The Quest of Julian Day (16 page)

‘Here he is! Here he is! Quick, Mustapha, grab hold of his ankles while I get the police!'

I made one last violent effort to wriggle through the window even as my mind registered the fact that the voice which had spoken was a woman's. Her words suggested that she had been definitely looking for me, but I had no time to wonder who she was or how she could have got mixed up in the police hunt as, at that second, her companion sprang.

I felt his large, muscular hands close firmly about my ankles and a violent jerk as his whole weight suddenly straightened my legs and wrenched me clean out of the window. I came sailing backwards in a flying curve and landed with a sickening thud in the flower-border. The shock drove all the breath from my lungs and I lay there gasping like a landed fish while the native who had pulled me from my precarious hold, but had fallen with me, released his grip on my ankles, twisted like a snake and flung himself on my prostrate body.

‘Well done, Mustapha! Well done!' came the woman's excited voice. ‘Can you hang on to him while I get help? If the police haven't arrived yet I'll get some of the hotel porters.'

‘Yes,
sitt
, yes,' panted the brawny Arab who was now straddling my chest, ‘but I would rather that they find him dead when they arrive. It might easily happen in a fight and he deserves death, this murderer of my master.'

‘Hi! Wait a minute,' I managed to gasp with swift apprehension.

‘No, Mustapha, no,' the woman said at the same moment. ‘I know how you feel, but I forbid you to harm him. The law will deal with him as he deserves.'

As she turned swiftly to go for help I caught a glimpse of her over the Arab's shoulder. She was a tall, slim, long-limbed girl with ash-blonde hair, and I recognised her instantly from
the photograph Sir Walter had shown me on the ‘Hampshire' as his daughter Sylvia.

‘Miss Shane!' I called. ‘For God's sake wait a minute. This is all a horrible mistake.'

She halted abruptly and turned to look down into my face, asking with quick curiosity, ‘How did you know my name?'

‘I'll tell you that and plenty of other things that'll interest you—if only you'll order your man to get off my chest.'

‘Is it likely, now I've had the luck to catch you? Anything you want to say you can say to the police.'

I saw that she was about to turn away again and in a last, frantic effort to stop her, I called, ‘if you hand me over to the police bang goes your last chance of catching your father's murderer.'

‘You murdered him yourself!' she cried harshly. ‘You brute! I—I could …' Suddenly she burst into a torrent of tears.

‘Please,' I begged. ‘For goodness sake! I didn't kill your father. I swear I didn't—but I'm doing my damnedest to get the devil who did.'

For a moment her shoulders shook as the sobs racked her; but with surprising will-power she checked the outburst which ceased as suddenly as it had begun. She rubbed the back of one hand across her eyes and asked in a voice which showed that her resolution had weakened a trifle:

‘Who did kill him, then?'

‘If only you'll let me get up, I'll tell you everything,' I said.

‘All right,' she agreed grudgingly, ‘but you, Mustapha, hold him tightly in case he tries to escape.'

The Arab got off my chest and allowed me to stand, but he took up a position behind me with a firm grip on my coat collar.

I must have looked a pretty unpleasant sight, facing her like that; unshaven, dishevelled, and with mud from the flower-bed plastered all over my tawdry clothes. It was an ignominous position, too, being held out for her inspection by the brawny Mustapha like something the cat had dragged from the dustbin. As a matter of fact I could have taught
him
something, had I wished. His firm clutch held nothing but the collar of my coat so by slipping my arms out of it I could have left it in his grip and made a dash for liberty. I didn't care to chance that, as
they would certainly have shouted for help and brought half the hotel staff out in a hue and cry after me, but the knowledge that I could make a bolt for it, if I wished, gave me back my confidence and, realising that to employ shock tactics was the only line which might save me from immediate arrest, I promptly reversed our rôles in the conversation.

‘Now,' I said with some sharpness, ‘you'll first tell me how it is you came to be looking for me here.'

‘You
are
Julian Day, aren't you?' she asked quite mildly.

