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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5241.txt b/5241.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd3d50f --- /dev/null +++ b/5241.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12161 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eye of Zeitoon, by Talbot Mundy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Eye of Zeitoon + +Author: Talbot Mundy + +Posting Date: June 4, 2012 [EBook #5241] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: unknown + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EYE OF ZEITOON *** + + + + +Produced by M.R.J. + + + + + + + + +THE EYE OF ZEITOON + +By Talbot Mundy + +Author of Rung Ho, King--of the Khyber Rifles, Hira Singh, +The Ivory Trail, etc. + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter Page + +I Parthians, Medes and Elamites .............................. 1 +II "How did sunshine get into the garden? By whose leave came + the wind?" .............................................. 21 +III "Sahib, there is always work for real soldiers!" ......... 40 +IV "We are the robbers, effendi!" ............................ 52 +V "Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning!" ........... 74 +VI "Passing the buck to Allah!" ............................. 91 +VII "We hold you to your word!" .............................. 118 +VIII "I go with that man!" ................................... 128 +IX "And you left your friend to help me?" ................... 142 +X "When I fire this pistol--" ................................ 163 +XI "That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" ....... 176 +XII "America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" .......... 195 +XIII "'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' + And I, sahib, obeyed my lord bahadur's orders." ......... 211 +XIV "Rajput, I shall hang you if you make more trouble!"...... 229 +XV "Scenery to burst the heart!" ............................. 243 +XVI "What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" 257 +XVII "I knew what to expect of the women!" .................. 277 +XVIII "Per terram et aquam" .................................. 290 +XIX "Such drilling as they have had--such little drilling!" .. 303 +XX "So few against so many! I see death, and I am not sorry!" 316 +XXI "Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!". 333 +XXII "God go with you to the States, effendim!" .............. 349 + + + + +Chapter One +Parthians, Medes and Elamites + +SALVETE! + +Oh ye, who tread the trodden path +And keep the narrow law +In famished faith that Judgment Day +Shall blast your sluggard mists away +And show what Moses saw! +Oh thralls of subdivided time, +Hours Measureless I sing +That own swift ways to wider scenes, +New-plucked from heights where Vision preens +A white, unwearied wing! +No creed I preach to bend dull thought +To see what I shall show, +Nor can ye buy with treasured gold +The key to these Hours that unfold +New tales no teachers know. +Ye'll need no leave o' the laws o' man, +For Vision's wings are free; +The swift Unmeasured Hours are kind +And ye shall leave all cares behind +If ye will come with me! +In vain shall lumps of fashioned stuff +Imprison you about; +In vain let pundits preach the flesh +And feebling limits that enmesh +Your goings in and out, +I know the way the zephyrs took +Who brought the breath of spring, +I guide to shores of regions blest +Where white, uncaught Ideas nest +And Thought is strong o' wing! +Within the Hours that I unlock +All customed fetters fall; +The chains of drudgery release; +Set limits fade; horizons cease +For you who hear the call +No trumpet note--no roll of drums, +But quiet, sure and sweet-- +The self-same voice that summoned Drake, +The whisper for whose siren sake +They manned the Devon fleet, +More lawless than the gray gull's wait, +More boundless than the sea, +More subtle than the softest wind! + + * * * * * * + +Oh, ye shall burst the ties that bind +If ye will come with me! + + +It is written with authority of Tarsus that once it was no mean +city, but that is a tale of nineteen centuries ago. The Turko-Italian +War had not been fought when Fred Oakes took the fever of the place, +although the stage was pretty nearly set for it and most of the +leading actors were waiting for their cue. No more history was +needed than to grind away forgotten loveliness. + +Fred's is the least sweet temper in the universe when the ague grips +and shakes him, and he knows history as some men know the Bible--by +fathoms; he cursed the place conqueror by conqueror, maligning them +for their city's sake, and if Sennacherib, who built the first +foundations, and if Anthony and Cleopatra, Philip of Macedon, +Timour-i-lang, Mahmoud, Ibrahim and all the rest of them could have +come and listened by his bedside they would have heard more personal +scandal of themselves than ever their contemporary chroniclers dared +reveal. + +All this because he insisted on ignoring the history he knew so +well, and could not be held from bathing in the River Cydnus. +Whatever their indifference to custom, Anthony and Cleopatra knew +better than do that. Alexander the Great, on the other hand, flouted +tradition and set Fred the example, very nearly dying of the ague +for his pains, for those are treacherous, chill waters. + +Fred, being a sober man and unlike Alexander of Macedon in several +other ways, throws off fever marvelously, but takes it as some persons +do religion, very severely for a little while. So we carried him +and laid him on a nice white cot in a nice clean room with two beds +in it in the American mission, where they dispense more than royal +hospitality to utter strangers. Will Yerkes had friends there but +that made no difference; Fred was quinined, low-dieted, bathed, +comforted and reproved for swearing by a college-educated nurse, +who liked his principles and disapproved of his professions just +as frankly as if he came from her hometown. (Her name was +Van-something-or-other, and you could lean against the Boston +accent--just a little lonely-sounding, but a very rock of gentle +independence, all that long way from home!) + +Meanwhile, we rested. That is to say that, after accepting as much +mission hospitality as was decent, considering that every member of +the staff worked fourteen hours a day and had to make up for attention +shown to us by long hours bitten out of night, we loafed about the +city. And Satan still finds mischief. + +We called on Fred in the beginning twice a day, morning and evening, +but cut the visits short for the same reason that Monty did not go +at all: when the fever is on him Fred's feelings toward his own +sex are simply blunt bellicose. When they put another patient in +the spare bed in his room we copied Monty, arguing that one male +at a time for him to quarrel with was plenty. + +Monty, being Earl of Montdidier and Kirkudbrightshire, and a privy +councilor, was welcome at the consulate at Mersina, twenty miles +away. + +The consul, like Monty, was an army officer, who played good chess, +so that that was no place, either, for Will Yerkes and me. Will +prefers dime novels, if he must sit still, and there was none. And +besides, he was never what you could call really sedative. + +He and I took up quarters at the European hotel--no sweet abiding-place. +There were beetles in the Denmark butter that they pushed on to the +filthy table-cloth in its original one-pound tin; and there was a +Turkish officer in riding pants and red morocco slippers, back from +the Yemen with two or three incurable complaints. He talked out-of-date +Turkish politics in bad French and eked out his ignorance of table +manners with instinctive racial habit. + +To avoid him between meals Will and I set out to look at the historic +sights, and exhausted them all, real and alleged, in less than half +a day (for in addition to a lust for ready-cut building stone the +Turks have never cherished monuments that might accentuate their +own decadence). After that we fossicked in the manner of prospectors +that we are by preference, if not always by trade, eschewing polite +society and hunting in the impolite, amusing places where most of +the facts have teeth, sharp and ready to snap, but visible. + +We found a khan at last on the outskirts of the city, almost in sight +of the railway line, that well agreed with our frame of mind. It +was none of the newfangled, underdone affairs that ape hotels, with +Greek managers and as many different prices for one service as there +are grades of credulity, but a genuine two-hundred-year-old Turkish +place, run by a Turk, and named Yeni Khan (which means the new rest +house) in proof that once the world was younger. The man who directed +us to the place called it a kahveh; but that means a place for donkeys +and foot-passengers, and when we spoke of it as kahveh to the obadashi--the +elderly youth who corresponds to porter, bell-boy and chambermaid +in one--he was visibly annoyed. + +Truly the place was a khan--a great bleak building of four high outer +walls, surrounding a courtyard that was a yard deep with the dung +of countless camels, horses, bullocks, asses; crowded with arabas, +the four-wheeled vehicles of all the Near East, and smelly with +centuries of human journeys' ends. + +Khans provide nothing except room, heat and water (and the heat costs +extra); there is no sanitation for any one at any price; every +guest dumps all his discarded rubbish over the balcony rail into +the courtyard, to be trodden and wheeled under foot and help build +the aroma. But the guests provide a picture without price that with +the very first glimpse drives discomfort out of mind. + +In that place there were Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and all the +rest of the list. There was even a Chinaman. Two Hindus were unpacking +bundles out of a creaking araba, watched scornfully by an unmistakable +Pathan. A fat swarthy-faced Greek in black frock coat and trousers, +fez, and slippered feet gesticulated with his right arm like a pump-handle +while he sat on the balcony-rail and bellowed orders to a crowd mixed +of Armenians, Italians, Maltese, Syrians and a Turk or two, who labored +with his bales of cotton goods below. (The Italians eyed everybody +sidewise, for there were rumors in those days of impending trouble, +and when the Turk begins hostilities he likes his first opponents +easy and ready to hand.) + +There were Kurds, long-nosed, lean-lipped and suspicious, who said +very little, but hugged long knives as they passed back and forth +among the swarming strangers. They said nothing at all, those Kurds, +but listened a very great deal. + +Tall, mustached Circassians, with eighteen-inch Erzerum daggers at +their waists, swaggered about as if they, and only they, were history's +heirs. It was expedient to get out of their path alertly, but they +cringed into second place before the Turks, who, without any swagger +at all, lorded it over every one. For the Turk is a conqueror, +whatever else he ought to be. The poorest Turkish servant is +race-conscious, and unshakably convinced of his own superiority to +the princes of the conquered. One has to bear that fact in mind +when dealing with the Turk; it colors all his views of life, and +accounts for some of his famous unexpectedness. + +Will and I fell in love with the crowd, and engaged a room over the +great arched entrance. We were aware from the first of the dull red +marks on the walls of the room, where bed-bugs had been slain with +slipper heels by angry owners of the blood; but we were not in search +of luxury, and we had our belongings and a can of insect-bane brought +down from the hotel at once. The fact that stallions squealed and +fought in the stalls across the courtyard scarcely promised us +uninterrupted sleep; but sleep is not to be weighed in the balance +against the news of eastern nights. + +We went down to the common room close beside the main entrance, and +pushed the door open a little way; the men who sat within with their +backs against it would only yield enough to pass one person in gingerly +at a time. We saw a sea of heads and hats and faces. It looked +impossible to squeeze another human being in among those already +seated on the floor, nor to make another voice heard amid all that +babel. + +But the babel ceased, and they did make room for us--places of honor +against the far wall, because of our clean clothes and nationality. +We sat wedged between a Georgian in smelly, greasy woolen jacket, +and a man who looked Persian but talked for the most part French. +There were other Persians beyond him, for I caught the word poul--money, +the perennial song and shibboleth of that folk. + +The day was fine enough, but consensus of opinion had it that snow +was likely falling in the Taurus Mountains, and rain would fall the +next day between the mountains and the sea, making roads and fords +impassable and the mountain passes risky. So men from the ends of +earth sat still contentedly, to pass earth's gossip to and fro--an +astonishing lot of it. There was none of it quite true, and some +of it not nearly true, but all of it was based on fact of some sort. + +Men who know the khans well are agreed that with experience one learns +to guess the truth from listening to the ever-changing lies. We +could not hope to pick out truth, but sat as if in the pit of an +old-time theater, watching a foreign-language play and understanding +some, but missing most of it. + +There was a man who drew my attention at once, who looked and was +dressed rather like a Russian--a man with a high-bridged, prominent, +lean nose--not nearly so bulky as his sheepskin coat suggested, but +active and strong, with a fiery restless eye. He talked Russian +at intervals with the men who sat near him at the end of the room +on our right, but used at least six other languages with any one +who cared to agree or disagree with him. His rather agreeable voice +had the trick of carrying words distinctly across the din of countless +others. + +"What do you suppose is that man's nationality?" I asked Will, shouting +to him because of the roar, although he sat next me. + +"Ermenie!" said a Turk next but one beyond Will, and spat venomously, +as if the very name Armenian befouled his mouth. + +But I was not convinced that the man with the aquiline nose was Armenian. +He looked guilty of altogether too much zest for life, and laughed +too boldly in Turkish presence. In those days most Armenians thereabouts +were sad. I called Will's attention to him again. + +"What do you make of him?" + +"He belongs to that quieter party in the opposite corner." (Will +puts two and two together all the time, because the heroes of dime +novels act that way.) "They're gipsies, yet I'd say he's not--" + +"He and the others are jingaan," said a voice beside me in English, +and I looked into the Persian's gentle brown eyes. "The jingaan +are street robbers pure and simple," he added by way of explanation. + +"But what nationality?" + +"Jingaan might be anything. They in particular would call themselves +Rommany. We call them Zingarri. Not a dependable people--unless--" + +I waited in vain for the qualification. He shrugged his shoulders, +as if there was no sense in praising evil qualities. + +But I was not satisfied yet. They were swarthier and stockier than +the man who had interested me, and had indefinite, soft eyes. The +man I watched had brown eyes, but they were hard. And, unlike them, +he had long lean fingers and his gestures were all extravagant. +He was not a Jew, I was sure of that, nor a Syrian, nor yet a Kurd. + +"Ermenie--Ermenie!" said the Turk, watching me curiously, and spitting +again. "That one is Ermenie. Those others are just dogs!" + +The crowd began to thin after a while, as men filed out to feed cattle +and to cook their own evening meal. Then the perplexing person got +up and came over toward me, showing no fear of the Turk at all. +He was tall and lean when he stood upright, but enormously strong +if one could guess correctly through the bulky-looking outer garment. + +He stood in front of Will and me, his strong yellow teeth gleaming +between a black beard and mustache. The Turk got up clumsily, and +went out, muttering to himself. I glanced toward the corner where +the self-evident gipsies sat, and observed that with perfect unanimity +they were all feigning sleep. + +"Eenglis sportmen!" said the man in front of us, raising both hands, +palms outward, in appraisal of our clothes and general appearance. + +It was not surprising that he should talk English, for what the British +themselves have not accomplished in that land of a hundred tongues +has been done by American missionaries, teaching in the course of +a generation thousands on thousands. (There is none like the American +missionary for attaining ends at wholesale.) + +"What countryman are you?" I asked him. + +"Zeitoonli," he answered, as if the word were honor itself and explanation +bound in one. Yet he looked hardly like an honorable man. "The +chilabi are staying here?" he asked. Chilabi means gentleman. + +"We wait on the weather," said I, not caring to have him turn the +tables on me and become interrogator. + +He laughed with a sort of hard good humor. + +"Since when have Eenglis sportmen waited on the weather? Ah, but +you are right, effendi, none should tell the truth in this place, +unless in hope of being disbelieved!" He laid a finger on his right +eye, as I have seen Arabs do when they mean to ascribe to themselves +unfathomable cunning. "Since you entered this common room you have +not ceased to observe me closely. The other sportman has watched +those Zingarri. What have you learned?" + +He stood with lean hands crossed now in front of him, looking at +us down his nose, not ceasing to smile, but a hint less at his ease, +a shade less genial. + +"I have heard you--and them--described as jingaan," I answered, and +he stiffened instantly. + +Whether or not they took that for a signal--or perhaps he made another +that we did not see--the six undoubted gipsies got up and left the +room, shambling out in single file with the awkward gait they share +in common with red Indians. + +"Jingaan," he said, "are people who lurk in shadows of the streets +to rob belated travelers. That is not my business." He looked very +hard indeed at the Persian, who decided that it might as well be +supper-time and rose stiffly to his feet. The Persians rob and murder, +and even retreat, gracefully. He bade us a stately and benignant +good evening, with a poetic Persian blessing at the end of it. He +bowed, too, to the Zeitoonli, who bared his teeth and bent his head +forward something less than an inch. + +"They call me the Eye of Zeitoon!" he announced with a sort of savage +pride, as soon as the Persian was out of ear-shot. + +Will pricked his ears--schoolboy-looking ears that stand out from +his head. + +"I've heard of Zeitoon. It's a village on a mountain, where a man +steps out of his front door on to a neighbor's roof, and the women +wear no veils, and--" + +The man showed his teeth in another yellow smile. + +"The effendi is blessed with intelligence! Few know of Zeitoon." + +Will and I exchanged glances. + +"Ours," said Will, "is the best room in the khan, over the entrance +gate." + +"Two such chilabi should surely live like princes," he answered without +a smile. If he had dared say that and smile we would have struck +him, and Monty might have been alive to-day. But he seemed to know +his place, although he looked at us down his nose again in shrewd +appraisal. + +Will took out tobacco and rolled what in the innocence of his Yankee +heart he believed was a cigarette. I produced and lit what he +contemptuously called a "boughten cigaroot"--Turkish Regie, with +the scent of aboriginal ambrosia. The Zeitoonli took the hint. + +"Yarim sa' at," he said. "Korkakma!" + +"Meanin'?" demanded Will. + +"In half an hour. Do not be afraid!" said he. + +"Before I grow afraid of you," Will retorted, "you'll need your friends +along, and they'll need knives!" + +The Zeitoonli bowed, laid a finger on his eye again, smiled and backed +away. But he did not leave the room. He went back to the end-wall +against which he had sat before, and although he did not stare at +us the intention not to let us out of sight seemed pretty obvious. + +"That half-hour stuff smacked rather of a threat," said Will. "Suppose +we call the bluff, and keep him waiting. What do you say if we go +and dine at the hotel?" + +But in the raw enthusiasm of entering new quarters we had made up +our minds that afternoon to try out our new camp kitchen--a contraption +of wood and iron we had built with the aid of the mission carpenter. +And the walk to the hotel would have been a long one, through Tarsus +mud in the dark, with prowling dogs to take account of. + +"I'm not afraid of ten of him!" said I. "I know how to cook curried +eggs; come on!" + +"Who said who was afraid?" + +So we went out into darkness already jeweled by a hundred lanterns, +dodged under the necks of three hungry Bactrian camels (they are +irritable when they want their meal), were narrowly missed by a mule's +heels because of the deceptive shadows that confused his aim, tripped +over a donkey's heel-rope, and found our stairway--thoroughly well +cursed in seven languages, and only just missed by a Georgian gentleman +on the balcony, who chose the moment of our passing underneath to +empty out hissing liquid from his cooking pot. + +Once in our four-square room, with the rags on the floor in our especial +honor, and our beds set up, and the folding chairs in place, contentment +took hold of us; and as we lighted the primus burner in the cooking +box, we pitied from the bottom of compassionate young hearts all +unfortunates in stiff white shirts, whose dinners were served that +night on silver and laundered linen. + +Through the partly open door we could smell everything that ever +happened since the beginning of the world, and hear most of the elemental +music--made, for instance, of the squeal of fighting stallions, and +the bray of an amorous he-ass--the bubbling complaint of fed camels +that want to go to sleep, but are afraid of dreaming--the hum of +human voices--the clash of cooking pots--the voice of a man on the +roof singing falsetto to the stars (that was surely the Pathan!)--the +tinkling of a three-stringed instrument--and all of that punctuated +by the tapping of a saz, the little tight-skinned Turkish drum. + +It is no use for folk whose finger-nails were never dirty, and who +never scratched themselves while they cooked a meal over the primus +burner on the floor, to say that all that medley of sounds and smells +is not good. It is very good indeed, only he who is privileged must +understand, or else the spell is mere confusion. + +The cooking box was hardly a success, because bright eyes watching +through the open door made us nervously amateurish. The Zeitoonli +arrived true to his threat on the stroke of the half-hour, and we +could not shut the door in his face because of the fumes of food +and kerosene. (Two of the eggs, like us, were travelers and had +been in more than one bazaar.) + +But we did not invite him inside until our meal was finished, and +then we graciously permitted him to go for water wherewith to wash +up. He strode back and forth on the balcony, treading ruthlessly +on prayer-mats (for the Moslem prays in public like the Pharisees +of old). + +"Myself I am Christian," he said, spitting over the rail, and sitting +down again to watch us. We accepted the remark with reservations. + +When we asked him in at last, and we had driven out the flies with +flapping towels, he closed the door and squatted down with his back +to it, we two facing him in our canvas-backed easy chairs. He refused +the "genuine Turkish" coffee that Will stewed over the primus. Will +drank the beastly stuff, of course, to keep himself in countenance, +and I did not care to go back on a friend before a foreigner, but +I envied the man from Zeitoon his liberty of choice. + +"Why do they call you the Eye of Zeitoon?" I asked, when time enough +had elapsed to preclude his imagining that we regarded him seriously. +One has to be careful about beginnings in the Near East, even as elsewhere. + +"I keep watch!" he answered proudly, but also with a deeply-grounded +consciousness of cunning. There were moments when I felt such strong +repugnance for the man that I itched to open the door and thrust him +through--other moments when compassion for him urged me to offer +money--food--influence--anything. The second emotion fought all +the while against the first, and I found out afterward it had been +the same with Will. + +"Why should Zeitoon need such special watching?" I demanded. "How +do you watch? Against whom? Why?" + +He laughed with a pair of lawless eyes, and showed his yellow teeth. + +"Ha! Shall I speak of Zeitoon? This, then: the Turks never conquered +it! They came once and built a fort on the opposite mountain-side, +with guns to overawe us all. We took their fort by storm! We threw +their cannon down a thousand feet into the bed of the torrent, and +there they lie to-day! We took prisoner as many of their Arab zaptiehs +as still were living--aye, they even brought Arabs against us--poor +fools who had not yet heard of Zeitoon's defenders! Then we came +down to the plains for a little vengeance, leaving the Arabs for +our wives to guard. They are women of spirit, the Zeitoonli wives! + +"Word reached Zeitoon presently that we were being hard pressed on +the plains. It was told to the Zeitoonli wives that they might arrange +to have pursuit called off from us by surrendering those Arab prisoners. +They answered that Zeitoon-fashion. How? I will tell. There is +a bridge of wood, flung over across the mountain torrent, five hundred +feet above the water, spanning from crag to crag. Those Zeitoonli +wives of ours bound the Arab prisoners hand and foot. They brought +them out along the bridge. They threw them over one at a time, each +man looking on until his turn came. That was the answer of the brave +Zeitoonli wives!" + +"And you on the plains?" + +"Ah! It takes better than Osmanli to conquer the men of Zeitoon!" +he gave the Turks their own names for themselves with the air of +a brave fighting man conceding his opponent points. "We heard what +our wives had done. We were encouraged. We prevailed! We fell +back to-ward our mountain and prevailed! There in Zeitoon we have +weapons--numbers--advantage of position, for no roads come near Zeitoon +that an araba, or a gun, or anything on wheels can use. The only +thing we fear is treachery, leading to surprise in overwhelming force. +And against these I keep watch!" + +"Why should you tell us all this?" demanded Will. + +"How do you know we are not agents of the Turkish government?" + +He laughed outright, throwing out both hands toward us. "Eenglis +sportmen!" he said simply. + +"What's that got to do with it?" Will retorted. He has the unaccountable +American dislike of being mistaken for an Englishman, but long ago +gave up arguing the point, since foreigners refuse, as a rule, to +see the sacred difference. + +"I am, too, sportman. At Zeitoon there is very good sport. Bear. +Antelope. Wild boar. One sportman to another--do you understand?" + +We did, and did not believe. + +"How far to Zeitoon?" I demanded. + +"I go in five days when I hurry. You--not hurrying--by +horse--seven--eight--nine days, depending on the roads." + +"Are they all Armenians in Zeitoon?" + +"Most. Not all. There are Arabs--Syrians--Persians--a few +Circassians--even Kurds and a Turk or two. Our numbers have been +reenforced continually by deserters from the Turkish Army. Ninety-five +per cent., however, are Armenians," he added with half-closed eyes, +suddenly suggesting that masked meekness that disguises most outrageous +racial pride. + +"It is common report," I said, "that the Turks settled all Armenian +problems long ago by process of massacre until you have no spirit +for revolt left." + +"The report lies, that is all!" he answered. Then suddenly he beat +on his chest with clenched fist. "There is spirit here! There is +spirit in Zeitoon! No Osmanli dare molest my people! Come to Zeitoon +to shoot bear, boar, antelope! I will show you! I will prove my words!" + +"Were those six jingaan in the common room your men?" I asked him, +and he laughed as suddenly as he had stormed, like a teacher at a +child's mistake. + +"Jingaan is a bad word," he said. "I might kill a man who named me +that--depending on the man. My brother I would kill for it--a stranger +perhaps not. Those men are Zingarri, who detest to sleep between +brick walls. They have a tent pitched in the yard." + +"Are they your men?" + +"Zingarri are no man's men." + +The denial carried no conviction. + +"Is there nothing but hunting at Zeitoon?" Will demanded. + +"Is that not much? In addition the place itself is wonderful--a +mountain in a mist, with houses clinging to the flanks of it, and +scenery to burst the heart!" + +"What else?" I asked. "No ancient buildings?" + +He changed his tactics instantly. + +"Effendi," he said, leaning forward and pointing a forefinger at +me by way of emphasis, "there are castles on the mountains near Zeitoon +that have never been explored since the Turks--may God destroy +them!