Trade Wind (78 page)

Dan let his breath out in an audible sigh and lowered the pistol, and Rory smiled and said: “That’s better. I thought you’d see reason.”

He watched the Lieutenant turn and leave the cabin, heard him speak briefly to his men, and presently saw the jolly-boat returning across the harbour to the
Daffodil
The bluff had worked. For it had been a bluff. Amah-ben-Labadi was no fool, and though it amused him to indulge Captain Frost and bedevil the Lieutenant with a little harmless playacting, the fact that his dhow offered a certain and sitting target for the
Daffodil
‘s guns was enough to ensure that every musket handled by his volatile crew that morning had first been prudently unloaded. But Dan would not know that, and Rory calculated that even if he suspected a bluff it was one that he would not dare call, since the men who manned the dhows had an unenviable reputation, and the European community in Zanzibar was small and virtually unprotected.

Considering that he had every intention of calling on the British Consul, anyone unacquainted with Emory Frost might be excused for thinking that this hollow show of force was a singularly useless piece of trickery. But then Rory knew that the incident would be reported to Colonel Edwards, and that neither Dan nor the Colonel could have any desire, at such a time, to risk a confrontation between the dhows and the
Daffodil
, It was for this reason alone that he had staged that charade, in the hope that it might serve to impress on both gentlemen the fact that the members of his crew were not without allies. A point which had, he trusted, been taken.

Nevertheless, he was well aware that so far he had been gambling with the odds heavily in his favour. It was the next throw that was the crucial one and he was less certain of the outcome, for once ashore and out of range of the dhows the advantage would lie with Colonel Edwards, who might not be prepared to come to terms. Well, if so he, Rory, had at least taken what steps he could to improve the bargaining position of his ship and his crew.

Dan was waiting for him on deck, and as the sun lipped the horizon and washed the white rooftops of the city in a dazzle of light, they landed at the rubbish-strewn beach near the British Consulate and walked up through a hot, airless alleyway to the door where two of the Sultan’s Baluchis still stood on guard and Haj ji Ralub, watched by a third who held his musket at the ready, waited in the sharp-etched shadow of a gold mohur tree.

“I have told this ox that I remain here of my own will,” grunted Ralub disgustedly, “but these fools say that if I am not watched I will run away. Tell them that there is no need to set a guard on me, and that I wait for your orders.”

“They would not believe it, Hajji,” said Rory. “Be patient I shall not be too long.”

The British Consul was at his desk and waiting, and if the situation surprised him he gave no sign of it He did not return the Captain’s polite greeting, but sat back in his chair to give his attention to Lieutenant Larrimore’s account of the morning’s proceedings, and when Dan had ceased speaking, turned his bleak gaze on Captain Frost and said coldly:

“I shall not waste my time reciting the details of the indictment against you, because you must be well aware of them. To be brief, you are charged with inciting a mob to attack the foreign consulates in Zanzibar, fomenting riots that resulted in the death of two persons and the injury of many others, and abducting with violence the citizen of a friendly power. I now hear that you have only this morning threatened to open fire on Her Majesty’s forces, regardless of the fact that this would instantly lead to further anti-European demonstrations and make you directly responsible for the loss of a great many more lives. So you will understand that I have no alternative but to pronounce the capital sentence upon you and see that it is carried out immediately. Have you anything to say?”

“Certainly. Otherwise I should not be here,” said Rory equably. “May I sit?”

He did not wait for permission, but reaching behind him drew up a chair and sat down astride it, his arms folded along the back and his chin resting upon them in an attitude that betokened considerably more confidence than he felt. He saw the frigid anger gleam in the Colonel’s eyes and the swift tensing of Dan Larrimore’s muscles, but neither man made any move towards him, and the Colonel said harshly and with an effort: “I am aware—well aware—that you must have felt both grieved and angered by the outrage committed against a member of your household, and by its tragic consequences. But that cannot be held to excuse the brutal action you yourself took against an innocent and unfortunate—”

He found himself unable to complete the sentence, for there was suddenly something in the expression on the lean face that looked back at him that checked him as effectually as a blow across the mouth, and he was startled to find himself flushing as hotly as though he had been guilty of some gross breach of propriety. For the space of a full minute there was complete silence in the small white-walled office, and an oppressive sense of tension that had not been there before.

