The Quest of Julian Day (22 page)

I was awakened the next morning by the warder bringing breakfast—coffee, bread and a piece of sausage—not a very appetising meal but quite edible and sustaining. No one came to ask me any questions and I had half a mind to try to get permission to ring Harry up, as I feared that he and the girls would be worrying about me. But I felt it was certain that I should be interrogated in the course of the morning and it would be better to wait until then.

About ten o'clock a warder unlocked the door of my cell and motioned me to step outside; a couple of armed police were
waiting there and they led me upstairs to an office room where a spectacled man was working. He took no notice of me for a moment or two, then got up and went into another room next door; when he came out again he was carrying a large sheaf of papers and he said to me in English:

‘His Excellency will see you now. Please go inside.'

Somewhat to my surprise the two policemen saluted and retired while I walked forward unaccompanied into the further room.

It was a big apartment and there was no one in it except a solitary Englishman seated behind a desk. He was a very fine-looking man of between fifty and sixty; tall, broad-shouldered with grey hair and blue eyes. From the reference to ‘His Excellency' I knew at once that this must be the famous Essex Pasha, the Commandant of the Cairo Police and the terror of all dope-traffickers.

I was rather intrigued at the thought that he should consider the previous night's affair of sufficient importance to question me about it himself but he took the wind completely out of my sails by saying amiably:

‘Good morning, Mr. Day. Come and sit down.'

I stared at him a little rudely, I fear, but I did as I was bid while exclaiming, ‘So you knew who I was all the time!'

‘Yes,' he nodded, ‘and it's just as well for you that we did. You wouldn't be alive now if my people hadn't been shadowing you last night.'

‘By Jove! I had no idea that you were on to me before the scrap, sir. Then it wasn't the sound of my shots that brought the police on the scene?'

He smiled a little bleakly. ‘Admission No.1. It was you who shot the negro. We thought as much but we weren't quite certain. He died early this morning so we shall now have to add that to the other charges against you—and it's becoming quite a formidable list. Illicit entry into Egypt, failure to report to the police when advertised as wanted for questioning in connection with Sir Walter Shane's death, being concerned in the traffic in illicit drugs, giving a false name to the police when arrested and now—manslaughter. You have quite a lot to answer for, young man.'

‘I know it,' I sighed. ‘And I'm afraid I've given your people
a great deal of trouble but I hope to be able to convince a Court that I had good reasons for acting as I did.'

‘I see.' His firm mouth hardened. ‘So you prefer to reserve your defence. That must be as you wish, Mr. Day; and of course I can have all these charges brought forward formally. But I was hoping that you would have been prepared to talk frankly to me.'

‘The situation's a bit unusual, isn't it?' I said. ‘One way and another I have been led to believe that you, or the police rather, believe it was I who killed Sir Walter Shane. If that is so, oughtn't I to consult a solicitor before I answer any questions? Please don't think I've any idea that you're trying to lead me into a trap. I'm asking your advice now, sir; and I really would be grateful for it because I know that I've got myself into a shocking mess, although I assure you I had no hand in Sir Walter's death.'

‘Of course you hadn't.' He sat back suddenly with a great roar of laughter. ‘I know that. Your own actions since you landed are proof enough. If you were the murderer you would be in Suez or Port Said by now trying to get out of a country that's too hot to hold you—not running round Cairo getting yourself mixed up in a scrap with drug-traffickers, or sitting on the terrace at the Continental calmly having drinks with your friends. I've a very shrewd idea what you've been up to, Day, and if I'm right you can count me as your friend; but there are a lot of gaps that I've got to fill in yet and you'll lose nothing by being absolutely frank with me. I've no intention of charging you with murder and, although I make no promises at the moment, I think we might even drop the lesser charges if you are prepared to tell me exactly what part you've played in this unpleasant business.'

‘If that's so, sir,' I smiled, ‘you've taken ten years off my age. I only wish I'd known this yesterday. If I had, I would never have attempted to play the lone hand I did last night.'

