Hammond Innes - The Doomed Oasis

‘What happened?’ I asked. ‘Did they set fire to Gorde’s plane?’

‘Is a mistake. They are angry and they fire some bullets into it.’ He was very tense, coiled up like a spring too tightly wound. Somewhere a child was crying, and I heard women’s voices, soft and comforting. ‘You ‘ave been to see Haj Whitaker, is not so?’ And when I nodded, he said, ‘I understand you are concerned in the management of his affairs?’

‘His financial affairs.’ I didn’t want him to think I was responsible for anything that had happened out here. His manner, his whole bearing had changed, the surface layer of a university education gone entirely. I glanced over my shoulder. My three guards were still there, squatting in the open doorway.

Khalid was staring at me out of his dark eyes. The kohl had worn off. Lacking that artificial lustre, his eyes looked sad and sombre. ‘I have spoken with my father. I understand now what it is Haj Whitaker try to do for Saraifa. Unfortunately I am not before tonight in my father’s confidence.’ And he added with a trace of bitterness, ‘Better if he had told me. Better also if Haj Whitaker explain to David what he is doing.’ He paused there and I was conscious again of the strain he was under, of the tension building up in him. He leaned suddenly forward. “What will he do now?’ he asked me. ‘Now that Meester Erk-hard don’t honour the concession he sign. What will Haj Whitaker do?’

‘That’s his affair,’ I said. I didn’t want to become involved in this.

‘Please, Meester Grant. I must know.’

‘I don’t think he’s made up his mind yet.’

He stared at me. ‘Do you think he may leave Saraifa?’

And when I didn’t answer, his eyes clouded and he seemed to sag. ‘We have very much need of him now,’ he said quietly. ‘He has the ear of many sheikhs, of some of his own people also.’ And he added, ‘Since ever I am a small boy I have known about this great man Haj Whitaker. I can remember the feast to celebrate the original concession.

He was young then and full of fire. But always, always people here — my father and myself also — we have looked to Haj Whitaker. He is known from the Persian Gulf to the Hadhramaut, from Muscat on the Indian Sea to the waterholes of the Rub al Khali and the Liwa Oasis as a great man and the friend of all the Bedou. Particularly he is known as the friend of Sheikh Makhmud. If he desert us now … ‘

‘I’m sure he’s no intention of deserting you.’

But he didn’t seem to hear me, ‘There must be some reconciliation. It is altogether vital.’ He stared at me hard. ‘Meester Grant. There is something I must know. It is if I can trust you?’

That’s up to you,’ I said, wondering what was coming. And I added, ‘I’ve been virtually a prisoner since I returned from seeing Colonel Whitaker.’

He gave a quick, impatient shrug. ‘Is for your own safety.’

But I wondered. ‘Where’s Sir Philip Gorde?’ I didn’t want to be involved in this any further. ‘I’d like to be taken to him now.’

‘First you will listen please to what I have to tell you.’ He seemed to consider, his dark eyes fixed on me, searching my face. ‘I think you are a friend to David before you work for his father, is not so?’

‘It was because I befriended David that Colonel Whitaker asked me to look after his financial affairs.’

‘Yess. Yess, I believe that.’ But his eyes still searched my face as though he wasn’t sure.

‘What is it you want to tell me?’ I wanted to get this over. Presumably Gorde and Otto would be leaving with Erkhard and I wanted to be on that plane, away from the dark feuds of this desert world.

He didn’t answer at once. But then he suddenly seemed to make up his mind. He leaned forward. ‘David is alive,’ he said.

I stared at him, too astounded for the moment to utter a word. ‘Alive?’ Those three women … but remembering their attitude, I remembered Whitaker’s too. ‘What do you mean?’ I was suddenly extremely angry with Khalid. ‘How can he be alive?’ And when he didn’t say anything, I added, ‘It’s more than six weeks since your father sent an armed guard to arrest him, and they found his camp deserted.’

‘I know. But is alive.’ He said it very seriously.

‘Where is he then?’ I still didn’t believe him. I thought it was a damned stupid lie he’d thought up to try and keep Whitaker in Saraifa. As if Whitaker, with all his experience of the desert, would believe it. ‘You tell me where he is and ‘No.’ His voice was flat and decisive. ‘No, I don’t tell you — not yet. But is alive. That I promise, Meester Grant.’ I suppose he realized that just stating it wouldn’t convince me, for he went on quickly: ‘When Haj Whitaker is gone to visit the Emir, I am much disturbed for David’s life. He is already on that border almost two moons with the truck that was brought by his father across the Jebel mountains from Muscat. He is altogether alone and his father I believe to be hating him for things he has said.’

‘What sort of things?’

He shrugged. ‘He don’t tell me. But he is very much unhappy, I know that. He come here to this room to see me before he leave and he warn me there is no oil where Haj Whitaker is drilling, that the only place there is any probability of oil is on that border. He says also that his father is an old man now and has lost faith in himself and that he is drilling to cheat the Company, for revenge against this Meester Erk-hard and nothing more.’

‘And you believed him?’

‘He is as my brother. He don’t lie to me.’ And then he told me how he’d taken two of his men and a spare camel and had ridden to the border as soon as he knew David was to be arrested. He’d found David alone, deserted by his crew. After emptying the spare cans from the seismological truck, David had driven it into the Rub al Khali desert until it had run out of petrol on the side of that dune. Then he leaves the truck and rides on with us. It is all as we arrange it together.’

‘You mean you planned it in advance?’

‘Yess. It is all arranged between us because I am afraid for this emergency.’

The details fitted. They fitted so well that I was forced to accept what he’d told me as the truth. But he wouldn’t reveal where David was hidden. ‘He is with my two men — Hamid and a boy called AH. They are of the Wahiba and altogether to be trusted.’

‘Why have you told me this?’ I asked.

‘Because everything is gone wrong, everything David planned — and now I need your help. You are David’s friend and also you work for his father. I think per’aps only you can bring reconciliation between them. And without reconciliation … ‘ But he seemed reluctant to put his fears into words. ‘What do you think now, sir?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Is reconciliation possible? How will Haj Whitaker act when he finds David is alive?’

‘How would you react if you thought your son were dead?’ But I realized I’d no idea what Whitaker’s reaction would be. I didn’t know enough about their relationship, how he’d come to regard his son in those last months. If Sue were right and they really had been close at one time … ‘It’ll come as a hell of a shock to him.’

‘Yess, but is it possible — a reconciliation?’

‘Of course. Particularly now that Colonel Whitaker … ‘ I hesitated, wondering whether I ought to tell him what was in Whitaker’s mind. But I thought he’d a right to know that he was considering drilling on his son’s locations. After all, it was what David had wanted. They’d be able to work on it together now.

With this thought in mind, I was quite unprepared for the violence of Khalid’s reaction when I told him. ‘Is imbecility!’ he cried, jumping to his feet. ‘He cannot do that now. Is altogether too late.’ He was pacing up and down, very agitated and waving his arms about. ‘Sheikh Abdullah has already left to return to Hadd. He will report to the Emir all that has occurred here. If then Haj Whitaker remove his oil rig to the border … ‘ He turned to me, still in great agitation, and said, ‘It will mean war between us and Hadd. War, do you understand? For my father is guided by Haj Whitaker. The Emir knows that. And if Haj Whitaker himself is on that border, then the Emir will know there is oil there and that my father will concede no revision of the boundaries between Hadd and Saraifa. You understand? You will help me?’ He didn’t give me time to answer, but summoned my escort. ‘We leave at once, for there is little time. Excuse please. I go to my father now.’