Hammond Innes - The Strange Land

In the sudden shade of the room I could see nothing. I felt my brain reeling. I heard a murmur like surf as the crowd gave voice to its reaction and the door closed, shutting it out. A hand touched mine. I heard a sob. And then my legs gave under me and I passed out.

When I came to I was lying on the couch. There were voices talking. ‘But there must be troops down here.’ It was Ed speaking. ‘How else would you hold the country? If you’re properly organised you should be able to have troops at the top of the pass by — ‘

‘I tell you, there are no Goumiers nearer than Boumalne.’ Bilvidic’s voice sounded cold and angry. ‘That is more than a hundred and fifty kilometres away, and they are not motorised.’

‘What about the Legion?’

‘The Legion is in Indo-China. All our troops are in Indo-China.’

‘Oh, to hell with that for a story. You’ll see. The Commandant knows there’s trouble. He’ll have troops here fast enough. It’s just a question of whether they get here in time.’

I closed my eyes, wondering what there was about the Americans and the French. They always seemed to get on each other’s nerves. I felt a little weak and my left arm was cold. It had been bared by cutting away the sleeve of my jacket and shirt at the shoulder. I moved it gently, flexing my fingers. The muscles seemed all right. I was conscious of somebody close beside me. Fingers gripped hold of the arm and there was a stinging pain in the wound halfway between elbow and shoulder. I cried out, more with surprise than with pain, and Julie’s voice, close to my ear, said, ‘I’m sorry. I thought you were still unconscious. There’s no damage. It’s just a flesh wound and I’m swabbing it out with iodine. The bullet nicked your arm.’ Her voice was cool and soothing.

‘I lost my nerve,’ I said.

‘Don’t be silly.’ She gripped the arm as she began to bandage it.

But I was remembering how I had ducked and the man had fired. ‘If I’d walked up to him, he’d never have fired. I let him dominate me.’ My voice sounded shaky.

The others crowded round me, salving my wounded pride with kind words. ‘It requires courage, mon ami, to face a mob like that,’ Bilvidic said. There was a warmth in his voice that soothed me, but I had a feeling that if he’d been the one who had spoken Berber, he would have outfaced them.

As soon as Julie had finished bandaging my arm, I swung my feet off the couch and sat up. ‘What’s happening outside?’ I asked.

‘C’est ca,’ Bildivic said. ‘You have given them something to talk about. For the moment they are no longer a mob.’

I got up and went over to the window. It was true. They were no longer bunched together in a solid mass. They had split up into groups. Some were sitting down well away from the house as though content to be merely spectators. Others were drifting back to Ksar Foum-Skhira. ‘It is very hot today.’ Bilvidic had come to my side. ‘I do not think they will do anything during the heat of the day.’ There was a note of reservation in his voice.

‘And afterwards?’ I asked.

‘Afterwards…’ He spread his hands with a Gallic shrug. ‘Afterwards, we shall see.’

‘Where’s the man who fired at me? Is he still out there?’

There was a momentary hesitation, and then he said, ‘He has gone back to the village.’

‘Because he was ashamed or afraid, or what?’

It was Jan who answered. ‘He couldn’t stand their taunts.’

‘Their taunts?’

He nodded. ‘They jeered at him because you had taken his gun from him.’

‘If you hadn’t taken his gun away, he would have reloaded it and killed you,’ Bilvidic said. ‘They laughed at him and threw stones at him because he had been afraid of you.’ He turned abruptly away as though he were afraid to talk about the incident. ‘I think we should have some food.’

We split into two watches, one half keeping guard, the other half feeding. The time passed slowly. It was a weird business. We dared not go out of the house and, it seemed, the mob dared not attack it. We played through all Legard’s records on the gramophone, opening the windows so that the people outside could hear our music and would know that we weren’t afraid. By midday the crowd had thinned to no more than a few hundred who sat or lay stretched out quite peacefully on the sand. The rest had gone back to Foum-Skhira. We had lunch and played cards. It was cool in the house, but we could feel the heat outside — the heat and the stillness. ‘Why the hell don’t they send those troops?’ Ed cried, suddenly throwing down his cards. ‘This waiting is getting on my nerves.’

Nobody answered him. The waiting was getting on everybody’s nerves. ‘They must have a garrison at Agdz. Why don’t they send them?’

‘Oh, shut up,’ I said angrily. My arm was stiff and painful. That and the waiting was making me irritable.

A sound drifted through the open windows, the beat of drums coming faintly across the sands to us from Foum-Skhira. The tam-tams had started again. And almost immediately that harsh, wailing chant of the women took up the rhythm. Ayee-ya-i-ee Ayee-ya-i-ee. Ed, who had been pacing up and down, stopped to listen. ‘Can’t you do something? Get on the phone again to Agdz. Tell them to hurry. Tell that darn fool commandant — ‘

‘What is the good?’ Bilvidic asked. His voice was calm. ‘He knows what the situation is.’

‘Jesus!’ Ed’s fists were clenched with anger. ‘Are you going to sit there and do nothing while they whip themselves up into a frenzy again? Will you telephone Agdz or will I?’

Bilvidic shrugged his shoulders. ‘Do as you please,’ he said. ‘But I assure you that everything that can be done — ‘

‘Okay. Then I guess it’s up to me.’ And Ed turned and stumped off into the study.

Bilvidic looked almost apologetically at the rest of us. ‘He is very young,’ he murmured. ‘It is over forty kilometres from Agdz to this place and the piste is cut up near the pass.’

‘They could send planes,’ Jan suggested.

Bilvidic turned down the corners of his mouth. ‘This territory is controlled by the AI. It is a military responsibility. They will handle it themselves.’

‘Well, they’d better hurry,’ Jan muttered. He looked across at Karen. Bilvidic was watching him. ‘It’s a pity you had to bring Madame Kavan into this,’ Jan said.

We listened to Ed trying to get through to Agdz. He tried for almost a quarter of an hour. Then he came back into the room. ‘The line’s out of action again.’

Bilvidic nodded. ‘Yes, I know. I tried to telephone them after Latham was wounded. I could not get any reply.’

‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me?’

‘There is no point in telling you,’ Bilvidic answered quietly.

Georges called down the stairs then. He was acting as lookout on the roof. ‘There are some riders coming in now,’ he said.

‘Troops?’ Jan asked hopefully.

‘No. Berbers on mules.’

We went to the windows. They were riding in across the open space between the forts, their robes billowing out behind them. They paused to speak to some of the people squatting on the sand. Then they rode on towards Foum-Skhira. ‘I guess those are the guys that passed me up on the mountain road last night,’ Ed said.

‘It is possible.’ Bilvidic was staring through the window towards the palmerie. Then he turned abruptly. ‘Georges. Go back to the roof. Watch the palmerie.’

‘Out, oui. Ca va.’ His assistant hurried back up the stairs.

‘Let us continue our game of cards,’ Bilvidic said and took up his hand again.

But we couldn’t concentrate any more. The drums were beating faster now and the sound, though faint, seemed to throb through the room. It was nearly four. ‘I’m going to make some coffee,’ Julie said. Her voice sounded small and taut. She and Karen went out together into the kitchen.