--overran the land! Castles hidden among trees where only bears +dwell! Castles built by the +Seljuks--Armenians--Romans--Saracens--Crusaders! I know the way to +every one of them!" + +"What else?" demanded Will, purposely incredulous. + +"Beyond Zeitoon to north and west are cave-dwellers. Mountains so +hollowed out that only a shell remains, a sponge--a honeycomb! No +man knows how far those tunnels run! The Turks have attempted now +and then to smoke out the inhabitants. They were laughed at! One +mountain is connected with another, and the tunnels run for miles +and miles!" + +"I've seen cave-dwellings in the States," Will answered, unimpressed. +"But just where do you come in?" + +"I do not understand." + +"What do you propose to get out of it?" + +"Nothing! I am proud of my country. I am sportman. I am pleased +to show." + +We both jeered at him, for that explanation was too outrageously +ridiculous. Armenians love money, whatever else they do or leave +undone, and can wring a handsome profit out of business whose very +existence the easier-going Turk would not suspect. + +"See if I can't read your mind," said Will. "You'll guide us for +some distance out of town, at a place you know, and your jingaan-gipsy +brethren will hold us up at some point and rob us to a fare-you-well. +Is that the pretty scheme?" + +Some men would have flown into a fury. Some would have laughed the +matter off. Any and every crook would have been at pains to hide +his real feelings. Yet this strange individual was at a loss how +to answer, and not averse to our knowing that. + +For a moment a sort of low cunning seemed to creep over his mind, +but he dismissed it. Three times he raised his hands, palms upward, +and checked himself in the middle of a word. + +"You could pay me for my services," he said at last, not as if that +were the real reason, nor as if he hoped to convince us that it was, +but as if he were offering an excuse that we might care to accept +for the sake of making peace with our own compunctions. + +"There are four in our party," said Will, apropos apparently of nothing. +The effect was unexpected. + +"Four?" His eyes opened wide, and he made the knuckle-bones of both +hands crack like caps going off. "Four Eenglis sportman?" + +"I said four. If you're willing to tell the naked truth about what's +back of your offer, I'll undertake to talk it over with my other +friends. Then, either we'll all four agree to take you up, or we'll +give you a flat refusal within a day or two. Now--suit yourself." + +"I have told the truth--Zeitoon--caves--boar--antelope--wild boar. +I am a very good guide. You shall pay me handsomely." + +"Sure, we'll ante up like foreigners. But why do you make the proposal? +What's behind it?" + +"I never saw you until this afternoon. You are Eenglis sportmen. +I can show good sport. You shall pay me. Could it be simpler?" + +It seemed to me we had been within an ace of discovery, but the man's +mind had closed again against us in obedience to some racial or religious +instinct outside our comprehension. He had been on the verge of +taking us into confidence. + +"Let the sportmen think it over," he said, getting up. "Jannam! +(My soul!) Effendi, when I was a younger man none could have made +me half such a sportmanlike proposal without an answer on the instant! +A man fit to strike the highway with his foot should be a judge of +men! I have judged you fit to be invited! Now you judge me--the +Eye of Zeitoon!" + +"What is your real name?" + +"I have none--or many, which is the same thing! I did not ask your +names; they are your own affair!" + +He stood with his hand on the door, not irresolute, but taking one +last look at us and our belongings. + +"I wish you comfortable sleep, and long lives, effendim!" he said +then, and swung himself out, closing the door behind him with an +air of having honored us, not we him particularly. And after he +had gone we were not at all sure that summary of the situation was +not right. + +We lay awake on our cots until long after midnight, hazarding guesses +about him. Whatever else he had done he had thoroughly aroused our +curiosity. + +"If you want my opinion that's all he was after anyway!" said Will, +dropping his last cigarette-end on the floor and flattening it with +his slipper. + +"Cut the cackle, and let's sleep!" + +We fell asleep at last amid the noise of wild carousing; for the +proprietor of the Yeni Khan, although a Turk, and therefore himself +presumably abstemious, was not above dispensing at a price mastika +that the Greeks get drunk on, and the viler raki, with which Georgians, +Circassians, Albanians, and even the less religious Turks woo imagination +or forgetfulness. + +There was knife-fighting as well as carousal before dawn, to judge +by the cat-and-dog-fight swearing in and out among the camel pickets +and the wheels of arabas. But that was the business of the men who +fought, and no one interfered. + + + + +Chapter Two +"How did sunshine get into the garden? By whose leave came the wind?" + + +A TIME AND TIMES AND HALF A TIME + +When Cydnus bore the Taurus snows +To sweeten Cleopatra's keels, +And rippled in the breeze that sings +From Kara Dagh, where leafy wings +Of flowers fall and gloaming steals +The colors of the blowing rose, +Old were the wharves and woods and ways-- +Older the tale of steel and fire, +Involved intrigue, envenomed plan, +Man marketing his brother man +By dread duress to glut desire. +No peace was in those olden days. +Hope like the gorgeous rose sun-warmed +Blossomed and blew away and died, +Till gentleness had ceased to be +And Tarsus knew no chivalry +Could live an hour by Cydnus' side +Where all the heirs of evil swarmed. +And yet--with every swelling spring +Each pollen-scented zephyr's breath +Repeats the patient news to ears +Made dull by dreams of loveless years, +"It is of life, and not of death +That ye shall hear the Cydnus sing!" + + +We awoke amid sounds unexplainable. Most of the Moslems had finished +their noisy ritual ablutions, and at dawn we had been dimly conscious +of the strings of camels, mules and donkeys jingling out under the +arch beneath us. Yet there was a great din from the courtyard of +wild hoofs thumping on the dung, and of scurrying feet as if a mile-long +caravan were practising formations. + +So we went out to yawn, and remained, oblivious of everything but +the cause of all the noise, we leaning with elbows on the wooden +rail, and she laughing up at us at intervals. + +The six Zingarri, or gipsies, had pitched their tent in the very +middle of the yard, ambitious above all other considerations to keep +away from walls. It was a big, low, black affair supported on short +poles, and subdivided by them into several compartments. One could +see unshapely bulges where women did the housekeeping within. + +But the woman who held us spell-bound cared nothing for Turkish +custom--a girl not more than seventeen years old at the boldest guess. +She was breaking a gray stallion in the yard, sitting the frenzied +beast without a saddle and doing whatever she liked with him, except +that his heels made free of the air, and he went from point to point +whichever end up best pleased his fancy. + +Travelers make an early start in Asia Minor, but the yard was by +no means empty yet; some folk were still waiting on the doubtful +weather. Her own people kept to the tent. Whoever else had business +in the yard made common cause and cursed the girl for making the +disturbance, frightening camels, horses, asses and themselves. And +she ignored them all, unless it was on purpose that she brought her +stallion's heels too close for safety to the most abusive. + +It was only for us two that she had any kind of friendly interest; +she kept looking up at us and laughing as she caught our eyes, bringing +her mount uprearing just beneath us several times. She was pretty +as the peep o' morning, with long, black wavy hair all loose about +her shoulders, and as light on the horse as the foam he tossed about, +although master of him without a second's doubt of it. + +When she had had enough of riding--long before we were tired of the +spectacle--she shouted with a voice like a mellow bell. One of the +gipsies ran out and led away the sweating stallion, and she disappeared +into the tent throwing us a laugh over her shoulder. + +"D'you suppose those gipsies are really of that Armenian's party?" +Will wondered aloud. "Now, if she were going to Zeitoon--!" + +Feeling as he did, I mocked at him to hide my feelings, and we hung +about for another hour in hope of seeing her again, but she kept close. +I don't doubt she watched us through a hole in the tent. We would +have sat there alert in our chairs until evening only Fred sent a +note down to say he was well enough to leave the hospital. + +We found him with his beard trimmed neatly and his fevered eyes all +bright again, sitting talking to the nurse on the veranda about a +niece of hers--Gloria Vanderman. + +"Chicken in this desert!" Will wondered irreverently, and Fred, who +likes his English to have dictionary meanings, rose from his chair +in wrath. The nurse made that the cue for getting rid of us. + +"Take Mr. Oakes away!" she urged, laughing. "He threatened to kill +a man this morning. There's too much murder in Tarsus now. If he +should add to it--" + +"You know it wasn't on my account," Fred objected. "It was what +he wrote--and said of you. Why, he has had you prayed for publicly +by name, and you washing the brute's feet! Let me back in there +for just five minutes, and I'll show what a hospital case should +really look like!" + +"Take him away!" she laughed. "Isn't it bad enough to be prayed +for? Must I get into the papers, too, as heroine of a scandal?" + +The head missionary was not there to say good-by to, life in his +case being too serious an affair to waste minutes of a precious morning +on farewells, so we packed Fred into the waiting carriage and drove +all the way to Mersina, where we interrupted Monty's mid-afternoon +game of chess. + +Fred Oakes and Monty were the closest friends I ever met--one problem +for an enemy--one stout, two-headed, most dependable ally for the +lucky man or woman they called friend. + +"Oh, hullo!" said Monty over his shoulder, as our names were called +out by the stately consular kavass. + +"Hullo!" said Fred, and shook hands with the consul. + +"Thought you were due to be sick for another week?" said Monty, closing +up the board. + +"I was. I would have been. Bed would have done me good, and the +nurse is a darling, old enough to be Will's mother. But they put +a biped by the name of Peter Measel in the bed next mine. He's a +missionary on his own account, and keeps a diary. Seems be contributes +to the funds of a Welsh mission in France, and they do what he says. +He has all the people he disapproves of prayed for publicly by name +in the mission hall in Marseilles, with extracts out of his diary +by way of explanation, so that the people who pray may know what +they've got on their hands. The special information I gave him about +you, Monty, will make Marseilles burn! He's got you down as a drunken +pirate, my boy, with no less than eleven wives. But he asked me +one night whether I thought what he'd written about the nurse was +strong enough, and he read it aloud to me. You'd never believe what +the reptile had dared suggest in his devil's log-book! I'm expelled +for threatening to kill him!" + +"The nurse was right," said the consul gloomily. "There'll be murder +enough hereabouts--and soon!" + +He was a fairly young man yet in spite of the nearly white hair over +the temples. He measured his words in the manner of a man whose +speech is taken at face value. + +"The missionaries know. The governments won't listen. I've been +appealed to. So has the United States consul, and neither of us +is going to be able to do much. Remember, I represent a government +at peace with Turkey, and so does he. The Turk has a side to his +character that governments ignore. Have you watched them at prayer?" + +We told him how close we had been on the previous night, and he laughed. + +"Did you suppose I couldn't smell camel and khan the moment you came +in?" + +"That was why Sister Vanderman hurried you off so promptly!" Fred +announced with an air of outraged truthfulness. "Faugh! Slangy +talk and stink of stables!" + +"I was talking of Turks," said the consul. "When they pray, you +may have noticed that they glance to right and left. When they think +there is nobody looking they do more, they stare deliberately to +the right and left. That is the act of recognition of the angel +and the devil who are supposed to attend every Moslem, the angel +to record his good deeds and the devil his bad ones. To my mind +there lies the secret of the Turk's character. Most of the time +he's a man of his word--honest--courteous--considerate--good-humored--even +chivalrous--living up to the angel. But once in so often +he remembers the other shoulder, and then there isn't any limit to +the deviltry he'll do. Absolutely not a limit!" + +"I suppose we or the Americans could land marines at a pinch, and +protect whoever asked for protection?" suggested Monty. + +"No," said the consul deliberately. "Germany would object. Germany +is the only power that would. Germany would accuse us of scheming +to destroy the value of their blessed Baghdad railway." + +A privy councilor of England, which Monty was, is not necessarily +in touch with politics of any sort. Neither were we; but it happened +that more than once in our wanderings about the world things had been +forced on our attention. + +"They would rather see Europe burn from end to end!" Monty agreed. + +"And I think there's more than that in it," said the consul. "Armenians +are not their favorites. The Germans want the trade of the Levant. +The Armenians are business men. They're shrewder than Jews and more +dependable than Greeks. It would suit Germany very nicely, I imagine, +to have no Armenians to compete with." + +"But if Germany once got control of the Near East," I objected, "she +could impose her own restrictions." + +The consul frowned. "Armenians who thrive in spite of Turks--" + +"Would skin a German for hide and tallow," nodded Will. + +"Exactly. Germany would object vigorously if we or the States should +land marines to prevent the Turks from applying the favorite remedy, +vukuart--that means events, you know--their euphemism for massacre +at rather frequent intervals. Germany would rather see the Turks +finish the dirty work thoroughly than have it to do herself later on." + +"You mean," said I, "that the German government is inciting to massacre?" + +"Hardly. There are German missionaries in the country, doing good +work in a funny, fussy, rigorous fashion of their own. They'd raise +a dickens of a hocus-pocus back in Germany if they once suspected +their government of playing that game. No. But Germany intends +to stand off the other powers, while Turks tackle the Armenians; +and the Turks know that." + +"But what's the immediate excuse for massacre?" demanded Fred. + +The consul laughed. + +"All that's needed is a spark. The Armenians haven't been tactful. +They don't hesitate to irritate the Turks--not that you can blame +them, but it isn't wise. Most of the money-lenders are Armenians; +Turks won't engage in that business themselves on religious grounds, +but they're ready borrowers, and the Armenian money-lenders, who +are in a very small minority, of course, are grasping and give a +bad name to the whole nation. Then, Armenians have been boasting +openly that one of these days the old Armenian kingdom will be +reestablished. The Turks are conquerors, you know, and don't like +that kind of talk. If the Armenians could only keep from quarreling +among themselves they could win their independence in half a jiffy, +but the Turks are deadly wise at the old trick of divide et impera; +they keep the Armenians quarreling, and nobody dares stand in with +them because sooner--or later--sooner, probably--they'll split among +themselves, and leave their friends high and dry. You can't blame 'em. +The Turks know enough to play on their religious prejudices and set +one sect against another. When the massacres begin scarcely an Armenian +will know who is friend and who enemy." + +"D'you mean to say," demanded Fred, "that they're going to be shot +like bottles off a wall without rhyme or reason?" + +"That's how it was before," said the consul. "There's nothing to +stop it. The world is mistaken about Armenians. They're a hot-blooded +lot on the whole, with a deep sense of national pride, and a hatred +of Turkish oppression that rankles. One of these mornings a Turk +will choose his Armenian and carefully insult the man's wife or daughter. +Perhaps he will crown it by throwing dirt in the fellow's face. +The Armenian will kill him or try to, and there you are. Moslem +blood shed by a dog of a giaour--the old excuse!" + +"Don't the Armenians know what's in store for them?" I asked. + +"Some of them know. Some guess. Some are like the villagers on +Mount Vesuvius--much as we English were in '57 in India, I +imagine--asleep--playing games--getting rich on top of a volcano. +The difference is that the Armenians will have no chance." + +"Did you ever hear tell of the Eye of Zeitoon?" asked Will, apropos +apparently of nothing. + +"No," said the consul, staring at him. + +Will told him of the individual we had talked with in the khan the +night before, describing him rather carefully, not forgetting the +gipsies in the black tent, and particularly not the daughter of the +dawn who schooled a gray stallion in the courtyard. + +The consul shook his head. + +"Never saw or heard of any of them." + +We were sitting in full view of the roadstead where Anthony and +Cleopatra's ships had moored a hundred times. The consul's garden +sloped in front of us, and most of the flowers that Europe reckons +rare were getting ready to bloom. + +"Would you know the man if you saw him again, Will?" I asked. + +"Sure I would!" + +"Then look!" + +I pointed, and seeing himself observed a man stepped out of the shadow +of some oleanders. There was something suggestive in his choice +of lurking place, for every part of the oleander plant is dangerously +poisonous; it was as if he had hidden himself among the hairs of death. + +"Him, sure enough!" said Will. + +The man came forward uninvited. + +"How did you get into the grounds?" the consul demanded, and the +man laughed, laying an unafraid hand on the veranda rail. + +"My teskere is a better than the Turks give!" he answered in English. +(A teskere is the official permit to travel into the interior.) + +"What do you mean?" + +"How did sunshine come into the garden? By whose leave came the wind?" + +He stood on no formality. Before one of us could interfere (for +he might have been plying the assassin's trade) he had vaulted the +veranda rail and stood in front of us. As he jumped I heard the +rattle of loose cartridges, and the thump of a hidden pistol against +the woodwork. I could see the hilt of a dagger, too, just emerging +from concealment through the opening in his smock. But he stood +in front of us almost meekly, waiting to be spoken to. + +"You are without shame!" said the consul. + +"Truly! Of what should I be ashamed!" + +"What brought you here?" + +"Two feet and a great good will! You know me." + +The consul shook his head. + +"Who sold the horse to the German from Bitlis?" + +"Are you that man?" + +"Who clipped the wings of a kite, and sold it for ten pounds to a +fool for an eagle from Ararat?" + +The consul laughed. + +"Are you the rascal who did that?" + +"Who threw Olim Pasha into the river, and pushed him in and in again +for more than an hour with a fishing pole--and then threw in the +gendarmes who ran to arrest him--and only ran when the Eenglis consul +came?" + +"I remember," said the consul. + +"Yet you don't look quite like that man." + +"I told you you knew me." + +"Neither does to-day's wind blow like yesterday's!" + +"What is your name?" + +"Then it was Ali." + +"What is it now?" + +"The name God gave me?" + +"Yes." + +"God knows!" + +"What do you want here?" + +He spread out his arms toward us four, and grinned. + +"Look--see! Four Eenglis sportman! Could a man want more?" + +"Your face is hauntingly familiar," said the consul, searching old +memories. + +"No doubt. Who carried your honor's letter to Adrianople in time +of war, and received a bullet, but brought the answer back?" + +"What--are you that man--Kagig?" + +Instead of replying the man opened his smock, and pulled aside an +undershirt until his hairy left breast lay bare down to where the +nipple should have been. Why a bullet that drilled that nipple so +neatly had not pierced the heart was simply mystery. + +"Kagig, by jove! Kagig with a beard! Nobody would know you but +for that scar." + +"But now you know me surely? Tell these Eenglis sportman, then, +that I am good man--good guide! Tell them they come with me to Zeitoon!" + +The consul's face darkened swiftly, clouded by some notion that he +seemed to try to dismiss, but that refused to leave him. + +"How much would you ask for your services?" he demanded. + +"Whatever the effendim please." + +"Have you a horse?" + +He nodded. + +"You and your horse, then, two piasters a day, and you feed yourself +and the beast." + +The man agreed, very bright-eyed. Often it takes a day or two to +come to terms with natives of that country, yet the terms the consul +offered him were those for a man of very ordinary attainments. + +"Come back in an hour," said the consul. + +Without a word of answer Kagig vaulted back across the rail and +disappeared around the corner of the house, walking without hurry +but not looking back. + +"Kagig, by jove! It would take too long now to tell that story of +the letter to Adrianople. I've no proof, but a private notion that +Kagig is descended from the old Armenian kings. In a certain sort +of tight place there's not a better man in Asia. Now, Lord Montdidier, +if you're in earnest about searching for that castle of your Crusader +ancestors, you're in luck!" + +"You know it's what I came here for," said Monty. "These friends +of mine are curious, and I'm determined. Now that Fred's well--" + +"I'm puzzled," said the consul, leaning back and looking at us all +with half-closed eyes. "Why should Kagig choose just this time to +guide a hunting party? If any man knows trouble's brewing, I suspect +be surely does. Anything can happen in the interior. I recall, +for instance, a couple of Danes, who went with a guide not long ago, +and simply disappeared. There are outlaws everywhere, and it's more +than a theory that the public officials are in league with them." + +"What a joke if we find the old family castle is a nest of robbers," +smiled Monty. + +"Still!" corrected Fred. + +I was watching the consul's eyes. He was troubled, but the prospect +of massacre did not account for all of his expression. There was +debate, inspiration against conviction, being fought out under cover +of forced calm. Inspiration won the day. + +"I was wondering," he said, and lit a fresh cigar while we waited +for him to go on. + +"I vouch for my friends," said Monty. + +"It wasn't that. I've no right to make the proposal--no official +right whatever--I'm speaking strictly unofficially--in fact, it's +not a proposal at all--merely a notion." + +He paused to give himself a last chance, but indiscretion was too +strong. + +"I was wondering how far you four men would go to save twenty or +thirty thousand lives." + +"You've no call to wonder about that," said Will. + +"Suppose you tell us what you've got in mind," suggested Monty, putting +his long legs on a chair and producing a cigarette. + +The consul knocked out his pipe and sat forward, beginning to talk +a little faster, as a man who throws discretion to the winds. + +"I've no legal right to interfere. None at all. In case of a massacre +of Armenians--men, women, little children--I could do nothing. Make +a fuss, of course. Throw open the consulate to refugees. Threaten +a lot of things that I know perfectly well my government won't do. +The Turks will be polite to my face and laugh behind my back, knowing +I'm helpless. But if you four men--" + +"Yes--go on--what?" + +"Spill it!" urged Will. + +"--should be up-country, and I knew it for a fact, but did not know +your precise whereabouts, I'd have a grown excuse for raising most +particular old Harry! You get my meaning?" + +"Sure!" said Will. "Monty's an earl. Fred's related to half the +peerages in Burke. Me and him"--I was balancing my chair on one +leg and he pushed me over backward by way of identification--"just +pose as distinguished members of society for the occasion. I get you." + +"It might even be possible, Mr. Yerkes, to get the United States +Congress to take action on your account." + +"Don't you believe it!" laughed Will. "The members for the Parish +Pump, and the senators from Ireland would howl about the Monroe Doctrine +and Washington's advice at the merest hint of a Yankee in trouble +in foreign parts." + +"What about the United States papers?" + +"They'd think it was an English scheme to entangle the United States, +and they'd be afraid to support action for fear of the Irish. No, +England's your only chance!" + +"Well," said the consul, "I've told you the whole idea. If I should +happen to know of four important individuals somewhere up-country, +and massacres should break out after you had started, I could supply +our ambassador with something good to work on. The Turkish government +might have to stop the massacre in the district in which you should +happen to be. That would save lives." + +"But could they stop it, once started?" I asked. + +"They could try. That 'ud be more than they ever did yet." + +"You mean," said Monty, "that you'd like us to engage Kagig and make +the trip, and to remain out in case of--ah--vukuart until we're rescued?" + +"Can't say I like it, but that's what I mean. And as for rescue, +the longer the process takes the better, I imagine!" + +"Hide, and have them hunt for us, eh?" + +"Would it help," I suggested, "if we were to be taken prisoner by +outlaws and held for ransom?" + +"It might," said the consul darkly. "I'd take to the hills myself +and send back a wail for help, only my plain duty is here at the +mission. What I have suggested to you is mad quixotism at the best, +and at the worst--well, do you recall what happened to poor Vyner, +who was held for ransom by Greek brigands? They sent a rescue party +instead of money, and--" + +"Charles Vyner was a friend of mine," said Monty quietly. + +Fred began to look extremely cheerful and Will nudged me and nodded. + +"Remember," said the consul, "in the present state of European politics +there's no knowing what can or can't be done, but if you four men +are absent in the hills I believe I can give the Turkish government +so much to think about that there'll be no massacres in that one district." + +"Whistle up Kagig!" Monty answered, and that was the end of the argument +as far as yea or nay had anything to do with it. Prospect of danger +was the last thing likely to divide the party. + +"How about permits to travel?" asked Will. "The United States consul +told me none is to be had at present." + +The consul rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. + +"It may cost a little more, that's all," he said. "You might go +without, but you'd better submit to extortion." + +He called the kavass, the uniformed consular attendant, and sent +him in search of Kagig. Within two minutes the Eye of Zeitoon was +grinning at us through a small square window in the wall at one end +of the veranda. Then he came round and once more vaulted the veranda +rail, for he seemed to hold ordinary means of entry in contempt. +His eye looked very possessive for that of one seeking employment +as a guide, but he stood at respectful attention until spoken to. + +"These gentlemen have decided to employ you," the consul announced. + +"Mashallah!" (God be praised!) For a Christian he used unusual expletives. + +"They want to find a castle in the mountains, to hunt bear and boar, +and to see Zeitoon." + +"I shall lead them to ten castles never seen before by Eenglismen! +They shall kill all the bears and pigs! Never was such sport as +they shall see!" + +He exploded the word pigs as if he had the Osmanli prejudice against +that animal. Yet he wore a pig-skin cartridge belt about his middle. + +"They will need enormous lots of ammunition!" he announced. + +"What else would the roadside robbers like them to bring?" + +"No Turkish servants! They throw Turks over a bridge-side in Zeitoon! +I myself will provide servants, who shall bring them back safely!" + +It seemed to me that he breathed inward as he said that. A Turk +would have added "Inshallah!"