‘Yes,' I agreed. ‘I'm Julian Day and I was a friend of your father's. I'm also a friend of the Belvilles.
They
know I had no hand in the murder. I spent all last night with them.'

‘Oh,' she exclaimed, rather weakly. ‘I haven't seen them yet.'

‘So I imagined. But they came in on the evening train and the sooner you do see them, the better. Now, how did you know that I had arrived in Cairo, and how is it you were able to recognise me by the seat of my pants when I was hanging out of that window?'

‘It was Mustapha here, my dragoman. He's a bosom friend of your man Amin and he knew Amin was going down to meet a Mr. Julian Day at Alexandria on the “Hampshire” yesterday. Your name was front-page news in every paper this morning. Directly we saw you were wanted for the murder we thought Amin might be able to give us some information about you. So we met the train from Alexandria this afternoon and, although your disguise seems a pretty good one, we felt certain that the man with Amin must be you.'

‘Good work. I congratulate you. What did you do then?'

‘We followed your car. But we were unlucky and had a tyre burst, just by the Zoological gardens, and we feared we had lost you. On the off chance that you'd come out to Mena we came on here and questioned the porters. Amin had gone back to Cairo, they said, but we described the man who was with him and one of the loungers by the gates said he thought that he'd seen you stroll into the garden about an hour ago.'

‘You've missed your vocation,' I grinned, my admiration tempered with just a touch of sarcasm. ‘Then you came along to hunt me out, I suppose?'

‘Yes, having ‘phoned the Cairo police, I was too impatient to wait for them. We feared you might …'

‘Good God! You ‘phoned the police? They're on their way here, then?'

‘Yes. Of course.'

‘Then for goodness sake let's get out of this while there's still a chance. If you let the police arrest me, you won't stand an earthly chance of getting the man who really did the murder.'

‘But how do I know …' she began uncertainly.

‘Come on,' I said impatiently. ‘You've
got
to trust me.'

‘I don't see how …' she began again, and Mustapha cut in quickly, ‘No,
sitt
, no! He is an evil mans. You must
not
trust him.'

‘You keep out of this,' I snapped, jerking my head round. ‘You're going to do exactly what I tell you. Miss Shane and I are going up towards the pyramids where no one is likely to look for us, so that we can have a little talk. Meanwhile you're to stay here until Amin comes back. You'll keep out of the way of the police and directly he arrives you'll bring him along to us. We shall be by the IVth Dynasty tombs on the far side of the Sphinx.'

Before he had time to express surprise or dissent, Sylvia gasped indignantly, ‘Is it likely that I'd leave him behind and go off into the blue with you alone? You must be mad, I think, even to suggest it.'

‘All the same, that's what you're going to do,' I told her; and with one swift jerk I had my automatic out of my pocket.

‘Don't be frightened,' I said as her eyes opened wide in sudden consternation, and reversing the gun so that I held it by the barrel I extended it towards her as I asked, ‘Have you ever handled one of these before?'

‘Yes,' she said. ‘I always carry one if I'm motoring alone outside Cairo.'

‘Right,' I smiled. Then you'll know how to shoot me with it if I start any funny business when we're up by the pyramids?'

‘I've told you that I wouldn't dream of going up there alone with you. It's too great a risk.'

‘Nonsense!' I said angrily. ‘Can't you see that my handing over my pistol to you is a perfect guarantee of my good faith? Is it likely I'd do that if I were really responsible for your father's death? Of course not! I could have shot Mustapha
with it a couple of minutes ago and you as well—immediately you told me that you'd already summoned the police.'

‘That's true, I suppose,' she admitted.

‘It is: and when you hear what I've got to tell you I'm certain you'll realise how wise you were to trust me.'

‘All right, then. I'll chance it. Let him go, Mustapha.'

‘You understand what you're to do?' I said swiftly to the Arab as he released me. ‘Wait here for Amin, who's bringing me out a change of clothes. The two of you are to join us as quickly as you can outside the tombs of the IVth Dynasty Kings. Come on,' I added to her, ‘you had better follow me, then you can keep me covered with that gun, if you want to. But for mercy's sake leave the safety-catch down or you may let it off by mistake.'

