‘So it’s all safely stowed, is it?’ ‘It is,’ said Nassir, ‘and I can breathe again!’ ‘And have a cup of coffee?’ ‘I don’t know that I should,’ wavered Nassir. ‘He might come in early to have a look around.’ ‘He was in last night, wasn’t he?’ ‘He was. I don’t mind that. He wanted to make sure everything was all right. Well, that’s his way. But he should have gone away afterwards. Some of us have lives to live, you know.’ ‘Is that what you told him?’ said the Greek admiringly. ‘Well …’ said the clerk, tempted. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘Not exactly.’ ‘More than your job’s worth?’ ‘Exactly!’ ‘But once it was all settled, you’d have thought …’ ‘You would. You would have thought he’d have gone home, instead of fussing around. But he didn’t. He had to go over it all again, making sure everything was as it should be. Not just the lot that had just come in, but everything else! Fussing around. And what made it worse was that he had sent me off.’ ‘Sent you off?’ ‘Yes.