--if God wills! + +"Make ready for a journey of two months," he said. + +"When and where shall the start be?" + +It would obviously be unwise to start from the consulate. + +"From the Yeni Khan in Tarsus," said Will. + +"That is very good--that is excellent! I will send Zeitoonli servants +to the Yeni Khan at once. Pay them the right price. Have you horses? +Camels are of no use, nor yet are wheels--you shall know why later! +Mules are best." + +"I know where you can hire mules," said the consul, "with a Turkish +muleteer to each pair." + +"Oh, well!" laughed Kagig, leaning back against the rail and moving +his hands palms upward as if he weighed one thought against another. +"What is the difference? If a few Turks move or less come to an +end over Zeitoon bridge--" + +It was only for moments at a time that he seemed able to force himself +to speak as our inferior. A Turk of the guide class would likely +have knelt and placed a foot of each of us on his neck in turn as +soon as he knew we had engaged him. This Armenian seemed made of +other stuff. + +"Then be on hand to-morrow morning," ordered Monty. + +But the Eye of Zeitoon had another surprise for us. + +"I shall meet you on the road," he announced with an air of a social +equal. "Servants shall attend you at the Yeni Khan. They will say +nothing at all, and work splendidly! Start when you like; you will +find me waiting for you at a good place on the road. Bring not plenty, +but too much ammunition! Good day, then, gentlemen!" + +He nodded to us--bowed to the consul--vaulted the rail. A second +later he grinned at us again through the tiny window. "I am the +Eye of Zeitoon!" he boasted, and was gone. A servant whom the consul +sent to follow him came back after ten or fifteen minutes saying +he had lost him in a maze of narrow streets. + +His latter, offhanded manner scarcely auguring well, we debated whether +or not to search for some one more likely amenable to discipline +to take his place. But the consul spent an hour telling us about +the letter that went to Adrianople, and the bringing back of the +answer that hastened peace. + +"He was shot badly. He nearly died on the way back. I've no idea +how he recovered. He wouldn't accept a piaster more than the price +agreed on." + +"Let's take a chance!" said Will, and we were all agreed before he +urged it. + +"There's one other thing," said the consul. "I've been told a Miss +Gloria Vanderrnan is on her way to the mission at Marash--" + +"Gee whiz!" said Will. + +The consul nodded. "She's pretty, if that's what you mean. It was +very unwise to let her go, escorted only by Armenians. Of course, +she may get through without as much as suspecting trouble's brewing, +but--well--I wish you'd look out for her." + +"Chicken, eh?" + +Will stuck both hands deep in his trousers pockets and tilted his +chair backward to the point of perfect poise. + +"Cuckoo, you ass!" laughed Fred, kicking the chair over backward, +and then piling all the veranda furniture on top, to the scandalized +amazement of the stately kavass, who came at that moment shepherding +a small boy with a large tray and perfectly enormous drinks. + + + + +Chapter Three +"Sahib, there is always--work for real soldiers!" + + +WHERE TWO OR THREE + +Oh, all the world is sick with hate, +And who shall heal it, friend o' mine? +And who is friend? And who shall stand +Since hireling tongue and alien hand +Kill nobleness in all this land? +Judas and Pharisee combine +To plunder and proclaim it Fate. + +Days when the upright dared be few +Are they departed, friend o' mine? +Are bribery and rich largesse +Fair props for fat forgetfulness, +Or anodynous of distress? +Oh, would the world were drunk with wine +And not this last besotting brew! + +Oh, for the wonderful again-- +The greatly daring, friend o' mine! +The simply gallant blade unbought, +The soul compassionate, unsought, +With no price but the priceless thought +Nor purpose than the brave design +Of giving that the world may gain! + + +So we took two rooms at the Yeni Khan instead of one, not being minded +to sleep as closely as the gentry of Asia Minor like to. Will hurried +us down there for a look at the gipsy girl. But the tent was gone +and the gipsies with it, and when we asked questions about them people +spat. + +Your good Moslem--and a Moslem is good in those parts who makes a +mountain of observances, regarding mole-hills of mere morals not +at all--affects to despise all giaours; but a giaour, like a gipsy, +who has no obvious religion of any kind, he ranks below the pig in +order of reverence. It did not redound to our credit that we showed +interest in the movements of such people. + +Monty brought an enormous can of bug-powder with him, and restored +our popularity by lending generously after he had treated our quarters +sufficiently for three days' stay. Fred did nothing to our +quarters--stirred no finger, claiming convalescence with his tongue in +his cheek, and strolling about until he fell utterly in love with the +khan and its crowd, and the khan with him. + +That very first night he brought out his concertina on the balcony, +and yowled songs to its clamor; and whether or not the various crowd +agreed on naming the noise music, all were delighted with the friendliness. + +Fred talks more languages fluently than he can count on the fingers +of both hands. He began to tell tales in a sing-song eastern snarl--a +tale in Persian, then in Turkish, and the night grew breathless, +full of listening, until pent-up interest at intervals burst bonds +and there were "Ahs" and "Ohs" all amid the dark, like little breaths +of night wind among trees. + +He found small time for sleep, and when dawn came, and four Zeitoonli +servants according to Kagig's promise, they still swarmed around +him begging for more. He went off to eat breakfast with a khan from +Bokhara, sitting on a bale of nearly priceless carpets to drink overland +tea made in a thing like a samovar. + +All the rest of that day, and the next, sleeping only at intervals, +while Monty and Will and I helped the Zeitoonli servants get our +loads in shape, Fred sharpened his wonder-gift of tongues on the +fascinated men of many nations, giving them London ditties and tales +from the Thousand Nights and a Night in exchange for their news of +caravan routes. He left them well pleased with their bargain. + +Monty went off alone the second day to see about mules. The Turk +with a trade to make believes that of several partners one is always +"easier" than the rest; consequently, one man can bring him to see +swifter reason than a number can. He came back that evening with +twelve good mules and four attendants. + +"One apiece to ride, and two apiece to carry everything. Not another +mule to be had. Unpack the loads again and make them smaller!" + +Fred came and sat with us that night before the charcoal brazier +in his and Monty's room. + +"They all talk of robbers on the road," he said. "Northward, through +the Circassian Gates, or eastward it's all the same. There's a man +in a room across the way who was stripped stark naked and beaten +because they thought he might have money in his clothes. When he +reached this place without a stitch on him he still had all his money +in his clenched fists! Quite a sportsman--what? Imagine his juggling +with it while they whipped him with knotted cords!" + +"What have you heard about Kagig?" + +"Nothing. But a lot about vukuart.* It's vague, but there's something +in the air. You'll notice the Turkish muleteers are having nothing +whatever to say to our Zeitoonli, although they've accepted the same +service. Moslems are keeping together, and Armenians are getting +the silence cure. Armenians are even shy of speaking to one another. +I've tried listening, and I've tried asking questions, although that +was risky. I can't get a word of explanation. I've noticed, though, +that the ugly mood is broadening. They've been polite to me, but +I've heard the word shapkali applied more than once to you fellows. +Means hatted man, you know. Not a serious insult, but implies contempt." + +-------------- +* Turkish word: happenings, a euphemism for massacre. +-------------- + +Nothing but comfort and respectability ever seemed able to make Fred +gloomy. He discussed our present prospects with the air of an epicure +ordering dinner. And Monty listened with his dark, delightful +smile--the kindliest smile in all the world. I have seen unthoughtful +men mistake it for a sign of weakness. + +I have never known him to argue. Nor did he then, but strode straight +down into the khan yard, we sitting on the balcony to watch. He +visited our string of mules first for an excuse, and invited a Kurdish +chieftain (all Kurds are chieftains away from home) to inspect a +swollen fetlock. With that subtle flattery he unlocked the man's +reserve, passed on from chance remark to frank, good-humored questions, +and within an hour had talked with twenty men. At last he called +to one of the Zeitoonli to come and scrape the yard dung from his +boots, climbed the stairs leisurely, and sat beside us. + +"You're quite right, Fred," he said quietly. + +Then there came suddenly from out the darkness a yell for help in +English that brought three of us to our feet. Fred brushed his fierce +mustaches upward with an air of satisfaction, and sat still. + +"There's somebody down there quite wrong, and in line at last to +find out why!" he said. "I've been waiting for this. Sit down." + +We obeyed him, though the yells continued. There came blows suggestive +of a woman on the housetops beating carpets. + +"D'you recollect the man I mentioned at the consulate--the biped +Peter Measel, missionary on his own account, who keeps a diary and +libels ladies in it? Well, he's foul of a thalukdar* from Rajputana, +and of a Prussian contractor, recruiting men for work on the Baghdad +railway. I wasn't allowed to murder him. I see why now--finger +of justice--I'd have been too quick. Sit down, you idiots! You've +no idea what he wrote about Miss Vanderman. Let him scream, I like it!" + +--------------- +* Punjabi Word--landholder. +--------------- + +"Come along," said Monty. "If he were a bad-house keeper he has +had enough!" + +But Will had gone before us, headlong down the stairs with the speed +off the mark that they taught him on the playing field at Bowdoin. +When we caught up he was standing astride a prostrate being who sobbed +like a cow with its throat cut, and a Rajput and a German, either +of them six feet tall, were considering whether or not to resent +the violence of his interference. The German was disposed to yield +to numbers. The Rajput not so. + +"Why are you beating him?" asked Monty. + +"Gott in Hinimel, who would not! He wrote of me in his diary--der +Liminel!--that I shanghai laborers." + +"Do you, or don't you?" asked Monty sweetly. + +"Kreutz-blitzen! What is that to do with you--or with him? What +right had he to write that people in France should pray for me in church?" + +The Rajput all this while was standing simmering, as ready as a boar +at bay to fight the lot of us, yet I thought with an air about him, +too, of half-conscious surprise. Several times he took a half-pace +forward to assert his right of chastisement, looked hard at Monty, +and checked mid-stride. + +"You've done enough," said Monty. + +"Who are you that says so?" the German retorted. + +"He--who--will--attend--to--it--that--you--do--no--more!" Monty's +smooth voce had become without inflection. + +"Bah! That is easy, isn't it? You are four to one!" + +"Five to one!" + +The Rajput's gruff throat thrilled with a new emotion. He sprang +suddenly past me, and thrust himself between Monty and the German, +who took advantage of the opportunity to walk away. + +"Lord Montdidier, colonel sahib bahadur, burra salaam!" + +He made no obeisance, but stood facing Monty eye to eye. The words, +as be roiled them out, were like an order given to a thousand men. +One almost heard the swish of sabers as the squadrons came to the +general salute. + +"I knew you, Rustum Khan, the minute I set eyes on you. Why were +you beating this man?" + +"Sahib bahadur, because he wrote in his book that people in France +should pray for me in church, naming my honorable name, because, +says he--but I will not repeat what he says. It is not seemly." + +"How do you know what is in his diary?" Monty asked. + +"That German read it out to me. We were sitting, he and I, discussing +how the Turks intend to butcher the Armenians, as all the world knows +is written. They say it shall happen soon. Said he to me--the German +said to me--'I know another,' said he, 'who if I had my way should +suffer first in that event.' Saying which he showed the written +book that he had found, and read me parts of it. The German was +for denouncing the fellow as a friend of Armenians, but I was for +beating him at once, and I had my way." + +"Where is the book?" demanded Monty. + +"The German has it." + +"The German has no right to it." + +"I will bring it." + +Rustum Khan strode off into the night, and Monty bent over the sobbing +form of the self-appointed missionary. We were all alone in the midst +of the courtyard, not even watched from behind the wheels of arabas, +for a fight or a thrashing in the khans of Asia Minor is strictly +the affair of him who gets the worst of it. + +"Will you burn that book of yours, Measel, if we protect you from +further assault?" + +The man sobbed that he would do anything, but Monty held him to the +point, and at last procured a specific affirmative. Then Rustum +Khan came back with the offending tome. It was bulky enough to contain +an account of the sins of Asia Minor. + +Fred and I picked the poor fellow up and led him to where the cooking +places stood in one long row. Will carried the book, and Rustum +Khan stole wood from other folks' piles, and fanned a fire. We watched +the unhappy Peter Measel put the book on the flames with his own hands. + +"You're old enough to have known better than keep such a diary!" +said Monty, stirring the charred pages. + +"I am at any rate a martyr!" Measel answered. + +The man could walk by that time--he was presumably abstemious and +recovered from shock quickly. Monty sent me to see him to his room, +which turned out to be next the German's, and until Will came over +from our quarters with first-aid stuff from our chest I spent the +minutes telling the German what should happen to him in case he should +so far forget discretion as to resume the offensive. He said nothing +in reply, but sat in his doorway looking up at me with an expression +intended to make me feel nervous of reprisals without committing him +to deeds. + +Later, when we had done our best for "the martyred biped Measel," +as Fred described him, Will and I found Rustum Khan with Fred and +Monty seated around the charcoal brazier in Monty's room, deep in +the valley of reminiscences. Our entry rather broke the spell, but +Rustum Khan was not to be denied. + +"You used to tell in those days, Colonel sahib bahadur," he said, +addressing Monty with that full-measured compliment that the chivalrous, +old East still cherishes, "of a castle of your ancestors in these +parts. Do you remember, when I showed you the ruins of my family +place in Rajputana, how you stood beside me on the heights, sahib, +and vowed some day to hunt for that Crusaders' nest, as you called it?" + +"That is the immediate purpose of this trip of ours," said Monty. + +"Ah!" said the Rajput, and was silent for about a minute. Fred Oakes +began to hum through his nose. He has a ridiculous belief that doing +that throws keen inquirers off a scent. + +"Colonel sahib, since I was a little butcha not as high as your knee +I have spoken English and sat at the feet of British officers. Little +enough I know, but by the beard of God's prophet I know this: when +a British colonel sahib speaks of 'immediate purposes,' there are +hidden purposes of greater importance!" + +"That well may be," said Monty gravely. "I remember you always were +a student of significant details, Rustum Khan." + +"There was a time when I was in your honor's confidence." + +Monty smiled. + +"That was years ago. What are you doing here, Rustum Khan?" + +"A fair enough question! I hang my head. As you know, sahib, I +am a rangar. My people were all Sikhs for several generations back. +We converts to Islam are usually more thorough-going than born Moslems +are. I started to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, riding overland +alone by way of Persia. As I came, missing few opportunities to +talk with men, who should have been the lights of my religion, I +have felt enthusiasm waning. These weeks past I have contemplated +return without visiting Mecca at all. I have wandered to and fro, +hoping for the fervor back again, yet finding none. And now, sahib, +I find you--I, Rustum Khan, at a loose end for lack of inspiration. +I have prayed. Colonel sahib bahadur, I believe thou art the gift +of God!"' + +Monty sought our eyes in turn in the lantern-lit darkness. We made +no sign. None of us but he knew the Rajput, so it was plainly his affair. + +"Suit yourself," said Will, and the rest of us nodded. + +"We are traveling into the interior," said Monty, "in the rather +doubtful hope that our absence from a coast city may in some way +help Armenians, Rustum Khan." + +The Rajput jumped to his feet that instant, and came to the salute. + +"I might have known as much. Colonel Lord Montdidier sahib, I offer +fealty! My blood be thine to spill in thy cause! Thy life on my +head--thine honor on my life--thy way my way, and God be my witness!" + +"Don't be rash, Rustum Khan. Our likeliest fate is to be taken prisoner +by men of your religion, who will call you a renegade if you defend +Armenians. And what are Armenians to you?" + +"Ah, sahib! You drive a sharp spur into an open sore! I have seen +too much of ill-faith--cruelty--robbery--torture--rapine--butchery, +all in the name of God! It is this last threat to the Armenians +that is the final straw! I took the pilgrimage in search of grace. +The nearer I came to the place they tell me is on earth the home +of grace, the more unfaith I see! Three nights ago in another place +I was led aside and offered the third of the wealth of a fat Armenian +if I would lend my sword to slit helpless throats--in the name of +God, the compassionate, be merciful! My temper was about spoilt +forever when that young idiot over the way described me in his book +as--never mind how he described me--he paid the price! Sahib bahadur, +I take my stand with the defenseless, where I know thou and thy friends +will surely be! I am thy man!" + +"It is not included in our plans to fight," said Monty. + +"Sahib, there is always work for real soldiers!" + +"What do you fellows say? Shall we let him come with us?" + +"I travel at my own charges, sahib. I am well mounted and well armed." + +"Sure, let him come with us!" said Will. "I like the man." + +"He has my leave to come along to England afterward," said Fred, +"if he'll guarantee to address me as the 'gift of God' in public!" + +I left them talking and returned to see whether the "martyred biped +Measel" needed further help. He was asleep, and as I listened to +his breathing I heard voices in the next room. The German was talking +in English, that being often the only tongue that ten men have in +common. Through the partly opened door I could see that his room +was crammed with men. + +"They are spies, every one of them!" I heard him say. "The man I +thrashed is of their party. You yourselves saw how they came to +his rescue, and seduced the Indian by means of threats. This is +the way of the English. ("Curse them!" said a voice.) They write +notes in a book, and when that offense is detected they burn the +book in a corner, as ye saw them do. I saw the book before they +burned it. I thrashed the spy who wrote in the book because he had +written in it reports on what it is proposed to do to infidels at +the time ye know about. I tell you those men are all spies--one +is as bad as the other. They work on behalf of Armenians, to bring +about interference from abroad." + +That he had already produced an atmosphere of danger to us I had +immediate proof, for as I crossed the yard again I dodged behind +an araba in the nick of time to avoid a blow aimed at me with a sword +by a man I could not see. + +"All your charming is undone!" I told Fred, bursting in on our party +by the charcoal brazier. Almost breathless I reeled off what I had +overheard. "They'll be here to murder us by dawn!" I said. + +"Will they?" said Monty. + +We were up and away two hours before dawn, to the huge delight of +our Turkish muleteers, who consider a dawn start late, yet not too +early for the servants of the khan, who knew enough European manners +to stand about the gate and beg for tips. Nor were we quite too +early for the enemy, who came out into the open and pelted us with +clods of dung, the German encouraging from the roof. Fred caught +him unaware full in the face with a well-aimed piece of offal. Then +the khan keeper slammed the gate behind us and we rode into the unknown. + + + + +Chapter Four +"We are the robbers, effendi!" + + +THE ROAD + +There is a mystery concerning roads +And he who loves the Road shall never tire. +For him the brooks have voices and the breeze +Brings news of far-off leafiness and leas +And vales all blossomy. The clinging mire +Shall never weary such an one, nor yet their loads +O'ercome the beasts that serve him. Rock and rill +Shall make the pleasant league go by as hours +With secret tales they tell; the loosened stone, +Sweet turf upturned, the bees' full-purposed drone, +The hum of happy insects among flowers, +And God's blue sky to crown each hill! +Dawn with her jewel-throated birds +To him shall be a new page in the Book +That never had beginning nor shall end, +And each increasing hour delights shall lend-- +New notes in every sound--in every nook +New sights----new thoughts too wide for words, +Too deep for pen, too high for human song, +That only in the quietness of winding ways +From tumult and all bitterness apart +Can find communication with the heart-- +Thoughts that make joyous moments of the days, +And no road heavy, and no journey long! + + +The snow threatened in the mountains had not materialized, and the +weather had changed to pure perfection. About an hour after we started +the khan emptied itself behind us in a long string, jingling and +clanging with horse and camel bells. But they turned northward to +pass through the famed Circassian Gates, whereas we followed the +plain that paralleled the mountain range--our mules' feet hidden +by eight inches of primordial ooze. + +"Wish it were only worse!" said Monty. "Snow or rain might postpone +massacre. Delay might mean cancellation." + +But there was no prospect whatever of rain. The Asia Minor spring, +perfumed and amazing sweet, breathed all about us, spattered with +little diamond-bursts of tune as the larks skyrocketed to let the +wide world know how glad they were. Whatever dark fate might be +brooding over a nation, it was humanly impossible for us to feel +low-spirited. + +Our Zeitoonli Armenians trudged through the mud behind us at a splendid +pace--mountain-men with faces toward their hills. The Turks--owners +of the animals another man had hired to us--rode perched on top of +the loads in stoic silence, changing from mule to mule as the hours +passed and watching very carefully that no mule should be overtaxed +or chilled. In fact, the first attempt they made to enter into +conversation with us was when we dallied to admire a view of Taurus +Mountain, and one of them closed up to tell us the mules were catching +cold in the wind. (If they had been our animals it might have been +another story.) + +Their contempt for the Zeitoonli was perfectly illustrated by the +difference in situation. They rode; the Armenians walked. Yet the +Armenians were less afraid; and when we crossed a swollen ford where +a mule caught his forefoot between rocks and was drowning, it was +Armenians, not Turks, who plunged into the icy water and worked him +free without straining as much as a tendon. + +The Turks were obsessed by perpetual fear of robbers. That, and +no other motive, made them tolerate the hectoring of Rustum Khan, +who had constituted himself officer of transport, and brought up +the rear on his superb bay mare. As he had promised us he would, +he rode well armed, and the sight of his pistol holsters, the rifle +protruding stock-first from a leather case, and his long Rajput saber +probably accomplished more than merely keeping Turks in countenance; +it prevented them from scattering and bolting home. + +His own baggage was packed on two mules in charge of an Armenian +boy, who was more afraid of our Turks than they of robbers. Yet, +when we demanded of our muleteers what sort of men, and of what nation +the dreaded highwaymen might be they pointed at Rustum Khan's lean +servant. At the khan the night before one of them had pointed out +to Monty two Circassians and a Kurd as reputed to have a monopoly +of robbery on all those roads. Nevertheless, they made the new +accusation without blinking. + +"All robbers are Armenians--all Armenians are robbers!" they assured +us gravely. + +When we halted for a meal they refused to eat with our Zeitoonli, +although they graciously permitted them to gather all the firewood, +and accepted pieces of their pasderma (sun-dried meat) as if that +were their due. As soon as they had eaten, and before we had finished, +Ibrahim, their grizzled senior, came to us with a new demand. On +its face it was not outrageous, because we were doing our own cooking, +as any man does who has ever peeped into a Turkish servant's +behind-the-scene arrangements. + +"Send those Armenians away!" he urged. "We Turks are worth twice +their number!" + +"By the beard of God's prophet!" thundered Rustum Khan, "who gave +camp-followers the right to impose advice?" + +"They are in league with highwaymen to lead you into a trap!" Ibrahim +answered. + +Rustum Khan rattled the saber that lay on the rock beside him. + +"I am hunting for fear," he said. "All my life I have hunted for +fear and never found it!" + +"Pekki!" said Ibrahim dryly. The word means "very well." The tone +implied that when the emergency should come we should do well not +to depend on him, for he had warned us. + +We were marching about parallel with the course the completed Baghdad +railway was to take, and there were frequent parties of surveyors +and engineers in sight. Once we came near enough to talk with the +German in charge of a party, encamped very sumptuously near his work. +He had a numerous armed guard of Turks. + +"A precaution against robbers?" Monty asked, and I did not hear what +the German answered. + +Rustum Khan laughed and drew me aside. + +"Every German in these