Next minute I was trotting round the back of the hotel with her after me. We reached a steep bank on its far side beyond the kitchens and made our way up on to the flattish plateau of hard sandstone beyond. Fortunately there was no moon but the stars gave quite sufficient light to see by as we stumbled over the uneven ground parallel with the road which curves up towards the Great Pyramid of Kheops and the slightly smaller one of Khephren which actually looks larger from that angle because it stands on somewhat higher ground.

She continued to keep behind me so I knew that her suspicions were by no means fully allayed, but I felt I could congratulate myself on having wriggled out of an appalling mess, at least for the moment.

Keeping well away from the road I hurried on, glancing behind now and then to assure myself that I was not making the pace too hot for her; but she showed no sign of fatigue and with her long legs it looked as though, for a mile or two, she was capable of covering the ground as quickly as I could.

Within ten minutes we had reached the base of the Great Pyramid. It was silhouetted against the night sky and, not having seen it for the best part of a year, I could not help being impressed again by its magnificence in spite of my anxious state of mind. They say that it covers fourteen acres of land, and is close on five hundred feet in height, which is well over four times the height of Grosvenor House, Park Lane. But it does not look that height, which is probably on account of its
shape. It is said that it took a hundred thousand men thirty years to build, but the idea that it was erected by slave labour is a misconception. They only worked on it for about six weeks each year after the principal harvest was over. Apparently the peasants used to come in from all parts of the country for a sort of annual
fiesta
and the people of the different townships used to have competitions as to which contingent should drag the huge blocks of stone up the ramps into position quickest. The work was done with songs and laughter as a willing tribute to a great ruler who fed the people from his abundance and entertained them with every sort of merrymaking after their labours each night.

When it was completed, with its smooth, white, marble surface shining in the sun, it must have been a really lovely thing. But a few hundred years ago the Arabs tore off the polished facing to use the marble in building the Sultan Hassan Mosque, leaving its sides all jagged with the four-foot-deep blocks of sandstone exposed like giant sets of steps.

The most impressive thing about it is its solidity and strength. When the Arabs removed the casing they only destroyed a tiny fraction of it and I doubt if there is enough gun-cotton in the world to blow it up even if some vandal wished to do so. Even an earthquake could do no more than crack it and one has the feeling that when London is again a brickless, water-logged marsh and New York once more a barren island, the Great Pyramid will still be standing. It saw the dawn of civilisation on this earth and it will look upon the last sunset of the world.

In front of it there is a small police post and I wondered why Sylvia had not got men from there rather than wait until police could be sent out from Cairo. But perhaps it was not occupied at night, or she thought it better to communicate at once with headquarters. To avoid passing near the police post I kept to the right of the Great Pyramid and went right round it, sticking close to its huge base. Our way was made harder by heaps of shaly rubble and deep ditches from past excavations but finding there was not a soul about, when we got round the far side of the Pyramid I ventured on the track which winds down towards the rear of the Sphinx. From Mena House the Sphinx is about half an hour's walk in the day-time and considering our detour we did well to reach it in forty-five minutes. Turning
left behind the great, squatting beast I strode swiftly down the rock ramp which runs along the far side of it until I reached the shadows thrown by the great stone gate leading in to the IVth Dynasty tombs. The Antiquities people have put up an iron-barred gateway and this was locked, but I had no wish to go any further so I halted and turned to face my captor.

The light was better here than it had been among the shadows of the garden at Mena House and on our way I had had little chance to study her at all closely. Portraits can be deceptive, particularly where young women are concerned, but the one I had seen of her on the ship did her no more than justice. She really was a damnably attractive-looking girl. I remembered Clarissa saying that her eyes were blue, but they looked dark at the moment, and with the upturned bow of her eyebrows, aided no doubt by make-up pencil, they contrasted strikingly with her very fair hair which was ruffled slightly from her exertions. She was standing a good couple of yards away, still covering me with the gun.