Trade Wind (34 page)

Rory gave a crack of laughter and said: “Then your countrymen had better make the most of it, for that isn’t going to be long. I fear this is merely a beginning, and that you are in for an era of Western interference and busy-bodying that is going to make anything you’ve seen yet look like a visit from a favourite uncle.”

“It discourages me that you should think so,” sighed the Sultan. “Why is it that the white races find it necessary to act towards us in this manner? To covet more land, and to make war and win victories to that end, is a thing I can well understand. But that other, no. For myself, I do not expect them to accept my ideas as to what is right or just or expedient, and neither do I wish to force my own way of life upon them or think that they should admire it—or me. I see clearly that many of our ways would not suit them, for their blood is thin and cold and their thoughts are different. Does one expect a crow to sing sweetly in the moonlight, or a nightingale to eat carrion, just because both are birds and can fly and hatch their young from eggs? Yet saving only yourself, I have never yet met a white man who did not consider that I and my people would derive great benefit by changing our ways and imitating theirs, or who did not try and impress upon me the immense superiority of all white laws and customs. It is very strange.”

“It’s not strange at all,” retorted Rory. “Don’t tell me that good Moslems have never attempted to convert Infidels and Unbelievers to the True Faith—and by force as often as not—any time these last six hundred years? It’s the same thing.”

“But my friend,” said the Sultan reprovingly, “that is a matter of
religion
?”

“Ah, but then all white races—Europeans, Russians, Americans, the lot—make a religion of their own particular way of living and thinking, and are as bigoted and pig-headed about it as the most fanatical maulvie who ever preached the Faith. In that sense they are all missionaries, for it is their unalterable opinion that they have discovered the best and only possible road to Progress and the Millennium, and that it is their plain duty to herd all men along it—and to force those who will not tread it willingly with a pistol and a club if necessary, since after all, ‘it is for their own good.’”

“But it would do me no good if I accept these foreign ideas,” protested the Sultan plaintively. “I lose money and power and peace of mind by it And their ideas are as different as their gods. Monsieur Dubail says one thing and Colonel Edwards another. Mr Hollis does not agree with either and Herr Ruete will not speak with Joseph Lynch, or Mr Platt with Karl Lessing. It is the same with their priests and then: parsons and their missionaries, for some worship Bibi Miriam with chanting and the burning of candles and incense, preaching that all who will not do likewise are eternally damned, while others will permit none of these things and assert that all who do will bum. And between the two are many who balance like jugglers on a tightrope. Yet all, while execrating the others, call themselves Christians—and all, my friend, profess themselves shocked at our ways. Why, I ask you, should we of the East forsake the laws and customs of our forefathers at the bidding of ignorant and contentious foreigners whose own governments and priests cannot agree among themselves? Tell me that?”

“Because,” said Rory unkindly, “you are not going to be given the option. Not in the long run. You can’t argue with a gunboat if all you have is a canoe and a throwing spear—no aspersions on your fleet, you understand, I was speaking metaphorically. There is a certain tiresome and time-honoured argument that has been in use since the dawn of history and can be best summed up by that elegant sentence: “If you don’t, I’ll kick your teeth in.” That, my friend, is what you are up against!”

The Sultan wagged his head and said sadly: “There are times when I fear you may be right.”

“I wish I only feared it instead of being sure of it,” said Rory with regret. “This is only the morning of the White Man’s Day, Majid. The sun hasn’t reached its zenith yet, and it won’t sink until every Western nation in turn has done its best to foist its own particular Message onto the older civilizations of the East. And by that time, the lesson will have been learned too well and there will be nowhere left in all the world where a man can escape from Progress and do what he damn’ well pleases—or find room to breathe in!”

The thought of it seemed to suffocate him and he came suddenly to his feet, and swinging round to face the low parapet, looked out at the vast sweep of the ocean and the immensity of the far horizon, and threw his arms wide as though to fill his lungs with the free wind that blew off Africa.

