Murder in Canton

XIV

Chiao Tai took the precaution of descending from the litter in the street next to the one where Captain Nee lived, and then went on afoot. Before knocking, he looked the street up and down. There were only a couple of street vendors about; most people were either eating their noon rice or preparing for their siesta.

The old crone opened the gate. She immediately started upon a long story in what Chiao Tai presumed to be Persian. He listened for a while to show his goodwill, then pushed her away and went inside.

On the second floor a deep silence reigned. He opened the door of the reception room. No one was there. He thought the captain and his two charming slave-girls would have finished their noon meal by now and would be taking their siesta. Severally — as Dunyazad would doubtless have pointed out! he said to himself peevishly. He would wait for a little while; perhaps the old crone would have enough sense to rouse the captain. If no one appeared, he would have to explore the rest of the house on his own.

He stepped up to the sword rack and again admired the blades displayed there. Absorbed in his study, he did not hear the two turbaned men who climbed on to the flat roof outside. They came noiselessly into the room, carefully stepping over the potted orchids on the window sill. While the lean one drew a long thin knife, the squat man took a firm hold of his club, stepped up behind Chiao Tai and quickly brought the club down hard on the back of his head. Chiao Tai stood stock-still for one brief moment, then he fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

'There are plenty of good blades to choose from, Aziz,' the lean Arab remarked as he turned to the sword rack. 'We'll finish Mansur's job quickly.'

'Allah be praised!' a silvery voice spoke in Arabic. 'I am rid of the lecherous unbeliever!'

The two ruffians whirled round and gaped at the girl who had come out from behind the curtain. She was stark naked, wearing only a blue necklace and white satin shoes.

'A houri descended straight from paradise!’ the squat man said reverently. He stared with unbelieving delight at her perfect young figure.

'Call me a reward for all true believers,' Dananir said. Pointing at Chiao Tai, she added, 'The man wanted to assault me. He was just taking a sword to force me to submit to his odious embraces, so I fled behind the curtain. His mother was loved by an ass.'

'Just allow us a few moments to finish him off,' the lean fellow said with enthusiasm. 'Then we'll profit by your company! My name is Ahmed, by the way. My friend here is called Aziz.'

'Ahmed or Aziz, that's my problem,' Dananir said, looking them up and down with a provocative smile. 'Both of you are handsome young warriors. Let me see now!’ She quickly came up to them, took each by the sleeve and made them stand side by side, with their backs against the curtain.

'By Allah!’ the squat man exclaimed impatiently. 'Why worry your pretty head? First take...'

Suddenly his voice broke. He clasped his hands to his chest and sank to the floor, blood oozing from his distorted mouth.

Dananir put her arms round the other with a frightened cry.

'Allah preserve us!' she wailed. 'What is...'

A large alabaster vase crashed down on the man's head. Dananir let go of him, and he fell down on the reed mat.

Dunyazad came out. from behind the curtain. She looked dazedly at the two prone Arabs.

'You did that very well,' Dananir remarked. 'But why didn't you stab the other too? The captain was rather fond of that vase, you know.'

DANANIR WELCOMES UNEXPECTED GUESTS

'I noticed a bulge about his shoulders, and was afraid he was wearing a vest of mail.' Dunyazad tried to speak casually, but her voice trembled. She was very pale, a film of moisture covered her brow. Suddenly she ran over to the far corner and threw up on the floor. As she turned round and brushed the wet hair from her face, she muttered:

'Must be that fish I ate at noon. Come on, put your trousers on and help me revive him.'

She knelt by Chiao Tai's side and began to rub his neck and shoulders. Dananir fetched a jug and poured water over his head.

At long last Chiao Tai regained consciousness. He looked up dazed at the two faces above him. 'The awful twins!’ he gasped and quickly closed his eyes again.

He lay still for a while. Then he raised himself slowly to a sitting position and felt the large lump on the back of his head. He did up his hair again, and carefully replaced his cap, well to the front. Giving the twins a baleful look, he growled:

'By heaven, I'll beat your little bottoms raw for that disgraceful prank!’

'Would you kindly have a look at the two men who attacked you, sir? The thin one is called Ahmed, the fat one Aziz,' Dun­yazad said primly.

