beaten.' Hassan asked:
- Do you hear?
He pricked up his ears and heard fai nt music.
- Get ready! The procession is comi ng.
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Qaasim
The sou nds drew nearer and clearer. Then they heard the
pipes and the drums and 'Ohs' and 'Ahs' and there were
cheers and shouts. Then by the light of its torches, the
procession appeared and they saw Omnibus surrounded by a
ring of dancers juggling with sticks. Hassan asked:
- Shall I whistle to Bu llrush?
- When the front of the procession reaches the garlic stall.
The procession came closer and the dancing and juggling
grew wilder. One dancer in a frenzy began leaping in the air
and rushing round in circles in front of the procession at
fantastic speed, spinning his stick like a fan round his upheld
arm. After each circle he moved forward a step till he passed
the garlic stall. The procession followed him very slowly, till its
head reached the stall. At that moment Hassan whistled three
times, and Bullrush and his men swept down from Tam ma'in
Alley on the tai l end of the procession, brandishing their
cudgels and breaking its ranks. There were howls of rage and
confusion. Hassan whistled three more times and Saadiq and
his men fell on the middle oflhe procession from el-Samakein
before it had recovered from the first attack. At once, Qaasim
and his men rushed out as one man from under the gateway
and attacked the front of the procession.
Omnibus and his men recovered from the shock, raised
their cudgels and joined battle. It was a bitter fight and many
peaceable people fled and took refuge in the alleyways. The
cudgels fell still more savagely and blood spurted from heads
and faces. The lanterns were smashed and the flowers were
scattered and trampled underfoot. Screams went up from
windows round about and the cafes locked their doors. Omnibus hit out cruelly and deftly, and his stick flew about like a mad thing, now here, now there. The violence i ncreased, and the
men were fi lled with hatred black as night.
Suddenly Omnibus found himself face to face with Saadiq.
With a scream of 'Bastard! ' , he aimed a blow at him which met
the counter-blow of Saadiq, who quaked and staggered. Om-
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Children of Gebelaawi
nibus raised his cudgel and brought it down a second time.
Saadiq took it on his cudgel, which he gripped with both
hands, but the power of the blow forced him to his knees.
Omnibus was about to land the third and fatal blow when he
saw Hassan bearing down on him like a wild beast to save his
friend, and he turned towards him in fury, yelling: 'You too,
son of Zakaria, son of a bitch ! ' and aimed a terrible blow at
him, which would have killed him if he had not dodged it with
a sideways leap. As he jumped he jabbed Omnibus in the neck
with the end of his stick. The blow prevented Omnibus for a
few moments from hitti ng again. Hassan recovered h is balance and struck Omnibus on the forehead with terrible force.
The blood spurted, and in a moment the cudgel had slipped
from his hand. He staggered back a few steps and fell motionless on his back. A man shouted above the noise of the cudgels:
'Om nibus is dead.' Bullrush caught him on the nose with his
cudgel and he retreated and fell over a prostrate body. Qaasim 's
men grew still bolder and their blows fiercer, while Omnibus's
men flagged, frightened to see how many had fallen. They
withdrew and then fled.
Qaasim's men gathered round him, panting. Some of them
were bleeding, others were carrying the wounded. By the light
from the cafe windows they looked at the bodies lying on the
ground. Some were dead, others just unconscious. Hamroosh
stood over Omnibus and shouted:
- Your body can rest in peace, Shaabaan.
Qaasim drew him to his side and said:
- The day of victory is near, the day when the other
strongmen will meet their fate, and we' ll become the masters
of the Alley and sharers i n our Trust and loyal children to
Gebelaawi.
When they came back to the Jebel, the women greeted them
with whoops ofjoy, and news of the victory flew round. Qaasim
went to his hut, and Badria said to him:
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Qaasim
- You are covered with dust and blood; you must wash
before you go to sleep.
When he lay down after his wash he moaned with pain. She
brought him some food and waited for him to sit up and eat,
but he was in a state between sleeping and waking. He felt relief
that was almost happiness but tinged with anxious feelings
close to grief. Badria said:
- Eat your food !
He looked up at her with heavy, dreamy eyes.
- Soon you ' ll see my victory, Qamar.
He realized at once that his tongue had slipped and he saw
her face fall. He sat up in bed and said wi th a mixture of
affection and embarrassment:
- Your food is so tasty.
But she frowned and did not respond. He took a mouthful
of the hummus and said:
- It's my turn to invite you to eat.
She turned her face away, muttering:
- She was old and she wasn 't beautiful.
He slumped as if broken and reproached her sadly:
- Don ' t speak ill of her! A woman like her deserves to be
remembered with mercy.
She looked back at him hopefully but saw terrible sadness i n
his face and she turned away agai n and took refuge in silence.
8 7 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The losers of the battle slunk back, bowed by shame. They
kept as far away as they cou ld from the lights of Omnibus'
home, which sparkled with rejoicing and merry-making. Each
man went to grou nd in his own home. The black news spread
like fire, accompanied by howls on all sides, and the wedding
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feast was snuffed out as if heaped over with earth. There were
wails of grief for Omnibus and for those of his men who had
been killed. The calamity had also i nvolved some Rifaaite and
Gebelite men, who had been in the procession.
Who was the culprit? Qaasim, the shepherd - Qaasim, who
would have had to stay a pauper all his life but for Qamar! One
man said he had fol lowed Qaasim's party back to their hideout. People wondered whether they would remain in their stronghold on the Jebel till they had destroyed all the men of
the Alley. Those who were asleep woke up and wen t out into
the road or the courtyards. One Gebelite shouted angrily:
- Kill all the Desert Rats !
