Hashish: A Smuggler's Tale (24 page)

‘I think, since you ask my advice, that if you have hidden your cargo in the sand somewhere on the coast you had better fetch it as soon as you can, tonight if possible, and take it far away. I know the objections you will raise to that – the time for the formalities to get out of the harbour, etc. Never mind; give me a man who knows where the cases are, and he can take a
boutre
out to fetch them.’

‘All right; so you are buying the lot?’

‘Of course; why should I take any interest in the affair otherwise?’

‘That’s true… How much will you pay me in advance?’

‘What, you want something on account? Ah, I can see you have no confidence in me.’

‘Which of us two,’ I retorted, ‘lacks confidence? You show me the way, since you are afraid to advance me anything.’

‘After this, what can you expect me to do? Please don’t make any mistake; there’s no question of mistrust; I’m sure you are perfectly loyal. I’m just wondering where I am to get the money. You probably think I am rolling? Well, the thirty pounds I have just paid you for the ten
okes
delivered last night were lent me by my sister-in-law.’

‘That doesn’t concern me. When a man comes forward as buyer and claims to be the only man with whom to deal, surely he has the money to pay with. Don’t let us waste time haggling – that’s good only for Armenians or Arabs. Come to the point: give me five hundred pounds and I’ll show you where the three hundred and eighty-eight
okes
are.’

We argued for half an hour without being a whit further on. Sick of the whole business, I was trying to disengage myself with vague promises, which would permit me to leave on good terms with my adversary without committing myself.

‘All right,’ I said, with an air of acknowledging myself beaten once more. ‘But it’s such a fine night, it’s a pity it’s too late, for by the time we’ve found a boat –’

‘A boat?’ interrupted Stavro. ‘But there’s your boat, all ready, complete with sails, oars, a box of biscuits and a little barrel of water.’

And he waved his hand towards the mysterious bark which lay opposite the icon. I began to laugh as I looked at it, and asked:

‘And is it on wheels?’

Without answering he opened the shutters of a wide window, in the embrasure of which, behind the boat, were piled old brooms, brushes and boxes of all sorts. The window opened on to the lagoon and the water came right up to the wall outside it, but like all the other ground-floor windows, it had thick iron bars across it. I looked at Stavro un-comprehendingly.

‘Ah, you are worrying about the iron bars?’ said the Greek, smiling; ‘look how we dispose of them.’

Then I realized that the bars were not embedded in the wall, but turned on a pivot, leaving a wide opening yawning over the water. Two hooks fixed in the roof-beams carried tackle so that by four men (and Stavro equalled any two ordinary men) the boat could be launched in less than a minute. It was all marvellously organized.

‘Do you often use it?’ I asked.

‘Very seldom; only in exceptional circumstances like tonight.’

‘Never mind all that today’ I interrupted; ‘I am like the Jews – I never do business on Saturdays. Be ready tomorrow night and I’ll send you two men to show you the place.’

‘But Saturday finishes at sunset’, joked Stavro.

‘For the Arabs, perhaps, but I am neither Jew nor Arab, and my Saturday goes on till midnight. Anyhow, I am dead tired; I’m sleeping on my feet.’

He accompanied me to the door, still trying to persuade me.

‘Come along, now, think it over. Your lucky star inspired you to bring two of your men with you. We are four. In one minute the boat will be in the water. It is high tide, the moon has just set, it is barely eleven o’clock. In three hours we should be at the hiding-place, for the wind is in the north.’

I admit that I was tempted to yield. The romantic side of the adventure, the impromptu voyage, the secret window, the mysterious black-draped boat – all that might have come out of a story by Alexander Dumas, and interested me intensely. But the faithful Sancho Panza within me warned me of the folly of delivering my secret to this man who burned to learn it. You never know where cupidity will lead. I liked Stavro, and he had declared himself an honourable bandit, a man of his word, but money was after all his chief interest. And he was a man, subject to temptation. If he found himself in possession of such a stock of hashish, representing
such a large profit, he might fall. Better not to tempt the devil, I wisely concluded. Besides, I’d just had a marvellous idea.

