A soft chuckle came from behind him. Then, in a voice too low for anyone else to hear, Juliet said, "Actually, as camels go, this one is rather pretty."
Ross repressed a smile. "And as camels go, this one will." He handed the reins to Juliet so that she could lead it over to join the others they wanted to buy. Juliet was quite correct: the camel was rather attractive, if you had a taste for beasts that looked as if they were designed by God on an off day.
The camels of Mongolia and Turkestan were of the two-humped Bactrian variety, and they were shorter, stockier, and shaggier than the single-humped dromedaries found in North Africa and western Asia. Bactrians were perfectly suited to the Central Asian climate, which had wide extremes of both heat and cold, so apparently God at least knew what he was doing when he set the camels in their respective territories.
Having placed the latest selection in Murad's charge, Juliet returned to help Ross choose the final camel they would need for the journey. The next one they examined was a cranky bull. Juliet expertly kneaded the humps with her hands, then shook her head. "Not enough fat. This one needs to be put out to pasture for several months. Probably wouldn't survive the trip to Bokhara."
Ross accepted her judgment. He had had a fair amount of experience with camels, but Juliet had more. In spite of the beasts' phenomenal endurance, they were in some ways curiously fragile and needed long spells of recovery after hard use. Only the fittest camels could survive the demanding journey across the Kara Kum, and Juliet had already rejected a number of the merchant's available stock.
The next possibility was a female with a sleek coat and thick, curling black hair along the underside of her throat. She batted her eyes flirtatiously, then swung her head around and belched in his face. For a camel, that counted as good nature.
Cautiously Ross inspected the animal's broad padded feet while Juliet gauged the camel's fitness. After a thorough examination of the humps, she said, "This one will do."
"I like her." Ross gave the camel a friendly slap on its flank. "I'll ride her myself and call her Julietta."
His wife's eyes flashed evilly through the narrow opening in her veil, but she refrained from comment because the owner of the camels, Mustafa Khan, was approaching.
They had set out from Serevan only about half an hour later than the time Ross had aimed for. Saleh had put aside his brilliantly colored silks for the sober dress of a merchant, and Juliet, in her veil and flowing dark robes, had been thoroughly convincing as a proud, prickly male servant. Murad had been openly curious about his Tuareg companion, but had not dared to venture any comments after his first tentative greeting was met by a cold stare and a single gruff syllable.
Escorted by half a dozen men from Serevan, they had descended from the mountain plateau to the arid plains that rolled endlessly into the distance, and hard riding brought them to Sarakhs before sunset. The unimpressive mud-brick community sat by a shallow, silty river on the edge of the desert. Nominally under Persian control, it consisted of perhaps two thousand families of non- nomadic Turkomans.
Wanting to choose the camels in daylight, Ross had had Juliet take them to the stock dealer as soon as they reached the town. Now, as darkness gathered, Ross sat down with the dealer to drink tea and bargain for the selected beasts. Bargaining was both art and entertainment in the East, and Mustafa Khan started the process with relish, demanding an outrageous amount.
Ross could have afforded what was asked, but spending too much might attract dangerous attention, and would certainly have proved that he was not Oriental. He countered with an offer a fifth of the asking price, then watched with deep appreciation while Mustafa Khan moaned, his eyes screwing shut with misery and his black mustaches drooping.
The Turkoman merchant pointed out that honored Khilburn had selected the finest beasts on the lot. Then, after speaking eloquently of his love for the camels, of how they were like his own beloved children and he offered them for sale only as a service for travelers like his noble visitor, Mustafa Khan lowered his price by ten percent.
Years of experience in the bazaars of Asia and Africa had given Ross a very respectable skill at bargaining, so he countered with a lengthy diatribe on the camels' flaws: the weakness of their muscles, the poorness of their condition, the probability that they would drop dead before they reached the middle of the Kara Kum. While it would surely be in his best interest to purchase his camels elsewhere, the affection and esteem that had instantly sprung to life on meeting Mustafa Khan led him to offer much more than the mangy beasts were worth.
When Ross named a new figure, the merchant clutched his heart and murmured that honored Khilburn wanted to orphan and beggar Mustafa Khan's children, then lowered his price again. And so it went, most pleasurably, through two hours and six tiny cups each of tea, while the other members of Ross's party took their ease with Eastern patience. Except for Juliet, who paced restlessly about the yard, looking dark and dangerous.