The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1941-07-17
The Road to Bagdad


Captain Simpsons Get Togeth-
err dinner the second night out
was TO answer many questions on
board the Orizaba. For. before the
dinner was half over, confetti and
paper caps made each person look
as much OF a fool as the next one
and accomplished their purpose.
turning a lot of Cffish passengers
INTO a select company of good fell
lows ready to mellow into friend
ship.
Amid bedlam of whistles, tin
horns, and toy drums, Camilla
Dean struck a man at the cap
taln's table squarely in the back
OF the head with yellow balloon
and he responded by draping her
with strings Of colored paper.
Names were exchanged and she
found that he called himself JOS
eph Asad and that he was going
to Syria after a business trip to
the United States. His manners
and his English, she found, were
excellent. He would do, she
thought, to while away the voy-
age, provided Michael Gay, the
American engineer who looked
very stalwart, or the fellow they
called Slim McManus, who looked
very amusing, didn't pan out.
Every night after that there
were cards and dancing and al
most every night Joseph Asad
and Camilla went out on deck
to enjoy the pale wintry moon.
He told her of his boyhood in
Damascus, of his two years in
British university which he de-
tested.
'Of course you must know all
about the situation in Palestine,"
she suggested.
It was as if she had Immediate
ly chosen a subject taboo for he
grew silent for a long moment,
only watching the weaving wake
of the moonlight on the water.
What do you want me to tell
your"
"Just what the Arabs are going
to do. Every day there are ac-
counts of terrorism, rioting, shoot
ing, bloodshed-"
E'HoW should I know"
'There's only one end to that
sort of thing"
He had put on a sudden reverse
again and would not make a fur
Their comment.
I'm so disappointed in you"
she said. ''You have an air of
knowing so much and you say so
little" She glanced at him keen
ly. "You are very much less stu
pid than you want me to think
you are"
1t was not indeed a night for
the discussion of politics between
two persons, one Of whom was a
young woman, adventurous and
romantic, and the other a young
man, silent and mysterious. And
the sudden appearance Of Mrs.
Kitty Trimble sweeping like a
gale down the gangway with Mi
chael Gay, Slim McManus, Nicho-
las Stephanov, and the Italian,
Torelli, made a diversion which
broke the spell.
Kitty Trimble was blondish,
florid, with a slenderness that
bulged here and there. She had.
been twice divorced and was
looking for Number Three.
'Just down from the wireless
ROOM" she announced.
Kitty Trimble, Stephanov, and
Slim moved away for a turn
around the deck. Michael Gay
and Torelli remained to break up
the tete-a-tete.
Gay was bound for Beirut,
bringing in the hold of the Oriza-
ba a large bus of his own design
which was to establish a new line
of rapid communication across
the desert between Damascus and
Bagdad. It was to be a kind of
trial trip but Gay, who was to
drive, had so much confidence in
his own machine that he had in
vited some of the passengers to
take the journey with him.
''You know, I'll be counting on
you, Camilla. Straight across the
Syrian desert"
Torelli smoked in silence, his
gaze on Camilla.
cit is a considerable danger if
you take these lovely ladies as
passengers" he said.
"That's up to the lovely ladies"
laughed Camilla.
"You add courage to your 9TH
er charms, Miss Dean"
The idea of this trip to the city
of the Arabian Nights had taken
hold of the imagination of at least
six of the tourists. Camilla Dean
and her cousin Josephine Hollo-
wav Kittv Trinoh1e and Janet