parts has a guard to protect him from his +own men, sahib! For a while on my journey westward I had charge +of a camp of recruited laborers. Therefore I know." + +The German was immensely anxious to know all about us and our intentions. +He told us his name was Hans von Quedlinburg, plainly expecting us +to be impressed. + +"I can direct you to good quarters, where you can rest comfortably +at every stage, if you will tell me your direction," he said. + +But we did not tell him. Later, while we ate a meal, he came and +questioned our Turks very closely; but since they were in ignorance +they did not tell him either. + +"Why do you travel with Armenian servants?" he asked us finally before +we moved away. + +"We like 'em," said Monty. + +"They'll only get you in trouble. We've dismissed all Armenian laborers +from the railway works. Not trustworthy, you know. Our agents are +out recruiting Moslems." + +"What's the matter with Armenians?" + +"Oh, don't you know?" + +"I'm asking." + +The German shrugged his shoulders. + +"I'll tell you one thing. This will illustrate. I had an Armenian +clerk. He worked all day in my tent. A week ago I found him reading +among my private papers. That proves you can't trust an Armenian." + +"Ample evidence!" said Monty without a smile, but Fred laughed as +we rode away, and the German stared after us with a new set of emotions +pictured on his heavy face. + +Late in the afternoon we passed through a village in which about +two hundred Armenian men and women were holding a gathering in a +church large enough to hold three times the number. One of them +saw us coming, and they all trooped out to meet us, imagining we +were officials of some kind. + +"Effendi," said their pastor with a trembling hand on Monty's saddle, +"the Turks in this village have been washing their white garments!" + +We had heard in Tarsus what that ceremony meant. + +"It means, effendi, they believe their purpose holy! What shall +we do--what shall we do?" + +"Why not go into Tarsus and claim protection at the British consulate?" +suggested Fred. + +"But our friends of Tarsus warn us the worst fury of all will be +in the cities!" + +"Take to the hills, then!" Monty advised him. + +"But how can we, sir? How can we? We have homes--property--children! +We are watched. The first attempt by a number of us to escape to +the hills would bring destruction down on all!" + +"Then escape to the hills by twos and threes. You ask my advice--I +give it." + +It looked like very good advice. The slopes of the foot-hills seemed +covered by a carpet of myrtle scrub, in which whole armies could +have lain in ambush. And above that the cliffs of the Kara Dagh +rose rocky and wild, suggesting small comfort but sure hiding-places. + +"You'll never make me believe you Armenians haven't hidden supplies," +said Monty. "Take to the hills until the fury is over!" + +But the old man shook his head, and his people seemed at one with +him. These were not like our Zeitoonli, but wore the settled gloom +of resignation that is poor half-brother to Moslem fanaticism, caught +by subjection and infection from the bullying Turk. There was nothing +we could do at that late hour to overcome the inertia produced by +centuries, and we rode on, ourselves infected to the verge of misery. +Only our Zeitoonli, striding along like men on holiday, retained +their good spirits, and they tried to keep up ours by singing their +extraordinary songs. + +During the day we heard of the chicken, as Will called her, somewhere +on ahead, and we spent that night at a kahveh, which is a place with +all a khan's inconveniences, but no dignity whatever. There they +knew nothing of her at all. The guests, and there were thirty besides +ourselves, lay all around the big room on wooden platforms, and talked +of nothing but robbers along the road in both directions. Every man +in the place questioned each of us individually to find out why we +had not been looted on our way of all we owned, and each man ended +in a state of hostile incredulity because we vowed we had met no +robbers at all. They shrugged their shoulders when we asked for +news of Miss Gloria Vanderman. + +There was no fear of Ibrahim and his friends decamping in the night, +for the Zeitoonli kept too careful watch, waiting on them almost +as thoughtfully as they fetched and carried for us, but never forgetting +to qualify the service with a smile or a word to the Turks to imply +that it was done out of pity for brutish helplessness. + +These Zeitoonli of ours were more obviously every hour men of a different +disposition to the meek Armenians of the places where the Turkish +heel had pressed. But for our armed presence and the respect accorded +to the Anglo-Saxon they would have had the whole mixed company down +on them a dozen times that night. + +"I'm wondering whether the Armenians within reach of the Turks are +not going to suffer for the sins of mountaineers!" said Fred, as +we warmed ourselves at the great open fire at one end of the room. + +"Rot!" Will retorted. "Sooner or later men begin to dare assert +their love of freedom, and you can't blame 'em if they show it foolishly. +Some folk throw tea into harbors--some stick a king's head on a +pole--some take it out for the present in fresh-kid stuff. These +Zeitoonli are men of spirit, or I'll eat my hat!" + +But if we ourselves had not been men of spirit, obviously capable +of strenuous self-defense, our Zeitoonli would have found themselves +in an awkward fix that night. + +We supped off yoghourt--the Turkish concoction of milk--cow's, goat's, +mare's, ewe's or buffalo's (and the buffalo's is best)--that is about +the only food of the country on which the Anglo-Saxon thrives. +Whatever else is fit to eat the Turks themselves ruin by their way +of cooking it. And we left before dawn in the teeth of the owner +of the kahveh's warning. + +"Dangerous robbers all along the road!" he advised, shaking his head +until the fez grew insecure, while Fred counted out the coins to +pay our bill. "Armenians are without compunction--bad folk! Ay, +you have weapons, but so have they, and they have the advantage of +surprise! May Allah the compassionate be witness, I have warned you!" + +"There will be more than warnings to be witnessed!", growled Rustum +Khan as he rode away. "Those others, who sharpened weapons all night +long, and spoke of robbers, have been waiting three days at that +kahveh till the murdering begins!" + +That morning, on Rustum Khan's advice, we made our Turkish muleteers +ride in front of us. The Zeitoon men marched next, swinging along +with the hillman stride that eats up distance as the ticked-off seconds +eat the day. And we rode last, admiring the mountain range on our +left, but watchful of other matters, and in position to cut off retreat. + +"The last time a Turk ran away from me he took my Gladstone bag with +him!" said Fred. "No, only Armenians are dishonest. It was obedience +to his prophet, who bade him take advantage of the giaour--quite +a different thing! Ibrahim's sitting on my kit, and I'm watching +him. You fellows suit yourselves!" + +We passed a number of men on foot that morning all coming our way, +but no Armenians among them. However, we exchanged no wayside gossip, +because our Zeitoonli in front availed themselves of privilege and +shouted to every stranger to pass at a good distance. + +That is a perfectly fair precaution in a land where every one goes +armed, and any one may be a bandit. But it leads to aloofness. +Passers-by made circuits of a half-mile to avoid us, and when we +spurred our mules to get word with them they mistook that for proof +of our profession and bolted. We chased three men for twenty minutes +for the fun of it, only desisting when one of them took cover behind +a bush and fired a pistol at us with his eyes shut. + +"Think of the lies he'll tell in the kahveh to-night about beating +off a dozen robbers single-handed!" Will laughed. + +"Let's chase the next batch, too, and give the kahveh gang an ear-full!" + +"I rather think not," said Monty. "They'll say we're Armenian criminals. +Let's not be the spark." + +He was right, so we behaved ourselves, and within an hour we had +trouble enough of another sort. We began to meet dogs as big as +Newfoundlands, that attacked our unmounted Zeitoonli, refusing to +be driven off with sticks and stones, and only retreating a little +way when we rode down on them. + +"Shoot the brutes!" Will suggested cheerfully, and I made ready to +act on it. + +"For the lord's sake, don't!" warned Monty, riding at a huge black +mongrel that was tearing strips from the smock of one of our men. +The owner of the dog, seeing its victim was Armenian, rather encouraged +it than otherwise, leaning on a long pole and grinning in an unfenced +field near by. + +"The consul warned me they think more of a dog's life hereabouts +than a man's. In half an hour there'd be a mob on our trail. Take +the Zeitoonli up behind us." + +Rustum Khan was bitter about what he called our squeamishness. But +we each took up a man on his horse's rump, and the dogs decided the +fun was no longer worth the effort, especially as we had riding whips. +But skirmishing with the dogs and picking up the Armenians took time, +so that our muleteers were all alone half a mile ahead of us, and +had disappeared where the road dipped between two hillocks, when +they met with the scare they looked for. + +They came thundering back up the road, flogging and flopping on top +of the loads like the wooden monkeys-on-a-stick the fakers used to +sell for a penny on the curb in Fleet Street, glancing behind them +at every second bound like men who had seen a thousand ghosts. + +We brought them to a halt by force, but take them on the whole, now +that they were in contact with us, they did not look so much frightened +as convinced. They had made up their minds that it was not written +that they should go any farther, and that was all about it. + +"Ermenie!" said Ibrahim. And when we laughed at that he stroked +his beard and vowed there were hundreds of Armenians ambushed by +the roadside half a mile ahead. The others corrected him, declaring +the enemy were thousands strong. + +Finally Monty rode forward with me to investigate. We passed between +the hillocks, and descended for another hundred yards along a gradually +sloping track, when our mules became aware of company. We could +see nobody, but their long ears twitched, and they began to make +preparations preliminary to braying recognition of their kin. + +Suddenly Monty detected movement among the myrtle bushes about fifty +yards from the road, and my mule confirmed his judgment by braying +like Satan at a side-show. The noise was answered instantly by a +chorus of neighs and brays from an unseen menagerie, whereat the +owners of the animals disclosed themselves--six men, all smiling, +and unarmed as far as we could tell--the very same six gipsies who +had pitched their tent in the midst of the khan yard at Tarsus. + +Then in a clearing at a little distance we saw women taking down +a long low black tent, and between us and them a considerable herd +of horses, mostly without halters but headed into a bunch by gipsy +children. Somebody on a gray stallion came loping down toward us, +leaping low bushes, riding erect with pluperfect hands and seat. + +"I've seen that stallion before!" said I. + +"And the girl on his back is looking for somebody who owns her heart!" +smiled Monty. "Hullo! Are you the lucky man?"' + +She reined the stallion in, and took a good, long look at us, shading +her eyes with her hand but showing dazzling white teeth between coral +lips. Suddenly the smile departed, and a look of sullen disappointment +settled on her face, as she wheeled the stallion with a swing of +her lithe body from the hips, and loped away. Never, apparently, +did two men make less impression on a maiden's heart. The six gipsies +stood staring at us foolishly, until one of them at last held his +hand up palm outward. We accepted that as a peace signal. + +"Are you waiting here for us?" Monty asked in English, and the oldest +of the six--a swarthy little man with rather bow legs--thought he +had been asked his name. + +"Gregor Jhaere," he answered. + +For some vague reason Monty tried him next in Arabic and then in +Hindustanee, but without result. At last he tried halting Turkish, +and the gipsy replied at once in German. As Monty used to get +two-pence or three-pence a day extra when he was in the British army, +for knowing something of that tongue, we stood at once on common ground. + +"Kagig told us to wait here and bring you to him," said Gregor Jhaere. + +"Where is Kagig?" Monty asked, and the man smiled blankly--much more +effectively than if he had shrugged his shoulders. + +"We obey Kagig at times," he said, as if that admission settled the +matter. Then there was interruption. Rustum Khan came spurring +down the road with his pistol holsters unbuttoned and his saber clattering +like a sutler's pots and pans, to see whether we needed help. He +had no sooner reined in beside us than I caught sight of Will, drawn +between curiosity and fear lest the muleteers might bolt, standing +in his stirrups to peer at us from the top of the track between the +hillocks. Somebody else caught sight of him too. + +There came a shrill about from over where the women were packing +up, and everybody turned to look, Gregor Jhaere included. As hard +as the gray stallion could take her in a bee line toward Will the +daughter of the dawn with flashing teeth and blazing eyes was riding +ventre a terre. + +"Maga!" Gregor shouted at her, and then some unintelligible gibberish. +But she took no more notice of him than if he had been a crow on +a branch. In a minute she was beside Will, talking to him, and from +over the top of the rise we could hear Fred shouting sarcastic +remonstrance. + +"She is bad!" Gregor announced in English. It seemed to be all the +English he knew. + +"Are you her father?" Monty asked, and Gregor answered in very +slipshod German: + +"She is the daughter of the devil. She shall be soundly thrashed! +The chalana!* And he a Gorgio!"** + +---------------- +* Chalana--She jockey (a compliment). +** Gorgio--Gentile (an insult). +---------------- + +Suddenly Fred began to shout for help then, and we rode back, the +gipsies following and Rustum Khan remaining on guard between them +and their camp with his upbrushed black beard bristling defiance +of Asia Minor. Our Turkish muleteers had decided to make a final +bolt for it, and were using their whips on the Zeitoonli, who clung +gamely to the reins. As soon as we got near enough to lend a hand +the Turks resigned themselves with a kind of opportune fatalism. +The Zeitoonli promptly turned the tables on them by laying hold of +a leg of each and tipping them off into the mud. Ibrahim showed +his teeth, and reached for a hidden weapon as he lay, but seemed +to think better of it. It looked very much as if those four Zeitoonli +knew in advance exactly what the interruption in our journey meant. + +Will was out of the running entirely, or else the rest of us were, +depending on which way one regarded it. He had eyes for nobody and +nothing but the girl, nor she for any one but him, and nobody could +rightfully blame either of them. Yankee though he is, Will sat his +mule in the western cowboy style, and he was wearing a cowboy hat +that set his youth off to perfection. She looked fit to flirt with +the lord of the underworld, answering his questions in a way that +would have made any fellow eager to ask more. Strangely enough, +Gregor Jhaere, presumably father of the girl appeared to have lost +his anger at her doings and turned his back. + +Fred, smiling mischief, started toward them to horn in, as Will would +have described it, but at that moment about a dozen of the gipsy +women came padding uproad, fostered watchfully by Rustum Khan, who +seemed convinced that murder was intended somehow, somewhere. They +brought along horses with them--very good horses--and Fred prefers +a horse trade to triangular flirtation on any day of any week. + +The gipsies promptly fell to and off-saddled our loads under Gregor +Jhaere's eye, transferring them to the meaner-looking among the beasts +the women had brought, taking great care to drop nothing in the mud. +And at a word from Gregor two of the oldest hags came to lift us +from our saddles one by one, and hold us suspended in mid-air while +the saddles were transferred to better mounts. But there is an indignity +in being held out of the mud by women that goes fiercely against +the white man's grain, and I kicked until they set me back in +the saddle. + +Monty solved the problem by riding to higher, clean ground near the +roadside, where we could stand on firm grass. + +Seeing us dismounted, the gipsies underwent a subtle mental change +peculiar to all barbarous people. To the gipsy and the cossack, +and all people mainly dependent on the horse, to be mounted is to +signify participation in affairs. To be dismounted means to stand +aside and "let George do it." + +Gregor Jhaere became a different man. He grew noisy and in response +to his yelped commands they swooped in unprovoked attack on our unhappy +muleteers. Before we could interfere they had thrown each Turk face +downward, our Zeitoonli helping, and were searching them with swift +intruding fingers for knives, pistols, money. + +The Turk leaves his money behind when starting on a journey at some +other man's expense; but they did draw forth a most astonishing +assortment of weapons. They were experts in disarmament. Maga Jhaere +lost interest in Will for a moment, and pricked her stallion to a +place where she could judge the assortment better. Without any hesitation +she ordered one of the old women to pass up to her a mother-o'-pearl +ornamented Smith & Wesson, which she promptly hid in her bosom. Judging +by the sounds he made, that pistol was the apple of Ibrahim's old +eye, but he had seen the last of it. When we interfered, and he +could get to her stirrup to demand it back, Maga spat in his face; +which was all about it, except that Monty made generous allowance +for the thing when paying the reckoning presently. As our servants, +those Turks were, of course, entitled to our protection, and besides +that weapon we had to pay for five knives that were gone beyond hope +of recovery. + +Monty paid our Turks off (for it was evident that even had they been +willing they would not have been allowed to proceed with us another +mile). Then, as Ibrahim mounted and marshaled his party in front of him, +he forgot manners as well as the liberal payment. + +"Mashallah!" (God be praised!) he shouted, with the slobber of excitement +on his lips and beard. "Now I go to make Armenians pay for this! +Let the shapkali,* too, avoid me! Ya Ali, ya Mahoma, Alahu!" (Oh, +Ali, oh, Mahomet, God is God!) + +--------------- +* Shapkali--hatted man-foreigner. +--------------- + +"Let's hope they haven't a spark of honesty!" said Monty cryptically, +watching them canter away. + +"Why on earth--?" + +"Let's hope they ride back to the consul and swear they haven't received +one piaster of their pay. That would let him know we're clear away!" + +"Optimist!" jeered Will. "That consul's a Britisher. He'd take +their lie literally, and deduce we're no good!" + +For the moment the girl on the gray stallion had ridden away from +Will and was giving regal orders to the mob of women and shrill children, +who obeyed her as if well used to it. Gregor Jhaere and his men +stood staring at us, Gregor shaking his head as if our letting the +Turks go free had been a bad stroke of policy. + +"Aren't you afraid to travel with all that mob of women and cattle?" +asked Monty. "We've heard of robbers on the road." + +"We are the robbers, effendi!" said Gregor with an air of modesty. +The others smirked, but he seemed disinclined to over-insist on the +gulf between us. + +"Hear him!" growled Rustum Khan. "A thief, who boasts of thieving +in the presence of sahibs! So is corruption, stinking in the sun!" + +He added something in another language that the gipsies understood, +for Gregor started as if stung and swore at him, and Maga Jhaere +left her women-folk to ride alongside and glare into his eyes. They +were enemies, those two, from that hour forward. He, once Hindu, +now Moslem, had no admiration whatever to begin with for unveiled +women. And, since the gipsy claims to come from India and may therefore +be justly judged by Indian standards, and has no caste, but is beneath +the very lees of caste, he loathed all gipsies with the prejudice +peculiar to men who have deserted caste in theory and in self-protection +claim themselves above it. It was a case of height despising deep +in either instance, she as sure of her superiority as he of his. + +There might have been immediate trouble if Monty had not taken his +new, restless, fresh horse by the mane and swung into the saddle. + +"Forward, Rustum Khan!" he ordered. "Ride ahead and let those keen +eyes of yours keep us out of traps!" + +The Rajput obeyed, but as he passed Will he checked his mare a moment, +and waiting until Will's blue eyes met his he raised a warning finger. + +"Kubadar, sahib!" + +Then he rode on, like a man who has done his duty. + +"What the devil does he mean?" demanded Will. + +"Kubadar means, 'Take care'!" said Monty. "Come on, what are we +waiting for?" + +That was the beginning, too, of Will's feud with the Rajput, neither +so remorseless nor so sudden as the woman's, because he had a different +code to guide him and also had to convince himself that a quarrel +with a man of color was compatible with Yankee dignity. We could +have wished them all three either friends, or else a thousand miles +apart two hundred times before the journey ended. + +As we rode forward with even our Zeitoonli mounted now on strong +mules, Maga Jhaere sat her stallion beside Will with an air of +owning him. She was likely a safer friend than enemy, and we did +nothing to interfere. Monty pressed forward. Fred and I fell to +the rear. + +"Haide!"* shouted Gregor Jhaere, and all the motley swarm of women +and children caught themselves mounts--some already loaded with the +gipsy baggage, some with saddles, some without, some with grass halters +for bridles. In another minute Fred and I were riding surrounded +by a smelly swarm of them, he with big fingers already on the keys +of his beloved concertina, but I less enamored than he of the company. + +----------------- +* Haide!--Turkish, "Come on!" +----------------- + +Women and children, loaded, loose and led horses were all mixed together +in unsortable confusion, the two oldest hags in the world trusting +themselves on sorry, lame nags between Fred and me as if proximity +to us would solve the very riddle of the gipsy race. And last of +all came a pack of great scrawny dogs that bayed behind us hungrily, +following for an hour until hope of plunder vanished. + +"That little she-devil who has taken a fancy to Will," said Fred +with a grin, "is capable of more atrocities than all the Turks between +here and Stamboul! She looks to me like Santanita, Cleopatra, Salome, +Caesar's wife, and all the Borgia ladies rolled in one. There's +something added, though, that they lacked." + +"Youth," said I. "Beauty. Athletic grace. Sinuous charm." + +"No, probably they all had all those." + +"Then horsemanship." + +"Perhaps. Didn't Cleopatra ride?" + +"Then what?" said I, puzzled. + +"Indiscretion!" he answered, jerking loose the catch of his infernal +instrument. + +"Don't be afraid, old ladies," he said, glancing at the harridans +between us. "I'm only going to sing!" + +He makes up nearly all of his songs, and some of them, although +irreverent, are not without peculiar merit; but that was one of +his worst ones. + +The preachers prate of fallen man +And choirs repeat the chant, +While unco' guid with unction urge +Repression of the joys that surge, +And jail for those who can't. +The poor deluded duds forget +That something drew the sting +When Adam tiptoed to his fall, +And made it hardly hurt at all. +Of Mother Eve I sing! + +CHORUS +Oh, Mother Eve, dear Mother Eve, +The generations come and go, +But daughter Eve's as live as you +Were back in Eden years ago! + +Oh, hell's not hell with Eve to tell +Again the ancient tale, +But Eden's grassy ways and bowers +Deprived of Eve to ease the hours +Would very soon grow stale! +Red cherry lips that leap to laugh, +And chic and flick and flair +Can make black white for any one-- +The task of Sisyphus good fun! +So what should Adam care! + +CHORUS +Oh, daughter Eve, dear daughter Eve, +The tribulations go and come, +But no adventure's ever tame +With you to make surprises hum! + + + + +Chapter Five +"Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning." + + +THE PATTERAN + +(I) + +Aye-yee--I see--a cloud afloat in air af amethyst +I know its racing shadow falls on banks of gold +Where rain-rejoicing gravel warms the feeding roots +And smells more wonderful than wine. +I know the shoots of myrtle and of asphodel now stir the mould +Where wee cool noses sniff the early mist. +Aye-yee--the sparkle of the little springs I see +That tinkle as they hunt the thirsty rill. +I know the cobwebs glitter with the jeweled dew. +I see a fleck of brown--it was a skylark flew +To scatter bursting music, and the world is still +To listen. Ah, my heart is bursting too--Aye-yee! + +Chorus: +(It begins with a swinging crash, and fades away.) + +Aye-yee, aye-yah--the kites see far +(But also to the foxes views unfold)-- +No hour alike, no places twice the same, +Nor any track to show where morning came, +Nor any footprint in the moistened mould +To tell who covered up the morning star. + Aye-yee--aye-yah! + + +(2) +Aye-yee--I see--new rushes crowding upwards in the mere +Where, gold and white, the wild duck preens himself +Safe hidden till the sun-drawn, lingering mists melt. +I know the secret den where bruin dwelt. +I see him now sun-basking on a shelf +Of windy rock. He looks down on the deer, +Who flit like flowing light from rock to tree +And stand with ears alert before they drink. +I know a pool of purple rimmed with white +Where wild-fowl, warming for the morning flight, +Wait clustering and crying on the brink. +And I know hillsides where the partridge breeds. Aye-yee! + +Chorus: +Aye-yee, aye-yah--the kites see far +(But also to the owls the visions change)-- +No dawn is like the next, and nothing sings +Of sameness--very hours have wings +And leave no word of whose hand touched the range +Of Kara Dagh with opal and with cinnabar. + Aye-yee, aye-yah! + +(3) +Aye-yee--I see--new distances beyond a blue horizon flung. +I laugh, because the people under roofs believe +That last year's ways are this! +No roads are old! New grass has grown! +All pools and rivers hold New water! +And the feathered singers weave +New nests, forgetting where the old ones hung! +Aye-yah--the muddy highway sticks and clings, +But I see in the open pastures new +Unknown to busne* in the houses pent! +I hear the new, warm raindrops drumming on the tent, +I feel already on my feet delicious dew, +I see the trail outflung! And oh, my heart has wings! + + +Chorus: +Aye-yee, aye-yah--the kites see far +(But also on the road the visions pass)-- +The universe reflected in a wayside pool, +A tinkling symphony where seeping waters drool, +The dance, more gay than laughter, of the wind-swept grass-- +Oh, onward! On to where the visions are! + Aye-yee--aye-yah! + +--------------------- +* Busne--Gipsy word--Gentile, or non-gipsy. +--------------------- + + +Russia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Bohemia, Persia, Armenia were all one +hunting-ground to the troupe we rode with. Even the children seemed +to have a smattering of most of the tongues men speak in those intriguing +lands. Will and the girl beside him conversed in German, but the +old hag nearest me would not confess acquaintance with any language +I knew. Again and again I tried her, but she always shook her head. + +Fred, with his ready gift of tongues, attempted conversation with +ten or a dozen of them, but whichever language he used in turn appeared +to be the only one which that particular individual did not know. +All he got in reply was grins, and awkward silence, and shrugs of +the shoulders in Gregor's direction, implying that the