The Lost Army of Cambyses Read Online Free PDF

hammering.
    Iqbar took another step forward, belly bulging
    37
    beneath his djellaba. There was something menac-
    ing about his rotten brown teeth and black
    eye-patch. His voice, however, was kindly and the
    girl showed no fear of him.
    'Are you going home or not?'
    The girl shook her head.
    'In that case', he said, turning away and
    shuffling towards the front of the shop, 'I'll have
    to lock you in for the night. And of course it's at
    night that the ghosts come out.'
    He stopped at the door and removed a bunch of
    keys from his pocket.
    'Did I tell you about the ghosts? I'm sure I did.
    All antique shops have them. For instance, in that
    old lamp there' – he indicated a brass lamp sitting
    on a shelf – 'lives a genie called al-Ghul. He's ten
    thousand years old, and can turn himself into any
    shape that he wants.'
    The girl stared at the lamp, eyes wide.
    'And you see that old wooden chest there, in the
    corner, the one with the big lock and the iron bands
    across it? Well, there's a crocodile in there, a big
    green crocodile. By day he sleeps, but at night he
    comes out to look for children. Why? So he can eat
    them, of course. He grabs them in his mouth and
    swallows them whole.'
    The girl bit her lip, eyes darting between the
    chest and the lamp.
    'And that knife, up there on the wall, with the
    curved blade. That used to belong to a king.
    A very cruel man. Each night he comes back,
    takes his knife and cuts the throats of anyone
    he can lay his hands on. Oh yes, this shop is
    full of ghosts. So if you want to stay here for
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    the night, my little friend, be my guest.'
    Chuckling to himself he pulled open the door, a
    set of brass bells jangling as he did so. The girl
    came forward a few paces, thinking she was going
    to be locked in. As soon as he heard her move,
    Iqbar swung around and, raising his hands as
    though they were claws, roared. The girl screamed
    and laughed, scampering off into the shadows at
    the back of the shop, where she crouched down
    behind a pair of old wickerwork baskets.
    'So she wants to play hide and seek, does she?'
    growled the old man, limping after her, a smile on
    his face. 'Well, she'll have a hard job hiding from
    Iqbar. He might only have one eye left, but it's a
    good eye. No-one can hide from old Iqbar.'
    He could see her lurking behind the baskets,
    peering out through' a gap between them. He
    didn't want to spoil her fun too quickly and so
    deliberately shuffled past her and instead opened
    the doors of an old wooden cupboard.
    'Is she in here, I wonder?'
    He made a show of peering into the cupboard.
    'No, not in the cupboard. She's cleverer than I
    thought.'
    He closed the cupboard and passed into a room
    at the back of the shop, where he made as much
    noise as he could opening drawers and banging on
    filing cabinets.
    'Are you in here, little monster?' he cried, enjoy-
    ing himself. 'Hiding in my secret office? Oh she's a
    clever one, she is!'
    He clattered around for a while longer and then
    hobbled out again, stopping directly in front of the
    baskets. He could hear the girl's muffled giggles.
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    'Now, let me think. She wasn't in the cupboard,
    and she wasn't in the office, and I'm sure she
    wouldn't be silly enough to hide in the wooden
    chest with the crocodile. Which, if I'm right, only
    leaves one place for her to be. And that's right
    here, behind these baskets. Let's see if old Iqbar's
    right.'
    He bent down. As he did so the bells on the
    door jangled and someone entered the shop. He
    straightened and turned. The girl remained where
    she was, hidden.
    'We were just closing,' said Iqbar, shuffling
    forward towards the two men who were standing
    in the doorway. 'But if you want a look around,
    please take your time.'
    The men ignored him. They were young, in their
    early twenties, bearded; each was dressed in a
    grubby black robe with a black 'imma wound low
    around his forehead. They gazed around the shop
    for a moment, sizing it up, and then one of them
    stepped