The Damascened Blade

Chapter Sixteen

At dawn.’

The phrase has its melodramatic ring and, as he delivered it, Joe had been aware of this and wished he could take back the words. Confronted now with the reality of dawn in a forbidding landscape drained of colour and with a sharp wind blowing off the hills, he felt many things and gallantry and confidence were not among them.

He looked at the two Scouts who had been told off to accompany this lunatic foray. Aslam and Yussuf were already standing by at the chiga gate, eager to start out.

‘How did you select them?’ Joe had asked James.

‘Not easy,’ had been the reply. ‘Every bloody man in the unit volunteered. No surprise to me! That always happens. And you’re faced with the alternatives of offending everybody you don’t select and inflating the consequence beyond measure of the two you do select. But still, they’re good men these two, you’ll find. Very reliable, very experienced. And they are not of the same tribe – don’t want any tribal combining, thanks! They’d serve you well even without the bonus of six months’ extra pay I’ve offered them to bring you both back out again safely. Six months’ pay! Enough to buy them a rifle or a bride. They’ll take good care of you!’ He paused. ‘And I had another reason for choosing this pair. They both have brothers in the unit.’

‘Hostages, do you mean to say?’ Joe had asked.

‘Yes,’ said James. ‘More or less. More or less. That’s how they’ll see it anyway!’

Joe looked the Scouts up and down. They wore nailed sandals, woollen hose-tops, baggy shorts and long shirts crossed by bandoliers each carrying fifty rounds. Their beaming faces were surmounted by a Pathan pagri, a length of khaki cloth wound around a dome-shaped, padded kullah, and the loose end of the pagri trailed behind in a shamleh, protecting the back of the neck from the sun. Joe thought they looked pretty good; they looked businesslike, spare and effective.

He couldn’t, he thought, quite say the same of the third member of the party as Grace joined them. She looked swiftly round. ‘I was expecting two Scouts,’ she said. ‘Why do I see three?’ She stared and started. ‘Well, I’m damned! Not bad, Joe! Not bad at all! Nearly fooled me and that takes some doing.’

Joe was not taken in but he was amused by Grace’s cheerful by-play. He thought he did look pretty convincing; a little kohl rubbed into his eyebrows and around his eyes and quite a lot of dirt massaged into his face had worked wonders. His tall athletic frame was very like that of the other two Scouts and the company barber had carefully given the three the same short regimental haircut the night before. He had wondered whether to pull his turban down slightly over one eye to cover his war wound but the Scouts had advised against this, pointing with pride to their own wounds, and he gathered it gave him authenticity and even prestige. They had scrutinized him carefully, made a few adjustments to his gear and finally were satisfied – ‘The sahib will pass as Pukhtun so long as he does not get off his horse,’ said Aslam mysteriously and explained further that ‘Ferenghi walk with ram-rod up their arse but Pukhtun walk like leopard.’ Joe’s not entirely serious practice attempts to walk like a leopard were greeted with stifled laughter. ‘Not camel, sahib – leopard!’

‘The question is, Grace,’ said Joe, ‘will it fool anybody else?’

‘Oh, yes, certainly. If you keep your mouth shut, stay in the background and don’t take your trousers off.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of doing so,’ said Joe, ‘but why particularly?’

‘I have to ask the question – circumcised? Uncircumcised?’

‘The latter,’ said Joe, ‘but I reckon that given time you could fix that as well!’

‘Certainly I could,’ said Grace. ‘But perhaps we haven’t got time today. You’d have to make an appointment and my book gets full! But, anyway, you’ve been warned. Be careful.’

Her practical good humour lightened the grey morning and eased the tension coiling in his stomach. He looked with a smile at her outfit. She was wearing voluminous red trousers, a hat and a veil and a man’s loose white shirt belted at the waist.

‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I know I look ridiculous but this is my campaign gear. Pathan women wear red trousers when they’re out and about – it’s a signal to gunmen that they’re not a target. Like this I can be seen from far off. I take nobody by surprise and,’ she looked down at her billowing trousers, ‘I confess, I think they look extremely becoming! Don’t you?’

Her horse was led out for her and a Scout – was it Aslam or Yussuf? – it was hard to tell them apart – came forward and cupped his hands for Grace’s foot and swung her into the saddle. The other Scout attached Grace’s medical case to the crupper and they were ready. Their exit from the fort was deliberately discreet and in minutes they had slipped through the chiga gate and headed west at a trot down the broad valley along the banks of the Bazar river. Joe noted the easy way Grace sat in the saddle, moving with all the economy of a cavalryman.

‘I suppose,’ he thought, ‘that, to the Pathan, Grace is a sort of honorary man and as such transcends all the normal rules. But then, I can’t think of any place where Grace wouldn’t feel at home from Viceregal Lodge through lecturing to medical students to worming children in the market place. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d brought half the hairy scoundrels who lie in wait ahead of us into this world! Such a reputation must be worth something!’

Grace tuned into his thought, turning to him as they rode and saying seriously, ‘Being in my company is a sort of good conduct pass but it won’t carry you all the way. Remember, Joe, that as far as is known and with the exception of actual prisoners (like Rathmore) no ferenghi – no European, that is – has ever made his way into Mahdan Khotal. Sacred ground, you understand. It’s very important therefore that you should be as invisible as possible and when we get a bit closer I’ll ride ahead with Aslam who is Afridi and you can ride behind with Yussuf who is Khattack. Should anyone ask, we’ll tell them you’re a Chitrali from the north. That’ll explain any awkwardness with language. They’ll notice the leading hand but won’t pay so much attention to the matched pair behind. In any case, three armed Scouts are not likely to be perceived as much of a threat, particularly since they have no idea that we’re on to them.’

She paused and looked back over her shoulder as a Bristol fighter roared its way into the sky behind them and made its patient and pointless way north-west over the Khyber. ‘Good old Fred! That’ll keep them guessing!’ Her tone changed. ‘Once we’ve been admitted to the fort the nature of the game changes. You, I and the two boys will have become their guests and thereby under their protection. It ought to work but I’d be more comfortable if – just in case it doesn’t and, as the saying goes, “the worst came to the worst” – you had one of these.’ She reached across as he rode beside her and put a red glass capsule in his hand. ‘Cyanide,’ she said and continued, ‘I expect I’m being histrionic but there is just a chance – more than a chance – that this could go wrong.’ She gave him a level glance and resumed, ‘Put it where you can easily get at it.’

‘It’s glass,’ said Joe, momentarily puzzled.

‘Should you be in a position where you need to use it, a mouth full of glass will be the least of your problems!’

Joe pondered the implication, saying at last, ‘Believe me, Grace, I don’t want to be there when it goes wrong but if it does I’ll just carry on taking the tablets and see you in a fortnight. Correct?’

‘Yes, that’s about it.’

The easy way in which Grace handed out a lethal poison reawakened all Joe’s suspicions. The scene might have changed into a desperate rescue dash into the hills to bring out Rathmore and Lily but his main objective remained to find out who had killed Zeman. He was sure that much would flow from that solution. He had never accepted the theory of andromedotoxin poisoning that Grace had put forward and was even less happy with the idea of a fatal dose of arsenic delivered through the medium of the unfortunate pheasant and, what was more, he knew Grace could never have subscribed to these theories either. Achmed’s so fortuitously timed confession had played innocently into her hands but he found he was left with the inevitable conclusion that Grace was involved in a cover-up, a cover-up in which she had been caught out by Iskander. But for the midnight swim, all would have been happy or at least accepting of the arsenic theory. But for whom was she covering? Herself? James? Iskander? Someone else?