But Bruiser silenced him.
- They've done nothing wrong; their strongman and many
of their men have been ki lied.
- Set Muqattam on fire !
- Bri ng Qaasim's body for the dogs to eat!
- I'll drink his blood or divorce my wife.
- The rat! The vermi n ! The coward !
- l-Ie thinks the Jebel will protect him.
- Nothing but his tomb will protect him.
- He used to accept a millieme from me and kiss the
ground.
- He used to pretend to be so nice and friendly to us; now
he betrays us and kills our men.
Next day the whole Alley turned out for a mass funeral. The
day after that the strongmen held a meeting in the house of
Trustee Rifaat, who was beside himselfwith anger and resentment. He said with bitter sarcasm:
- We'd better barricade ourselves into the Alley, so as to be
safe from death.
Guzzler was more upset than any of them, but he wanted to
play things down to lessen his responsibility. He said:
- It was only a fight between one strongman and some men
from his sector.
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Qaasim
Bruiser protested:
- One man in our sector was killed and three wounded.
Pilgrim Grim added:
- And one of our men was killed.
Rlfaat said craftily to Guzzler:
- It's a blow to your reputation, Strongman of the Alley.
His face puckered up with rage:
- A shepherd ! God! You must be joki ng!
The Trustee was not going to be put off.
- A shepherd, maybe; but he's become a menace. We
didn't take his ravings seriously for a while and turned a blind
eye, in honor of his wife, but his wickedness knows no limits.
He pretended to be humble till he was powerfu l and cou ld
destroy a strongman and his friends. Now he's in his stronghold on the jebel and his ambition will stop at nothing.
They exchanged angry glances. The Trustee went on:
- He's luring peop le out. It's disastrous - a disaster for the
whole Alley. We needn't pretend not to know that. He promises the Trust to the people. The Trust won't be enough even for his friends, but nobody will believe that. The beggars won't
believe it - and what a lot of them there are in this alley of
beggars! l-Ie promises to put an end to strongmen, and the
cowards are deligh ted - and what a lot of them there are in
this alley of cowards! You always find people here on the
winning side, so we'll be lost if we don 't move.
Guzzler bellowed:
- He's surrounded by rats. I t'll be easy to kill them.
Pilgrim Grim asked:
- But they have their stronghold on the Jebel, don't they?
Bruiser said:
- We must sLUdy the jebel till we find a way to them.
Rlfaat urged them on:
- Do that! As I said, we're lost if we don't move.
Guzzler grew still angrier and said to the Trustee meaningfully:
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Children of Gebelaawi
- You remember how I planned to kill him while his wife
was alive, and her ladyship objected?
The Trustee avoided the eyes that were fixed on him and
said almost apologetically:
- It's no use dwelling on our mistakes. (Then, after a brief
silence:) These bonds of kinship have been respected in our
Alley for a very long time.
There was unusual uproar outside, seeming to i ndicate
some fresh disaster. They were in a tense state of nerves, and
the Trustee called the gatekeeper and asked him what was
going on. The man reported:
- They say the shepherd has joined Qaasim, taking all the
Alley's flock with him.
Guzzler jumped up, shouting:
- The dog - Alley of dogs - damn him !
The Trustee asked:
- What sector does the shepherd come from?
The gatekeeper answered:
- The Desert Rats. He's called 'Crookstaff.
8 8 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
- Welcome, Crookstaff!
Qaasi m embraced him and the shepherd said enthusiastically:
- I was never against you; my heart was always with you. If
I hadn 't been afraid I'd have been one of the first to join you.
As soon as I heard of the death of Omnibus, damn him, I
hurried to you bringing your enemies' sheep.
Qaasim glanced at the flock in the space between the huts.
The women had collected round them and there was a tumult
of joy. He laughed.
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Qaasim
- It's fair game after all the property of ours that they've
stolen in the Alley.
That day more people than ever rallied to Qaasim. Their
determi nation grew stronger and their hopes higher. However, Qaasim was awakened very early next morning by a strange commotion. He left his hut at once and saw his men
hurryi ng towards him in confusion. Saadiq said:
- The Alley has come out to get its revenge, and they're
gathering at the foot of the path.
Trinket said:
- I was the first to go off to work and I saw them when I was
a few steps from the desert. I hurried back and some of them
chased me and caught me in the back with a stone. I called
Saadiq and Hassan, and a lot of our people came to the top of
the path , realized the danger and threw stones at the attackers
till they backed off.
Qaasi m looked towards the top of the path and saw Hassan
and others standing there with stones in their hands. He said:
- We can hold them off there with ten men.
Hamroosh said:
- If they come up now i t'll be suicide; let them come if they
want!
The men and women gathered rou nd Qaasi m, leaving the
huts empty. The men brough t their cudgels, and the women
baskets of stones that had been prepared for such a day. The
first rays of the sun shone from a clear sky. Qaasim said:
- Is there another path to the town?
Saadiq said gloomi ly:
- There's a path further south, two hours' walk along the
Jebel.
Bullrush said:
- I don 't think we have enough water for more than two
days.
There were murmurs of anxiety, especially among the
women. Qaasi m said:
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Children of Gebelaawi
- They've come for revenge, not for a siege. If they besiege
us we'll rely on the other path to break through the blockade.
He was thi nking hard, but only calm showed in his face, at
which they were all gazing. If they were besieged they would
have the greatest difficulty i n fetching water by the southern