‘I see. Well, it was most certainly as Kenrick, Bill Kenrick I think, that he came to see me. A dark young man, very attractive. Tough, too, in a nice way. I mean, good manners covering unknown possibilities. I found him delightful.’
‘Had he come to you with any definite plans? I mean, with a specific proposition?’
Lloyd smiled a little. ‘He came to me with one of the commonest of all the propositions that are habitually put to me. An expedition to the site of Wabar. Do you know about Wabar? It is the fabled city of Arabia. It is Arabia’s “cities of the plain”. How that pattern does repeat itself in legend. The human race feels eternally guilty when it is happy. We cannot even remark on our good health without touching wood or crossing our fingers or otherwise averting the gods’ anger at mortal well-being. So Arabia has its Wabar: the city that was destroyed by fire because of its wealth and its sins.’
‘And Kenrick thought that he had discovered the site.’
‘He was sure of it. Poor boy, I hope that I was not short-tempered with him.’
‘You think that he was wrong, then?’
‘Mr Grant, the legend of Wabar exists from the Red Sea clear across Arabia to the Persian Gulf, and for almost every mile of that distance there is a different alleged site for the city.’
‘And you don’t believe that perhaps someone might stumble on it by accident?’
‘By accident?’
‘Kenrick was a flyer. It is possible that he saw the place when blown off his course, isn’t it?’