"Not everyone." Rick warmed to his idea. "There are plenty of people who wait until the last few days before Christmas, but where are they? In America! Anyone overseas who sends a package home tries to get it in the mail early. Wouldn't you say so?"
"Maybe they should, but I suspect they don't. People are always waiting until the last moment."
"But is the overseas airmail so crowded you wouldn't trust a parcel to the regular mail system?"
Scotty shook his head. "I doubt it. What are you getting at?"
But Rick had an even better argument to bolster the case he was developing. "Christmas mail is to and from Christians, isn't it? Sure! Egypt is a Moslem country. Moslems don't send Christmas cards or presents, and they don't get them, either. The Christians in Egypt are Coptic—anyway, they don't celebrate Christmas the same way. So why would the airmail to Egypt be jammed?"
Hassan spoke up. "It not so heavy. My brother is letter carrier, and he no work very hard on Nasrani holiday. Nasrani is what we call Christian."
"I think you've got something," Scotty agreed. "Bartouki could have mailed the cat, but for some reason he wanted a messenger ..."
"... and we walked right into it," Rick finished. "Chances are that's why he showed us the cat in the first place."
"Barby had the bright idea," Scotty reminded. "Bartouki wasn't the one who suggested it."
"He didn't have to," Rick pointed out. "If she hadn't, I'll bet he would have led around to it some other way."