'We'd better be, hadn't we?'

'Good. Would you care to leave the manifest and so forth with me? – It might speed things along.'

'I'm not in that much of a hurry.'

Jehangir gave me one of his quick grins. 'Now, I must think about the third race.'

I stood up, but Janni was on his feet first. His English might be lousy, but he was a good enough fighter to smell the change of mood. He just stood there, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Ken stood up slowly, his face clenched tight. Jehangir grinned at him, too, and said: 'You will still have a delivery fee, of course. It will cover a few days in Beirut and any legal fees. And you will get the plane back – unless Castle does, first.'

Ken said quietly: 'What happened to your leg?'

Jehangir tapped his thigh gently, getting a muffled tinny noise. They do a very good job, these days. Light alloy with a glass-fibre socket moulded exactly to your stump so it can be held on by pure suction; brilliant. I actually had this fitted in England, at Roehampton. Oh yes – I lost the original to a bit of stray firing in the 1958 troubles.'

Ken nodded. 'Not something that's still going around, then.'

'Oh no.' Jehangir looked at him carefully. 'No, I don't think so.'

As we walked away I said: 'Never try to blackmail a gambler: he's accustomed to risking the odds.'

'Who told you that? No, don't say it.' His face was still stiff. "The bastard. The swindling sod.'

'Hell, you said yourself the guns had probably been mostly paid for. Why should he spring another twelve thousand?'

'You took all the risks without being paid for them. I was just standing up for your rights.'

'Yes? Well, if my rights happen to feel tired, you just leave ' em lay. D'you think we should let him have those guns?'

'Why? – d'you want them for yourself?'

The gate to the path across the course was open so we walked out through the men raking the sand smooth again, along with a few punters who'd seen the light after just two races. But there were still twice as many hurrying in the opposite direction.

I said: 'I'd trust me with them more than I would him. Anyway, if he doesn't unpack the things fast, it wouldn't be much of a trick to trace them back to us.'

Ken shrugged: 'He's just another middleman. He's not charging up El Hamra shouting "Liberty! " with an M3 and a tin leg. They probably aren't even for this country.'

We reached the main gate just before they shut it for the third race, and stood on the pavement waving at taxis.

Ken said thoughtfully: 'What d'you think hewill do next?'

'Talk to Aziz. He's got to.'

'And we just wait?'

'No, we ring Aziz first.'

'Us? Ring Aziz?' He stared at me. 'And what do we tell him?'

'Promise not to laugh? Why not the truth?'

18

It was six o'clock, almost sundown, when we met Aziz by the souvenir counter in the airport lounge. I suppose we shouldn't have expected him to come alone; the party of the. second part was a short, brisk fifty-year-old with a big beak, gold-rimmed spectacles, tufts of white hair sticking out like awnings over his ears, blue suit and smart black briefcase. He could have gone a step further and worn a placard saying LAWYER around his neck, but he didn't need it.

Aziz was in weekend dress, which to him meant a grey silk suit and a cravat instead of a tie. He introduced us to the lawyer, keeping an expressionless expression on his face.

The lawyer – I hadn't caught his name – said: 'I have told Monsieur Aziz that this is highly irregular.'

Ken said: 'It can't be too irregular for a man to see some property he's had the court attach. There must be a legal presumption that he could get to own it.'

Aziz grunted, shrugged, and said:'Enfin, let us go and see it, then.'

I said: 'I want to make a short statement first.'

'Who is your legal adviser?' the lawyer asked. 'I'm advising myself and if that means I've got a fool for a client then you should worry. Statement: the aeroplane and its cargo belong to Castle Hotels, not to Mitzi Braunhof-Spohr, not to her father's estate, not to me. She didn't even pay me for the ride here, so no money's involved. She's already flown out and there's nothing to stop me going, too, and then you can fight it out with Castle and good luck. Statement ends.'

The lawyer consulted himself on how much of this to believe and what to advise if so. Aziz was staring blankly at a case of that filigree white silver and turquoise jewellery that you find all over the Middle East; he hadn't shown any surprise at hearing that Mitzi had gone.

Finally the lawyer said: 'You wish to disassociate yourself from these proceedings? '

Tm disassociated already. Now I'd like to show Mr Aziz the property he's had attached.'

Aziz looked at the lawyer with a slight shrug of Why Not? So we showed various papers and passports to the Immigration control and got ourselves let out airside through a back door.

As we reached the hangar by the Queen Air, Ken said: 'I think Mr Aziz might find he wants to stop being legally represented from here on.'

Both of them stared at him, the lawyer with legal steam coming out of his ears. I said quickly: 'Let's say we show Mr Aziz first and he can call for legal advice as soon as he wants to.'

Aziz and the lawyer looked at each other, suddenly smelling something more than the jet exhaust drifting down the breeze.

I said: 'I can't exactly hijack him, can I?' and walked over and unlocked the Beech, climbed up into a sauna bath atmosphere, opened another button on my shirt and sat down in the rear seat. After a few moments, Aziz climbed in behind me.

'Well, there it is,' and I waved a hand at the stacked boxes.

He moved carefully forward, a little alarmed at the way the small aeroplane swayed under his feet, and lowered himself gently into a seat facing the boxes.

'But you must not leave such wine in a heathice this! '

'I wouldn't know, I just fly these things around. Unloading and Customs and so on isn't my business-' Ken came past me – 'but if you like, we'll see how it's getting on."

I found my pipe-cleaning penknife, opened the sharp blade, and passed it to Ken. He got the top box clear of the tie-down straps and slashed the paper-tape bindings, then ripped open the staples.

Of course, if it wasn't sub-machine guns we were going to look right bloody fools. And it wasn't but we didn't.

We got eighteen assorted types of automatic pistol plus spare magazines and ammunition in screws of newspaper.

'Oh dear me,' Ken said in a tea-party voice. 'This wine really has gone off. Changed completely, wouldn't you say?'

I said carefully: 'I saw those boxes loaded aboard, already sealed, of course, at Rheims. I've got all the paperwork, certificatd'origine and so forth, all clear and complete. As I say, I just fly where people tell me."

Ken said: 'A man must want this sort of stuff pretty bad if he goes as far as slapping a court order on it.'

'Mad keen, he must be. I'm glad I'm disassociated.'

'Me too. Somehow it doesn't seem quite nice, does it?'

Aziz was up on his feet, crouched under the low ceiling and having throat attacks because that was where his heart was. At last he managed to sputter: 'You knew what was there! '

'Not precisely true,' I said. 'But anyway, I've advised myself not to say anything until I've consulted with myself and as it's Saturday I've gone fishing.'

Aziz glared, and the sweat was trickles, not drops, on his face. 'You are trying to blackmail me! '

'Everybody says that to us,' Ken complained. 'D'you want your lawyer in now?'

Aziz plumped back into his seat and the whole aircraft shuddered. But his voice – and his thinking – were under control again. 'All I need to do is report this to the police and pfft – you are in jail.'