competent as seven dogs,’ reported Jacob.
‘Then pray tell him that if he succeeds he shall have seven gold pieces; but if he do not, then he must be impaled.’
Towards the end of their journey, which grew more horrible with every hundred yards traversed, with the dense cloud of fine sand quite hiding the moon and making its way through protective cloth and the hot wind growing stronger, even the seven dogs faltered time and again. Quite often Ibrahim had to beg them to stop, huddled together for protection, while he cast about: but getting them to start again and to leave the slight shelter of the larger animals was another matter. He was repeatedly kicked, pinched, reviled; and he was actually in tears when a rift in the veil of flying sand showed the oasis, with the sparse lanterns of the hunting-lodge. Sparse because almost everybody had gone to bed, and apart from the pair at the main gate the only lamp still glowing was in the room where Ahmed, the undersecretary, was finishing a letter. The porters were obviously unwilling to get up to unbar the gates and open them; but Ahmed, hearing the controversy and recognizing Jacob’s voice soon induced them to do their duty.
He asked Jacob whether he should warn the Vizier. ‘By no means at all,’ said Jacob, ‘but if you could bestow these people, give them food and drink, and allow Dr Maturin and me to have a bath we should both be immeasurably grateful.’
‘All these things shall be done,’ said Ahmed. ‘I shall rouse some servants. But when you have taken your bath I am afraid you will have to lie in my room again.’
Down, down, down into a blessed sleep: Stephen, washed clean of sand, even his hair, fed, watered, wrapped in clean linen. Sank to those perfect depths where even the varying howl of the sirocco could not disturb him.
Nothing but strong determined hands could claw him up to the infinitely unwelcome surface, but this they did, and there was the insufferable Jacob at first light asking him whether he remembered what he had told him about Cainites - insisting upon the word Cainite and even shaking Stephen more fully awake.
‘Your soul to the Devil, Amos: will you give me a sup of water, for the love of God?’ And when he had drunk and gasped he said, ‘Certainly I remember what you told me about the Cajnites of the Beni Mzab and elsewhere, the way they were created by a superior power and bore the mark of Cain.’
‘Yes. Well listen now: Ahmed is a Cainite too. We recognized one another at once. He knows roughly the nature of our visit - he knows that we are not travelling for medical experience or knowledge - he wishes to be useful to us, being entirely on our side, and he offers his services.’
‘Amos, my dear, you are a deeply experienced intelligence agent: tell me in all seriousness how sound a source of information he is, what kind of information he can give, and at what price.’
‘A sounder source we could not wish: as for the kind of information, he has shown me a copy of the Vizier’s message to the Sheikh of Azgar, Ibn Hazm, telling him to recall his caravan at once and to load the treasure aboard a wonderfully fast-sailing xebec that has already left for Arzila, a little shallow fishing-harbour in Shiite territory just north of Laraish: Yahya ben Khaled, the captain of the xebec and the most capable and fortunate corsair in Algiers, will wait there with a very strong guard until the wind comes into the west, and then he will sail, passing through the Strait of Gibraltar in the darkness, with the wind and the strong eastward current driving him at great speed, and head straight for Durazzo by the sea-lanes he knows best, the fastest.’
Stephen sat considering: then he nodded and said, ‘There was no mention of reward, I collect?’
‘None. I believe his offer was perfectly straightforward: but I gathered that eventually, by no means as a direct consequence of this affair, a kind word to the governor of Malta, to allow him to set up in Valetta, where he has cousins, would be welcome. It is in no way a condition: nor indeed could it be.’
‘Very well. Tell me, how early do you think we may start? By the way, I no longer hear the wind.’
‘It stopped at half-past four. Obviously we cannot start before the morning prayer: it would not only be very rude but it would also look suspicious. Yet at first light I shall cause the Turkish guards to make ready.’
‘How I hope this vile wind has not plucked Ringle from her moorings or blown Surprise to some leeward shore beyond Sardinia.’
The period between his getting up, washing, shaving and waiting for the Vizier to appear for the formalities of leavetaking, would have seemed intolerably long but for the fact that Stephen, walking out into what might almost be called the wooded part of the oasis, once more caught sight of his anomalous nuthatch: it was not a particularly shy bird and it
