Judas Country

Jehangir lit a cigarette and waved it. 'Only for the best. Ja

I asked: 'What's the score so far?'

'Fourteen fights in two years, and we've won the last nine in a row, mostly inside the distance.' I love that 'we' you get from managers, just as if they'd been in there, too, throwing left hooks with their cigars. 'Next month to Rome, and once we've won that, the Sporting Club in London.'

'Tomorrow, the world,' Ken murmured, looking at Ja

Jehangir nodded. 'But Ja

The crowd stirred and several people stood up from tables around us: a line of stubby, sawn-off horses was walking out between us and the stands, jockeys in the driving seats, one in green silks who could have switched weights with his horse and the records book would never have noticed a thing.

Jehangir hauled himself upright, said: 'Excuse me, gentlemen, just one moment,' and walked stiffly off to get a closer look. Ja

Ken said: 'Give me five pounds to put on that fat jock. There's no way he can be honest.'

'My mother's dying words were: "If you lend money for gambling it's a hundred to six you'll never get it back".'

'Gabby old bat on her death-bed, wasn't she?' Then, with no change of voice, he went on: 'I'd said nobody hit anybody on the chin except on TV. I forgot about trained boxers.'

I rubbed my chin and nodded. 'And Jehangir knew I'd got all the documents. Well, if the kid ever makes world champion I'll remember to feel honoured.'

'Not in a million years. Not if his eyes get cut like that at this level of competition. Two real fights and he'll be learning English by Braille. What are we asking as a delivery price?'

'Let's see what he suggests about shaking the aeroplane loose.' I lit a pipe and leaned back comfortably. The sun was pleasantly warm but no more, and the air smelled only faintly of horses. A young waiter hurried around putting fresh charcoals on the pans of the hubble-bubble pipes that stood beside half the tables; you just plugged in your own mouthpiece and took a drag. Simple; I keep on meaning to try it sometime.

By and by the horses cantered off to the start, Ja

Ken said: 'I thought you didn't know anything about this race?'

Jehangir gri

I said: 'There's a snag: the aeroplane's been sort of confiscated.'

Jehangir went stiff and expressionless.

'Only a tiny bit sort of,' Ken reassured him, and passed over the copy of the court order.

The crowd grunted the Lebanese version of 'They're off,' but Jehangir went on reading. Even when the rest of us got up and stood on our chairs to watch the finish, which was nicely choreographed into a tight bunch with our fat friend in front by a nose. Mind, his horse could have dropped dead twenty yards before and they'd still have won on combined inertia.

The sand cloud settled and Ken shook his head at me. 'The next time you get your mother on the ouija board, pass her a message from me, will you?'

Jehangir looked up. 'How did you get on the wrong side of the Aziz family?'

'Do they frighten you?' Ken asked.

'Only like a big truck: no problem if you can see it coming.'

Ken gri

Jehangir nodded gently. 'Of course. I heard about her father's suicide in Cyprus.'

I'd forgotten he'd been in Nicosia perhaps as late as we were, and I rather think Ken had, too.

Ken said: 'She's on her way back to Cyprus now, so we can't count on any help from her… Any steps you think we should take?'

The line of horses walked back past us, led by the fat boy, who at least had the decency to look a bit uneasy. Jehangir just sat frowning at the paper.

At last he said: "This is a nuisance. I hoped to be able to unload this evening. I suppose I could try talking to Aziz himself… point out that the lady has gone, that by keeping the plane here he's only causing you u

'I don't think,' I said, 'he much minds about that.'

Jehangir raised an elegant white eyebrow. 'Ah – it's gone that far, has it? Well, I'll try ringing him anyway. I might persuade him to release the cargo, at least.'

Ken said:'I've just thought of a much simpler way: you give us twelve thousand dollars as a delivery fee, we give it to Aziz – and bingo, everybody's happy.'

Jehangir was staring at him, mouth drooping. Then he closed it with a snap and swallowed. 'Actually, that sounds to me rather a complicated way – as well as making for somewhat expensive champagne. Let me see… at a thousand a box that would be…er, just over $83 a bottle. I know champagne's been going up quite frightfully these last few years, but…' And he smiled appraisingly at Ken. He'd only been talking to give himself time to think.

'It's a rather special champagne,' Ken said quietly. 'And in fact it isn't twelve boxes any more. One got opened in Cyprus by mistake.'

'Ahh,' Jehangir nodded; but by now he'd been expecting something Jike that. 'What happened to that box, do you know?'

I said: 'The man who opened it, he doesn't really appreciate that class of wine. So he – laid it down, as it were. His grandchildren's grandchildren might find it, but not until then.'

Jehangir's mouth twitched, but he said gravely: 'Splendid. If one doesn't understand these rare vintages, one shouldn't touch them. I suppose weare talking about Mr Kapotas?'

I nodded.

Jehangir went on: 'But that makes things even more expensive: we're up to… to ninety dollars a bottle, now. I hope and believe that I'm a good trader – so does everyone in Beirut -but that's going a bit high for even my customers.'

The trouble is,' Ken said, 'that nothing less than twelve thousand is any practical use to us.'

'Just to get your plane out of the pawn-shop? If you wait a few days it'll fall back into your lap. The court can't keep up the pretence of this order for long. It may cost you a couple of hundred dollars in legal fees, but you might well recover that, too. Or were you wanting to get Mr Aziz out of Miss Braunhof -Spohr's affairs entirely?'

'Something like that,' Ken admitted.

'It's very noble of you.'

Ken smiled bleakly and said: 'I was thinking that you wouldn't be buying just the stock but also, as you might say, the goodwill.'

'Ahh.' Jehangir nodded slowly. 'That puts it very nicely. But you don't seem to have considered that I've already bought quite a lot of goodwill in co

He looked at me and the best I could do was shrug.

Jehangir beamed at me. 'I thought not.' Then Ja

He was looking at Ken, but I said: 'That's what my mother told me. What d'you suggest now?'

"That I contact Mr Aziz and see what we can work out. Then I contact you. Will you be at the hotel?'