Lost trumpet

THE LOST TRUMPET 241
trouble, being so dirty. So I walked to the gendarmes,
and they let me go, for I was their friend. And I
walked away from Rashida and took a train to
Cairo. . . . Now I will come and meet his sister.^
It seemed to me either the patter of a maudlin
child—or something far worse. I said : “Please
listen. Quaritch does not seem to have made the
matter plain. If you killed Simonssen and you had
good reasons for doing so, why do you confess it
now ?”
“But what harm can it do ?”
“When Simonssen’s sister hands you over to the
police they will kill you.’,
“Kill me ?” She laughed with genuine amuse¬
ment. He is a droll, the tall man, Esdras.’>
I made a gesture of despair and summoned the
waiter. Quaritch, with an equally despairing shrug,
helped Huth Rizq to her feet and guided her out
of the Petrograd.
Subchapter iv
I sat beside Kalaun on the Abu Zabalward journey,
the while the Englishman and the woman from the
Street rode behind us in the body of the tender.
Occasionally the murmur of their voices would come
to us. Once I heard the woman’s laughter, clear
and joyous. But for the most part I kept my attention
on the erratic driving of the grinning Kalaun who
loved a scandal and scented one—if not two
ensconced in the tender behind him.
Q