Roald Dahl - The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl, Volume 1

"We'll have to walk a bit," said Stag. "No gharries here."

It was a dark starry night with no moon. The street was narrow and blacked-out. It smelled strongly with the smell of Cairo. It was quiet as they walked along, and now and again they passed a man or sometimes two men standing back in the shadow of a house, leaning against the wall of the house, smoking.

"I say," said William, "ropey, what?"

"Very," said Stuffy. "Very bad types."

They walked on, the three of them walking abreast; square short ginger-haired Stag, tall dark Stuffy, and tall young William who went bareheaded because he had lost his cap. They headed roughly towards the centre of the town where they knew that they would find a gharry to take them on to Rosette.

Stuffy said, "Oh, won't the girls be pleased when we rescue them?"

"Jesus," said the Stag, "it ought to be a party."

"Does she actually keep them locked up?" William said.

"Well, no," said Stag. "Not exactly. But if we rescue them now, they won't have to work any more tonight anyway. You see, the girls she has at her place are nothing but ordinary shop girls who still work during the day in the shops. They have all of them made some mistake or other which Rosette either engineered or found out about, and now she has put the screws on them; she makes them come along in the evening, But they hate her and they do not depend on her for a living. They would kick her in the teeth if they got the chance."

Stuffy said, "We'll give them the chance."

They crossed over a street. William said, "How many girls will there be there, Stag?"

"I don't know. I suppose there might be thirty."

"Good God," said William. "This will be a party. Does she really treat them very badly?"

The Stag said, "Thirty-three squadron told me that she pays them nothing, about twenty akkers a night. She charges the customers a hundred or two hundred akkers each. Every girl earns for Rosette between five hundred and a thousand akkers every night."

"Good God," said William. "A thousand piastres a night and thirty girls. She must be a millionaire."

"She is. Someone calculated that not even counting her outside business, she makes the equivalent of about fifteen hundred pounds a week. That's, let me see, that's between five and six thousand pounds a month. Sixty thousand pounds a year."

Stuffy came out of his dream. "Jesus," he said, "Jesus Christ. The filthy old Syrian Jewess."

"The lousy old bitch," said William.

They were coming into a more civilized section of the town, but still there were no gharries.

The Stag said, "Did you hear about Mary's House?"

"What's Mary's House?" said William.

"It's a place in Alexandria. Mary is the Rosette of Alex."

"Lousy old bitch," said William.

"No," Stag said. "They say she's a good woman. But anyway, Mary's House was hit by a bomb last week. The navy was in port at the time and the place was full of sailors, nautic types."

"Killed?"

"Lots of them killed. And d'you know what happened? They posted them as killed in action."

"The Admiral is a gentleman," said Stuffy.

"Magnificent," said William.

Then they saw a gharry and hailed it.

Stuffy said, "We don't know the address."

"He'll know it," said Stag. "Madame Rosette," he said to the driver.

The driver grinned and nodded. Then William said, "I'm going to drive. Give me the reins, driver, and sit up here beside me and tell me where to go."

The driver protested vigorously, but when William gave him ten piastres, he gave him the reins. William sat high up on the driver's seat with the driver beside him. The Stag and Stuffy got in the back of the carriage.

"Take off," said Stuffy. William took off. The horses began to gallop.

"No good," shrieked the driver. "No good. Stop."

"Which way Rosette?" shouted William.

"Stop," shrieked the driver.

William was happy. "Rosette," he shouted. "Which way?"

The driver made a decision. He decided that the only way to stop this madman was to get him to his destination. "This way," he shrieked. "Left." William pulled hard on the left rein and the horses swerved around the corner. The gharry took it on one wheel.

"Too much bank," shouted Stuffy from the back seat.

"Which way now?" shouted William.

"Left," shrieked the driver. They took the next street to the left, then they took one to the right, two more to the left, then one to the right again and suddenly the driver yelled, "Here pleess, here Rosette. Stop."

William pulled hard on the reins and gradually the horses raised their heads with the pulling and slowed down to a trot.

"(There?" said William.

"Here," said the driver. "Pleess." He pointed to a house twenty yards ahead. William brought the horses to a stop right in front of it.

"Nice work, William," said Stuffy.

"Jesus," said the Stag. "That was quick."

"Marvellous," said William. "Wasn't it?" He was very happy.

The driver was sweating through his shirt and he was too frightened to be angry.

William said, "How much?"

"Pleess, twenty piastres."

William gave him forty and said, "Thank you very much. Fine horses." The little man took the money, jumped up on to the gharry, and drove off. He was in a hurry to get away.

They were in another of those narrow, dark streets, but the houses, what they could see of them, looked huge and prosperous. The one which the driver had said was Rosette's was wide and thick and three storeys high, built of grey concrete, and it had a large thick front door which stood wide open. As they went in, the Stag said, "Now leave this to me. I've got a plan."

Inside there was a cold grey dusty stone hall, lit by a bare electric light bulb in the ceiling, and there was a man standing in the hall. He was a mountain of la man, a huge Egyptian with a flat face and two cauliflower ears. In his wrestling days he had probably been billed as Abdul the Killer or The Poisonous Pasha, but now he wore a dirty white cotton suit.

The Stag said, "Good evening. Is Madame Rosette here?"

Abdul looked hard at the three pilots, hesitated, then said, "Madame Rosette top floor."

"Thank you," said Stag. "Thank you very much." Stuffy noticed that the Stag was being polite. There was always trouble for somebody when he was like that. Back in the squadron, when he was leading a flight, when they sighted the enemy and when there was going to be a battle, the Stag never gave an order without saying "Please' and he never received a message without saying "Thank you.' He was saying "Thank you" now to Abdul.

They went up the bare stone steps which had iron railings. They went past the first landing and the second landing, and the place was as bare as a cave. At the top of the third flight of steps, there was no landing; it was walled off, and the stairs ran up to a door. The Stag pressed the bell. They waited a while, then a little panel in the door slid back and a pair of small black eyes peeked through. A woman's voice said, "What you boys want?" Both the Stag and Stuffy recognized the voice from the telephone. The Stag said, "We would like to see Madame Rosette." He pronounced the Madame in the French way because he was being polite.

"You officers? Only officers here," said the voice. She had a voice like a broken board.

"Yes," said Stag. "We are officers."

"You don't look like officers. What kind of officers?"

"IF."

There was a pause. The Stag knew that she was considering. She had probably had trouble with pilots before, and he hoped only that she would not see "William and the light that was dancing in his eyes; for William was still feeling the way he had felt when he drove the gharry. Suddenly the panel closed and the door opened.

"All right, come in," she said. She was too greedy, this woman, even to pick her customers carefully.