Pascali's Island

Mister Bowles was visibly not pleased by these words, but before he could say anything in reply our attention was distracted by the appearance on to the square to our right of Saint Alexei on his litter, borne by six men and preceded by two priests with censors. They walked in silence now. Oil lamps at either side of the saint's face lit up the yellow composure of his features. His arms in cloth of gold were crossed over his breast. Light from the lamps fell on the faces of the bearers, and they too had a set, waxen appearance, like the saint's mourning offspring. They walked the length of the square and disappeared from view.

'What is he made of?' Mrs Marchant said.

'Wax,' I replied. 'A good seventy years old at that.'

'I really am fascinated by these age-old religious practices,' Mrs Marchant said. 'They seem to embody the whole spirit of a people.'

'Tomorrow evening in the church, they enact his Assumption,' I said. 'Rather an interesting ceremony in its way. If you would like to see it I'll accompany you, with pleasure.'

I suppose it was rash of me to commit myself to a public appearance, but I have a faint hope of something from Mrs Marchant. Love, money, Preferably both. A very faint hope-I am not everybody's beau idéal. Pe

Mrs Marchant at once closed with my offer, the arrangement was made. Shortly afterwards Lydia and she, and Mister Bowles, went off together. The Hogans left. Chaudan, too. I rose with alacrity. I did not want to be left alone with Herr Gesing.

He had seen the look Mister Bowles gave me. He would question me.

'Ah,' he said, as I stood there. 'The great interpreter.'

'Yes,' I said. 'As you say.'

Herr Gesing nodded his head slowly. He was a little drunk. 'The linguist,' he said.

'Yes,' I said. 'Polyglot, perverted, of mixed descent, you behold in me the perfect Ottoman gentleman.'

Nervousness made me flippant, Excellency. He looked at me in silence for a while, then he said, 'This lease, this famous lease, it is not legal, Pascali. It is not valid. It was not for them… He has no right.'

'In that case…' I said.

He raised one broad, short-fingered hand. 'No,' he said. 'There are other interests…'

'Involved?'

'Involved, ja. He must be persuaded, Pascali. Quietly. From the land… removed. It is dangerous for him.'

Herr Gesing moved his hand loosely back and forth several times. 'You do this for me,' he said. 'I will pay you.'

'I'll see what I can do,' I said.

He nodded, but said nothing more. I wished him good-night, and walked away.

Here now in the silence of my room, dawn threatening beyond the shutters, what I chiefly recall are the enmities ru

All the same there is something in what he said about the English, their capacity for dreaming. Look at their great colony of India, so many diverse races, so many millions, held in thrall. That is a continent in the grip of an alien dream, dream of destiny, dream of glory. How else to explain it? Not like your possessions, Excellency – those are lands of simple conquest, administered by the greatest bureaucracy the world has ever known. Admittedly this bureaucracy has now become petrified at an advanced stage of corruption. But after five hundred years what will theirs be like? It will not last so long. No one can dream so long.

Noon, Excellency. I must write fast if I am to finish my account of this morning before the time arranged for the meeting with Mrs Marchant. Forgive me if the style is slipshod.

Not a creditable morning for me, Excellency. Indeed, in a way, disgraceful. I am reluctant, really, to dwell on it. However, dwell on it I must. Every informer worth his salt must linger over distasteful matter sometimes. Even excrement can provide clues, if expertly prodded and sniffed. It is an obscure form of heroism for which we seldom get credit.

The fact is that I followed Mister Bowles and Lydia along the shore. It was not actually so pla

They passed along the shore below my window. I was only just awake, after some two or three hours of troubled sleep – I ca

They rode at the verge of the water, now on the wet shingle, now allowing the horses' hooves to dip and flash in the shallows of the waves – hardly waves, brief grainy flaws in the surface. The sea brimmed with light, light held steady by the slight haze, not shed or split in any glints of brilliance. The sun was clear of the sea, but still trammelled in the dawn mist, not yet streaming off into the sky. Through this soft, luminous light they went, keeping the horses at a walking pace. They looked like conquerors, Excellency. Beyond them, awaiting their pleasure, the peaks and dromedary shapes of the mountains.

I watched them pass along the bay, watched first with my unaided eyes, then with Signor Niccoli's telescope. And when they were no longer visible, when they had dissolved in the fluid distance, I brooded on their passing. My room, scene of my labours over the years, scene of triumphs of a higher order than that mere physical superbia; yet seemed cramped and mean to me, the hole at the end of my burrowing life. I looked at my miserable paraphernalia of pleasure, books, hookah, coffee cup and bowl; at my shabby clothes and unkempt person, still sour from sleep. A kind of rebellious misery rose in me. Why should I sit here, hatching other people's motives and purposes?

In short, Excellency, I decided to follow them, to see what took them out riding so early. Even then, while I was still preparing to go out, even then I knew that I was deceiving myself, knew that I was committing a cardinal sin of informers, acting not out of professional curiosity, at least not mainly, but out of jealousy and pain. I knew what took them out so early. However, the decision once made, I lost no time. My linen suit I thought unsuitable, forgive the pun, too conspicuous against the hillsides. I put on my old jacket and trousers, lamentably crumpled and baggy, and on my head a dark grey headcloth, tied in the Turkish fashion. My shoes with the heels bent down into slippers. Dressed thus I was ready. I took the telescope, inside my jacket.

I followed their route at first, keeping near to the sea. There was no one else walking on the shore but ahead of me four men were pulling in a long net, a new one, lemon-coloured. They had the net almost in, most of it lying piled in a glinting froth beside them, but the catch was still in the shallow water-I could see the swarming gleams of the mackerel as the net came in hand over hand, the men uttering with each heave a single gutteral exclamation which carried clearly to me. I had no wish to approach too near them, even thus disguised, so I went up behind, on to the upper shore, where a sandy track goes through lavender and tamarisk, rising gradually away from the sea. The town was behind me now. Only a few scattered chardaks on the hillsides. There would be people up there, on the rocky terraces, working on their holdings. But at this distance, dressed thus, I would be simply an anonymous passer-by.