Gun-Running!
195
whether Labib Bey (a mutual dislike had developed between
us) had given the order or whether it came from Sheikh
Hassan el Banna himself. It might well come from either if
they checked with their friends in the United States. At any
rate, I kept to our room during most of my stay in Cairo,
avoiding everyone I had formerly seen except Ahmed Hussein
and the Green Shirts. I could not help asking Hussein, casually: "Do you hear anything from Katibah or Richardson
these days?" He said he had received no word from them. I
thought he was telling the truth but I was not sure. I could
not get rid of the added suspicion that it was the Green Shirts
who had warned the Jerusalem Arabs against me, and that to
throw me off the scent they accused the Ikhwan.
Cairo had changed for the worse in the two weeks I had
been away. The drums of war were no longer muffled. The
city was in a particularly ugly mood. It had just gone through
a disastrous police strike that had been suppressed by violent
army action. Hardly had the city recovered when 1,300 male
nurses of Cairo's two leading hospitals had struck, causing the
death of many patients. The government had withheld the
facts by announcing that the publication of details would be
"considered a serious crime." I sensed the mood of city-wide
terror, especially on Friday afternoons when the faithful were
exhorted from the mosques by fanatic sheikhs of El Azhar.
I missed the experience of going around with Moustafa and
Faris on their gun-hunting missions, but I learned to know
Faris better and to distrust him. I felt intuitively that he was
being underhanded. I was convinced that he was trying to set
Moustafa against me. I had to put an end to this.
Lunching alone with Moustafa one day, I said: "I'd like you
to buy me a gun for my personal use against the Jews."
Moustafa looked surprised, then broke into a smile. "I keep
telling Faris you are on Allah's side, but he won't believe me.
This will convince him."
"A rifle is too bulky, a pistol too weak. Get me a Sten in good
condition."