They_Came_to_Baghdad-Agatha_Christie

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Victoria arrived back at the Hotel Tio with sore feet. Marcus, who was sitting out on the terrace
overlooking the river and talking to a thin, rather tired-looking, middle-aged man, called out to her
enthusiastically.
'Come and have a drink with us, Miss Jones. This is Mr Dakin. Now then, my dear, what will you
have?'
Victoria said she would have a cocktail and, she suggested hopefully, some of those lovely nuts.
Mr Dakin said in a sad voice that he would have a lemonade and Marcus gave the order in rapid
Arabic.
'Ah,' cried Marcus, 'here is Mrs Cardew Trench. You know Mr Dakin? What will you have?'
'Gin and lime,' said Mrs Cardew Trench, nodding to Dakin. 'You look hot,' she added to Victoria.
'I've been walking around, seeing the city.'
When the drinks came, Victoria ate a large plateful of nuts and some potato chips.
After a while, a short, solid-looking man came up the steps and Marcus introduced him to Victoria
as Captain Crosbie.
'Just arrived?' he asked her.
'Yesterday.'
'I didn't think I had seen you before.'
'She is very nice and beautiful, is she not?' said Marcus joyfully. 'Oh yes, it is very nice to have
Miss Victoria. I will give a very nice party for her. Oh, it is very good. We will have a long dinner that
goes on for hours.'
'That will be lovely,' said Victoria, feeling quite weak with hunger.
'I thought you'd gone to Basrah,' said Mrs Cardew Trench to Crosbie.
'I got back yesterday,' said Crosbie.
He looked up at the balcony.
'Who's that?' he asked. 'The man in the big hat.'
'That, my dear, is Sir Rupert Crofton Lee,' said Marcus. 'He came last night from the British
Embassy. He is a very nice man, a great traveller. He rides on camels over the Sahara, and climbs up
mountains. It is very uncomfortable and dangerous, that kind of life. I would not like it myself.'
'Oh, he's that man, is he?' said Crosbie. 'I've read his book.'
'I came over on the plane with him,' said Victoria.
Both men, or so it seemed to her, looked at her with interest.
'He's very pleased with himself,' said Victoria.
'I knew his aunt in India,' said Mrs Cardew Trench. 'The whole family is like that. They are terribly
clever, but they can't help telling everyone.'
'Another drink?' Marcus demanded.