‘But it was your performance last night which really convinced me you weren't the man who did the murder; so perhaps it's just as well things have panned out as they did. Now, start from the beginning and tell me everything. Take your time and have a cigarette.'

As I helped myself from the box an overwhelming sense of
relief swept over me. Since Essex Pasha was already persuaded that I hadn't committed the murder, there was a real possibility that he would believe the rest of my story, strange as it might sound; and I knew without even having to think about it that here was a man I could trust absolutely.

He was not only an Englishman whose integrity was beyond question and one of the most famous police chiefs in the world, but also a high official of the Government who, while understanding the intricacies of Egyptian politics, would never allow himself to be browbeaten or side-tracked by a rotten little rat like Zakri Bey. I knew the only way I could hope to convince him that I had not dreamed the power and menace of O'Kieff's organisation was to withhold nothing of importance, so I told him my real name and the reasons which had led me to assume that of Julian Day.

He nodded slowly. ‘So that's who you are. I remember hearing about that tragic business at the time and I knew poor Carruthers slightly. This is extremely interesting. Go on.'

I then gave him particulars of my trip out to Egypt on the ‘Hampshire' and all that had happened since. The only thing I concealed was the reason for the Belvilles' proposed expedition and the actual matter which lay hidden in the hieroglyphics on the stolen tablet for which Sir Walter had been murdered; but Essex Pasha picked upon the point at once.

When I had done he sat back and placed his finger-tips together. ‘You've told your story well and, as the Egyptian part of it checks up with certain ideas of my own, I'm quite prepared to believe the whole of it. There's one thing, though. Day—it would be best, I think, if I continued to call you by your assumed name—this tablet must have been of some very special significance for O'Kieff's to murder, or instigate the murder of Sir Walter in order to get hold of it. I should like to hear a little more about that tablet.'

I smiled but shook my head. ‘There I can't help you, sir. Solely because it's not my secret. The thing
has
a special value, of course. In fact, it's
so
valuable that it certainly provides a perfectly adequate motive for Sir Walter's murder, but I can honestly assure you that the knowledge of its secret would not assist you in your investigations in the least.'

‘These archæologists are a queer lot.' His blue eyes twinkled.
‘And they sometimes find the regulations of the Egyptian Government for the protection of its buried treasure extremely irksome. Naturally, if it came to my knowledge that Sir Walter or his friends had been contemplating any illicit digging it would be my duty to report it to the proper authority. However, it's hardly my province to go into that side of it at the moment; so I won't press you on that point.

‘My business is the murder and, since most of the crime in Egypt is linked up with it, even more particularly the suppression of the Drug Traffic. I've had my eye on Gamal for some time but nothing definite that I could bring against him. The people who attacked you last night are small fry, of course; but well see to it that they get good long sentences. Where your efforts have proved really valuable is in drawing my attention to the Princess Oonas and Zakri Bey. She's an exotic creature but I was not aware that she had any interests outside her love-affairs, and although Zakri is an untrustworthy intriguer it's never been suggested that he was mixed up in this. Both of them have plenty of friends in high places but from now on I shall be able to keep an eye on them, if you're right, we shall doubtless get them in the long run.'

‘Just how powerful is Zakri?' I asked.

‘Very powerful indeed.'

‘Powerful enough to get me slung out of Egypt? That was the idea, you know, and it was for that reason I went to such pains to evade the police.'

‘I don't think you need worry. All sorts of people try to pull all sorts of wires in this country and very often they succeed: but I've served the Egyptian Government for so long that I think I can say they place considerable trust in me. If I vouch for you personally, very strong reasons indeed would have to be adduced against you before anyone could bring pressure to bear for the cancellation of your permit to remain here.'

‘That's very good of you, sir,' I said.

