‘I’ll get to it, then,’ Keith said, unfolding himself and rising. ‘Feisal should be back any minute. I hope Mr Tregarth is better. I’ve never seen injuries quite like those. It’s almost as if someone deliberately . . .’

‘I don’t think you want to know the details,’ I said. ‘It’s not because we don’t trust you.’

‘That’s okay. The less I know, et cetera. Here’s Feisal,’ he added. ‘Baked beans coming up.’

Schmidt rushed to greet Feisal. ‘Sehr gut, mein Freund, you are safely returned. What is happening?’

‘It could be worse,’ Feisal admitted. ‘The whole damned village knows we’re here, of course.’

‘How did you explain our presence?’ I asked. I know small towns; gossip is a favourite sport and personal questions aren’t considered rude, just friendly.

Feisal ran his fingers through his dusty hair and squatted down on the floor. ‘I said I’d been hired to drive a couple of Kendrick’s archaeological friends, who had come to visit him for a few days. Nobody questioned the story, but the sooner we move on the better. How’s Johnny?’

Johnny made his appearance at that point. ‘Anything else of interest?’ he inquired.

‘Not much. I didn’t want to ask questions about the kidnapped American tourist and nobody brought it up. You know villages; they’re more interested in local scandal than in issues of national importance. Turn on the radio, Kendrick, and let’s see if we can get a news broadcast.’

We were eating dinner – Keith had also opened a couple of cans of beef stew – before the news came on. It was, of course, in Arabic, and I had to wait for a translation, but I could tell by Feisal’s lengthening face that it would not be good news for us.

‘They know we’ve changed vehicles,’ Feisal said, switching off the radio. ‘Amr reported the jeep stolen. Damn him!’

‘One can’t blame him for protecting himself,’ John said. ‘And his friends and family. So they know we’re on this side of the river?’

‘They seem to have lost track of us,’ Feisal admitted grudgingly. ‘We might have doubled back, getting through the checkpoints before they found out about the jeep, or struck out into the desert. But we can’t use the jeep any longer, they’ve got a description and the number.’

‘Can we buy another car?’ I asked

John glanced at me. He didn’t say anything, but I knew that look, and I realized that once again he was one step ahead of me. If he had planned to leave the cruise here, he must have made arrangements for transport away from the site.

After a brief pause – I give the guy credit, it was very brief – Keith cleared his throat. ‘You can take my Land Rover. I guess it’s the least I can do, since it was your money that paid the hire fee.’