Читать книгу The Mysterious Arab - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 7

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“There’s lots of things I have to do,” said Dudley as he drove them along Nairobi’s principal street. “Some licenses and a dozen and one other errands that Dad’s got me to do. How about you fellows checking in at the hotel and resting while I’m running about? You both must be feeling fagged.”

“How long before you get out of here, Holman?” asked Piney from his seat in the back of the car.

Dudley turned his head a little. “You mean out of Nairobi? Oh! I hadn’t given it much thought, except that it would be sometime tomorrow morning. Why?”

“Just that I’d like to get out and get started on my job with your father,” Piney said smiling.

“But I’d planned on showing Hal around the town,” Dudley protested lightly.

“Sure, that’s all right,” said Piney. “Go ahead. I’d have had to get somebody to pilot me out there anyway if I hadn’t met Keen and you. I can do it just as well now. You two take your time. I can go ahead and get on the job.”

“But that will cost you quite something,” said Dudley. “My father’s place in the Medille district is two hundred and fifty miles from here—have you any idea how much that will set you back? More than Dad is going to pay you for a month’s wages.”

Piney shrugged his shoulders. “Then it’ll take me just that much longer to make my job with your father pay, eh? Well, that’s better than no job at all.”

Hal glanced at Dudley beside whom he was sitting, and gave him a covert wink. “Don’t be worrying about showing me the town, Dud,” he said lightly. “I can see that on my way home again. If Mr. Piney’s anxious to get started on his job, why, we can postpone our sightseeing trip around here, huh? After all, a man’s job is worth more than a few hour’s pleasure to us, isn’t it?”

“Certainly,” said Dudley, “but Mr. Piney’s job can wait twenty-four hours. He’s the only one after it. There isn’t a man in Nairobi, black, mongrel or white, that’s going after it—I can assure you of that, Mr. Piney! Hal’s warned you and now I’m warning you, even if it is my own father I’m warning you about! I guess he’s the most difficult man in the world to meet half-way. But if you still insist on taking the chance I wouldn’t worry about getting there. You’ll have no competitors as I told you. Why not wait till tomorrow morning then?”

“Because I’ve an idea that your father might be in a better temper if his new employee puts in an appearance early,” Piney laughed. “If I’m to have this job at all, I’d rather have it by trying to win the doctor’s good graces if it can be done. Someone’s probably been bearing the brunt since the last man of all work left and that wouldn’t make the doctor easier in his mind for surely some of the work then falls on him. No, to wait might be worse for me.”

Dudley nodded. “By gosh, Mr. Piney, you hit the nail on the head about the work part of it. That falls on poor Briggs, Dad’s assistant, and I’ll admit it doesn’t help Dad’s temper any. Perhaps it would help things for us to hurry you there. Besides, it’ll make Hal’s visit pleasanter to have the farm routine running smoothly.”

“Of course,” said Piney.

They left him at the Norfolk where they intended to have lunch. He expressed a desire to wash up and do some shopping of his own while Hal accompanied Dudley about on his various errands and they agreed to meet an hour later in the spacious lobby of the famous hotel.

“And while it’s fresh in my mind,” said Hal as they drove off down the street, “I’m going to give you a little warning about this fellow, Piney. He’s slick, Dud, and I’ll tell you why I think so.”

He gave a detailed account of his meeting and talk with the man from the time they left Mombasa until they came into Nairobi’s modern station. Dudley listened attentively guiding his rather dilapidated touring car in and out of a half-dozen streets where he made perhaps four stops.

These pauses did not detract from Hal’s enthusiastic narration. He would take up the thread each time with more fervor than before for he had a conviction about Piney that a few mere interruptions could not shake off. Dudley noted this smilingly as they started back to the hotel for lunch.

“You’re warning me that Piney seems to be a bit of a suspicious character,” said he, “yet at the same time you imply that you’ll be rather disappointed if I refuse to take him home because of what you’ve just told me.”

“Exactly,” Hal grinned. “I don’t want it on my conscience, Dud, if he should do anything crooked. I’m warning you that he’s not exactly the kind of fellow to take the kind of job that your father’ll want him to fill. That is, I don’t think he is. Of course you’ve got to take all this merely on my imagination. I can’t really prove anything against him except his darned queer way of slipping around a question. And you can’t deny that he’s lying about wanting to get on the job for your father. It’s plain that he simply doesn’t want to stay in Nairobi over night. He wants to get away as quick as he can! That’s the way I figure it. Remember that half-caste is afoot in this town and I have a hunch that that’s the reason for Mr. Piney’s hurry.”

Dud glanced at him admiringly. “You have a way of stating your case convincingly,” he said. “You’ve convinced me that there’s something shady about the chap. Yet Dad’s not going to get another applicant for that job this season. I know it. Shady or not, I’m going to take this fellow just to keep peace, if that can be done. At least he’ll help some. That’s the only reason I’m going to take him along. But tell me, why would it please you to see him come?”

Hal chuckled softly. “Because,” he said, “I’d like the chance to give him a little rope and be around where I could watch him hang himself.”

Dudley laughed. “You’re the original cross-word puzzle, Hal. Darned if you’re not. Anyway, I hope you get what you’re after.”

“I will,” said Hal confidently, “if Piney comes.”

“He will,” Dudley said reassuringly, “there’s no help for it.”