It was broken by the Colonel’s dry embarrassed cough, and the rigidity went out of Rory’s face: the long lines of his body were once again relaxed and at ease, and he said lightly: “I have no intention of excusing myself. Shall we dispense with abstract questions and get down to bargaining? I have a proposition to make.”

The Colonel made an angry movement of repudiation, and Rory lifted an admonitory hand and said: “Wait! You asked me if I had anything to say, and before you put on the black cap you had better listen to it. You have something that I want: a child and an old man whom you are at present holding prisoner in my house. If you will let them go aboard the
Virago
, together with any of my servants and crew who wish to accompany them, and permit them to sail on the next tide, I will surrender myself in exchange, and you can do what you like with me. Though I think it only fair to warn you that it would be unwise to try hanging me until my friends are well out of range. Well, those are my terms. And very generous ones, if you ask me.”

“Very!” agreed Dan sarcastically, “considering that we have you already and so the question of your surrender, voluntary or otherwise, does not arise. There are no dhows protecting you here, and by now my ship will have moved to where she can get her gun-sights on yours. You’ve nothing to bargain with, and if that’s all you have to say—”

Colonel Edwards, who had been watching Rory’s face, silenced the younger man with an authoritative gesture, and said quietly: “I presume there is something more. May I ask what action you intend taking in the event of your terms being rejected?”

“You may. I should be loath to start any further trouble in the city, but I have several friends who for purely selfish reasons would be only too pleased to foment further disorders. My crew have their instructions; and if I surrender to you voluntarily, letting it be known that I have done so and that you have accepted my terms, they will see to it that there are no further disturbances on my account. You have my word for that.”

“The word of a blackguardly slaver!” snapped Dan, unable to contain himself. “Why, you crooked, contemptible kidnapper, there isn’t a man in his senses who would accept anything from you, let alone your word, and if you think—”

“Be quiet, Larrimore!” admonished the Consul brusquely; and turned again to Captain Frost: “And if you do not surrender voluntarily?”

Rory grinned at him and shook his head. “Oh no! If I told you the how and the where you might be able to take measures to prevent it. Though I doubt if they’d be successful. But you can take the word of a blackguardly slaver that if you try and hold me without my consent a lot of innocent people are going to suffer for it Which may upset you, but will not worry me in the least.”

“You’re bluffing,” said Dan angrily. “There’s nothing you or your friends could do. They won’t face being shelled, and even the Sultan won’t dare lift a finger to help you if we train the guns on the city and threaten to open fire at the first sign of trouble.”

“
Rule, Britannia!
” said Emory Frost. “All right Dan: I’m bluffing. Are you going to call me?”

Dan did not answer, and Rory laughed and said: “You know you daren’t—because of what might happen if the Sultan called yours and told you to go ahead and fire.”

“We’ve restored order before without that,” said Dan shortly. “And we can do it again.”

“I doubt it. You had the city on your side last time, but this time it would be the townspeople themselves whom you would be fighting, and not a piratical rabble of invaders who every right-thinking citizen fears and detests. You’d have no allies, and as I happen to know that the next British ship isn’t expected here for a fortnight, you’d be taking on the whole Island. There are too few of you to do that.”

He saw that the truth of this had given the Lieutenant pause, and followed up his advantage: “Come off your high horse and talk sense, Dan. And you too, sir. You’ve no quarrel with old Batty Potter or a baby. Or with my crew for that matter, who were merely obeying my orders. I’m the one you want, and if you let them go you can keep me under lock and key until the
Cormorant
arrives, and then send me off to be sentenced in some less explosive spot where no one’ll give a damn whether I hang or not. What have you got to lose? Or does wholesale revenge mean more to you than the safety of—shall we say—Miss Cressida Hollis?”

“You
bastard!
” said Dan in a whisper. “You dirty, renegade bastard!”

