Gun-Running!
199
I could see now that I should not have declared my $380.
Faris knew I couldn't have spent it all in the ten days we had
been in Cairo. He was beginning to shake me down.
"I have no money on me/' I said. "I'll let you know tonight."
"Why does he want the money?" I asked Moustafa, later.
"For guns," he said. "I have given him much money of my
own. He has promised to pay it back when we sell the guns in
Jerusalem."
"I'll give him the money only because you have trusted
Faris."
That night I turned over to Faris the equivalent of fifty
dollars in Egyptian funds.
He put his arm around my shoulder. "Look, Artour, I'll buy
you a Bren gun that you can sell in Jerusalem for three times
the price. Guns are cheap here. They are very expensive in
Jerusalem." He winked.
"Is that what you're planning to do with the guns you've
bought?" I asked.
"Of course. I expect to sell every gun at double and triple
the price."
"Then you're buying guns as a business, and not ... for
other reasons?"
"Well, other reasons, too, but there's good profit in buying
guns cheap here and selling them dear in Jerusalem. Everybody wants guns there."
Faris' gun racket caused me to look on him with renewed
distrust. I knew now he'd never repay the fifty dollars. I didn't
mind. It was the cheapest, and the only way to buy my security. I was equally convinced I'd never see the Sten gun I
had bought "for my personal use." I had never intended to
use it. To begin with I didn't know how, and had no desire to
learn. I had bought it to reinstate myself with Faris and Moustafa. I was convinced that Faris would find a way to cheat
Moustafa of the money he had loaned him. I didn't disclose