Chiao Tai sat up. He stared at the two Arabs sprawling in front of the curtain, and at the knife and club lying on the mat.

'While my sister diverted their attention, I stabbed the squat one,' Dunyazad explained. 'The other I merely stunned, so that you can question him, if so desired. He said Mansur had sent them.'

Chiao Tai came slowly to his feet. He felt sick and dizzy, but he managed to say with a grin, 'Good girls!'

'You ought to vomit now, really,' Dananir said, with a solici­tous look at his chalk-white face. 'It's the normal reaction after a heavy blow on the head.'

'Do I look like a weakling?' Chiao Tai asked, indignant.

'It'll help if you imagine you are trying to swallow a large piece of lamb's fat, slightly rancid,' Dananir suggested. As he began to retch, she added quickly, 'Not on the mat! Over there in the corner, please!’

He stumbled to the place indicated and vomited. He had to admit that it relieved him considerably. He took a long draught from the water jug, spat through the window arch, then went over to the two prone men. He pulled Dunyazad's thin blade from the squat Arab's back. Wiping it off on the dead man's gown, he said with grudging admiration, 'You have a deft hand!' After he had examined the other's skull, he looked up. 'Too deft, as a mat­ter of fact. This man is dead too.' As Dunyazad uttered a sup­pressed cry of horror, he said to her, 'The black stuff you smear on your eyes is running. You look awful.'

Dunyazad turned round and rushed behind the curtain.

'Don't mind her,' Dananir observed. 'She is hyper-sensitive.'

Chiao Tai went carefully through the clothes of the two dead men. But they had not carried one scrap of paper on them. He remained standing there, pensively fingering his moustache. When Dunyazad came back, her face newly made-up, he said:

'Wonder what those two were up to! Why didn't they stab me to death at once? That long knife looks very serviceable.'

'Didn't I tell you?' Dunyazad remarked to her sister. 'He is nice but dumb.'

'Hey! Why do you call me dumb, you impudent hussy?' Chiao Tai shouted.

'Because you are incapable of simple reasoning,' she replied composedly. 'Don't you see that it was their intention to kill you with one of the captain's swords? So as to make it appear that it was he who murdered you? If you can't follow me, I'll gladly explain it once more.'

'For heaven's sake!' Chiao Tai exclaimed. 'You must be right! Where is the captain?'

'He went out directly after his noon rice. We heard our old woman trying to explain that to you, but you didn't understand her and came up regardless. Fresh, we thought that.'

'Why in the name of heaven didn't you two show up when I came in?'

'All handbooks of love are agreed,' Dunyazad said earnestly, 'that the best method for judging a man's character is to observe him when he thinks he is alone. Since we are generally interested in you, we observed you. From behind that curtain.'

'Well I never! But thanks all the same!'

'Don't you think, mister colonel,' Dunyazad resumed in a businesslike voice, 'that this occurrence constitutes a compelling reason for buying and marrying the two of us?'

'Heavens no!' Chiao Tai cried out, horrified.

'Heavens yes!' she said firmly. Putting her hands on her hips, she asked: 'What do you think we saved your life for, eh?'

Dananir had been gazing steadily at Chiao Tai. Now she said slowly:

'Let's not be precipitate, sister. We are agreed that it must hap­pen to us practically simultaneously, aren't we? Are you quite sure the man is sufficiently intense for accomplishing that?'

Dunyazad eyed him speculatively. 'I wonder. I see grey hairs in his moustache. He's forty if he's a day!'

'It'd be awful if one of us should be disappointed,' her sister continued. 'We always intended it to be a shared memory of ecstatic surrender, didn't we?'

'You lewd hussies!’ Chiao Tai burst out angrily. 'Is that blind girl friend of yours of the same ilk?'

Dunyazad gave him a blank look. Then she told her sister dis­gustedly:

'He wants a blind girl! Well, that's probably the only kind he stands a fair chance of getting!'

Chiao Tai decided that he was no match for them. He said wearily to Dunyazad:

'Tell the old crone to call two litters, so that I can take the dead bodies to the office of my boss. Pending their arrival, I'll help you clear away the mess here. On one condition, namely that you two keep your rosy little mouths shut!'