Pawn in Frankincense - Dorothy Dunnett [69]
Now, as they approached warily, Jerott saw that there was something quite different about the design of the camp ahead. The tents were few but the number of fires seemed immense. Then he saw that the dark patches within the fires, which he had taken for the familiar kermes, the scrub-oak, were in fact animals; and as the mild wind shifted, and the sudden stench came unmistakably to his senses, he identified them beyond doubt. Camels, in extremely large numbers, and with only a small number of riders. Ali-Rashid, who else?
They stopped that night within sight of the other camp, and, leaving Marthe with Salablanca, Lymond rode over immediately to the camel-trader, Jerott beside him. Others were there before them, examining the animals and holding spasmodic conversation with the traders: there were no more than six of these last, Jerott saw; and the senior, Ali-Rashid himself, a gross, bearded man wearing a skull-cap wrapped about, Turkish-style, with some blue striped cotton, and a red, frogged coat under his blanket-like cloak. Jerott, used to the subdued tones preferred by the Moors, wondered what nationality the man was. But when he spoke, sitting crosslegged with a dish of stewed mutton resting under his great belly, the dialect was Arabic. He ate noisily, without offering to share with his visitors, and when the last of these moved away, Lymond crossed to the stained Cairo matting and, saluting quietly, dropped down beside him.
Jerott did not see the sum of money which changed hands at the end of that conversation, but from the camel-trader’s sudden excess of affability and the manner in which, at the end, he heaved himself to his feet, clapping his hands for his boys and attempting to press on them couscous and spirits and, finally, the services of one of his drovers, he understood that Lymond had not been niggardly.
Lymond himself, refusing briefly, stood up and said to Jerott, ‘He was paid to seek out the child and to buy it. He was then told to get rid of it any way he cared after three weeks. Just about the end of that time a family of Bedouin caught up with him and bought the child from him in return for some kif. He didn’t know why, but later realized they must have heard of the reward money. Since then, they’ve disappeared into the interior, but he thinks they send someone to the coast now and then to find out if the promised reward is in sight.’
The sickening smell of crude spirits mingled with the stench of the camels. Despite their refusals, Ali-Rashid had disappeared into his tent, and the sound of dispute floated out as he attempted to explain, no doubt, the extreme desirability of pleasing his visitors. Jerott said, ‘That’s a snake, if you like. I’m surprised he didn’t creep after those bloody Bedouin and snatch the child back from them, once he learned of the money.’
‘He couldn’t find them,’ said Lymond. ‘He admits that he tried. A member of the troop that bought the child turned up yesterday with money to buy a new camel, and he would have followed him then, but he got a very clear warning that if he did he wouldn’t reach there alive. He’s changed his mind now. For money. You and half of the men will stay here with the camels, and at daybreak tomorrow Ali-Rashid and I with the remainder will try to trace that Bedouin and his friends back to his family.’
‘And how,’ said Jerott, ‘do you propose to follow a handful of men and a camel on a trail already a day and a half old?’
‘Haven’t you noticed?’ said Lymond. ‘Every camel-trader notches the feet of his beasts with his own particular trade-mark. The Bedouin’s was the only single camel Ali-Rashid sold yesterday. All we have to do is follow its