The Quest of Julian Day (28 page)

It was Longdon who had swarmed up the line and got out Sylvia and myself both of whom were unconscious by the time he reached us.

We were all so done-in that it was as much as we could do to stumble into the cars and, a few minutes later, the beds that Hanbury provided for us; so it was not until the following morning that I had a chance to talk things over with any of my friends.

In the confusion resulting from the fire O'Kieff had escaped and the dozen prisoners, including the ‘Madame' of the place
that Hanbury had captured were small fry, mainly consisting of Arab servants and strong-arm men. Three of their people had been killed in the scrap and five others dangerously wounded; while our party had sustained six serious casualties including two dead and Mustapha, whose right arm had been broken by a bullet. As the ‘Angels' were nearly all apprentices at their trade it was hoped that they were not beyond permanent rescue and they were being sent to Cairo where arrangements would be made for their transport to the countries of their origin when relatives, who would be responsible for them, had been duly contacted.

Harry seemed to have enjoyed the scrap, in spite of the fact that he had been temporarily knocked out and had a bump on his forehead the size of a hen's egg; at all events he certainly enjoyed basking in Clarissa's obvious hero-worship when she came down to join us for lunch.

She told us that, all things considered, Sylvia seemed better than might have been expected; and when she had been asked if she would like to remain in Ismailia for a few days to recover she had declared she would much rather go back to Cairo that afternoon where she could have her own things about her.

The doctor who had been called in the night before to look after us had given her a sleeping draught, so she had slept well and her main complaint, apart from the fact that she was stiff and sore, seemed to be that she had developed a violent cold. So far she had given no account of what had happened during the time she had been a prisoner but, whatever had occurred it was cheering to know that she hadn't broken down under it and was apparently putting a brave face on the matter.

After lunch she came downstairs in clothes that Hanbury had borrowed for her. They fitted badly and she was looking very groggy but she declared that she was ready to make her statement to the police. We suggested that we should retire but she said she had no objection to our remaining while she told her story.

Under the impression that she was being taken to Police Headquarters she had driven off with the bogus police officer and, just as Essex Pasha had postulated, the car had turned off from the main road into the courtyard of a private house where the gates were immediately closed behind it. Directly she
had started to enquire the reason, several people had come out of the house and dragged her into it; holding her down they had pulled up her skirt and given her an injection in the thigh. After a few minutes she had lapsed into unconsciousness and she remembered nothing else until she found herself, dressed in native garments, lying back in the seat of an aeroplane.

Hanbury nodded at that point and remarked, ‘It was the information from the Air Port Police in Cairo which enabled us to trace you. We had never heard of the House of the Angels here and were completely baffled; but the suspect 'plane with the sick woman on board had not arrived in Alexandria, which made it look pretty fishy. It occurred to me then that there's only one man here who runs a private 'plane and that's Suliman Taufik. He doesn't use the Ismailia Air Port but keeps it in a private ground near his residence. On enquiry I found that it had flown over and landed there at a little before four in the afternoon. The time of the flight tallied with the trip from Cairo and so did the description of his 'plane when I got on to the Air Port Police there. That more or less settled the matter in my mind but I checked up afterwards that Suliman's place
was
the House of the Angels by pulling in some of his servants.'

Sylvia nodded. ‘Thank God you did. Anyhow, that's what happened; by the time they got me to the house the dope was beginning to wear off a bit. In a room downstairs I was confronted by a man whom I recognised at once, from Ju—Mr. Day's description, as O'Kieff.'

She shivered slightly and went on quickly, ‘He's a horrid person; cold as a fish and with eyes like a snake. He threatened me with all sorts of pains and penalties unless I would sign an authority to my bank for them to hand over the lower half of the tablet—the one I've had ever since it was discovered—to his representative.

