For most of the next day Stephen and Amos Jacob rode well ahead of their companions, for not only did they wish to exchange their impressions of the Dey, which was better done without the confusion of many voices and the sound of many hooves, butjhey also hoped that by setting a fine brisk pace they would bring the whole group to the Vizier’s oasis before nightfall, in spite of having been obliged, by the farewell feast, to start their journey much later than they had wished.
At one time they thought they might succeed, for they had already travelled this road – the fact of its being known shortened it, and there were few fresh wonders to delay them – furthermore, their own conversation was particularly engrossing. Sometimes, it is true, they discussed the possible origins of the malformation in the hand that Jacob had brought his friend: ‘I know that some of Dupuytren’s colleagues have blamed the habitual use of reins: and perhaps there is something in it,’ observed Jacob.
‘Conceivably,’ Stephen replied. ‘Yet it was never described before Smectymnus; nor does Xenophon speak of any such complaint; and few men handled reins more than Xenophon.’
‘Well . . .’ said Jacob: and after a pause in which his mind clearly drifted to the more immediate subject, ‘You have not yet told me your opinion of the Dey.’
‘My first impression was that he was a brute, a mere soldier: a cheerful brute at that moment because he had just succeeded in some mechanical task, but perfectly capable of turning wicked, very wicked. Then, when we went down to lie in wait for the lion, his silence and his steadfast motionless endurance moved my admiration. So did his open, unstinted praise when I shot the lioness, to say nothing of his steadiness in the uneasy moments before she charged. I have, as you know very well, some smattering of Arabic and Turkish, and what he said as he helped me up the slope pleased me very much. So,
to a less degree, did the set piece that you translated: no common mind, I thought, could have turned it so well. I was left with the notion of an ideal shootingcompanion, very quiet very knowledgeable, courageous of course and jovial when joviality was in place: but apart from that, not an intelligentman. Not positively stupid, like some other highly-placed soldiers, and probably quite subtle in military politics, but not in himself particularly interesting, however likeable.’
‘Did the impalements trouble you?’
‘I loathed them with all my soul, although they are as traditional in some parts as public hanging is in England. But it was not that which made me doubtful about my first impression: after all, sodomy is a hanging offence with us and a matter of burning alive with some others, whereas it is a joke in this country, as it was in ancient Greece. No: after a while I began to wonder whether the simplicity was quite what it seemed, as well as the apparently complete division between Dey and Vizier where foreign affairs were concerned. But you know as well as I do that an excess of mistrust and suspicion is very widely spread in our calling:
it sometimes reaches ludicrous proportions.’
‘Two of our colleagues in Marseilles were obliged to be shut up in a mad-house near Aubagne, each convinced that his mistress was poisoning him for the benefit of a foreign power.’
‘In my case it scarcely warranted chains, a bed of straw, and flogging, but it went pretty far: when we paused to eat by the spring I went to my baggage-mule and discovered the Dey’s wonderfully handsome, wonderfbtlly discreet present, the American rifle that killed the lioness; but when I had recovered from my astonishment something compelled me to look very carefully indeed at lock, stock and barrel – both barrels – before I could thank him wholeheartedly. A man we both knew was killed by the explosion of a fowlingpiece that burst when he fired it – a gift, of course.’
‘William Duran. He was incautious, having to do with such a woman: but still there are limits. One cannot live in a glass globe, like that marvellous person in Breughel. For my part I thought him subtler and more intelligent than you did, for whereas with you he was necessarily dumb, restricted to the hunter, with me, obviously, he spoke a great deal and with a choice of words, particularly in Turkish, and a felicity of expression surprising in a mere soldier. But whether he is clever enough to manage the janissaries, the corsairs and his curious Vizier, I do not know. What was your opinion of the Vizier? You saw much more of him than I did.’
‘A politician of course, but one not without an agreeable side. I should not trust him in any matter of importance.’
Hootings far behind them, and the blowing of a horn:
they turned, and there was the best-mounted of the Turkish guards hurrying after them, the main group being a great way off.
Jacob relayed his panting words: ‘He says that the others cannot keep up: and he fears – all the people fear – that the sirocco will be with us in an hour or two.’ Looking southward he added, ‘If we had not been prating so eagerly over other men’s characters I should have noticed it long before. You see that dark bar over the third mountain range behind us? That is the precursor. Presently the south-east wind will begin to blow and then the much stronger sirocco will reach us, its hot air filled, filled, with very fine sand.
You have to have a close-woven cloth over your mouth and nose.’
‘You know this country: tell me what you think we ought to do.’
‘I do not believe it will be a very bad sirocco: we shall probably not reach the oasis and the lodge before dark, but I think we should press on. The sirocco often drops after sunset, and we should have some moonlight to help us on our way. At all events, I think that is better than camping unprepared in the wilderness, with little water and the animals likely to be harassed by wild beasts.’
‘I am sure you are right,’ said Stephen: he wheeled his horse and with the other two he rode back gently to meet the band, who greeted thçm with a cheer. ‘Pray ask Ibrahim whether he can guide us after 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.