The Baghdad Railway Club(13)

Manners was speaking again.

‘The essential data is as follows. Expeditionary Force “D” of the British Indian Army – which is to say, General Maude – took control of the city of Baghdad some six weeks ago – on the night of March 11th to be exact. Maude’s army advanced on the city by the left and right banks of the River Tigris. In the van of the forces of the left or the west bank was a unit of infantry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Shep—’

‘But hold on a minute,’ I said, ‘what was he doing in the fighting? Wouldn’t he have been just travelling in the rear to take up his job on the staff?’

‘Do feel free to interrupt me with questions, Captain Stringer. Lieutenant Colonel Shepherd got himself attached to the unit as a supernumerary. Perhaps he found the idea of steaming up to Baghdad in the rear to be rather a bore. Or perhaps he had some other scheme in mind.’

‘How did he get himself attached?’

‘He knew the commanding officer of the unit, a man called Blake.’

‘How did he know him?’

‘How does anyone know anyone? He met him at a party in London – for all I know at the Midland Grand Hotel. They met again in Basrah, prior to the advance. Anyhow, in the push for the railway station, the unit came under fire and Blake was killed. Shepherd then took command of the unit. He was the only white man left . . . I see you are frowning.’

I was.

‘There are entirely British units within the British Indian Army,’ Manners ran on, ‘and entirely Indian ones. But in most cases the men are Indian, the officers British. The unit we are concerned with was Indian except for Blake and Shepherd.’

I nodded.

‘Now the picture is confused. It was dawn – the light uncertain, a sandstorm rising. Communications were, so to speak, “in the air”, and the forward patrol on the left bank was rather a jumble. But it seems that its chief elements came from the unit Shepherd was with, and a machine-gun company, the 185th. As these units pressed on, the enemy fell back on the Baghdad railway station, which lies on the outskirts of the town. For days, the Turks had been sending men, armaments and stores from there to Samarrah and points north. The last train to leave the station departed at about four o’clock in the morning on March 12th, and it carried both materiel and men – the last of the Turks put to flight. What concerns us here in this department is that immediately before the departure of that train, a parley occurred within the station between Lieutenant Colonel Shepherd and a Turkish bimbashi.’

‘What’s a bimbashi?’

‘A major, let us say.’

‘What language would this have been conducted in?’

‘Almost certainly French. The Turks speak their own version of Arabic, but any well-born Turk speaks French, and we know Shepherd is fluent in it.’

Another score chalked up to his name. He had seemed a remarkably modest man, considering.

‘Was Lieutenant Colonel Shepherd taking the Turkish surrender?’ I said.

‘Receiving the chap’s pistol and sword you mean?’

Evidently, I was wrong.

‘Don’t you think it would have been for General Maude to take the surrender?’ said Manners. ‘And for somebody higher than a major to give it? The Turks did not in any case surrender the city of Baghdad, but merely fled from it. Our concern, however, is that Lieutenant Colonel Shepherd did take something from the Turkish officer, and that the Turkish officer was given something in return.’

‘What?’

‘A certain amount of . . . treasure.’

Manners eyed me levelly.

‘What form did this treasure take?’ I enquired.

‘We believe gold coins, possibly other articles as well.’

‘A large quantity?’

‘We think so. What was the quantity in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You’ve never read the story?’ He seemed to be quite staggered.

I had in fact gone with the wife and children to see a film of the story at the Electric Theatre in York, and it had been very prettily hand-tinted but completely baffling as to plot.

‘. . . An amount large enough to be weighed,’ said Manners in a heavy sort of way that told me he must be quoting.

‘And what did the Turk get in return?’ I asked.

‘Perhaps his own freedom for one thing; permission for that last train to depart – and it is believed that certain undertakings may have been made on both sides.’

‘Undertakings of what nature?’

‘Of an unknown nature.’

‘How do you know Shepherd took this treasure and made these undertakings?’