‘At first I refused, of course, so they took me upstairs for a little gentle persuasion. I decided then that discretion was the better part of valour and signed the letter they wanted. Afterwards they took my clothes and locked me up so that I couldn't get away, and it was like that Mr. Day found me.'

‘You've, er—got nothing else to charge them with?' Hanbury enquired a little awkwardly.

‘How d'you mean?' she asked calmly.

‘Well—er—so far we have abduction, illegally administering a dangerous drug with criminal intentions and enforcing the signing of a document under pressure of threats. As they beat you up I think we ought to add assault and, er …' he looked away in embarrassment. ‘I don't want to press you now but perhaps the assault charge might need some special qualification which you would rather prefer through a Police Matron.'

‘Oh no,' said Sylvia looking him straight in the eye. ‘You're quite mistaken about that. Nobody even laid a hand on me.'

I saw at once the line she was taking and quickly came to her assistance.

‘What's more,' I said, ‘Miss Shane told me when I found her last night that the bogus police officer who took her off in the car didn't accompany them in the 'plane to Ismailia. I feel quite certain, too, that it won't be the least use your holding any identity parades of your prisoners because, owing to the state she was in, Miss Shane would not be able to recognise the women or the other two men who did accompany her in the 'plane from Cairo.'

Hanbury turned and gave me an angry look. ‘Thank you, Day, but I'm not questioning
you
, and I should be obliged if you would keep your views to yourself.' But Sylvia smiled and remarked quietly:

‘He's quite right. Actually it's a fact that the bogus policeman wasn't on the 'plane and I do feel quite convinced that I should never be able to identify any of the others.'

‘Well, if that's the way you feel,' Hanbury muttered, ‘we can't even charge anyone with the kidnapping or anything else for the present.'

‘That's it,' I said. ‘But the “Angels” will be able to give you all the evidence you want about the house being a white-slaving joint so you can jug your prisoners quite satisfactorily without bringing Miss Shane into it at all.'

He smiled then. ‘Yes, I see the situation; since I can do that I won't press Miss Shane further. She's been through a ghastly time and the last thing I want to do is to embarrass her with the further ordeal of having to come forward as a police witness. I shall have to, though, if we manage to lay our hands on O'Kieff or the bogus policeman.'

The meeting broke up then and Clarissa went up to pack
her few things while Harry settled for us all with the doctor. I had already packed and Sylvia had nothing but the borrowed clothes she stood up in so, while Longdon and Hanbury were comparing notes, we wandered out into the garden.

‘I've so much to thank you for I hardly know where to start,' she said as soon as we were out of earshot.

‘If you feel that way,' I smiled, ‘you might start by calling me Julian. You almost said it just now, you know, when you were making your statement to Major Hanbury.'

‘All right—Julian, then. I naturally think of you that way because that's what Clarissa and Harry always call you. I
am
grateful, though—terribly—for everything.'

‘It's Essex Pasha and his lieutenants you have to thank really. It was they who located you.'

‘It was you who thought of the “House of the Angels”. It was you who actually did the he-man stuff and were the first to find me in that filthy brothel. It was you who would have saved me first from the fire, if I hadn't insisted that those poor little devils should be lowered before me; and it was you who really saved me just now from the horror of having the whole story in every paper in Egypt as a result of having to give evidence against the prisoners. I'd already made up my mind that I wasn't going to admit to any assault charge but I hadn't thought about an identification parade and you tipped me off about that most skilfully.'

‘I saw no reason why you should be dragged through the Courts when it wasn't necessary,' I said. ‘As for the other part of it, anyone else would have done as much; it was only that I happened to be on hand. I'm glad, though, that I was, from a selfish point of view, as at least it gave me a chance to prove that I'm out against O'Kieff every bit as much as you are. May I take it that in spite of my mysterious past you will really trust me in the future?'

‘Yes, of course you may. I feel rather ashamed now that I ever doubted you; but you must admit I had good reason to. Still, your past
is
entirely your own affair and I don't mind a bit now if you'd rather not talk about it. The one thing I
do
know about you is enough. You're quite the bravest man I've ever met.'

