194
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
door to stare at stack after stack of packed hand-grenades and
mortar shells.
Moustafa asked if the ammunition was still alive.
"Guaranti. Guaranti," the salesman assured him.
That afternoon Moustafa and Fans went gun-shopping
again but did not take me along. Apparently I had shown
undue curiosity. I was itching to learn the major gun-sources
and other data. Laboriously piecing together tidbits, I ascertained that Cairo was bristling with undercover arms and ammunition. Some of the material had been dug out of the El
Alamein sands and was German. Considerable quantities had
been stolen from British camps or sold by British soldiers to
Arabs. Franco's arms salesmen were active. Italian, Swiss, Belgian, and Czechoslovakian agents were also in the market.
Nothing American was for sale except some rifles and a few
revolvers. Rifles sold from $65 to $100, depending on the
condition and type. Revolvers brought from $25 to $40. Bren
and Vickers machine-guns ranged from $200 to $350, "asking"
prices.
A few days later Moustafa said: "I saw Faris pay three hundred dollars for guns today."
I did not press him and feigned no interest. Moustafa was
probably telling the truth but I did not want to arouse any
more suspicion than I had so far. Moustafa and Faris made
matters no easier for me when they repeatedly told me that
they had been seeing the Mufti, whom I was so eager to meet.
The Mufti was everywhere, behind nearly every