He took a swift stride forward and the Consul leant across the desk and caught his sleeve, jerking him back: “Sit down. Lieutenant!…thank you.’ He resumed his seat and turned his cold grey eyes on the Captain: “The word, Mr Frost, is ‘justice,’ not ‘revenge.’ And I do not myself believe that you have sufficient following in Zanzibar to put your threats into effect. But unhappily you are correct in assuming that we are in no position to risk any further outbreaks of violence. We also have no quarrel with the city and no intention of provoking one, and it is for these reasons, and only these, that I am forced to accept your conditions.”

Rory removed his arms from the back of the chair and stood up. “Thank you, sir.”

“Wait!” The Consul lifted a commanding hand. “That is not all: I have a few conditions of my own. I am willing to remove the guard from your house and permit the occupants to leave, and I will give your men twenty-four hours in which to take on water and provisions and make any arrangements they have to make. But if they are not clear of the harbour by the end of that time I shall consider the contract void, and if I hear later that they have landed in any other part of the Island, or on Pemba, I shall have no hesitation in ordering them to be detained. Is that quite clear?”

“Perfectly, thank you. But I assure you they will not be landing anywhere on the Sultan’s territory.”

“That is just as well. There is also one other matter. I cannot for die moment dispense with the services of the
Daffodil
, and as I do not intend to hamper Lieutenant Larrimore by requesting him to hold you on board, or to keep you in custody myself in this house, I shall ask the Sultan’s permission for you to be imprisoned in the Fort until such time as the
Cormorant
‘s arrival relieves them of your charge. But as I am only too well aware that you possess influential friends in Zanzibar who might be able to arrange your escape, I must ask you to give me your parole.”

Dan made a sharp, protesting movement but did not speak, and Rory’s blond eyebrows lifted in surprise. He said with an odd note in his voice: “You flatter me, sir. What makes you think I would honour it?”

The Colonel said dryly: “The fact that knowing what it would mean, you returned here of your own accord for the sake of an old man and a child. I may of course be mistaken. But that is a risk I am prepared to take.”

Rory’s reluctant grin dawned, and he said lightly, but with a curious note of bitter self-mockery in his drawling voice: “You win, sir. Strange how ‘conscience doth make cowards of us all!’ You have my word that I will not attempt to escape from the Fort.”

The Colonel did not miss the reservation, and remarked grimly that he did not think the Captain would find it any too easy to escape from the
Cormorant
either, if that was what he had in mind. He reached for the small brass bell that stood on his desk, rang it briskly and gave a curt order in the vernacular to the native clerk who answered the summons.

“I presume,” said the Colonel, “that you will wish to speak to that man of yours who is waiting outside. You can say anything you have to say in our presence.”

The door opened again to admit Ralub, who greeted the company with grave dignity, and Rory said crisply: “It has been agreed, Hajji. You and die others have leave to depart Take the old one and the child, and any of the household who wish to go, and get away as quickly as you can. His Excellency here permits you a day and a night to make any arrangements that are necessary, but since it is unwise to delay so long, go at once—within the hour if possible. And if we two should not…’ He hesitated for a moment, and then abandoning whatever else he had meant to say, gave a brief shrug and spoke instead a gracious Mohammedan form of farewell: ‘May you never be poor.’”

“‘May you never be tired,’” murmured Ralub in reply. He looked at Rory for the space of a long minute, and then said very softly: “No, we shall not meet again…Bound as we are for different paradises. Wedâ, ya Sidi.

He touched his head and his heart in formal salute, turned, and was gone.

“And I hope,” said Rory, his voice suddenly harsh, “that you have called off that oaf with the musket, because if he intends to dog Ralub’s footsteps all over town there will infallibly be trouble. The Hajji is apt to be quick-tempered.”

Colonel Edwards, whose quill pen was already scratching an order for the removal of all restrictions on The Dolphins’ House, ignored the remark, and it was Dan who went to the door and gave a low-toned order to the servant who stood outside it, and returning, said savagely: “You think you’ve won hands down, don’t you?—that once you’re out of this place and can get together a few lawyers to plead your case you’ll get off with a fine and a prison sentence. But if I have anything to do with it!”