head of the +firm did the talking with strangers. But Gregor rode alone with +Monty, out of ear-shot. + +Maga (for so they all called her) flirted with Will outrageously, +if that is flirting that proclaims conquest from the start, and sets +flashing white teeth in defiance of all intruders. Even the little +children had hidden weapons, but Maga was better armed than any one, +and she thrust the new mother-o-pearl-plated acquisition in the face +of one of the men who dared drive his horse between hers and Will's. +That not serving more than to amuse him, she slapped him three times +back-handed across the face, and thrusting the pistol back into her +bosom, drew a knife. He seemed in no doubt of her willingness to +use the steel, and backed his horse away, followed by language from +her like forked lightning that disturbed him more than the threatening +weapon. Gipsies are great believers in the efficiency of a curse. + +Nothing could be further from the mark than to say that Will tried +to take advantage of Maga's youth and savagery. Fred and I had shared +a dozen lively adventures with him without more than beginning yet +to plumb the depths of his respect for Woman. Only an American in +all the world knows how to meet Young Woman eye to eye with totally +unpatronizing frankness, and he was without guile in the matter. +But not so she. We did not know whether or not she was Gregor Jhaere's +daughter; whether or not she was truly the gipsy that she hardly +seemed. But she was certainly daughter of the Near East that does +not understand a state of peace between the sexes. There was nothing +lawful in her attitude, nor as much as the suspicion that Will might +be merely chivalrous. + +"America's due for sex-enlightenment!" said I. + +"Warn him if you like," Fred laughed, "and then steer clear! Our +America is proud besides imprudent!" + +Fred off-shouldered all responsibility and forestalled anxiety on +any one's account by playing tunes, stampeding the whole cavalcade +more than once because the horses were unused to his clanging concertina, +but producing such high spirits that it became a joke to have to +dismount in the mud and replace the load on some mule who had expressed +enjoyment of the tune by rolling in slime, or by trying to kick clouds +out of the sky. + +And strangely enough he brought about the very last thing he intended +with his music--stopped the flirtation's immediate progress. Maga +seemed to take to Fred's unchastened harmony with all the wildness +that possessed her. Some chord he struck, or likelier, some abandoned +succession of them touched off her magazine of poetry. And so she sang. + +The only infinitely gorgeous songs I ever listened to were Maga's. +Almighty God, who made them, only really knows what country the gipsies +originally came from, but there is not a land that has not felt their +feet, nor a sorrow they have not witnessed. Away back in the womb +of time there was planted in them a rare gift of seeing what the +rest of us can only sometimes hear, and of hearing what only very +few from the world that lives in houses can do more than vaguely +feel when at the peak of high emotion. The gipsies do not understand +what they see, and hear, and feel; but they are aware of infinities +too intimate for ordinary speech. And it was given to Maga to sing +of all that, with a voice tuned like a waterfall's for open sky, +and trees, and distances--not very loud, but far-carrying, and flattened +in quarter-tones where it touched the infinite. + +Fred very soon ceased from braying with his bellowed instrument. +Her songs were too wild for accompaniment--interminable stanzas of +unequal length, with a refrain at the end of each that rose through +a thousand emotions to a crash of ecstasy, and then died away to +dreaminess, coming to an end on an unfinished rising scale. + +All the gipsies and our Zeitoonli and Rustum Khan's lean servant +joined in the refrains, so that we trotted along under the snow-tipped +fangs of the Kara Dagh oblivious of the passage of time, but very +keenly conscious of touch with a realm of life whose existence hitherto +we had only vaguely guessed at. + +The animals refused to weary while that singing testified of tireless +harmonies, as fresh yet as on the day when the worlds were born. +We rattled forward, on and upward, as if the panorama were unrolling +and we were the static point, getting out of nobody's way for the +best reason in the world--that everybody hid at first sight or sound +of us, except when we passed near villages, and then the great +fierce-fanged curs chased and bayed behind us in short-winded fury. + +"The dogs bark," quoted Fred serenely, "but the caravan moves on!" + +An hour before dark we swung round a long irregular spur of the hills +that made a wide bend in the road, and halted at a lonely kahveh--a +wind-swept ruin of a place, the wall of whose upper story was +patched with ancient sacking, but whose owner came out and smiled +so warmly on us that we overlooked the inhospitable frown of his +unplastered walls, hoping that his smile and the profundity of his +salaams might prove prophetic of comfort and cleanliness within. +Vain hope! + +Maga left Will's side then, for there was iron-embedded custom to +be observed about this matter of entering a road-house. In that +land superstition governs just as fiercely as the rest those who +make mock of the rule-of-rod religions, and there is no man or woman +free to behave as he or she sees fit. Every one drew aside from +Monty, and he strode in alone through the split-and-mended door, +we following next, and the gipsies with their animals clattered noisily +behind us. The women entered last, behind the last loaded mule, +and Maga the very last of all, because she was the most beautiful, +and beauty might bring in the devil with it only that the devil is +too proud to dawdle behind the old hags and the horses. + +We found ourselves in an oblong room, with stalls and a sort of pound +for animals at one end and an enormous raised stone fireplace at +the other. Wooden platforms for the use of guests faced each other +down the two long sides, and the only promise of better than usual +comfort lay in the piles of firewood waiting for whoever felt rich +and generous enough to foot the bill for a quantity. + +But an agreeable surprise made us feel at home before ever the fire +leaped up to warm the creases out of saddle-weary limbs. We had +given up thinking of Kagig, not that we despaired of him, but the +gipsies, and especially Maga, had replaced his romantic interest +for the moment with their own. Now all the man's own exciting claim +on the imagination returned in full flood, as he arose leisurely +from a pile of skins and blankets near the hearth to greet Monty, +and shouted with the manner of a chieftain for fuel to be piled on +instantly--"For a great man comes!" he announced to the rafters. +And the kahveh servants, seven sons of the owner of the place, were +swift and abject in the matter of obeisance. They were Turks. All +Turks are demonstrative in adoration of whoever is reputed great. +Monty ignored them, and Kagig came down the length of the room to +offer him a hand on terms of blunt equality. + +"Lord Montdidier," he said, mispronouncing the word astonishingly, +"this is the furthest limit of my kingdom yet. Kindly be welcome!" + +"Your kingdom?" said Monty, shaking hands, but not quite accepting +the position of blood-equal. He was bigger and better looking than +Kagig, and there was no mistaking which was the abler man, even at +that first comparison, with Kagig intentionally making the most of +a dramatic situation. + +Kagig laughed, not the least nervously. + +"Mirza," he said in Persian, "duzd ne giriftah padshah ast!" (Prince, +the uncaught thief is king.) + +He was wearing a kalpak--the head-gear of the cossack, which would +make a high priest look outlawed, and a shaggy goat-skin coat that +had seen more than one campaign. Unmistakably the garment had been +slit by bullets, and repaired by fingers more enthusiastic than adept. +There was a pride of poverty about him that did not gibe well with +his boast of being a robber. + +"That's the first gink we've met in this land who didn't claim to +be something better than he looked!" Will whispered. + +"Hopeless, I suppose!" Fred answered. "Never mind. I like the man." + +It was evident that Monty liked him, too, for all his schooled reserve. +Kagig ordered one of the owner's sons to sweep a place near the fire, +and there he superintended the spreading of Monty's blankets, close +enough to his own assorted heap for conversation without mutual offense. +Will cleaned for himself a section of the opposite end of the platform, +and Fred and I spread our blankets next to his. That left Rustum +Khan in a quandary. He stood irresolute for a minute, eying first +the gipsies, who had stalled most of their animals and were beginning +to occupy the platform on the other side; then considering the wide +gap between me and Monty. The dark-skinned man of breeding is far +more bitterly conscious of the color-line than any white knows how to be. + +We watched, disinclined to do the choosing for him, racial instinct +uppermost. Rustum Khan strolled back to where his mare was being +cleaned by the lean Armenian servant, gave the boy a few curt orders, +and there among the shadows made his mind up. He returned and stood +before Monty, Kagig eying him with something less than amiability. +He pointed toward the ample room remaining between Monty and me. + +"Will the sahib permit? My izzat (honor) is in question." + +"Izzat be damned!" Monty answered. + +Rustum Khan colored darkly. + +"I shared a tent with you once on campaign, sahib, in the days before--the +good days before--those old days when--" + +"When you and I served one Raj, eh? I remember," Monty answered. +"I remember it was your tent, Rustum Khan. Unless memory plays tricks +with me, the Orakzai Pathans had burned mine, and I had my choice +between sharing yours or sleeping in the rain." + +"Truly, huzoor." + +"I don't recollect that I mouthed very much about honor on that occasion. +If anybody's honor was in question then, I fancy it was yours. I +might have inconvenienced myself, and dishonored you, I suppose, +by sleeping in the wet. You can dishonor the lot of us now, if you +care to, by--oh, tommyrot! Tell your man to put your blankets in +the only empty place, and behave like a man of sense!" + +"But, huzoor--" + +Monty dismissed the subject with a motion of his hand, and turned +to talk with Kagig, who shouted for yoghourt to be brought at once; +and that set the sons of the owner of the place to hurrying in great +style. The owner himself was a true Turk. He had subsided into +a state of kaif already over on the far side of the fire, day-dreaming +about only Allah knew what rhapsodies. But the Turks intermarry +with the subject races much more thoroughly than they do anything +else, and his sons did not resemble him. They were active young +men, rather noisy in their robust desire to be of use. + +The gipsies, with Gregor Jhaere nearest to the owner of the kahveh +and the fireplace, occupied the whole long platform on the other +side, each with his women around him--except that I noticed that +Maga avoided all the men, and made herself a blanket nest in deep +shadow almost within reach of a mule's heels at the far end. I believed +at the moment that she chose that position so as to be near to Will, +but changed my mind later. Several times Gregor shouted for her, +and she made no answer. + +The place had no other occupants. Either we were the only travelers +on that road that night or, as seemed more likely, Kagig had exercised +authority and purged the kahveh of other guests. Certainly our coming +had been expected, for there was very good yoghourt in ample quantity, +and other food besides--meat, bread, cheese, vegetables. + +When we had all eaten, and lay back against the stone wall looking +at the fire, with great fanged shadows dancing up and down that made +the scene one of almost perfect savagery, Gregor called again for +Maga. Again she did not answer him. So he rose from his place and +reached for a rawhide whip. + +"I said she shall be thrashed!" he snarled in Turkish, and he made +the whip crack three times like sudden pistol-shots. Will did not +catch the words, and might not have understood them in any case, +but Rustum Khan, beside me, both heard and understood. + +"Atcha!" he grunted. "Now we shall see a kind of happenings. That +girl is not a true gipsy, or else my eyes lie to me. They stole +her, or adopted her. She lacks their instincts. The gitanas, as +they call their girls, are expected to have aversion to white men. +They are allowed to lure a white man to his ruin, but not to make +hot love to him. She has offended against the gipsy law. The attaman* +must punish. Watch the women. They take it all as a matter of course." + +---------------- +*Attaman, gipsy headman. +---------------- + +"Maga!" thundered Gregor Jhaere, cracking the great whip again. +I thought that Kagig looked a trifle restless, but nobody else went +so far as to exhibit interest, except that the old Turk by the fire +emerged far enough out of kaif to open one eye, like a sly cat's. + +The attaman shouted again, and this time Maga mocked him. So he +strode down the room in a rage to enforce his authority, and dragged +her out of the shadow by an arm, sending her whirling to the center +of the floor. She did not lose her feet, but spun and came to a +stand, and waited, proud as Satanita while he drew the whip slowly +back with studied cruelty. The old Turk opened both eyes. + +Nothing is more certain than that none of us would have permitted +the girl to be thrashed. I doubt if even Rustum Khan, no admirer +of gipsies or unveiled women, would have tolerated one blow. But +Will was nearest, and he is most amazing quick when his nervous New +England temper is aroused. He had the whip out of Gregor's hand, +and stood on guard between him and the girl before one of us had +time to move. The old Turk closed his eyes again, and sighed resignedly. + +"Our preux chevalier--preux but damned imprudent!" murmured Fred. +"Let's hope there's a gipsy here with guts enough to fight for title +to the girl. It looks to me as if Will has claimed her by patteran* +law. The only man with right to say whether or not a woman shall +be thrashed is her owner. Once that right is established--" + +--------------- +* Patteran, a gipsy word: trail. +--------------- + +"Touch her and I'll break your neck!" warned Will, without undue +emotion, but truthfully beyond a shadow of a doubt. + +The gipsy stood still, simmering, and taking the measure of the capable +American muscles interposed between him and his legal prey. Every +gipsy eye in the room was on him, and it was perfectly obvious that +whatever the eventual solution of the impasse, the one thing he could +not do was retreat. We were fewer in number, but much better armed +than the gipsy party, so that it was unlikely they would rally to +their man's aid. Kagig was an unknown quantity, but except that +his black eyes glittered rather more brightly than usual he made +no sign; and we kept quiet because we did not want to start a +free-for-all fight. Will was quite able to take care of any single +opponent, and would have resented aid. + +Suddenly, however, Gregor Jhaere reached inside his shirt. Maga +screamed. Rustum Khan beside me swore a rumbling Rajput oath, and +we all four leapt to our feet. Maga drew no weapon, although she +certainly had both dagger and pistol handy. Instead, she glanced +toward Kagig, who, strangely enough, was lolling on his blankets +as if nothing in the world could interest him less. The glance took +as swift effect as an electric spark that fires a mine. He stiffened +instantly. + +"Yok!" he shouted, and at once there ceased to be even a symptom +of impending trouble. Yok means merely no in Turkish, but it conveyed +enough to Gregor to send him back to his place between his women +and the Turk unashamedly obedient, leaving Maga standing beside Will. +Maga did not glance again at Kagig, for I watched intently. There +was simply no understanding the relationship, although Fred affected +his usual all-comprehensive wisdom. + +"Another claimant to the title!" he said. "A fight between Will +and Kagig for that woman ought to be amusing, if only Will weren't +a friend of mine. Watch America challenge him!" + +But Will did nothing of the kind. He smiled at Maga, offered her +a cigarette, which she refused, and returned to his place beyond +Fred, leaving her standing there, as lovely in the glowing firelight +as the spirit of bygone romance. At that Kagig shouted suddenly +for fuel, and three of the Turk's seven hoydens ran to heap it on. + +Instantly the leaping flames transformed the great, uncomfortable, +draughty barn into a hall of gorgeous color and shadows without limit. +There was no other illumination, except for the glow here and there +of pipes and cigarettes, or matches flaring for a moment. Barring +the tobacco, we lay like a baron's men-at-arms in Europe of the Middle +Ages, with a captive woman to make sport with in the midst, only +rather too self-reliant for the picture. + +Feeling himself warm, and rested, and full enough of food, Fred flung +a cigarette away and reached for his inseparable concertina. And +with his eyes on the great smoked beams that now glowed gold and +crimson in the firelight, he grew inspired and made his nearest to +sweet music. It was perfectly in place--simple as the savagery +that framed us--Fred's way of saying grace for shelter, and adventure, +and a meal. He passed from Annie Laurie to Suwannee River, and all +but made Will cry. + +During two-three-four tunes Maga stood motionless in the midst of +us, hands on her hips, with the fire-light playing on her face, until +at last Fred changed the nature of the music and seemed to be trying +to recall fragments of the song she had sung that afternoon. Presently +he came close to achievement, playing a few bars over and over, and +leading on from those into improvization near enough to the real +thing to be quite recognizable. + +Music is the sure key to the gipsy heart, and Fred unlocked it. +The men and women, and the little sleepy children on the long wooden +platform opposite began to sway and swing in rhythm. Fred divined +what was coming, and played louder, wilder, lawlessly. And Maga +did an astonishing thing. She sat down on the floor and pulled her +shoes and stockings off, as unselfconsciously as if she were alone. + +Then Fred began the tune again from the beginning, and he had it +at his finger-ends by then. He made the rafters ring. And without +a word Maga kicked the shoes and stockings into a corner, flung her +outer, woolen upper-garment after them, and began to dance. + +There is a time when any of us does his best. +Money--marriage--praise--applause (which is totally another thing +than praise, and more like whisky in its +workings)--ambition--prayer--there is a key to the heart of each of us +that can unlock the flood-tides of emotion and carry us nolens volens +to the peaks of possibility. Either Will, or else Fred's music, or +the setting, or all three unlocked her gifts that night. She danced +like a moth in a flame--a wandering woman in the fire unquenchable +that burns convention out of gipsy hearts, and makes the +patteran--the trail--the only way worth while. + +Opposite, the gipsies sprawled in silence on their platform, breathing +a little deeper when deepest approval stirred them, a little more +quickly when her Muse took hold of Maga and thrilled her to expression +of the thoughts unknown to people of the dinning walls and streets. + +We four leaned back against our wall in a sort of silent revelry, +Fred alone moving, making his beloved instrument charm wisely, calling +to her just enough to keep a link, as it were, through which her +imagery might appeal to ours. Some sort of mental bridge between +her tameless paganism and our twentieth-century twilight there had +to be, or we never could have sensed her meaning. The concertina's +wailings, mid-way between her intelligence and ours, served well enough. + +My own chief feeling was of exultation, crowing over the hooded +city-folk, who think that drama and the tricks of colored light and +shade have led them to a glimpse of the hem of the garment of Unrest--a +cheap mean feeling, of which I was afterward ashamed. + +Maga was not crowing over anybody. Neither did she only dance of +things her senses knew. The history of a people seized her for a +reed, and wrote itself in figures past imagining between the crimson +firelight; and the shadows of the cattle stalls. + +Her dance that night could never have been done with leather between +bare foot and earth. It told of measureless winds and waters--of +the distances, the stars, the day, the night-rain sweeping down--dew +dropping gently--the hundred kinds of birds-the thousand animals +and creeping things--and of man, who is lord of all of them, and +woman, who is lord of man--man setting naked foot on naked earth +and glorying with the thrill of life, new, good, and wonderful. + +One of the Turk's seven sons produced a saz toward the end--a little +Turkish drum, and accompanied with swift, staccato stabs of sound +that spurred her like the goads of overtaking time toward the peak +of full expression--faster and faster--wilder and wilder--freer and +freer of all limits, until suddenly she left the thing unfinished, +and the drum-taps died away alone. + +That was art--plain art. No human woman could have finished it. +It was innate abhorrence of the anticlimax that sent her, having +looked into the eyes of the unattainable, to lie sobbing for short +breath in her corner in the dark, leaving us to imagine the ending +if we could. + +And instead of anticlimax second climax came. Almost before the +echoes of the drum-taps died among the dancing shadows overhead a +voice cried from the roof in Armenian, and Kagig rose to his feet. + +"Let us climb to the roof and see, effendim," he said, pulling on +his tattered goat-skin coat. + +"See what, Ermenie?" demanded Rustum Khan. The Rajput's eyes were +still ablaze with pagan flame, from watching Maga. + +"To see whether thou hast manhood behind that swagger!" answered +Kagig, and led the way. No man ever yet explained the racial aversions. + +"Kopek!--dog, thou!" growled the Rajput, but Kagig took no notice +and led on, followed by Monty and the rest of us. Maga and the gipsies +came last, swarming behind us up the ladder through a hole among +the beams, and clambering on to the roof over boxes piled in the +draughty attic. Up under the stars a man was standing with an arm +stretched out toward Tarsus. + +"Look!" he said simply. + +To the westward was a crimson glow that mushroomed angrily against +the sky, throbbing and swelling with hot life like the vomit of a +crater. We watched in silence for three minutes, until one of the +gipsy women began to moan. + +"What do you suppose it is?" I asked then. + +"I know what it is," said Kagig simply. + +"Tell then." + +"'Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning. Those are the homes +of my nation--of my kin!" + +"And good God, where d'you suppose Miss Vanderman is?" Fred exclaimed. + +Will was standing beside Maga, looking into her eyes as if he hoped +to read in them the riddle of Armenia. + + + + +Chapter Six +"Passing the buck to Allah!" + + +LAUS LACHRIMABILIS + +So now the awaited ripe reward-- +Your cactus crown! Since I have urged +"Get ready for the untoward" +Ye bid me reap the wrath I dirged; +And I must show the darkened way, +Who beckoned vainly in the light! +I'll lead. But salt of Dead Sea spray +Were sweeter on my lips to-night! + +Oh, days of aching sinews, when I trod the choking dust +With feet afire that could not tire, atremble with the trust +More mighty in my inner man than fear of men without, +The word I heard on Kara Dagh and did not dare to doubt-- +Timely warning, clear to me as starlight after rain +When, sleepless on eternal hills, I saw the purpose plain +And left, swift-foot at dawn, obedient, to break +The news ye said was no avail--advice ye would not take! + +Oh,--nights of tireless talking by the hearth of hidden fires-- +On roofs, behind the trade-bales--among oxen in the byres-- +Out in rain between the godowns, where the splashing puddles warn +Of tiptoeing informers; when I faced the freezing dawn +With set price on my head, but still the set resolve untamed, +Not melted by the mockery, by no suspicion shamed, +To hide by day in holes, abiding dark and wind and rain +That loosed me straining to the task ye ridiculed again! + +Oh, weeks of empty waiting, while the enemy designed +In detail how to loot the stuff ye would not leave behind! +Worse weeks of empty agony when, helpless and alone, +I watched in hiding for the crops from that seed I had sown; + +For dust-clouds that should prove at last Armenia awake-- +A nation up and coming! I had labored for your sake, +I had hungered, I had suffered. Ye had well rewarded then +If ye had come, and hanged me just to prove that ye were men! + +But all the pride was promises, the criticism jeers; +Ye had no heart for sacrifice, and I no time for tears. +I offered--nay, I gave! I squandered body and breath and soul, +I bared the need, I showed the way, I preached a goodly goal, +I urged you choose a leader, since your faith in me was dim, +I swore to serve the chief ye chose, and teach my lore to him, +So he should reap where I had sown. And yet ye bade me wait-- +And waited till, awake at last, ye bid me lead too late! + +And so, in place of ripe reward, +Your cactus crown! And I, who urged +"Get ready for the untoward" +Must drink the dregs of wrath I dirged! +Ye bid me set time's finger back! +And stage anew the opened fight! +I'll lead. But slime of Dead Sea wrack +Were sweeter on my lips this night! + + +The first thought that occurred to each of us four was that Kagig +had probably lied, or that he had merely voiced his private opinion, +based on expectation. The glare in the distance seemed too big and +solid to be caused by burning houses, even supposing a whole village +were in flames. Yet there was not any other explanation we could +offer. A distant cloud of black smoke with bulging red under-belly +rolled away through the darkness like a tremendous mountain range. + +We stood in silence trying to judge how far away the thing might +be, Kagig standing alone with his foot on the parapet, his goat-skin +coat hanging like a hussar's dolman, and Monty pacing up and down +along the roof behind us all. The gipsies seemed able to converse +by nods and nudges, with now and then one word whispered. After +a little while Maga whispered in Will's ear, and he went below with +her. All the gipsies promptly followed. Otherwise in the darkness +we might not have noticed where Will went. + +"That proves she is no gipsy!" vowed Rustum Khan, standing between +Fred and me. "They, would have trusted one of their own kind." + +"They call her Maga Jhaere," said I. "The attaman's name is Jhaere. +Don't you suppose he's her father?" + +"If he were her father he would have no fear," the Rajput answered. +"All gipsies are alike. Their women will dance the nautch, and promise +unchastity as if that were a little matter. But when it comes to +performance of promises the gitana* is true to the Rom.