He stood there for a full minute, his long body dark against the night sky and his blond head silver in the starlight: then his arms dropped, and he turned back and said with low-voiced violence: “Pray God I do not live to see it!”

“Or I,” said the Sultan devoutly.

He peered up at the tall figure of his friend, and reaching out a hand that was as soft and plump as a woman’s, tugged imperatively at the hem of the gold-embroidered
jubbah
, “Do not tower over me like a hawk. It is an unrestful attitude and it makes me feel tired. I have had a trying day, and now all I wish to do is to sit quietly and enjoy the night air and some pleasant conversation. Sit down.”

Rory laughed and complied: “But you needn’t think you are going to get round me by telling me what a tiring day you have had. I haven’t had a very restful one myself, and I did not come here tonight to make idle conversation.”

“I know, I know. You came here to tell me that my brother Bargash is plotting against me, which I already know. Well, you have warned me and I thank you. Now let us talk of something else. I hear that the English Lieutenant catches Pedro Fernandez with a full load of slaves, and that he takes off all who still live and all the sails as well, so that the ship runs aground three days later in a storm, and Fernandez, who cannot swim, is drowned. Which is an excellent thing, since such men are no better than animals. Why trouble to ship three hundred negroes where only a third of that number can hope to survive, and land those who live in such poor condition that they fetch the lowest prices? It is madness! And poor business, too.”

“It is crass stupidity; which is even worse. But we are not discussing the late Fernandez and his ilk. We are, or were, discussing Bargash. Why are you so anxious to avoid the subject?”

“Because if we continue to talk of him you will only end by making me do something about him. And that I do not wish to do. I am not like you. Or like him. In you it is your white blood that makes you wish to stand on your feet and stride to and fro while I wish to sit. And though my brother and I are equally Arab on our father’s side, his mother was an Abyssinian, and it is her dark blood that drives him like a whip. But mine was a Circassian woman, and as placid as a beautiful cow who sits among flowers and chews the cud; which is perhaps why I too prefer to sit-and not be worried to do things.”

“That is just your bad luck,” said Rory inflexibly. “Because I am sailing again on the dawn tide tomorrow, and as I may be away for a couple of weeks you are going to be worried to do things here and now.”

“I knew it!” sighed the Sultan with a rueful shake of the head. “Let us leave it until you come back. Then, I promise you—”

“It may be too late by then,” interrupted Rory brusquely. “No, Majid, it must be now. Now, at once!”

“Very well then, I shall do something. But not tonight. It is impossible to do anything tonight. It is too late—you must see that. Perhaps tomorrow I will think about it. Yes, certainly I will think about it tomorrow.”

“And decide to do nothing until next week, when you will decide to put off deciding until next month—or next year. But it is time that you realized that your brother is not being idle. He’s been collecting adherents and bribing your own ministers and officials, and plotting a rising that will clear you off the throne and land you in Paradise a good deal sooner than you bargained for. He’s seduced the chiefs of the el Harth tribe and young Aziz and three of your sisters into supporting him, and they’ve got the whole thing planned. Bargash’s house is to be their headquarters, and while your brother has been stocking up firearms, your sisters have been baking scores of flour-cakes that have been handed over by night and stored against a siege. I know you’ve been watching him in a half-hearted manner and having his servants stopped and searched and some sort of check kept on his visitors, but you’ve never kept any watch on your sisters or their nieces, and they’ve been allowed to go where they please and do what they like. And what they like is plotting to depose you!”

The Sultan stirred unhappily among his silken cushions, picking at the gold tassels and frowning, and presently he said: “So I have heard. My wife and my other sisters and many of my aunts and cousins at Motoni tell me that Cholé has joined Bargash in plotting against me…Salmé and Méjé too. They keep urging me to punish them, and say that they should be fined, imprisoned, banished, flogged—even strangled! It is strange how vindictive women can be towards each other. Especially towards those with whom they have quarrelled! But I cannot believe…”

“That what they say is true? I assure you it is.”

