The Thief and the Dogs

"What joy for the world if its scoundrels number only three."

"No, there are very many more, but my enemies are only three."

"Well then, no one has "got away"."

"I'm not responsible for the world, you know."

"Oh yes. You're responsible for both this world and the next!" While Said puffed in exasperation, the Sheikh continued, "Patience is holy and through it things are blessed."

"But it's the guilty who succeed, while the innocent fail," Said commented glumly.

The Sheikh sighed, "When shall we succeed in achieving peace of mind beneath the doings of authority?"

"When authority becomes fair," Said replied.

"It is always fair."

Said shook his head angrily. "Yes," he muttered. "They've got away now all right, damn it." The Sheikh merely smiled without speaking. Said's voice changed its tone as he tried to alter the course of the conversation. "I'm going to sleep with my face towards the wall. I don't want any one who visits you to see me.

I'm going to hide out here with you. Please protect me."

"Trusting God means entrusting one's lodging to God alone," the Sheikh said gently.

"Would you give me up?"

"Oh, no, God forbid."

"Would it be in your power, with all the grace with which you're endowed, to save me then?"

"You can save yourself, if you wish," came the Sheikh's reply.

"I will kill the others," Said whispered to himself, and aloud said, "Are you capable of straightening the shadow of something crooked?"

"I do not concern myself with shadows," the Sheikh replied softly.

Silence followed and light from the moon streamed more strongly through the window onto the ceiling. In a whisper the Sheikh began reciting a mystic chant: "All beauty in creation stems from Y."

Yes, Said told himself quietly, the Sheikh will always find something appropriate to say. But this house of yours, dear sir, is not secure, though you yourself might be security personified. I've got to get away, no matter what the cost. And as for you, Nur, let's hope at least good luck will protect you, if you find neither justice nor mercy. But how did I forget that uniform? I wrapped it up deliberately intending to take it with me. How could I have forgotten it at the last moment? I've lost my touch. From all this sleeplessness, loneliness, dark and worry. They'll find that uniform. It might supply the first thread leading to you: they'll have dogs smelling it, fanning out in all directions to the very ends of the earth, sniffing and barking to complete a drama that will titillate newspaper readers.

Suddenly the Sheikh spoke again in a melancholy tone of voice: "I asked you to raise up your face to the heavens, yet here you are announcing that you are going to turn it to the wall!"

"But don't you remember what I told you about the scoundrels?" Said demanded, gazing at him sadly.

"Remember the name of your Lord, if you forget"."

Said lowered his gaze, feeling troubled, then wondered again how he could have forgotten the uniform as depression gripped him further.

"He was asked: " the Sheikh said suddenly, as if addressing someone else, "

"Do you know of any incantation we can recite or potion we can use that might perhaps nullify a decree of God?"' And he answered: "Such would be a decree of God!"

"What do you mean?" Said asked.

"Your father was never one to fail to understand my words," replied the old man, sighing sadly.

"Well," Said said irritably, "it is regrettable that I didn't find sufficient food in your home, just as it is unfortunate that I forgot the uniform. Also my mind does fail to comprehend you and I will turn my face to the wall. But I'm confident that I'm in the right."

Smiling sadly, the Sheikh said, "My Master stated: "I gaze in the mirror many times each day fearing that my face might have turned black!"

"You?!"

"No, my Master himself."

"How," Said asked scornfully, "could the scoundrels keep checking in the mirror every hour?"

The Sheikh bowed his head, reciting: "All beauty in creation stems from Y."

Said closed his eyes, saying to himself: "I'm really tired, but I'll have no peace until I get that uniform back."

EIGHTEEN

At last exhaustion conquered his will. He forgot his determination to get the uniform and fell asleep, awaking a little before midday. Knowing he would have to wait until nightfall to move, he spent the time setting out a plan for his escape, fully aware that any major step would have to be put off for a while, until the police relaxed their surveillance of the area near Tarzan's café.

Tarzan was the very pivot of the plan.

Some time after midnight he entered Najm al-Din Street. There was light coming from a window of the flat. He stood staring up at it in amazement; and when he finally believed what he saw, his heart seemed to beat so loudly as almost to deafen him, while a wave of elation roared over him sweeping him out of a nightmare world. Nur was in the flat!