** It is +because she is no gipsy that they follow her now to watch. And it +is because men say that Americans are Mormons and polygamous, and +very swift in the use of revolvers, that all follow instead of one +or two!" + +-------------- +* Gitana, gipsy young woman. +** Rom--Gipsy husband, or family man. +-------------- + +"Go down then, and make sure they don't murder him!" commanded Monty, +and Rustum Khan turned to obey with rather ill grace. He contrived +to convey by his manner that he would do anything for Monty, even +to the extent of saving the life of a man he disliked. At the moment +when he turned there came the sound of a troop of horses galloping +toward us. + +"I will first see who comes," he said. + +"The blood of Yerkes sahib on your head, Rustum Khan!" Monty answered. +At that he went below. + +But neither were we destined to remain up there very long. We heard +colossal thumping in the kahveh beneath us and presently the Rajput's +head reappeared through the opening in the roof. + +"The fools are barricading the door," he shouted. "They make sure +that an enemy outside could burn us inside without hindrance!" + +At that Kagig came along the roof to our corner and looked into Monty's +eyes. Fred and I stood between the two of them and the parapet, +because for the first few seconds we were not sure the Armenian did +not mean murder. His eyes glittered, and his teeth gleamed. It +was not possible to guess whether or not the hand under his goat-skin +coat clutched a weapon. + +"It is now that you Eenglis sportmen shall endure a test!" he remarked. + +Exactly as in the Yeni Khan in Tarsus when we first met him there +was a moment now of intense repulsion, entirely unaccountable, succeeded +instantly by a wave of sympathy. I laughed aloud, remembering how +strange dogs meeting in the street to smell each other are swept +by unexplainable antipathies and equally swift comradeship. He thought +I laughed at him. + +"Neye geldin?" he growled in Turkish. "Wherefore didst thou come? +To cackle like a barren hen that sees another laying? Nichevo," +he added, turning his back on me. And that was insolence in Russian, +meaning that nobody and nothing could possibly be of less importance. +He seemed to keep a separate language for each set of thoughts. +"Let us go below. Let us stop these fools from making too much trouble," +he added in English. "One man ought to stay on the roof. One ought +to be sufficient." + +Since he had said I did not matter, I remained, and it was therefore +I who shouted down a challenge presently in round English at a party +who clattered to the door on blown horses, and thundered on it as +if they had been shatirs* hurrying to herald the arrival of the sultan +himself. There was nothing furtive about their address to the decrepit +door, nor anything meek. Accordingly I couched the challenge in +terms of unmistakable affront, repeating it at intervals until the +leader of the new arrivals chose to identify himself. + +----------------- +* Shatir, the man who runs before a personage's horse. +----------------- + +"I am Hans von Quedlinburg!" he shouted. But I did not remember +the name. + +"Only a thief would come riding in such a hurry through the night!" +said I. "Who is with you?" + +Another voice shouted very fast and furiously in Turkish, but I could +not make head or tail of the words. Then the German resumed the +song and dance. + +"Are you the party who talked with me at my construction camp?" + +"We talk most of the time. We eat food. We whistle. We drink. +We laugh!" said I. + +"Because I think you are the people I am seeking. These are Turkish +officials with me. I have authority to modify their orders, only +let me in!" + +"How many of you?" I asked. I was leaning over at risk of my life, +for any fool could have seen my head to shoot at it against the luminous +dark sky; but I could not see to count them. + +"Never mind how many! Let us in! I am Hans von Quedlinburg. My +name is sufficient." + +So I lied, emphatically and in thoughtful detail. + +"You are covered," I said, "by five rifles from this roof. If you +don't believe it, try something. You'd better wait there while I +wake my chief." + +"Only be quick!" said the German, and I saw him light a cigarette, +whether to convince me he felt confident or because he did feel so +I could not say. I went below, and found Monty and Kagig standing +together close to the outer door. They had not heard the whole of +the conversation because of the noise the owner's sons had made removing, +at their orders, the obstructions they had piled against the door +in their first panic. Every one else had returned to the sleeping +platforms, except the Turkish owner, who looked awake at last, and +was hovering here and there in ecstasies of nervousness. + +I repeated what the German had said, rather expecting that Kagig +at any rate would counsel defiance. It was he, however, who beckoned +the Turk and bade him open the door. + +"But, effendi--" + +"Chabuk! Quickly, I said!" + +"Che arz kunam?" the Turk answered meekly, meaning "What petition +shall I make?" the inference being that all was in the hands of Allah. + +"Of ten men nine are women!" sneered Kagig irritably, and led the +way to our place beside the fire. The Turk fumbled interminably +with the door fastenings, and we were comfortably settled in our +places before the new arrivals rode in, bringing a blast of cold +air with them that set the smoke billowing about the room and made +every man draw up his blankets. + +"Shut that door behind them!" thundered Kagig. "If they come too +slowly, shut the laggards out!" + +"Who is this who is arrogant?" the German demanded in English. + +He was a fine-looking man, dressed in civilian clothes cut as nearly +to the military pattern as the tailor could contrive without transgressing +law, but with a too small fez perched on his capable-looking head +in the manner of the Prussian who would like to make the Turks believe +he loves them. Rustum Khan cursed with keen attention to detail +at sight of him. The man who had entered with him became busy in +the shadows trying to find room to stall their horses, but Von Quedlinburg +gave his reins to an attendant, and stood alone, akimbo, with the +firelight displaying him in half relief. + +"I am a man who knows, among other things, the name of him who bribed +the kaimakam.* on Chakallu," Kagig answered slowly, also in English. + +--------------- +* Kaimakam, headman (Turkish). +--------------- + +The German laughed. + +"Then you know without further argument that I am not to be denied!" +he answered. "What I say to-night the government officials will +confirm to-morrow! Are you Kagig, whom they call the Eye of Zeitoon?" + +"I am no jackal," said Kagig dryly, punning on the name Chakallu, +which means "place of jackals." + +The German coughed, set one foot forward, and folded both arms on +his breast. He looked capable and bold in that attitude, and knew +it. I knew at last who he was, and wondered why I had not recognized +him sooner--the contractor who had questioned us near the railway +encampment along the way, and had offered us directions; but his +manner was as different now from then as a bully's in and out of +school. Then he had sought to placate, and had almost cringed to +Monty. Everything about him now proclaimed the ungloved upper hand. + +His party, finding no room to stall their horses, had begun to turn +ours loose, and there was uproar along the gipsy side of the room--no +action yet, but a threatening snarl that promised plenty of it. +Will was half on his feet to interfere, but Monty signed to him to +keep cool; and it was Monty's aggravatingly well-modulated voice +that laid the law down. + +"Will you be good enough," he asked blandly, "to call off your men +from meddling with our mounts?" He could not be properly said to +drawl, because there was a positive subacid crispness in his voice +that not even a Prussian or a Turk on a dark night could have +over-looked. + +The German laughed again. + +"Perhaps you did not hear my name," he said. "I am Hans von Quedlinburg. +As over-contractor on the Baghdad railway I have the privilege of +prior accommodation at all road-houses in this province--for myself +and my attendants. And in addition there are with me certain Turkish +officers, whose rights I dare say you will not dispute." + +Monty did not laugh, although Fred was chuckling in confident enjoyment +of the situation. + +"You need a lesson in manners," said Monty. + +"What do you mean?" demanded Hans von Quedlinburg. + +Monty rose to his feet without a single unnecessary motion. + +"I mean that unless you call off your men--at once this minute from +interfering with our animals I shall give you the lesson you need." + +The German saluted in mock respect. Then he patted his breast-pocket +so as to show the outline of a large repeating pistol. Monty took +two steps forward. The German drew the pistol with an oath. Will +Yerkes, beyond Fred and slightly behind the German, coughed meaningly. +The German turned his head, to find that he was covered by a pistol +as large as his own. + +"Oh, very well," he said, "what is the use of making a scene?" He +thrust his pistol back under cover and shouted an order in Turkish. +Monty returned to his place and sat down. The newcomers at the rear +of the room tied their horses together by the bridles, and Hans von +Quedlinburg resumed his well-fed smile. + +"Let it be clearly understood," he said, "that you have interfered +with official privilege." + +"As long as you do your best in the way of manners you may go on +with your errand," said Monty. + +Suddenly Fred laughed aloud. + +"The martyred biped!" he yelped. + +He was right. Peter Measel, missionary on his own account, and sometime +keeper of most libelous accounts, stepped out from the shadows and +essayed to warm himself, walking past the German with a sort of mincing +gait not calculated to assert his manliness. Hans von Quedlinburg +stretched out a strong arm and hurled him back again into the darkness +at the rear. + +"Tchuk-tchuk! Zuruck!" he muttered. + +It clearly disconcerted him to have his inferiors in rank assert +themselves. That accounted, no doubt, for the meek self-effacement +of the Turks who had come with him. Peter Measel did not appear +to mind being rebuked. He crossed to the other side of the room, +and proceeded to look the gipsies over with the air of a learned +ethnologist. + +"You speak of my errand," said Hans von Quedlinburg, "as if you imagine +I come seeking favors. I am here incidentally to rescue you and +your party from the clutches of an outlaw. The Turkish officials +who are with me have authority to arrest everybody in this place, +yourselves included. Fortunately I am able to modify that. Kagig--that +rascal beside you--is a well-known agitator. He is a criminal. +His arrest and trial have been ordered on the charge, among other +things, of stirring up discontent among the Armenian laborers on +the railway work. These gipsies are all his agents. They are all +under arrest. You yourselves will be escorted to safety at the coast." + +"Why should we need an escort to safety?" Monty demanded. + +"Were you on the roof?" the German answered. "And is it possible +you did not see the conflagration? An Armenian insurrection has +been nipped in the bud. Several villages are burning. The other +inhabitants are very much incensed, and all foreigners are in +danger--yourselves especially, since you have seen fit to travel in +company with such a person as Kagig." + +"What has Peter Measel got to do with it?" demanded Fred. "Has he +been writing down all our sins in a new book?" + +"He will identify you. He will also identify Kagig's agents. He +brings a personal charge against a man named Rustum Khan, who must +return to Tarsus to answer it. The charge is robbery with violence." + +Rustum Khan snorted. + +"The violence was only too gentle, and too soon ended. As for robbery, +if I have robbed him of a little self-conceit, I will answer to God +for that when my hour shall come! How is it your affair to drag +that whimpering fool through Asia at your tail--you a German and +he English?" + +The German had a hot answer ready for that, but the Turks had discovered +Maga Jhaere in hiding in the shadows between two old women. She +screamed as they tried to drag her forth, and the scream brought +us all to our feet. But this time it was Kagig who was swiftest, +and we got our first proof of the man's enormous strength. Fred, +Will and I charged together round behind the newcomers' horses, in +order to make sure of cutting off retreat as well as rescuing Maga. +Monty leveled a pistol at the German's head. But Kagig did not waste +a fraction of a second on side-issues of any sort. He flew at the +German's throat like a wolf at a bullock. The German fired at him, +missed, and before he could fire again he was caught in a grip he +could not break, and fighting for breath, balance and something more. + +One of the gipsies, who had not seen the need of hurrying to Maga's +aid, now proved the soundness of his judgment by divining Kagig's +purpose and tossing several new faggots on the already prodigious fire. + +"Good!" barked Kagig, bending the struggling German this and that +way as it pleased him. + +Seeing our man with the upper hand, Monty and Rustum Khan now hurried +into the melee, where two Turkish officers and eight zaptieh were +fighting to keep Maga from four gipsies and us three. Nobody had +seen fit to shoot, but there was a glimmering of cold steel among +the shadows like lightning before a thunder-storm. Monty used his +fists. Rustum Khan used the flat of a Rajput saber. Maga, leaving +most of her clothing in the Turk's hands, struggled free and in another +second the Turks were on the defensive. Rustum Khan knocked the +revolver out of an officer's hand, and the rest of them were struggling +to use their rifles, when the German shrieked. All fights are full +of pauses, when either side could snatch sudden victory if alert +enough. We stopped, and turned to look, as if our own lives were +not in danger. + +Kagig had the German off his feet, face toward the flames, kicking +and screaming like a madman. He whirled him twice--shouted a sort +of war-cry--hove him high with every sinew in his tough frame +cracking--and hurled him head-foremost into the fire. + +The Turks took the cue to haul off and stand staring at us. We all +withdrew to easier pistol range, for contrary to general belief, +close quarters almost never help straight aim, especially when in +a hurry. There is a shooting as well as a camera focus, and each +man has his own. + +Pretty badly burnt about the face and fingers, Hans von Quedlinburg +crawled backward out of the fire, smelling like the devil, of singed +wool. Kagig closed on him, and hurled him back again. This time +the German plunged through the fire, and out beyond it to a space +between the flames and the back wall, where it must have been hot +enough to make the fat run. He stood with a forearm covering his +face, while Kagig thundered at him voluminous abuse in Turkish. +I wondered, first, why the German did not shoot, and then why his +loaded pistol did not blow up in the heat, until I saw that in further +proof of strength Kagig had looted his pistol and was standing with +one foot on it. + +Finally, when the beautiful smooth cloth of which his coat was made +bad taken on a stinking overlay of crackled black, the German chose +to obey Kagig and came leaping back through the fire, and lay groaning +on the floor, where the kahveh's owner's seven sons poured water +on him by Kagig's order. His burns were evidently painful, but not +nearly so serious as I expected. I got out the first-aid stuff from +our medicine bag, and Will, who was our self-constituted doctor on +the strength of having once attended an autopsy, disguised as a reporter, +in the morgue at the back of Bellevue Hospital in New York City, +beckoned a gipsy woman, and proceeded to instruct her what to do. + +However, Hans von Quedlinburg was no nervous weakling. He snatched +the pot of grease from the woman's hands, daubed gobs of the stuff +liberally on his face and hands, and sat up--resembling an unknown +kind of angry animal with his eyebrows and mustache burned off except +for a stray, outstanding whisker here and there. In a voice like +a bull's at the smell of blood he reversed what he had shouted through +the flames, and commanded his Turks to arrest the lot of us. + +Kagig laughed at that, and spoke to him in English, I suppose in +order that we, too, might understand. + +"Those Turks are my prisoners!" he said. "And so are you!" + +It was true about the Turks. They had not given up their weapons +yet, but the gipsies were between them and the door, and even the +gipsy women were armed to the teeth and willing to do battle. I +caught sight of Maga's mother-o'-pearl plated revolver, and the Turkish +officer at whom she had it leveled did not look inclined to dispute +the upper hand. + +"You Germans are all alike," sneered Kagig. "A dog could read your +reasoning. You thought these foreigners would turn against me. +It never entered your thick skull that they might rather defy you +than see me made prisoner. Fool! Did men name me Eye of Zeitoon +for nothing? Have I watched for nothing! Did I know the very wording +of the letters in your private box for nothing? Are you the only +spy in Asia? Am I Kagig, and do I not know who advised dismissing +all Armenians from the railway work? Am I Kagig, and do I not know +why? Kopek! (Dog!) You would beggar my people, in order to curry +favor with the Turk. You seek to take me because I know your ways! +Two months ago you knew to within a day or two when these new massacres +would begin. One month, three weeks, and four days ago you ordered +men to dig my grave, and swore to bury me alive in it! What shall +hinder me from burning you alive this minute?" + +There were five good hindrances, for I think that Rustum Khan would +have objected to that cruelty, even had he been alone. Kagig caught +Monty's eye and laughed. + +"Korkakma!" he jeered. "Do not be afraid!" Then he glanced swiftly +at the Turks, and at Peter Measel, who was staring all-eyes at Maga +on the far side of the room. + +"Order your pigs of zaptieh to throw their arms down!" + +Instead, the German shouted to them to fire volleys at us. He was +not without a certain stormy courage, whatever Kagig's knowledge +of his treachery. + +But the Turks did not fire, and it was perfectly plain that we four +were the reason of it. They had been promised an easy prey--captured +women--loot--and the remunerative task of escorting us to safety. +Doubtless Von Quedlinburg had promised them our consul would be lavish +with rewards on our account. Therefore there was added reason why +they should not fire on Englishmen and an American. We had not made +a move since the first scuffle when we rescued Maga, but the Turkish +lieutenant had taken our measure. Perhaps he had whispered to his +men. Perhaps they reached their own conclusions. The effect was +the same in either case. + +"Order them to throw their weapons down!" commanded Kagig, kicking +the German in the ribs. And his coat had been so scorched in the +fierce heat that the whole of one side of it broke off, like a +cinder slab. + +This time Hans von Quedlinburg obeyed. For one thing the pain of +his burns was beginning to tell on him, but he could see, too, that +he had lost prestige with his party. + +"Throw down your weapons!" he ordered savagely. + +But he had lost more prestige than he knew, or else he had less in +the beginning than be counted on. The Turkish lieutenant--a man +of about forty with the evidence of all the sensual appetites very +plainly marked on his face--laughed and brought his men to attention. +Then he made a kind of half-military motion with his hand toward +each of us in turn, ignoring Kagig but intending to convey that we +at any rate need not feel anxious. + +It was Maga Jhaere who solved the riddle of that impasse. She was +hardly in condition to appear before a crowd of men, for the Turks +bad torn off most of her clothes, and she had not troubled to find +others. She was unashamed, and as beautiful and angry as a panther. +With panther suddenness she snatched the lieutenant's sword and pistol. + +It suited neither his national pride nor religious prejudices to +be disarmed by a gipsy woman; but the Turk is an amazing fatalist, +and unexpectedness is his peculiar quality. + +"Che arz kunam?" he muttered--the perennial comment of the Turk who +has failed, that always made Kagig bare his teeth in a spasm of contempt. +"Passing the buck to Allah," as Will construed it. + +But disarming the mere conscript soldiers was not quite so simple, +although Maga managed it. They had less regard for their own skins +than handicapped their officer, and yet more than his contempt for +the female of any human breed. + +They refused point-blank to throw their rifles down, bringing a laugh +and a shout of encouragement from the German. But she screwed the +muzzle of her pistol into the lieutenant's ear, and bade him enforce +her orders, the gipsy women applauding with a chorus of "Ohs" and +"Ahs." The lieutenant succumbed to force majeure, and his men, who +were inclined to die rather than take orders from a woman, obeyed +him readily enough. They laid their rifles down carefully, without +a suggestion of resentment. + +"So. The women of Zeitoon are good!" said Kagig with a curt nod +of approval, and Maga tossed him a smile fit for the instigation +of another siege of Troy. + +The gipsy women picked the rifles up, and Maga went to hunt through +the mule-packs for clothing. Then Kagig turned on us, motioning +with his toe toward Hans von Quedlinburg, who continued to treat +himself extravagantly from our jar of ointment. + +"You do not know yet the depths of this man's infamy!" he said. +"The world professes to loathe Turks who rob, sell and murder women +and children. What of a German--a foreigner in Turkey, who instigates +the murder--and the robbery--and the burning--and the butchery--for +his own ends, or for his bloody country's ends? This man is +an instigator!" + +"You lie!" snarled Von Quedlinburg. "You dog of an Armenian, you lie!" +Kagig ignored him. + +"This is the German sportman who tried once to go to Zeitoon to shoot +bears, as he said. But I knew he was a spy. I am not the Eye of +Zeitoon merely because that title rolls nicely on the tongue. He +has--perhaps he has it in his pocket now--a concession from the +politicians in Stamboul, granting him the right to exploit Zeitoon--a +place he has never seen! He has encouraged this present butchery +in order that Turkish soldiers may have excuse to penetrate to Zeitoon +that he covets. He wants you Eenglis sportmen out of the way. You +were to be sent safely back to Tarsus, lest you should be witnesses +of what must happen. Perhaps you do not believe all this?"' + +He stooped down and searched the German's coat pockets with impatient +fingers that tugged and jerked, tossing out handkerchief and wallet, +cigars, matches that by a miracle had not caught in the heat, and +considerable money to the floor. He took no notice of the money, +but one of the old gipsy women crept out and annexed it, and Kagig +made no comment. + +"He has not his concession with him. I can prove nothing to-night. +I said you shall stand a test. You must choose. This German and +those Turks are my prisoners. You have nothing to do with it. You +may go back to Tarsus if you wish, and tell the Turks that Kagig +defies them! You shall have an escort as far as the nearest garrison. +You shall have fifty men to take you back by dawn to-morrow." + +At that Rustum Khan turned several shades darker and glared truculently. + +"Who art thou, Armenian, to frame a test for thy betters?" he demanded, +throwing a very military chest. And Will promptly bridled at the +Rajput's attitude. + +"You've no call to make yourself out any better than he is!" he +interrupted. And at that Maga Jhaere threw a kiss from across the +room, but one could not tell whether her own dislike of Rustum Khan, +or her approval of Will's support of Kagig was the motive. + +Fred began humming in the ridiculous way he has when he thinks that +an air of unconcern may ease a situation, and of course Rustum Khan +mistook the nasal noises for intentional insult. He turned on the +unsuspecting Fred like a tiger. Monty's quick wit and level voice +alone saved open rupture. + +"What I imagine Rustum Khan means is this, Kagig: My friends and +I have engaged you as guide for a hunting trip. We propose to hold +you strictly to the contract." + +Kagig looked keenly at each of us and nodded. + +"In my day I have seen the hunters hunted!" he said darkly. + +"In my day I have seen an upstart punished!" growled the Rajput, +and sat down, back to the wall. + +"Castles, and bears!" smiled Monty. + +Kagig grinned. + +"What if I propose a different quarry?" + +"Propose and see!" Monty was on the alert, and therefore to all outward +appearance in a sort of well-fed, catlike, dallying mood. + +"This dog," said Kagig, and he kicked the German's ribs again, "has +said nothing of any other person he must rescue. Bear me witness." + +We murmured admission of the truth of that. + +"Yet I am the Eye of Zeitoon, and I know. His purpose was to leave +his prisoners here and hurry on to overtake a lady--a certain Miss +Vanderman, who he thinks is on her way to the mission at Marash. +He desired the credit for her rescue in order better to blind the +world to his misdeeds! Nevertheless, now that she can be no more +use to him, observe his chivalry! He does not even mention her!" + +The German shrugged his shoulders, implying that to argue with such +a savage was waste of breath. + +"What do you know of Miss Vanderman's where-abouts?" demanded Will, +and Maga Jhaere, at the sound of another woman's name, sat bolt upright +between two other women whose bright eyes peeped out from under blankets. + +"I had word of her an hour before you came, effendi," Kagig answered. +"She and her party took fright this afternoon, and have taken to +the hills. They are farther ahead than this pig dreamed"--once more +he kicked Von Quedlinburg--"more than a day's march ahead from here." + +"Then we'll hunt for her first," said Monty, and the rest of us nodded +assent. + +Kagig grinned. + +"You shall find her. You shall see a castle. In the castle where +you find her you shall choose again! It is agreed, effendi!" + +Then he ordered his prisoners made fast, and the gipsies and our +Zeitoonli servants attended to it, he himself, however, binding the +German's hands and feet. Will went and put bandages on the man's burns, +I standing by, to help. But we got no thanks. + +"Ihr seit verruckt!" he sneered. "You take the side of bandits. +Passt mal auf--there will be punishment!" + +The Zeitoonli were going to tie Peter Measel, but he set up such +a howl that Kagig at last took notice of him and ordered him flung, +unbound, into the great wooden bin in which the horse-feed was kept +for sale to wayfarers. There he lay, and slept and snored for the +rest of that session, with his mouth close to a mouse-hole. + +Then Kagig ordered our Zeitoonli to the roof on guard, and bade us +sleep with a patriarchal air of authority. + +"There is no knowing when I shall decide to march," he explained. + +Given enough fatigue, and warmth, and quietness, a man will sleep +under almost any set of circumstances. The great fire blazed, and +flickered, and finally died down to a bed of crimson. The prisoners +were most likely all awake, for their bonds were tight, but only +Kagig remained seated in the midst of his mess of blankets by the +hearth; and I think he slept in that position, and that I was the +last to doze off. But none of us slept very long. + +There came a shout from the roof again, and once again a thundering +on the door. The move--unanimous--that the gipsies' right hands +made to clutch their weapons resembled the jump from surprise into +stillness when the jungle is caught unawares. A second later when +somebody tossed dry fagots on the fire the blaze betrayed no other +expression on their faces than the stock-in-trade stolidity. Even +the women looked as if thundering on a kahveh door at night was nothing +to be noticed. Kagig did not move, but I could see that he was breathing +faster than the normal, and he, too, clutched a weapon. Von Quedlinburg +began shouting for help alternately in Turkish and in German, and +the owner of the place produced a gun--a long, bright, steel-barreled +affair of the vintage of the Comitajes and the First Greek War. +He and his sons ran to the door to barricade it. + +"Yavash!" ordered Kagig. The word means slowly, as applied to all +the human processes. In that instance it meant "Go slow with your +noise!" and mine host so understood it. + +But the thundering on the great door never ceased, and the kahveh +was too full of the noise of that for us to hear what the Zeitoonli +called down from the roof. Kagig arose and stood in the middle of +the room with the firelight behind him. He listened for two minutes, +standing stock-still, a thin smile flickering across his lean face, +and the sharp