At last the door closed behind me, and I was once more alone in the street with my two men. At the moment of parting, Stavro had wanted to win over my two sailors, who looked upon him with the greatest distrust because they had thought at one moment that I was about to come to blows with the giant, so he presented Abdi with a water pipe made out of a coco-nut, such as the sailors in these parts smoke. Abdi did not smoke, but he was touched and delighted by this present, and he wanted to squat down on the pavement immediately in order to try it. As soon as we were on board he stirred up the ashes of the cook’s fire to find glowing coals, and woke up all the crew. Some of them, rudely recalled from slumber, consigned him to all the devils, but they got no peace until everyone had tried the new pipe. Finally Abdi, having made himself exceedingly sick, was satisfied.

Early next morning I went to the consulate, knowing that Spiro would be there after mass. I went to invite him to accompany me that afternoon on a pearl-fishing expedition, the first in the gulf. I wanted the consul to find the first pearl, to give a sort of official consecration to the enterprise. Spiro was wild with enthusiasm. The consul was at the ten-o’clock mass, but he was sure he would be delighted to come.

‘Can I ask some’ friends?’ he asked.

‘Friends might be rather in the way,’ I replied; ‘I want to do things very discreetly; there’s no use advertising to all and sundry that there are pearls in the Gulf of Suez. I intend to ask for the monopoly of mother-of-pearl fishing, and such a revelation might make the Government ask too big a price.’

‘You are right, that is most important,’ said Spiro, lowering his voice, and looking round furtively, as if someone were listening at the keyhole.

‘But I have an intimate friend who is a police captain, and he would simply love to come. I have spoken to him about you and he is dying to know you. He is also a friend of the Assistant-manager of Customs, the young man whom the inspector at Kosseir recommended to you, and who would be very pleased to come too.’

‘All right,’ I answered, ‘you can bring those two friends, but no more. ‘Needless to say,’ I added, ‘I ask you to say nothing about the expedition to anybody.’

‘Have no fear on that score…’ and as I went out Spiro accompanied me, walking on tiptoe, and speaking in a whisper, to show that he knew how to keep a secret.

It was agreed that he would telephone me at Port Tewfik to let me know the consul’s answer and at what hour we could leave. He also promised to arrange with another of his intimate friends, who was in the harbour service, so that my
boutre
could leave the roads without any formalities.

On my way to the station in the Rue Colmar I passed before Stavro’s shop, for in ordinary life he was a greengrocer. I went in on the pretext of buying vegetables, but really to see him. I saw him in the shadows of the back shop, looking at me with alarmed eyes. He seemed to find that my visit was rather compromising, but he must have realized that I had a good reason for coming, for he vanished into a sort of kitchen, beckoning me after him. I disappeared in my turn behind the piles of tomatoes, leaving Ali Omar to make the purchases.

‘Here is why I have come,’ I began without introduction; ‘your friend Spiro and probably the French consul are coming for a sail in my
boutre.
I am to take them over towards the mountains of Ataqa. I couldn’t refuse, besides, I think it adds to my prestige to be seen with Government officials as much as possible. But I am rather at a loss, for how can I ask such an illustrious company to get into my
pirogue?
I need a boat which holds five or six in which to take them out to my ship. I should take this boat with me, in case my guests wanted to go ashore at the foot of the mountains.’

‘It is indeed a good idea to take them for a sail. I’ll send Djebeli to find you the sort of boat you need. To save time, perhaps you will send one of your men to fetch him; he is probably in the Arab café beside the level crossing. But I beg of you, don’t come back here. In spite of all these
innocent-looking vegetables, I am well known as something quite different from a greengrocer, and the Government officials would think it most peculiar to see us so friendly two days after your arrival, and suspicion would fall on you.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be like Spiro henceforth; I shan’t see you in the street.’

