“Of course he did. Don’t you....” he paused. His eye taking in at last the book in my hand. His expression softened somewhat, like a parent in anger noticing suddenly an endearing resemblance to himself in the offending child. “But I forget how isolated you’ve been up here. If I’ve interrupted your studies, I’ll go away.”
“Oh no. I was finished when you came. I’ve been studying for several hours which is too long for an old man.”
“If a contemplation of Cavesword can ever be too long,” said Butler reverently. “Yes, Himmell wrote that even before Cavesword, in the month of March, I believe, though we’ll have to ask my colleague when he comes. He knows all the dates, all the facts. Remarkable guy. He has the brains of the team.” And Butler laughed to show that he was not entirely serious.
“I think they might respond to pressure,” I said, treacherously. “One thing the Arabs respect is force.”
“You may be right. But our instructions are to go slow. Still, I didn’t think it would be as slow as this. Why we haven’t been able to get a building yet. They’ve all been told by the Pasha fellow not to rent to us.”
“Perhaps I could talk to him.”
“Do you know him well?”
“We used to play cards quite regularly. I haven’t seen much of him in the past few years but, if you’d like, I’ll go and pay him a call.”
“He’s known all along you’re a Cavite, hasn’t he?”
“We have kept off the subject of religion entirely. As you probably discovered, since the division of the world, there’s been little communication between East and West. I don’t think he knows much about the Cavites except that they’re undesirable.”