satyr-like tops of his ears seeming to prick outward +in the act of intelligence. + +"Open and let them in!" he commanded at last. + +"I will not!" roared the owner of the place. "I shall be tortured, +and all my house!" + +"Open, I said!" + +"But they will make us prisoner!" + +Kagig made a sign with his right hand. Gregor Jhaere rose and whispered. +One by one the remaining gipsies followed him into the shadows, and +there came a noise of scuffling, and of oaths and blows. As Gregor +Jhaere had mentioned earlier, they did obey Kagig now and then. +The Turks came back looking crestfallen, and the fastenings creaked. +Then the door burst open with a blast of icy air, and there poured +in nineteen armed men who blinked at the firelight helplessly. + +"Kagig--where is Kagig?" + +"You cursed fools, where should I be!" + +"Kagig? Is it truly you?" Their eyes were still blinded by +the blaze. + +"Shut that door again, and bolt it! Aye--Kagig, Kagig, is it you!" + +"It is Kagig! Behold him! Look!" + +They clustered close to see, smelling infernally of sweaty garments +and of the mud from unholy lurking places. + +"Kagig it is! And has all happened as I, Kagig, warned you it +would happen?" + +"Aye. All. More. Worse!" + +"Had you acted beforehand in the manner I advised?" + +"No, Kagig. We put it off. We talked, and disagreed. And then +it was too late to agree. They were cutting throats while we still +argued. When we ran into the street to take the offensive they were +already shooting from the roofs!" + +"Hah!" + +That bitter dry expletive, coughed out between set teeth, could not +be named a laugh. + +"Kagig, listen!" + +"Aye! Now it is 'Kagig, listen!' But a little while ago it was +I who was sayin 'Listen!' I walked myself lame, and talked myself +hoarse. Who listened to me? Why should I listen to you?" + +"But, Kagig, my wife is gone!" + +"Hah!" + +"My daughter, Kagig!" + +"Hah!" + +A third man thrust himself forward and thumped the butt of a long +rifle on the floor. + + -- + +"They took my wife and two daughters before my very eyes, Kagig! +It is no time for talking now--you have talked already too much, +Kagi,--now prove yourself a man of deeds! With these eyes I saw +them dragged by the hair down street! Oh, would God that I had put +my eyes out first, then had I never seen it! Kagig--" + +"Aye--Kagig!" + +"You shall not sneer at me! I shot one Turk, and ten more pounced +on them. They screamed to me. They called to me to rescue. What +could I do? I shot, and I shot until the rifle barrel burned my +fingers. Then those cursed Turks set the house on fire behind me, +and my companions dragged me away to come and find others to unite +with us and make a stand! We found no others! Kagig--I tell +you--those bloody Turks are auctioning our wives and daughters in the +village church! It is time to act!" + +"Hah! Who was it urged you in season and out of season--day and +night--month in, month out--to come to Zeitoon and help me fortify +the place? Who urged you to send your women there long ago?" + +"But Kagig, you do not appreciate. To you it is nothing not to have +women near you. We have mothers, sisters, wives--" + +"Nothing to me, is it? These eyes have seen my mother, ravished +by a Kurd in a Turkish uniform!" + +"Well, that only proves you are one with us after all! That only +proves--" + +"One with you! Why did you not act, then, when I risked life and +limb a thousand times to urge you?" + +"We could not, Kagig. That would have precipitated--" + +He interrupted the man with an oath like the aggregate of bitterness. + +"Precipitated? Did waiting for the massacre like chickens waiting +for the ax delay the massacres a day? But now it is 'Come and lead +us, Kagig!' How many of you are there left to lead?" + +"Who knows? We are nineteen--" + +"Hah! And I am to run with nineteen men to the rape of Tarsus +and Adana?" + +"Our people will rally to you, Kagig!" + +"They shall." + +"Come, then!" + +"They shall rally at Zeitoon!" + +"Oh, Kagig--how shall they reich Zeitoon? The cursed Turks have ordered +out the soldiers and are sending regiments--" + +"I warned they would!" + +"The cavalry are hunting down fugitives along the roads!" + +"As I foretold a hundred times!" + +"They were sent to protect Armenians--" + +"That is always the excuse!" + +"And they kill--kill--kill! A dozen of them hunted me for two miles, +until I hid in a watercourse! Look at us! Look at our clothes! +We are wet to the skin--tired--starving! Kagig, be a man!" + +He went back to his mess of blankets and sat down on it, too bitter +at heart for words. They reproached him in chorus, coming nearer +to the fire to let the fierce heat draw the stink out of their clothes. + +"Aye, Kagig, you must not forget your race. You must not forget +the past, Kagig. Once Armenia was great, remember that! You must +not only talk to us, you must act at last! We summon you to be our +leader, Kagig, son of Kagig of Zeitoon!" + +He stared back at them with burning eyes--raised both bands to beat +his temples--and then suddenly turned the palms of his hands toward +the roof in a gesture of utter misery. + +"Oh, my people!" + +That glimpse he betrayed of his agony was but a moment long. The +fingers closed suddenly, and the palms that had risen in helplessness +descended to his knees clenched fists, heavy with the weight of purpose. + +"What have you done with the ammunition?" he demanded. + +"We had it in the manure under John Zimisces' cattle." + +"I know that. Where is it now?" + +"The Turks discovered it at dawn to-day. Some one had told. They +burned Zimisces and his wife and sons alive in the straw!" + +"You fools! They knew where the stuff was a week ago! A month ago +I warned you to send it to Zeitoon, but somebody told you I was +treacherous, and you fools listened! How much ammunition have you +left now?" + +"Just what we have with us. I have a dozen rounds." + +"I ten." + +"I nine." + +"I thirty-three." + +Each man had a handful, or two handfuls at the most. Kagig observed +their contributions to the common fund with scorn too deep for expression. +It was as if the very springs of speech were frozen. + +"We summon you to lead us, Kagig!" + +Words came to him again. + +"You summon me to lead? I will! From now I lead! By the God who +gave my fathers bread among the mountains, I will, moreover, be obeyed! +Either my word is law--" + +"Kagig, it is law!" + +"Or back you shall go to where the Turks are wearing white, and the +gutters bubble red, and the beams are black against the sky! You +shall obey me in future on the instant that I speak, or run back +to the Turks for mercy from my hand! I have listened to enough talk!" + +"Spoken like a man!" said Monty, and stood up. + +We all stood up; even Rustum Khan, who did not pretend to like him, +saluted the old warrior who could announce his purpose so magnificently. +Maga Jhaere stood up, and sought Will's eyes from across the room. +Fred, almost too sleepy to know what he was doing (for the tail end +of the fever is a yearning for early bed) undid the catch of his +beloved instrument, and made the rafters ring. In a minute we four +were singing "For he's a jolly good fellow," and Kagig stood up, +looking like Robinson Crusoe in his goat-skins, to acknowledge the +compliment. + +The noise awoke Peter Measel, and when we had finished making fools +of ourselves I walked over to discover what he was saying. He was +praying aloud--nasally--through the mouse-hole--for us, not himself. +I looked at my watch. It was two hours past midnight. + +"You fellows," I said, "it's Sunday. The martyred biped has just +waked up and remembered it. He is praying that we may be forgiven +for polluting the Sabbath stillness with immoral tunes!" + +My words had a strange effect. Monty, and Fred, and Will laughed. +Rustum Khan laughed savagely. But all the Armenians, including Kagig, +knelt promptly on the floor and prayed, the gipsies looking on in +mild amusement tempered by discretion. And out of the mouse-hole +in the horse-feed bin came Peter Measel's sonorous, overriding periods: + +"And, O Lord, let them not be smitten by Thine anger. Let them not +be cut down in Thy wrath! Let them not be cast into hell! Give +them another chance, O Lord! Let the Ten Commandments be written +on their hearts in letters of fire, but let not their souls be damned +for ever more! If they did not know it was the Sabbath Day, O Lord, +forgive them! Amen!" + +It was a most amazing night. + + + + +Chapter Seven + "We hold you to your word!" + + +LIBERA NOS, DOMINE! + +A priest, a statesman, and a soldier stood +Hand in each other's hand, by ruin faced, +Consulting to find succor if they could, +Till soon the lesser ones themselves abased, +Their sword and parchment on an altar laid +In deep humility the while the priest he prayed. + +He prayed first for his church, that it might be +Upholden and acknowledged and revered, +And in its opal twilight men might see +Salvation if in truth enough they feared, +And if enough acknowledgment they gave +To ritual, and rosary, and creed that save. + +Then prayed he for the state, that it should wean +Well-tutored counselors to do their part +Full profit and prosperity to glean +With dignity, although with contrite heart +And wisdom that Tradition wisdom ranks, +That church and state might stand and men give thanks. + +Last prayed he for the soldier--longest, too, +That all the honor and the aims of war +Subserving him might carry wrath and rue +Unto repentance, and in trembling awe +The enemy at length should fault confess +And yield, to crave a peace of righteousness. + +Behind them stood a patriot unbowed, +Not arrogant in gilt or goodly cloth, +Nor mincing meek, and yet not poorly proud; +With eyes afire that glittered not with wrath; +Aware of evil hours, and undismayed +Because he loved too well. He also prayed. + +"Oh, Thou, who gavest, may I also give, +Withholding not--accepting no reward; +For I die gladly if the least ones live. +Twice righteous and two-edged be the sword, +'Neath freedom's banner drawn to prove Thy word +And smite me if I'm false!" His prayer was heard. + + +The remainder of that night was nightmare pure and simple--mules +and horses squealing in instinctive fear of action they felt +impending--gipsies and Armenians dragging packs out on the floor, to +repack everything a dozen times for some utterly godless reason--Rustum +Khan seizing each fugitive Armenian in turn to question him, alternating +fierce threats with persuasion--Kagig striding up and down with hands +behind him and his scraggly black beard pressed down on his chest--and +the great fire blazing with reports like cannon shots as one +of the Turk's sons piled on fuel and the resinous wet wood caught. + +The Turk and his other six sons ran away and hid themselves as a +precaution against our taking vengeance on them. With situations +reversed a Turk would have taken unbelievable toll in blood and agony +from any Armenian he could find, and they reasoned we were probably +no better than themselves. The marvel was that they left one son +to wait on us, and take the money for room and horse-feed. + +"Remember!" warned Monty, as we four sidled close together with our +backs against the wall. "Until we're in actual personal danger this +trouble is the affair of Kagig and his men!" + +"I get you. If we horn in before we have to we'll do more harm than +good. Give the Turks an excuse to call us outlaws and shoot instead +of rescue us. Sure. But what about Miss Vanderman?" said Will. + +"I foresee she's doomed!" Fred stared straight in front of him. +"It looks as if we'll lose our little Willy too! One woman at a +time, especially when the lady totes a mother-o'-pearl revolver and +about a dozen knives! If you come out of this alive, Bill, you'll +be wiser!" + +"Fond of bull, aren't you! You'd jest on an ant-heap." + +"There's nothing to discuss," said I. "If there's a lady in danger +somewhere ahead, we all know what we're going to do about it." + +Monty nodded. + +"If we can find her and get word to the consul, that 'ud be one more +lever for him to pull on." + +"D'you suppose they'd dare molest an Englishwoman?" I asked, with +the sudden goose-flesh rising all over me. + +"She's American," said Will between purposely set lips. But I did +not see that that qualified the unpleasantness by much. + +One of the Armenians, whom Rustum Khan had finished questioning, +went and stood in Kagig's way, intercepting his everlasting sentry-go. + +"What is it, Eflaton?" + +"My wife, Kagig!" + +"Ah! I remember your wife. She fed me often." + +"You must come with me and find her, Kagig--my wife and two daughters, +who fed you often!" + +"The daughters were pretty," said Kagig. "So was the wife. A young +woman yet. A brave, good woman. Always she agreed with me, I remember. +Often I heard her urge you men to follow me to Zeitoon and help to +fortify the place!" + +"Will you leave a good woman in the hands of Turks, Kagig? Come--come +to the rescue!" + +"It is too bad," said Kagig simply. "Such women suffer more terribly +than the hags who merely die by the sword. Ten times by the +count--during ten succeeding massacres I have seen the Turks sell +Armenian wives and daughters at auction. I am sorry, Eflaton." + +"My God!" groaned Will. "How long are we four loafers going to sit +here and leave a white woman in danger on the road ahead?" He got +up and began folding his blankets. + +The Armenian whom Kagig had called Eflaton threw himself to the floor +and shrieked in agony of misery. Rustum Khan stepped over him and +came and stood in front of Monty. + +"These men are fools," he said. "They know exactly what the Turks +will do. They have all seen massacres before. Yet not one of them +was ready when the hour set for this one came. They say--and they +say the truth, that the Turks will murder all Europeans they catch +outside the mission stations, lest there be true witnesses afterward +whom the world will believe." + +"But a woman--scarcely a white woman?" This from Will, with the +tips of his ears red and the rest of his face a deathly white. + +"Depending on the woman," answered Rustum Khan. "Old--unpleasing--" +He made an upward gesture with his thumb, and a noise between his +teeth suggestive of a severed wind-pipe. "If she were good-looking--I +have heard say they pay high prices in the interior, say at Kaisarieh +or Mosul. Once in a harem, who would ever know? The road ahead +is worse than dangerous. Whoever wishes to save his life would do +best to turn back now and try to ride through to Tarsus." + +"Try it, then, if you're afraid!" sneered Will, and for a moment +I thought the Rajput would draw steel. + +"I know what this lord sahib and I will do," he said, darkening three +or four shades under his black beard. "It was for men bewitched +by gipsy-women that I feared!" + +Will was standing. Nothing but Monty's voice prevented blows. He +rapped out a string of sudden rhetoric in the Rajput's own guttural +tongue, and Rustum Khan drew back four paces. + +"Send him back, Colonel sahib!" he urged. "Send that one back! +He and Umm Kulsum will be the death of us!" + +Fred went off into a peal of laughter that did nothing to calm the +Rajput's ruffled temper. + +"Who was Umm Kulsum?" I asked him, divining the cause. + +"The most immoral hag in Asian legend! The aggregated essence of +all female evil personified in one procuress!" + +"Say, I'll have to teach that gink--" + +Monty got up and stood between them, but it was a new alarm that +prevented blows. A fist-blow in the Rajput's face would have meant +a blood-feud that nothing less than a man's life could settle, and +Monty looked worried. There came a new thundering on the door that +brought everybody to his feet as if murder were the least of the +charges against us. Only Kagig appeared at ease and unconcerned. + +"Open to them!" he shouted, and resumed his pacing to and fro. + +Our Armenian servants ran to the door, and in a minute returned to +say that fifty mounted men from Zeitoon were drawn up outside. Kagig +gave a curt laugh and strode across to us. + +"I said you Eenglis sportmen should see good sport." + +Monty nodded, with a hand held out behind him to warn us to keep still. + +"I said you shall shoot many pigs!" + +"Lead on, then." + +"Turks are pigs!" + +Monty did not answer. To have disagreed would have been like flapping +a red cloth at a tiger. Yet to have agreed with him at once might +have made him jump to false conclusions. The consul's last words +to us had been insistent on the unwisdom of posing as anything but +hunters, legitimately entitled to protection from the Turkish government. + +"I would like you gentlemen for allies!" + +"You are our servant at present." + +"Would you think of holding me to that?" demanded Kagig with a gesture +of extreme irritation. It is only the West that can joke at itself +in the face of crisis. + +"If not to that," said Monty blandly, "then what agreements do you keep?" + +Kagig saw the point. He drew a deep impatient breath and drove it +out again hissing through his teeth. Then he took grim hold of himself. + +"Effendi," he said, addressing himself to Monty, but including all +of us with eyes that seemed to search our hearts, "you are a lord, +a friend of the King of Eengland. If I were less than a man of my +word I could make you prisoner and oblige your friend the King of +Eengland to squeeze these cursed Turks!" + +Rustum Khan heard what he said, and made noise enough drawing his +saber to be heard outside the kahveh, but Kagig did not turn his +head. Three gipsies attended to Rustum Khan, slipping between him +and their master, and our four Zeitoonli servants cautiously approached +the Rajput from behind. + +"Peace!" ordered Monty. "Continue, Kagig." + +Kagig held both hands toward Monty, palms upward, as if he were offering +the keys of Hell and Heaven. + +"You are sportmen, all of you. Shall I keep my word to you? Or +shall I serve my nation in its agony?" + +Monty glanced swiftly at us, but we made no sign. Will actually +looked away. It was a rule we four had to leave the playing of a +hand to whichever member of the partnership was first engaged; and +we never regretted it, although it often called for faith in one +another to the thirty-third degree. The next hand might fall to +any other of us, but for the present it was Monty's play. + +"We hold you to your word!" said Monty. + +Kagig gasped. "But my people!" + +"Keep your word to them too! Surely you haven't promised them to +make us prisoner?" + +"But if I am your servant--if I must obey you for two piasters a +day, how shall I serve my nation?" + +"Wait and see!" suggested Monty blandly. + +Kagig bowed stiffly, from the neck. + +"It would surprise you, effendi," he said grimly, "to know how many +long years I have waited, in order that I may see what other men +will do!" + +Monty never answered that remark. There came a yell of "Fire!" and +in less than ten seconds flames began to burst through the door that +shut off the Turks' private quarters, and to lick and roar among +the roof beams. The animals at the other end of the room went crazy, +and there was instant panic, the Armenians outside trying to get +in to help, and fighting with the men and animals and women and children +who choked the way. Then the hay in the upper story caught alight, +and the heat below became intolerable. Monty saw and instantly pounced +on an ax and two crow-bars in the corner. + +"Through the wall!" he ordered. + +Fred, Will and I did that work, he and Kagig looking on. It was +much easier than at first seemed likely. Most of the stones were +stuck with mud, not plaster, and when the first three or four were +out the rest came easily. In almost no time we had a great gap ready, +and the extra draft we made increased the holocaust, but seemed to +lift the heat higher. Then some of the Zeitoonli saw the gap, and +began to hurry blindfolded horses through it and in a very little +while the place seemed empty. I saw the Turkish owner and several +of his sons looking on in fatalistic calm at about the outside edge +of the ring of light, and it occurred to me to ask a question. + +"Hasn't that Turk a harem?" I asked. + +In another second we four were hurrying around the building, and +Will and I burst in the door at the rear with our crow-bars. Monty +and Fred rushed past us, and before I could get the smoke out of +my eyes and throat they were hurrying out again with two old women +in their arms--the women screaming, and they laughing and coughing +so that they could hardly run. Then Will made my blood run cold +with a new alarm. + +"The biped!" he shouted. "The Measel in the corn-bin!" + +They dropped the old ladies, and all four of us raced back to our +hole in the wall--plunged into the hell-hot building, pulled the +lid off the corn-bin (it was fastened like an ancient Egyptian coffin-lid +with several stout Wooden pegs), dragged Measel out, and frog-marched +him, kicking and yelling, to the open, where Fred collapsed. + +"Measel," said Will, stooping to feel Fred's heart, "if you're the +cause of my friend Oakes' death, Lord pity you!" + +Fred sat up, not that he wished to save the "biped" any anguish, +but the wise man vomits comfortably when he can, the necessity being +bad enough without additional torment. + +"See!" said a voice out of darkness. "He empties himself! That +is well. It is only the end of the fever. Now he will be a man +again. But the sahibs should have left that writer of characters +in the corn-bin, where he could have shared the fate of his master +without troubling us again!" + +Rustum Khan strode into the light, with half his fierce beard burned +away from having been the last to leave by the front entrance, and +a decided limp from having been kicked by a frantic mule. + +"What have you done with the German?" demanded Monty. + +"I, sahib? Nothing. In truth nothing. It was the seven sons of +the Turk--abetted I should say by gipsies. It was the German who +set the place alight. The girl, Maga Jhaere they call her, saw him +do it. She watched like a cat, the fool, hoping to amuse herself, +while he burned off his ropes with a brand that fell his way out +of the fire. When another brand jumped half across the room he set +the place alight with it, tossing it over the party wall. He was +an able rascal, sahib." + +"Was?" demanded Monty. + +"Aye, sahib, was! In another second he released the Turkish lieutenant +and shouted in his ear to escape and say that Armenians burned this +kahveh! Gregor Jhaere slew the Turk, however. And Maga followed +the German into the open, where she denounced him to some of the +Zeitoonli who recently arrived. They took him and threw him back +into the fire--where he remained. I begin to like these Zeitoonli. +I even like the gipsies more than formerly. They are men of some +discernment, and of action!" + +"Man of blood!" growled Monty. "What of the Turkish owner and his +seven sons?" + +"They shall burn, too, if the sahib say so!" + +"If they burn, so shall you! Where is Kagig?" + +"Seeing that the sahibs' horses are packed and saddled. I came to +find the sahibs. According to Kagig it is time to go, before Turks +come to take vengeance for a burned road-house. They will surely +say Armenians burned it, whether or not there is a German to support +their accusation!" + +Then we heard Kagig's high-pitched "Haide--chabuk!" and picked up +Peter Measel, and ran around the building to where the horses were +already saddled, and squealing in fear of the flames. We left the +Turk, and his wives and seven sons, to tell what tale they pleased. + + + + +Chapter Eight +"I go with that man!" + + +LO HERE! LO THERE! + +Ye shall not judge men by the drinks they take, +Nor by unthinking oath, nor what they wear, +For look! the mitered liars protest make +And drinking know they lie, and knowing swear. +No oath is round without the rounded fruit, +Nor pompous promise hides the ultimate. +In scarlet as in overalls and tailored suit +To-morrows truemen and the traitors wait +Untold by trick of blazonry or voice. +But harvest ripens and there come the reaping days +When each shall choose one path to bide the choice, +And ye shall know men when they face dividing ways. + + +To those who have never ridden knee to knee with outlaws full pelt +into unknown darkness, with a burning house behind, and a whole horizon +lit with the rolling glow of murdered villages, let it be written +that the sensation of so doing is creepy, most amazing wild, and +not without unrighteous pleasure. + +There was a fierce joy that burned without consuming, and a consciousness +of having crossed a rubicon. Points of view are left behind in a +moment, although the proof may not be apparent for days or weeks, +and I reckon our mental change from being merely hunters of an ancient +castle and big game-tourists-trippers, from that hour. As we galloped +behind Kagig the mesmerism of respect for custom blew away in the +wind. We became at heart outlaws as we rode--and one of us a privy +councilor of England! + +The women, Maga included, were on in front. The night around and +behind us was full of the thunder of fleeing cattle, for the Zeitoonli +had looted the owner of the kahveh's cows and oxen along with their +own beasts and were driving them helter-skelter. The crackling flames +behind us were a beacon, whistling white in the early wind, that +we did well to hurry from. + +It was Monty who called Kagig's attention to the idiocy of tiring +out the cattle before dawn, and then Kagig rode like an arrow until +he could make the gipsies hear him. One long keening shout that +penetrated through the drum of hoofs brought them to a walk, but +they kept Maga in front with them, screened from our view until +morning by a close line of mounted women and a group of men. The +Turkish prisoners were all behind among the fifty Armenians from +Zeitoon, looking very comfortless trussed up on the mounts that nobody +else had coveted, with hands made fast behind their backs. + +A little before dawn, when the saw-tooth tips of the mountain range +on our left were first touched with opal and gold, we turned off +the araba track along which we had so far come and entered a ravine +leading toward Marash. Fred was asleep on horseback, supported between +Will and me and snoring like a throttled dog. The smoke of the gutted +kahveh had dwindled to a wisp in the distance behind us, and there +was no sight or sound of pursuit. + +No wheeled vehicle that ever man made could have passed up this +new track. It was difficult for ridden horses, and our loaded beasts +had to be given time. We seemed to be entering by a fissure into +the womb of the savage hills that tossed themselves in ever-increasing +grandeur up toward the mist-draped heights of Kara Dagh. Oftener +than not our track was obviously watercourse, although now and then +we breasted higher levels from which we could see, through gaps between +hill and forest, backward along the way we had come. There was smoke +from the direction of Adana that smudged a whole sky-line, and between +that and the sea about a dozen sooty columns mushroomed against the +clouds. + +There was not a mile of the way we came that did not hold a hundred +hiding-places fit for ambuscade, but our party was too numerous and +well-armed to need worry on that account. Monty and Kagig drew ahead, +quite a little way behind the gipsies still, but far in front of us, +who had to keep Fred upright on his horse. + +"My particular need is breakfast," said I. + +"And Will's is the woman!" said Fred, admitting himself awake at last. +Will had been straining in the stirrups on the top of every rise his +horse negotiated ever since the sun rose. It certainly was a mystery +why Maga should have been spirited away, after the freedom permitted +her the day before. + +"Rustum Khan has probably made off with her, or cut her head off!" +remarked Fred by way of offering comfort, yawning with the conscious +luxury of having slept. "I don't see Rustum Khan. Let's hope it's +true! That 'ud give the American lady a better chance for her life +in case we should overtake her!" + +Will and Fred have always chosen the most awkward places and the +least excuse for horseplay, and the sleep seemed to have expelled +the last of the fever from Fred's bones, so that he felt like a schoolboy +on holiday. Will grabbed him around the neck and they wrestled, +to their horses' infinite disgust, panting and straining mightily +in the effort to unseat each other. It was natural that Will should +have the best of it, he being about fifteen years younger as well +as unweakened by malaria. The men of Zeitoon behind us checked to +watch Fred rolled out of his saddle, and roared with the delight +of fighting men the wide world over to see the older campaigner suddenly +recover his balance and turn the tables on the younger by a trick. + +And at that very second, as Will landed feet first on the gravel +panting for breath, Maga Jhaere arrived full gallop from the rear, +managing her ugly gray stallion with consummate ease. Her black +hair streamed out in the wind, and what with the dew on it and the +slanting sun-rays she seemed to be wearing all the gorgeous jewels +out of Ali Baba's cave. She was the loveliest thing to look +at--unaffected, unexpected, and as untamed as the dawn, with parted +lips as red as the branch of budding leaves with which she beat +her horse. + +But the smile turned to a frown of sudden passion as she saw Will +land on the ground and Fred get ready for reprisals. She screamed +defiance--burst through the ranks of the nearest Zeitoonli--set her +stallion straight at us--burst between Fred and me--beat Fred savagely +across the face with her sap-softened branch--and wheeled on her +beast's haunches to make much of Will. He laughed at her, and tried +to take the whip away. Seeing he was neither hurt nor indignant, +she laughed at Fred, spat at him, and whipped her stallion forward +in pursuit of Kagig, breaking between him and Monty to pour news +in his ear. + +"A curse on Rustum Khan!" laughed Fred, spitting out red buds. "He +didn't do his duty!" + +He had hardly said that when the Rajput came spurring and thundering +along from the rear. He seemed in no hurry to follow farther, but +drew rein between us and saluted with the semi-military gesture with +which he favored all who, unlike Monty, had not been Colonels of +Indian regiments. + +"I tracked Umm Kulsum through the dark!" he announced, rubbing the +burned nodules out of his singed beard and then patting his mare's +neck. "I saw her ride away alone an hour before you reached that +fork in the road and turned up this watercourse. 