Mika Waltari - The Wanderer

Khaireddin was much startled and began hastily to defend himself. “The noble Presandes is the Emperor’s plenipotentiary and thus enjoys diplomatic immunity. I’ve kept him dangling only to gain time for completing the defenses of Tunis, and could not receive him openly without arousing suspicion among the Grand Vizier’s agents.

That is the whole truth, Michael, and I beg you won’t misinterpret my perfecdy innocent actions.”

He stroked his beard uneasily, and his whole appearance betrayed fear and a guilty conscience. But I disclosed the Spaniard’s secret plan for inciting the inhabitants of Tunis to armed revolt, to coincide with the Emperor’s arrival, and also handed him a list, given me by the Moor, of dependable sheiks and merchants recommended to Presandes by Muley-Hassan’s envoy in Madrid. Khaireddin’s face darkened; he tore his beard in rage, and with a roar that shook the walls of the kasbah he said, “That hound of an unbeliever has betrayed me! He showed me the Emperor’s written instructions by which he was authorized to offer me the independent sovereignty of Algeria, Tunis, and other cities, on condition I left the Sultan’s service. I have not the smallest intention of leaving the Sultan, to whose favor I owe my high position. But all favors are precarious. Therefore I thought I should lose nothing by conversing with Presandes and profiting by the Emperor’s generous terms. But the Emperor is clearly falser than I could have believed, and never again will I put my faith in Christian oaths.”

I realized from this agitated confession that the Spaniard was not quite so simple and inexperienced as I had thought. On the contrary, he had secured his position and fancied that Khaireddin would let him go even were someone to denounce him. Khaireddin, he thought, would laugh up his sleeve at such a denunciation, believing himself to know more of the Spaniard’s business in Tunis than anyone. Now, however, Khaireddin had him arrested at once. In a secret hiding place aboard his vessel another of the Emperor’s instructions was found, clearly demonstrating the deceit and treachery of his negotiations. Despite Master de Presandes’s loudly repeated claims to diplomatic immunity, the sword fell; his protests were silenced forever.

Being now fully aware of Khaireddin’s irresolute and vacillating nature I made ready to leave Tunis, as I had a dislike of violence and bloodshed. But precious time slipped away unnoticed, storms and bad weather hindered my departure, Abu el-Kasim’s hospitality enticed me evening after evening, and above all I hoped to see Andy before my departure, to persuade him to return with me to Istanbul. Not until I met him barefoot, ragged, and dirty in the courtyard of the kasbah did I learn that Khaireddin had never told him of my coming, and indeed had sought on various pretexts to keep us apart. This was understandable enough, for like a prudent general Khaireddin was unwilling to lose a good master gunner just before the outbreak of war. We embraced one another joyfully and Andy exclaimed, “I’ve had enough of this place. Khaireddin made me a laughingstock in the eyes of all decent gunners last winter, when we were fighting Berbers and Arabs in the desert. He made me rig sails to our cannon, and of course they were of some help on level ground with a following wind. But when I saw my honest guns flying along like so many drabs with lifted petticoats I was ashamed. But Khaireddin just laughed and bent on larger sails, and I can never quite forgive him for the disgrace. I much doubt whether he is capable of land fighting. And then the savage treatment of Christian slaves has cut me to the heart, so I shall be more than glad to come back with you to Istanbul.”

Andy now looked like a Greek monk or some pious dervish. He had let his beard grow till it stood out round his face like a jungle, and I felt it was time to take him in hand before he turned quite queer in the head. But he said, “At heart I’ve always been a good-natured fellow. My losses and sorrows have led me to understand people better than before, and I cannot see why we must be forever hurting one another. If you had seen how the renegades and janissaries treated the captive Italian boys and women-I can’t believe that the purpose of this life is witless destruction and slaughter. Brooding over these things has given me headaches that the African sun does nothing to cure. So now I punish my body for all its misdeeds by fasting, and letting the sun scorch my back.”

I seized him by the arm to lead him quickly to the baths and thence to Abu el-Kasim’s house to dress him in proper clothes. But at the gate of the kasbah Andy remembered something, and with a strange look at me he said, “I have something to show you.”

He led me past the stables to the middens, and there gave a whistle. A ragged seven-year-old boy crept from his hiding place and greeted him with a yelp of pleasure, just as a dog welcomes its master. The boy had a red velvet cap upon his head but his eyes were almost closed, so swollen were they by the bites of flies. His arms and legs were thin and crooked, and his dull expression showed him to be feeble minded. Nevertheless Andy took him and tossed him into the air until he howled with delight, then gave him a piece of bread and a bunch of onions from the wallet at his girdle. At length he said to me, “Give him an asper! But it must be newly minted and shiny.”

I did so, in the name of the Compassionate. The boy looked at Andy, who nodded, then disappeared behind the heaps of garbage. He soon returned and after another glance at Andy he gave me in return a dirty pebble. I took it to please him, and pretended to put it in my purse. Then wearying of the game I urged Andy to come away. He patted the boy on the head, nodded to him, and came. As we walked he spoke in a low voice as if to himself, telling how he had rescued the boy from the janissaries at the time of the capture of the kasbah, and given him into the care of the grooms. Thrusting his hand into his wallet he drew out a handful of dirty little pebbles like the one the boy had given me. They were about the size of a finger tip. Showing them to me he remarked, “He’s not ungrateful. Every time I bring him food he gives me one of these, and he will give me as many as I like for really shiny aspers.”

I now began to feel grave fears for Andy’s reason, and said, “Dear Andy, you must have a touch of the sun! You don’t mean you exchange silver aspers for the rubbish that boy gives you, and keep it in your purse?”

I was about to throw away the stone that I’d been given, as the fowl droppings that stuck to it dirtied my fingers. But Andy held my arm urgently and said, “Spit on the stone and rub it on your sleeve!”

I had no wish to soil my fine kaftan, yet I did as he asked, and when I had rubbed the stone it began to shine like a piece of polished glass. A queer thrill ran through me, though I dared not believe I held a jewel in my hand. One of that size would have been worth many thousand ducats.

“Just a piece of glass,” I said doubtfully.

“So I thought. But I happened to show the smallest of these stones to a trustworthy Jew in the bazaar, and he at once offered me fifty ducats for it. This showed me that it was worth at least five hundred, and I put it away again. I laugh sometimes to think what an enormous fortune is rattling about in my purse.”

I still found it hard to believe him until suddenly I remembered the boy’s red velvet cap. I clapped my hand to my forehead and cried, “Allah is indeed merciful! That idiot boy no doubt had time to ransack the empty rooms of the kasbah before it was captured, and found Muley-Hassan’s velvet bag which he left behind in his haste.”

I told Andy what the Jewish merchant in Istanbul had confided to me, and suggested that we should return to the boy at once and get the rest of the two hundred from him. Andy said, “It won’t do, for the boy never parts with more than one or two at a time. He’s as cunning as a fox, for all his idiocy, and though I’ve spied upon him once or twice I have never been able to find his hiding place.”