“Sit down then. We are private. The sheikh knows all about our business, Jakoub. Mr. Montgomery is here too. He will be with us in a moment.”
I used the false name purposely to try if Jakoub knew Edmund by any other, but he made no comment.
“If you think I am in a trap, you mistake. Very big mistake,” he muttered viciously.
“None of us thinks so, Jakoub. If you are in trouble, we want to help you. Have a cigarette?” He took the cigarette greedily, as one who had fasted for some time. It seemed to restore a little of his confidence.
“Jakoub is in no trouble,” he remarked, as he sat uneasily on the edge of a low chair.
Edmund came in at this moment, quite calm and collected, without a trace of his recent emotional crisis.
“Well, Jakoub,” he said, “you have turned up?”
“Yes. I have come. I have come for my rights, for my money and for Van Ermengen, effendi’s. We will not be robbed.”
“No,” said Edmund, “but you may be arrested, you know. The police——”
“Bah! Your police—I fear them not. We knew they would wait for me at your harbour. So I make myself to have the job to go away in the little boat with a line to the buoy. Last night before the steamer stop, before the gangway is out, I am away from her in the dark. I wrap my galabieh round a stone and drop her in the water. Then I put on these, these clothes, boots, hat; and I row to a good place on the shore, while your police are looking for me on the ship! Who will find Jakoub now? I am not a mouse to walk in a trap!”