He imagined the pressure on Grace as she had performed her autopsy with a Scotland Yard detective present and all too literally sticking his nose in. Her sangfroid was amazing and, surely, could only, in a woman of such high principles, stem from a perfectly clear conscience? He decided to take advantage of their present circumstances to put further pressure on her. Out here she could not evade his questioning.

‘There’s a lot riding on this expedition,’ Grace was saying. ‘I don’t put these things in any order of priority but we have to extricate that damn fool Rathmore and we have to winkle out Lily.’

‘How easy you make it sound,’ said Joe, ‘but have you paused to consider that, whereas Rathmore undoubtedly was kidnapped, Lily may well have gone off with Iskander of her own accord? Lord knows why! A yearning for adventure? Spoilt little madam whose head’s been turned by too many moving pictures? An admirer of Rudolph Valentino perhaps? Perhaps she’s simply inherited her father’s enterprising spirit? I gather Coblenz senior is a financial pirate of the first water who, in his time, has gobbled up half the resources of the West.’

‘And perhaps his daughter is now making a play for the East?’ said Grace. ‘No. She has her faults but treachery and stupidity are not among them. She’s clever and, I do believe, good-hearted. No. I’m sure she was forced or tricked in some way into going with them. If she went at all willingly – and this I don’t believe – it would be on account of her feelings for Iskander.’

Joe reined in his horse in surprise. ‘Feelings for Iskander? Grace, what are you saying? Lily was flirting with both young men and – goodness! – one sees why! But, if anything, she showed more interest in Zeman!’ Joe carefully kept back the revelation that Lily had attempted to meet him in the garden. Once again he had the strong impression that he was fencing with Grace, always feinting and falling back, hoping to lure her into making a false step.

‘Oh, Joe! You don’t know much about girls, do you? Look – girls of Lily’s age regularly take an indirect route to claim the attention of the one they’re really interested in. This is why “best friends” are so useful! By scintillating – I think Lily would call it “sparking” – with Zeman she was actually showing herself off to Iskander who was always there, as I’m sure you noticed, a ready audience.’

‘But he appeared to take little notice of her.’

Grace sighed. “That’s part of the game, the ritual. Look, Joe, I’m rather a prosaic old countrywoman at heart but even I couldn’t help catching the ripples, the backwash, from some of their encounters. Disturbing. Very disturbing.’

‘But they only set eyes on each other four days ago! Nothing of any serious emotional significance could have occurred in that short time?’

Grace was laughing at him. ‘Joe, when you meet the right girl, I know what you’ll say to her – after a decent interval of course – “I say, old thing, I’m afraid something of serious emotional significance appears to have occurred!” You were standing right next to Lily when it happened, as was I, as were eight other people. They looked at each other and that was that. Instant recognition. It happens. The French call it a “coup de foudre”. A thunderbolt.’

‘Grace, you’re a scientist, a doctor, you surely don’t believe such things happen?’

‘I know they happen!’ she said sharply. ‘I wasn’t always fat, forlorn and forty-five, you know!’ she added quietly.

Joe was embarrassed for a moment. ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘A coup de Grace?’

‘Bad joke, Joe!’

Joe fell silent. He was again being led, gently and with humour, down a path he had no particular intention of following and he was determined to get Grace back on the track he had chosen. ‘You don’t mention what I consider to be the main problem in all this – the death of Zeman. Enough of the girls’ gossip – don’t forget, Grace, I am a policeman, inquisitive and suspicious by nature. Are there things about that mysterious episode that you’d be prepared to tell me?’

The road narrowed and for two hundred yards or so Joe and Grace were constrained to ride in line ahead and Joe’s question was left floating in the air. As the track widened once more, Aslam led them down to a stony ford across a hurrying stream, a tributary of the meandering Bazar river.

‘As good a place as any,’ said Grace, ‘to water the horses and form up. Gather our strength before we take on the difficult part of this expedition into the hills.’

‘It wouldn’t be a bad place,’ said Joe, ‘for you to answer my question. I know how you killed Zeman, but I can’t imagine why.’