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I took advantage of the Syrian's absence to open Grim's valise, remove the bottle of doped whisky and set it on the table close to the window beside the two bottles that I had bought downstairs one of which, for the sake of appearances, I opened just as Yussuf Dakmar entered, smiling to conceal anxiety. "You made a bad break that time" Grim was in Mephistophelian humor.
He smirked at Grim suggestively as we went by, and Grim, of course, smirked back, with a sidewise inclination of the head in my direction, whereat Yussuf Dakmar withdrew himself, apparently satisfied. "Now he'll waste a lot of time investigating you," said Grim in an undertone. "We'd better keep awake in turns, or he'll knife you." "The toe of my boot to him!" I retorted.
"What authority have you got?" "None. I am a personal friend of Feisul, that is all." "Well, we'll pretend you've power to arrest them. Ramsden, you've suddenly missed your letter. You've accused Jeremy of stealing it. He has confessed to selling it to Yussuf Dakmar. Go forward in a rage and demand the letter back. Start something before they're ready for it! We'll be just behind you."
I can give no accurate report as to that, for I was in great haste. But as he gave way under me, I pitched forward, and, kicking Yussuf Dakmar in the belly with my boot, I fell on him, they falling on me in turn and we all writhing together in one mass on the floor. So I secured the letter." "Good man!" Grim nodded. "Wish I'd been there!" mourned Jeremy.
Outside at the end of the corridor, in full view, but out of earshot, of Narayan Singh, Yussuf Dakmar made a proposal to Jeremy that was almost perfect in its naive obliquity. There was nothing original or even unusual about it, except the circumstances, time and place.
He became suspicious, stood up, resumed his seat and glared at Yussuf Dakmar, who retired into his corner and tried to seem unconscious of the game. "I believe you are a thief one of those light-fingered devils from El-Kalil!" said Jeremy suddenly, after about three minutes' silence. "I believe you have stolen my letter! Like the saint's ass, you are a clever devil, aren't you?
One lone light at a window on the top floor suggested that the officer of the night might be awake, but what with the screeching of owls and a wind that sighed among the shrubs, headquarters looked and sounded more like a deserted ancient castle than the cranium and brain-cells of Administration. We heard Yussuf Dakmar stop his cab two hundred yards away.
The last thing he wished was that Yussuf Dakmar should consider his quest too difficult, for then he would probably summon assistance at Haifa. Encouragement was the proper cue, now that Jeremy had tantalized him with a glimpse of the bait. We had nothing to fear from him unless he should lose heart.
I have made forty-nine attempts to get married, and the next time I shall succeed. If it isn't the woman's lucky number too, that's her affair. Show me the fifty pounds." "I haven't that much with me," answered Yussuf Dakmar. "I will pay you in Damascus." "All right. Then I will give you the letter in Damascus." "No, no! Get it as soon as possible." "I will." "And give it to me immediately.
"I expect Narayan Singh here presently. He'll have a letter with him, taken from the Syrian who stabbed that man in the hospital." "Whoa, hoss!" Jeremy interrupted. "You mean you've sent that Sikh to get the shirt of Yussuf Dakmar?" Grim nodded. "That was my job," Jeremy objected. "Whoa, hoss, yourself, Jeremy!" Grim answered. "You'd have gone down into the bazaar like a bull into a china-shop.
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