Ali Omar soon found Djebeli and told him Stavro wanted him, then we went back to the
boutre
.

My idea was to offer my guests any pearls we might find in the oysters we fished, as a graceful way of thanking them for saving me from undergoing the tiresome formalities of leaving the roads. But I was rather afraid we mightn’t find any, as generally happens when one counts on something in advance. But since I wanted to give them a present, why not give chance a hand by putting the pearls I had among the oysters? The chief value of these pearls in their eyes would be that they had been found in their presence, so it was preferable to put them into oysters beforehand, to make the illusion complete. This trickery was justified, I thought. I sent two men to the inner harbour of Suez, for the sides of the quays were covered with
bils-bils
at low tide. There were assuredly no pearls in them, but the shells were enormous. They were soon back with a big basket of these bivalves. I let them open in the sun, then I slipped in the pearls. In this way I was sure, even if the expedition was unsuccessful, that my guests would not be disappointed.

At eleven o’clock I saw an orderly from the consulate making signs to me from the quay. Spiro had sent him to tell me that the consul could not come. He was very sorry, and asked if I could put off the excursion until another day. I replied that we could easily make another excursion, but that I expected Spiro and his friends at two o’clock. I was rather relieved that the consul would not be with us. I had felt rather a cad mixing this charming fellow up in such an affair. He had struck me as so absolutely honourable, and he had received me so frankly and trustfully that my little comedy seemed rather cheap. But what was I to do? It was the only way out of a difficult situation. That’s the worst of the sort of adventure into which I had entered. I was often obliged to do things which my conscience found just a trifle shabby. The risks were nothing, but these compromises with my principles were very disagreeable.

To be sure, there was still Spiro, but somehow I didn’t seem to have the same compunction about him. Perhaps because he had the soul of a
child, and I felt I was going to amuse him. Anyhow, whatever the reason, I did not have the same scruples about him as about du Gardier.

The boat I had ordered arrived, rowed by two Arabs. I had bought beer, cakes, champagne and ice, for I did things on a grand scale, since I had thirty pounds in my pocket. At last my guests appeared. Spiro was walking ahead in the shade of a parasol. He wore a black jacket, tennis trousers and a straw hat. He had a flower in his button-hole and a smile visible two hundred yards away. After him came the two young effendis of the police and the customs. They had with them two servants laden with packages of food. I insisted on these men remaining ashore, for they would have been very much in my way. Naturally, I pretended it was because of the secrecy it was necessary to observe. Spiro immediately looked like an Egyptian Guy Fawkes.

Presently we were all installed on board the
Fat-el-Rahman,
which trailed behind her the boat in which the two Arab rowers were already asleep. I had put up an awning, and we spread on the after-deck a fine Persian carpet Spiro had had the good idea of bringing. We skimmed lightly over the calm waters of the roads with all sails set. I had the pleasure of meeting the customs boat going out to visit a big steamer just come up from the south. The crew recognized the languid gentlemen reclining on my deck, and saluted us respectfully. I chuckled inwardly.

We had soon left the bustle of the roads behind us. Spiro was in poetic mood, and compared the swollen sails to butterflies’ wings, the sea to heaps of precious gems of sapphire and emerald; admired the grace of the gulls’ flight, and so on. The others had brought a portable gramophone, for it would be impossible to admire the beauties of nature except to the accompaniment of potted music. They played Arab songs and tried to astonish my men, whom they took to be absolute savages. They were delighted with the Arcadian simplicity of their dress, consisting of a simple twist of material round the loins, and they exclaimed admiringly over the smooth texture of their skins. Then we lay drinking beer and smoking gold-tipped cigarettes while Firan and two Dankalis acted the clown, dancing the most grotesque dances of their country for our amusement. I had not told any of them the real object of this excursion, but they had seen me put the pearls in the
bil-bils
and they guessed that some good farce was being prepared, so they did what they could to add to the gay atmosphere of the outing.