Murder in Mesopotamia Read Online Free PDF

bathroom or not a bathroom! All the same, when you've got used to taps and proper plumbing, it seems strange to call a couple of mud-rooms with a tin hip-bath in each of them, and muddy water brought in kerosene tins, bathrooms!)
    All this side of the building had been added by Dr. Leidner to the original Arab house. The bedrooms were all the same, each with a window and a door giving on to the courtyard.
    Along the north side were the drawing office, the laboratory and the photographic rooms.
    To return to the verandah, the arrangement of rooms was much the same on the other side. There was the dining-room leading into the office where the files were kept and the cataloguing and typing was done. Corresponding to Mrs. Leidner's room was that of Father Lavigny, who was given the largest bedroom; he used it also for the decoding - or whatever you call it - of tablets.
    In the south-west corner was the staircase running up to the roof. On the west side were first the kitchen quarters and then four small bedrooms used by the young men - Carey, Emmott, Reiter and Coleman.
    At the north-west corner was the photographic-room with the dark-room leading out of it. Next to that the laboratory. Then came the only entrance - the big arched doorway through which we had entered. Outside were sleeping quarters for the native servants, the guard-house for the soldiers, and stables, etc., for the water horses. The drawing-office was to the right of the archway occupying the rest of the north side.
    I have gone into the arrangements of the house rather fully here because I don't want to have to go over them again later.
    As I say, Mrs. Leidner herself took me round the building and finally established me in my bedroom, hoping that I should be comfortable and have everything I wanted.
    The room was nicely though plainly furnished - a bed, a chest of drawers, a wash-stand and a chair.
    “The boys will bring you hot water before lunch and dinner - and in the morning, of course. If you want it any other time, go outside and clap your hands, and when the boy comes say, jib mai' har. Do you think you can remember that?”
    I said I thought so and repeated it a little haltingly.
    “That's right. And be sure and shout it. Arabs don't understand anything said in an ordinary 'English' voice.”
    “Languages are funny things,” I said. “It seems odd there should be such a lot of different ones.”
    Mrs. Leidner smiled.
    “There is a church in Palestine in which the Lord's Prayer is written up in - ninety, I think it is - different languages.”
    “Well!” I said, “I must write and tell my old aunt that. She will be interested.”
    Mrs. Leidner fingered the jug and basin absently and shifted the soap-dish an inch or two.
    “I do hope you'll be happy here,” she said. “And not get too bored.”
    “I'm not often bored,” I assured her. “Life's not long enough for that.”
    She did not answer. She continued to toy with the wash-stand as though abstractedly.
    Suddenly she fixed her dark violet eyes on my face.
    “What exactly did my husband tell you, nurse?”
    Well, one usually says the same thing to a question of that kind.
    “I gathered you were a bit run-down and all that, Mrs. Leidner,” I said glibly. “And that you just wanted some one to look after you and take any worries off your hands.”
    She bent her head slowly and thoughtfully.
    “Yes,” she said. “Yes - that will do very well.”
    That was just a little bit enigmatic, but I wasn't going to question it. Instead I said:
    “I hope you'll let me help you with anything there is to do in the house. You mustn't let me be idle.”
    She smiled a little.
    “Thank you, nurse.”
    Then she sat down on the bed and, rather to my surprise, began to cross-question me rather closely. I say rather to my surprise because, from the moment I set eyes on her, I felt sure that Mrs. Leidner was a lady. And a lady, in my experience, very seldom displays curiosity about one's private