‘No. I naturally expect you to refrain from any rash undertakings. But, as you may know, it's been my life-work to stamp out this Drug Traffic which is the curse of Egypt, and you've succeeded in enabling me to catch Gamal and stop one more hole in the wall, so I owe you something for that.'

‘It's nice of you to put it that way,' I smiled at him. ‘And, of
course, I'll take no further steps against O'Kieff and Co. without consulting you, Why is it, though, that the Egyptians seem to have this craving for dope more than any other country? Has it always been like this?'

‘No. Dope was almost unknown in Egypt until the building of the great dam above Assuan which was completed in 1902.'

‘What on earth has the dam got to do with it? I always thought that huge inland lake which is held up there by the gigantic barrage was the absolute making of Egypt.'

‘So it was, commercially. In bad years it saves the country from famine and it enables the peasant to grow three crops a year instead of two. It's made vast fortunes for the cotton merchants, but it's ruined the health of Egypt's people.'

‘Do please, explain,' I said.

‘It's this way. When the Nile inundated the country naturally only once a year, the ground dried up during the dry season and was baked hard by the sun which killed a certain bacillus or parasite that is in it. Now that the land can be kept irrigated through the dry season by releasing water from the great reservoir at will large areas of it never dry up at all. The crust may appear hard but the earth is not sterilised by baking to a sufficient depth; underneath it still remains moist and soggy because no proper drainage system was established, as it should have been according to the advice of the experts, when the great dam was built. In consequence the parasite that I was speaking of is not killed off every year but has increased and multiplied in the damp subsoil until the whole land is riddled with it.

‘Owing to the low state in which the
fellaheen
live, it's impossible to prevent them from drinking unfiltered water and they get this bug in their tummies. The Arabs are a very strongly sexed people and, curiously enough, while the bug does not seem to have any effect on the women it saps the virility of the men and makes them virtually useless as lovers and husbands.

‘Soon after this disease first started amongst them they discovered that hashish would temporarily restore their sexual vigour. Urged on by their women they began to take it regularly and within ten years of the completion of the dam the
dope-taking habit had gripped two-thirds of the population. That's the whole story.

‘We're getting it under but it's a hard fight; and as long as they can get it in they'll take it unless the Government can be persuaded of its folly in repudiating our engineers' original plans and institutes a proper drainage-system.'

‘That's extraordinarily interesting,' I said. ‘And now, since you are being so kind, would you tell me how, the police in Alexandria having failed, you succeeded in getting on to me so quickly?'

He smiled again. ‘The people in Alexandria didn't have much chance did they? And we had a little more time to go into the case. It was obvious that you and the Belvilles were very friendly while you were on the ship and that they didn't believe you were the murderer, so it was a fair bet that, if you were innocent, sooner or later you would get in touch with them. I had them met at the station and followed to the Semiramis. Then Sylvia Shane's telephone message came through that she had located you out at Mena. She denied that afterwards but I felt there was something fishy about it and when it was reported that she had turned up with a young man to see the Belvilles at the Semiramis later that night I felt fairly certain it was you. We could have pulled you in then, of course, but I wanted to know what you were doing in Cairo when, if you had been the murderer, you would almost certainly have been trying to get out of Egypt through one of the ports. We had you covered all the time you were asleep in your
pension
, while you were having cocktails at the Continental and later, when you went to Gamal's. When you left his place carrying a package and took to your heels in Mohammed Ali Street we had a pretty shrewd idea what you were up to and I arranged for a special force of police to be drafted out to the City of the Dead directly you entered it. I'm sorry you very nearly got knifed but we wanted to pinch the other people who contacted you there, so my men had to wait until they were quite certain that it was you the other four were after.'

‘Wonderful,' I grinned ruefully, ‘and to think that I flattered myself that I was fooling you all the time!'

‘What d'you intend to do now?' he asked.

‘With your permission, sir, I propose to resume my own
identity and move to Shepheard's. I should like to telephone the Belvilles, too, because they must be very worried about me.'