Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz Page B

prove my loyalty?”
    Fadil thought for a time, then said, “Circumstances sometimes require that we send some of our people abroad. I’ll point one of them out to you, so you can report him—and he’ll slip away at just the right moment, as though by chance.”
    “A happy solution, but not one that can be repeated,” said Abdullah, his eyes shining at the prospect.
    “It’s truly a way of putting them in a fix, though,” said Fadil, talking to himself.
    “So at last you’re thinking as I do.” And he asked himself whether he would be able to go on carrying out his secret plan.
    Suddenly his thoughts were dispersed as he saw Sahloul crossing the street in front of them, paying no attention to anything. As usual his heart tightened, and he nudged Fadil.
    “What do you know about this man?” he asked.
    “Sahloul the bric-a-brac merchant,” said Fadil in a natural tone. “He was one of father’s friends, and perhaps he’s the one merchant who enjoys a blameless record.”
    “What else do you know about him?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Doesn’t his inscrutability arouse your curiosity?”
    “His inscrutability? He’s simplicity itself; an active, knowledgeable man who is not concerned with others. What makes you wonder about him?”
    After a slight hesitation he said, “He has a penetrating gaze that makes me uneasy.”
    “There is no basis for your suspicions—he is a virtuous exception to a corrupt rule.”
    Abdullah hoped Fadil was right and that his own suspicions would be proved wrong.
XIX
    From his previous experience he was certain that he would be placed under surveillance, as happened with all new plainclothesmen. It would be out of the question for him to undertake any new venture unless he removed Adnan Shouma himself from his path with a successful stroke.
    And so he slipped into Adnan’s house for a secret meeting and said to him, “Soon much fruit will fall. The quarter is full of infidels, but I think it best that I avoid coming to see you frequently.”
    “I shall appoint a go-between for you,” said Adnan Shouma happily.
    “That is sufficient for ordinary matters. But for important ones contact should be restricted to yourself.”
    “We’ll arrange that later.”
    “The best kindness is the one soonest done,” said Abdullah, quoting the proverb.
    “I am sometimes to be found outside the wall of the quarter,” said Adnan Shouma after some thought. “I think it is a suitable place.”
    His scheming had worked out better than he had hoped.
XX
    With the assistance of Fadil Sanaan he forwarded a report about a young, unmarried man who lived on his own in a rooming house in the cul-de-sac of the tanners. When the force of troops swooped down on where he was living, it became apparent that he had left only minutes before to go on a journey. Adnan Shouma was furious and said to Abdullah, “You aroused his suspicion without realizing.”
    Abdullah assured him he was more crafty than he imagined, but Adnan sent him away, unhappy with him.
XXI
    The governor’s residence was rocked to its foundations, as was the quarter and the whole city, by the discovery of Adnan Shouma’s body outside the walls. Shahriyar himself was enraged. Mysterious fears loomed up before the eyes of eminent people, who crept out of their lairs in the darkness. Abdullah learned from his sources that the investigation was concentrating on discovering why the chief of police had gone secretly beyond the quarter’s wall. And Abdullah had been the first to know of his victim’s secret of going to a private house to meet Gulnar and Zahriyar, the two sisters of Yusuf al-Tahir, governor of the quarter. In fact, he had known the way of life of the two women since he had first joined the service and before Yusuf al-Tahir had taken up his appointment. So it was that the chief of police had asked to meet him in a pavilion in the garden of the mansion and had then sent him away. He had not returned, though, to the quarter but