‘Please!' I protested, feeling my cheeks redden ‘It's nice to
know you think that but horribly embarrassing to be told so to one's face.'

‘Nothing like as embarrassing as being found stark naked in a brothel,' she said a little grimly.

‘I hardly noticed that,' I said hurriedly.

She gave a queer little laugh. ‘That's a pretty poor compliment. As a matter of fact I'm very proud of my figure. ‘It's rather humiliating to learn that you didn't even notice it.'

I guessed at once that she was trying to make a joke of the thing in order to hide her embarrassment and get it off her mind so that she wouldn't feel shy about it when she was with me in the future. So I quickly took up the line she was playing.

‘I'm rather a connoisseur of figures myself and from what little I did see I should think you're a prize-winner every time. But to be quite honest, I was too upset when I first found you to think of anything like that because I was afraid you were dead. And afterwards, as you may remember, I was much too occupied to take in any details. I could only thank God you were alive and hope that you hadn't suffered too much during the hours before we found you.'

‘I mean to try to forget that,' she said. ‘It was damned unpleasant being beaten and I was scared stiff that they'd ship me down to one of the Red Sea ports, as they threatened, before anyone could trace me. But at all events “the worst” didn't happen.'

We both burst out laughing then because ‘the worst' seemed such a delightfully comic expression.

‘Thank the lord for that!' I smiled. ‘I've got some idea of the usual drill in such places and I was terrified they'd put you through it.'

‘They meant to,' she admitted. ‘And that was after they had beaten me up and I had agreed to sign the paper, but I managed to keep my head and save myself.'

‘I give you full marks, then. I'm dead certain I could never have thought of a yarn that would have got me out if I'd been in your shoes.'

She lit a cigarette and puffed at it gently. ‘It was rather a thin story but it served its purpose. I told them I was sick with,
er—tuberculosis shall we call it—positively riddled with it—so they decided to wait for a medical examination.'

‘By Jove!' I cried, swinging round and looking at her with admiration. ‘That was quick thinking with a vengeance. You say I'm a brave man but anything I did was just child's play compared with the nerve required to put over a thing like that. You made a better showing in the fire than I did, too.'

She shrugged and smiled at me. ‘Let's call it quits, shall we, and stop throwing bouquets at one another. I still feel horribly weak, though, so if you don't mind we'll go back now and sit down until the cars turn up.'

Ten minutes later, having said goodbye to Hanbury and the doctor who had attended us, we set off back to Suez. Sylvia travelled with the Belvilles in our hired car while I went with Longdon again in his.

On the right of the road a few miles outside Ismailia we passed the magnificent war memorial to the Forces of the Empire who served in Egypt during the Great War. It is set up on a rise with nothing but the blue sky and limitless desert behind it which makes it one of the most impressive I have ever seen; but it struck me as strange that it should have been erected in such a desolate spot where few people ever see it instead of on a well-chosen site in Cairo, and I asked Longdon the reason.

‘It's because it was just at this point on the Canal that we repulsed the Turkish invasion,' he replied with a queer little smile.

‘Invasion?' I echoed, puzzled. ‘I had no idea that the Turks actually penetrated into Egypt during the Great War.'

‘Yes,' he laughed. ‘A corporal and five men in a rowing boat.'

‘But how on earth did such a queer little force break through our lines?'

‘There wasn't any line to break through,' he replied. ‘Until Allenby took command most of the generals out here weren't very bright. The first concern of the British in Egypt was naturally to defend the Canal in order to keep it open for our shipping. As there were no Turkish troops within two hundred miles of it at the outbreak of the war we could easily have established our lines on the Turkish side of the water; but, incredible as it may sound, the idiots actually decided to defend
it from the rear. They left it so that the Turks could walk right up to it without opposition and the Canal itself was in no-man's-land.