“True, yes. But I cannot believe that they mean me any real harm. They are young; and since my father’s death, life has not been the same for them. They have sorrowed and been dull, and longed for the old days when we all lived out at Motoni and rode races and sailed our boats and were happy in my father’s shadow. And because those times are gone and even God cannot give them back, they are restless and unhappy, and so they pick quarrels with the other women, and with me, and cast about for something with which to fill the long days. Bargash has given them this, and he is a snake that should be scotched (yes, that I know as well as you!—better perhaps, for I have not heard that he has tried to kill you yet!), but with my sisters it is different How can I be hot against them and visit punishments upon them? Or be angry with little Aziz, who is no more than a child and thinks his brother Bargash a hero? It is better to do nothing and hope that in time they will see how foolish they are being, and it will all die away.”

Rory said brutally: “The only thing that seems likely to die, and that in a painful manner and in the immediate future, is yourself. And if you are not interested in saving your own skin, I must tell you that I am more than interested in saving mine. Bargash is no friend to me, and if you are going to permit him to raise a revolt against you and become Sultan in your place, then the sooner I cut my losses and quit these waters the better. Just how long do you suppose I’d last here once you were dead?”

The Sultan turned on his elbow and regarded his friend with a sly smile: “Long enough, perhaps, for you and your crew to fire the town and loot half Zanzibar, and get away before order had been restored?”

“It’s a thought,” agreed Rory with a grin.

The Sultan lay back on his cushions and laughed aloud, and wiping away the tears of mirth, said: “Ah, my friend, what a pity that you were not born an Arab! Had you been, I swear I would have made you Sultan in my place and left you to deal with those twin snakes, my brothers Thuwani and Bargash, knowing that you would do so with complete success.”

“The East India Company,” observed Rory, “would seem to have dealt with your brother Thuwani with a moderate degree of success, and without any help from me. But no one but yourself is going to be able to stop Bargash, and you’ll have to do it at once for there’s no time to waste. Even tomorrow may be too late.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“Send a guard to arrest him.”

“Now? At this hour? My dear friend, be reasonable! It is too late—It is—”

“If you arrest him by day there’ll be a riot. He’ll see to that! But in an hour or so the city will be quiet and the beggars and bazaar loafers and all the riff-raff from the African Town will be deep asleep, so that there’ll be precious few people about to watch the fun and start any trouble. Besides, I happen to know that he’ll have several of the chiefs visiting his house tonight to settle up a few last details and probably collect their share of bribes, and it won’t do them any harm to have to explain what they’re doing there. Put him in irons and send him off to the Fort in Mombasa under a strong guard, and when the city wakes up tomorrow morning it will be too late for anyone to do much about it There may be a few isolated demonstrations and an official protest or two, but they’ll be easy enough to deal with, for the chiefs of the el Harth, who are his main supporters, are only in it for what they can get, and once they see you mean business and intend to put a stop to their nonsense, they and the other malcontents will come to heel soon enough. Will you do it?”

“I might imprison him in his own house. Yes, that is what I could do. I could send armed guards to surround it and allow no one and nothing to go in or out, not even food, until such time as he has come to his senses. That would serve, too, as a good lesson to my sisters, who would see it and be warned. We Arabs have a saying, ‘
All the sea is not deep enough to wash away blood relationship
’ and they are women—or girls, if you will—of my blood. Of my father’s blood. I would not be harsh with them.”

Rory remarked caustically that it was a pity that his brother had not heard of that proverb; or if he had, he evidently considered that murder could do what the sea could not: “As for your bloodthirsty little blood-relations, blockading their brother is not going to worry them over-much. Particularly as they must know he is well provided with food.”

“With food, perhaps. But water will not be so easy. There is no well in that house, and water evaporates very quickly in this weather. I do not think it would take very long to bring him and the guests in his household to a more reasonable frame of mind. And there is another thing. This store of arms that you tell me he has been collecting; they will be in his house and he would not be able to get them out and distribute them among his followers. Nor would he be so foolish as to fire on my guards once he saw that his house was surrounded, so when he makes his submission we shall have the arms.”