'By the teeth of +God,' said I, 'when a good-looking woman leaves a party of men to +canter alone in the dark, there is treason!' and I followed." + +I offered the Rajput my cigarette case, and to my surprise he accepted +one, although not without visible compunction. As a Muhammadan by +creed he was in theory without caste and not to be defiled by European +touch, but the practises of most folk fall behind their professions. +A hundred yards ahead of us Maga was talking and gesticulating furiously, +evidently railing at Kagig's wooden-headedness or unbelief. Monty +sat listening, saying nothing. + +"What did you see, Rustum Khan?" asked Fred. + +"At first very little. My eyes are good, but that gipsy-woman's +are better, and I was kept busy following her; for I could not keep +close, or she might have heard. The noise of her own clumsy stallion +prevented her from hearing the lighter footfalls of my mare, and +by that I made sure she was not expecting to meet an enemy. 'She +rides to betray us to her friends!' said I, and I kept yet farther +behind her, on the alert against ambush." + +"Well?" + +"She rode until dawn, I following. Then, when the light was scarcely +born as yet, she suddenly drew rein at an open place where the track +she had been following emerged out of dense bushes, and dismounted. +From behind the bushes I watched, and presently I, too, dismounted +to hold my mare's nostrils and prevent her from whinnying. That +woman, Maga Jhaere, knelt, and pawed about the ground like a dog +that hunts a buried bone!" + +In front of us Maga was still arguing. Suddenly Kagig turned on her +and asked her three swift questions, bitten off like the snap of +a closing snuff-box lid. Whether she answered or not I could not +see, but Monty was smiling. + +"I suspect she was making signals!" growled Rustum Khan. "To +whom--about what I do not know. After a little while she mounted and +rode on, choosing unerringly a new track through the bushes. I went +to where she had been, and examined the ground where she had made +her signals. As I say, my eyes are good, but hers are better. I +could see nothing but the hoof-marks of her clumsy gray brute of +a stallion, and in one place the depressions on soft earth where +she had knelt to paw the ground!" + +Monty was beginning to talk now. I could see him smiling at Kagig +over Maga's head, and the girl was growing angry. Rustum Khan was +watching them as closely as we were, pausing between sentences. + +"It may be she buried something there, but if so I did not find it. +I could not stay long, for when she rode away she went like wind, +and I needed to follow at top speed or else be lost. So I let my +mare feel the spurs a time or two, and so it happened that I gained +on the woman; and I suppose she heard me. Whether or no, she waited +in ambush, and sprang out at me as I passed so suddenly that I know +not what god of fools and drunkards preserved her from being cut +down! Not many have ridden out at me from ambush and lived to tell +of it! But I saw who she was in time, and sheathed my steel again, +and cursed her for the gipsy that she half is. The other half is +spawn of Eblis!" + +A hundred yards ahead of us Kagig had reached a decision, but it +seemed to be not too late yet in Maga's judgment to try to convert +him. She was speaking vehemently, passionately, throwing down her +reins to expostulate with both hands. + +"Kagig isn't the man you'd think a young woman would choose to be +familiar with," Fred said quietly to me, and I wondered what he was +driving at. He is always observant behind that superficial air of +mockery he chooses to assume, but what he had noticed to set him +thinking I could not guess. + +Rustum Khan threw away the cigarette I had given him, and went on +with his tale. + +"That woman has no virtue." + +"How do you know?" demanded Will. + +"She laughed when I cursed her! Then she asked me what I had seen." + +"What did you say?" + +"To test her I said I had seen her lover, and would know him again +by his smell in the dark!" + +"What did she say to that?' + +"She laughed again. I tell you the woman has no shame! Then she +said if I would tell that tale to Kagig as soon as I see him she +would reward me with leave to live for one whole week and an extra +hour in which to pray to the devil----meaning, I suppose, that she +intends to kill me otherwise. Then she wheeled her stallion--the +brute was trying to tear out the muscles of my thigh all that time--and +rode away--and I followed--and here I am!" + +"How much truth is there in your assertion that you saw her lover?" +Will demanded. + +"None. I but said it to test her." + +"Why in thunder should she want it believed?" + +"God knows, who made gipsies!" + +At that moment the advance-guard rode into an open meadow, crossed +by a shallow, singing stream at which Kagig ordered a halt to water +horses. So we closed up with him, and he repeated to us what he +had evidently said before to Monty. + +"Maga says--I let her go scouting--she says she met a man who told +her that Miss Gloria Vanderman and a party of seven were attacked +on the road, but escaped, and now have doubled on their tracks so +that they are far on their return to Tarsus." + +Rustum Khan met Monty's eyes, and his lips moved silently. + +"What do you know, sirdar?" Monty asked him. + +"The woman lies!" + +Maga was glaring at Rustum Khan as a leopardess eyes an enemy. As +he spoke she made a significant gesture with a finger across her +throat, which the Rajput, if he saw, ignored. + +"To what extent?" demanded Kagig calmly. + +"Wholly! I followed her. She met no man, although she pawed the +ground at a place where eight ridden horses had crossed soft ground +a day ago." + +Kagig nodded, recognizing truth--a rather rare gift. + +If the Rajput's guess was wrong and Maga did know shame, at any rate +she did not choose that moment to betray it. + +"Oh, very well!" she sneered. "There were eight horses. They were +galloping. The track was nine hours old." + +Kagig nodded without any symptom of annoyance or reproach. + +"There is an ancient castle in the hills up yonder," he said, "in +which there may be many Armenians hiding." + +He took it for granted we would go and find out, and Maga recognized +the drift. + +"Very well," she said. "Let that one go, and that one," pointing +at Fred and me. + +"You'll appreciate, of course," said Monty, "that it's out of the +question for us to go forward until we know where that lady is." + +Kagig bowed gravely. + +"I am needed at Zeitoon," he answered. + +Then Maga broke in shrilly, pointing at Will: + +"Take that one for hostage!" she advised. "Bring him along to Zeitoon. +Then the rest will follow!" + +Kagig looked gravely at her. + +"I shall take this one," he answered, laying a respectful hand on +Monty's sleeve. "Effendi, you are an Eenglis lord. Be your life +and comfort on my head, but I need a hostage for my nation's sake. +You others--I admit the urgency--shall hunt the missionary lady. +If I have this one"--again he touched Monty--"I know well you will +come seeking him! You, effendi, you understand my--necessity?" + +Monty nodded, smiling gravely. There was a fire at the back of Monty's +eyes and something in his bearing I had never seen before. + +"Then I go with my colonel sahib!" announced Rustum Khan. "That +gipsy woman will kill him otherwise!" + +"Better help hunt for the lady, Rustum Khan." + +"Nay, colonel sahib bahadur--thy blood on my head! I go with thee--into +hell and out beyond if need be!" + +"You fellows agreeable?" asked Monty. "There is no disputing Kagig's +decision. We're at his mercy." + +"We've got to find Miss Vanderman!" said Will. + +"You are not at my mercy, effendi," grumbled Kagig. The man was +obviously distressed. "You are rather at my discretion. I am +responsible. For my nation's sake and for my honor I dare not lose +you. Who has not seen how a cow will follow the calf in a wagon? +So in your case, if I hold the one--the chief one--the noble one--the +lord--the cousin of the Eenglis king" (Monty's rank was mounting +like mercury in a tube as Kagig warmed to the argument)--"you others +will certainly hunt him up-hill and down-dale. Thus will my honor +and my country's cause both profit!" + +Monty smiled benignantly. + +"It's all one, Kagig. Why labor the point? I'm going with you. +Rustum Khan prefers to come with me." Kagig looked askance at Rustum +Khan, but made no comment. "One hostage is enough for your purpose. +Let me talk with my friends a minute." + +Kagig nodded, and we four drew aside. + +"Now," demanded Fred, who knew the signs, "what special quixotry +do you mean springing?" + +"Shut up, Fred. There's no need for you fellows to follow Kagig +another yard. He'll be quite satisfied if he has me in keeping. +That will serve all practical purposes. What you three must do is +find Miss Vanderman if you can, and take her back to Tarsus. There +you can help the consul bring pressure to bear on the authorities." + +"Rot!" retorted Fred. "Didums, you're drunk. Where did you get +the drink?" + +Monty smiled, for he held a card that could out-trump our best one, +and he knew it. In fact he led it straight away. + +"D'you mean to say you'd consider it decent to find that young woman +in the mountains and drag her to Zeitoon at Kagig's tail, when Tarsus +is not more than three days' ride away at most? You know the Turks +wouldn't dare touch you on the road to the coast." + +"For that matter," said Fred, "the Turks 'ud hardly dare touch Miss +Vanderman herself." + +"Then leave her in the hills!" grinned Monty. "Kagig tells me that +the Kurds are riding down in hundreds from Kaisarich way. He says +they'll arrive too late to loot the cities, but they're experts at +hunting along the mountain range. Why not leave the lady to the +tender ministrations of the Kurds!" + +"One 'ud think you and Kagig knew of buried treasure! Or has he +promised to make you Duke of Zeitoon?" asked Will. "Tisn't right, +Monty. You've no call to force our band in this way." + +"Name a better way," said Monty. + +None of us could. The proposal was perfectly logical. + +Three of us, even supposing Kagig should care to lend us some of +his Zeitoonli horsemen, would be all too few for the rescue work. +Certainly we could not leave a lady unprotected in these hills, with +the threat of plundering Kurds overhanging. If we found her we could +hardly carry her off up-country if there were any safer course. + +"Time--time is swift!" said Kagig, pulling out a watch like a big +brass turnip and shaking it, presumably to encourage the mechanism. + +"The fact is," said Monty, drawing us farther aside, for Rustum Khan +was growing restive and inquisitive, "I've not much faith in Kagig's +prospects at Zeitoon. He has talked to me all along the road, and +I don't believe he bases much reliance on his men. He counts more +on holding me as hostage and so obliging the Turkish government to +call off its murderers. If you men can rescue that lady in the hills +and return to Tarsus you can serve Kagig best and give me my best +chance too. Hurry back and help the consul raise Cain!" + +That closed the arguments, because Maga Jhaere slipped past Kagig +and approached us with the obvious intention of listening. She +had discovered a knowledge of English scarcely perfect but astonishingly +comprehensive, which she had chosen to keep to herself when we first +met--a regular gipsy trick. Fred threw down the gauntlet to her, +uncovering depths of distrust that we others had never suspected +under his air of being amused. + +"Now, miss!" he said, striding up to her. "Let us understand each +other! This is my friend." He pointed to Monty. "If harm comes +to him that you could have prevented, you shall pay!" + +Maga tossed back her loose coils of hair and laughed. + +"Never fear, sahib!" Rustum Khan called out. "If ought should happen +to my Colonel sahib that Umm Kulsum shall be first to die. The +women shall tell of her death for a generation, to frighten naughty +children!" + +"You hear that?" demanded Fred. + +Maga laughed again, and swore in some outlandish tongue. + +"I hear! And you hear this, you old--" She called Fred by a name +that would make the butchers wince in the abattoirs at Liverpool. +"If anything happens to that man,--she pointed to Will, and her +eyes blazed with lawless pleasure in his evident discomfort--"I +myself--me--this woman--I alone will keel--keel--keel--torture first +and afterwards keel your friend 'at you call Monty! I am Maga! You +have heard me say what I will do! As for that Rustum Khan--you +shall never see him no more ever!" + +Kagig pulled out the enormous watch again. He seemed oblivious of +Maga's threats--not even aware that she had spoken, although she +was hissing through impudent dazzling teeth within three yards of him. + +"The time," he said, "has fleed--has fled--has flown. Now we must +go, effendi!" + +"I go with that man!" announced Maga, pointing at Will, but obviously +well aware that nothing of the kind would be permitted. + +"Maga, come!" said Kagig, and got on his horse. "You gentlemen may +take with you each one Zeitoonli servant. No, no more. No, the +ammunition in your pockets must suffice. Yes, I know the remainder +is yours; come then to Zeitoon and get it! Haide--Haide! Mount! +Ride! Haide, Zeitoonli! To Zeitoon! Chabuk!" + + + + +Chapter Nine +"And you left your friend to help me?" + + +WITH NEW TONGUES + +Oh, bard of Avon, thou whose measured muse +Most sweetly sings Elizabethan views +To shame ungentle smiths of journalese +With thy sublimest verse, what words are these +That shine amid the lines like jewels set +But ere thine hour no bard had chosen yet? +Didst thou in masterly disdain of too much law +Not only limn the truths no others saw +But also, lord not slave of written word, +Lend ear to what no other poet heard +And, liberal minded on the Mermaid bench +With bow for blade and chaff for serving wench +Await from overseas slang-slinging Jack +Who brought the new vocabulary back? + + +So we three stood still in a row disconsolate, with three ragged +men of Zeitoon holding our horses and theirs, and watched Monty ride +away in the midst of Kagig's motley command, he not turning to wave +back to us because he did not like the parting any better than we +did, although he had pretended to be all in favor of it. + +Kagig had left us one mule for our luggage, and the beast was unlikely +to be overburdened, for at the last minute he had turned surly, and +as he sat like a general of division to watch his patch-and-string +command go by he showed how Eye of Zeitoon only failed him for a +title in giving his other eye--the one he kept on us--too little +credit. It was a good-looking crowd of irregulars that he reviewed, +and every bearded, goat-skin clad veteran in it had a word to say +to him, and he an answer--sometimes a sermon by way of answer. But +he saw every item that we removed from the common packs, and sternly +reproved us when we tried to exceed what he considered reasonable. +At that he based our probable requirements on what would have been +surfeit of encumbrance for himself. + +"Empty your pockets, effendim!" he ordered at last. "Six cartridges +each for rifle, and six each for pistol must be all. Your cartridges +I know they are. But my people are in extremity!" + +When he rode away at last, sitting his horse in the fashion of a +Don Cossack and shepherding Maga in front of him because she kept +checking her gray stallion for another look at Will, he left us no +alternative than to take to the mountains swiftly unless we cared +to starve. We watched Monty's back disappear over a rise, with Rustum +Khan close behind, and then Fred signed to one of the three Zeitoonli +to lead on. + +All three of the men Kagig had left with us were surly, mainly, no +doubt, because they disliked separation from their friends. But +there was fear, too, expressed in their manner of riding close together, +and in the fidgety way in which they watched the smoke of burning +Armenian villages that smudged the sky to our left. + +"If they try to bolt after Kagig and leave us in the lurch I'm going +to waste exactly one cartridge as a warning," Fred announced. +"After that--!" + +"Probably Kagig 'ud skin them if they turned up without us," +remarked Will. + +There was something in that theory, for we learned later what Kagig's +ferocity could be when driven hard enough. But from first to last +those men of Zeitoon never showed a symptom of treachery, although +their resentment at having to turn their backs toward home appeared +to deepen hourly. + +With strange unreason they made no haste, whereas we were in a frenzy +of impatience; and when Fred sought to improve their temper by singing +the songs that had hitherto acted like charms on Kagig's whole command, +they turned in their saddles and cursed him for calling attention to us. + +"Inch goozek?" demanded one of them (What would you like?), and with +a gesture that made the blood run cold he suggested the choice between +hanging and disembowelment. + +Will solved the speed problem by striving to push past them along +the narrow track; and they were so determined to keep in front of +us that within half an hour from the start our horses were sweating +freely. Then we began to climb, dismounting presently to lead our +horses, and all notions of speed went the way of other vanity. + +Several times looking back toward our right hand we caught sight +of Kagig's string threading its way over a rise, or passing like +a line of ants under the brow of a gravel bank. But they were too +far away to discern which of the moving specks might be Monty, although +Kagig was now and then unmistakable, his air of authority growing +on him and distinguishing him as long as he kept in sight. + +We saw nothing of the footprints in soft earth that Maga had read +so offhandedly. In fact we took another way, less cluttered up with +roots and bushes, that led not straight, but persistently toward an +up-towering crag like an eye-tooth. Below it was thick forest, shaped +like a shovel beard, and the crag stuck above the beard like an old +man's last tooth. + +But mountains have a discouraging way of folding and refolding so +that the air-line from point to point bears no relation to the length +of the trail. The last kites were drooping lazily toward their perches +for the night when we drew near the edge of the forest at last, and +were suddenly brought to a halt by a challenge from overhead. We +could see nobody. Only a hoarse voice warned us that it was death +to advance another yard, and our tired animals needed no persuasion +to stand still. + +There, under a protruding lock as it were of the beard, we waited +in shadow while an invisible somebody, whose rifle scraped rather +noisily against a branch, eyed every inch of us at his leisure. + +"Who are you?" he demanded at last in Armenian, and one of our three +men enlightened him in long-drawn detail. + +The explanation did not satisfy. We were told to remain exactly +where we were until somebody else was fetched. After twenty minutes, +when it was already pitch-dark, we heard the breaking of twigs, and +low voices as three or four men descended together among the trees. +Then we were examined again from close quarters in the dark, and +there are few less agreeable sensations. The goose-flesh rises and +the clammy cold sweat takes all the comfort out of waning courage. + +But somebody among the shadowy tree-trunks at last seemed to think +he recognized familiar attitudes, and asked again who we might be. +And, weary of explanations that only achieved delay our man lumped +us all in one invoice and snarled irritably: + +"These are Americans!" + +The famous "Open sesame" that unlocked Ali Baba's cave never worked +swifter then. Reckless of possible traps no less than five men flung +themselves out of Cimmerian gloom and seized us in welcoming arms. +I was lifted from the saddle by a man six inches shorter than myself, +whose arms could have crushed me like an insect. + +"We might have known Americans would bring us help!" he panted in +my ear. His breath came short not from effort, but excitement. + +Fred was in like predicament. I could just see his shadow struggling +in the embrace of an enthusiastic host, and somewhere out of sight +Will was answering in nasal indubitable Yankee the questions of three +other men. + +"This way! Come this way! Bring the horses, oh, Zeitoonli! Americans! +Americans! God heard us--there have come Americans!" + +Threading this and that way among tree-trunks that to our unaccustomed +eyes were simply slightly denser blots on blackness, Will managed +to get between Fred and me. + +"We're all of us Yankees this trip!" he whispered, and I knew he +was grinning, enjoying it hugely. So often he had been taken for +an Englishman because of partnership with us that he had almost ceased +to mind; but he spared himself none of the amusement to be drawn +out of the new turn of affairs, nor us any of the chaff that we had +never spared him. + +"Take my advice," he said, "and try to act you're Yanks for all you've +got. If you can make blind men believe it, you may get out of this +with whole skins!" + +I expected the retort discourteous to that from Fred, who was between +Will and me, shepherded like us by hard-breathing, unseen men. But +he was much too subtly skilful in piercing the chain-mail of Will's +humor--even in that hour. + +"Sure!" he answered. "I guess any gosh-durned rube in these parts +'ll know without being told what neck o' the woods I hail from. +Schenectady's my middle name! I'm--" + +"Oh, my God!" groaned Will. "We don't talk that way in the States. +The missionaries--" + +"I'm the guy who put the 'oh!' in Ohio!" continued Fred. "I'm running +mate to Colonel Cody, and I've ridden herd on half the cows in Hocuspocus +County, Wis.! I can sing The Star-Spangled Banner with my head under +water, and eat a chain of frankforts two links a minute! I'm the +riproaring original two-gun man from Tabascoville, and any gink who +doubts it has no time to say his prayers!" + +There were paragraphs more of it, delivered at uneven intervals between +deep gasps for breath as we made unsteady progress up-hill among +roots and rocks left purposely for the confusion of an enemy. At +first it filled Will with despair that set me laughing at him. Then +Will threw seriousness to the winds and laughed too, so that the +spell of impending evil, caused as much as anything by forced separation +from Monty, was broken. + +But it did better than put us in rising spirits. It convinced the +Armenians! That foolish jargon, picked up from comic papers and +the penny dreadfuls, convince more firmly than any written proof +the products of the mission schools, whose one ambition was to be +American themselves, and whose one pathetic peak of humor was the +occasional glimpse of United States slang dropped for their edification +by missionary teachers! + +"By jimminy!" remarked an Armenian near me. + +"Gosh-all-hemlocks!" said another. + +Thenceforward nothing undermined their faith in us. Plenty of amused +repudiation was very soon forthcoming from another source, but it +passed over their heads. Fred and I, because we used fool expressions +without relation to the context or proportion, were established as +the genuine article; Will, perhaps a rather doubtful quantity with +his conservative grammar and quiet speech, was accepted for our sakes. +They took an arm on either side of us to help us up the hill, and +in proof of heart-to-heart esteem shouted "Oopsidaisy!" when we stumbled +in the pitchy dark. When we were brought to a stand at last by a +snarled challenge and the click of rifles overhead, they answered +with the chorus of Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, a classic that ought to have +died an unnatural death almost a quarter of a century before. + +Suddenly we smelt Standard oil, and a man emerged through a gap in +ancient masonry less than six feet away carrying a battered, cheap +"hurricane" lantern whose cracked glass had been reenforced with +patches of brown paper. He was armed to the teeth--literally. He +had a long knife in his mouth, a pistol in his left hand, and a rifle +slung behind him, but after one long look at us, holding the lantern +to each face in turn, he suddenly discarded all appearances of ferocity. + +"You know about pistols?" he demanded of me in English, because I +was nearest, and thrust his Mauser repeater under my nose. "Why +won't this one work? I have tried it every way." + +"Lordy!" remarked Will. + +"Lead on in!" I suggested. Then, remembering my new part, "It'll +have to be some defect if one of us can't fix it!" + +The gap-guard purred approval and swung his lantern by way of invitation +to follow him as he turned on a naked heel and led the way. We entered +one at a time through a hole in the wall of what looked like the +dungeon of an ancient castle, and followed him presently up the narrow +stone steps leading to a trap-door in the floor above. The trap-door +was made of odds and ends of planking held in place by weights. +When he knocked on it with the muzzle of his rifle we could hear +men lifting things before they could open it. + +When a gap appeared overhead at last there was no blaze of light +to make us blink, but a row of heads at each edge of the hole with +nothing but another lantern somewhere in the gloom behind them. +One by one we went up and they made way for us, closing in each time +to scan the next-comer's face; and when we were all up they laid +the planks again, and piled heavy stones in place. Then an old man +lighted another lantern, using no match, although there was a box +of them beside him on the floor, but transferring flame patiently +with a blade of dry grass. Somebody else lit a torch of resinous +wood that gave a good blaze but smoked abominably. + +"What has become of our horses?" demanded Fred, looking swiftly +about him. + +We were in a great, dim stone-walled room whose roof showed a corner +of star-lit sky in one place. There were twenty men surrounding +us, but no woman. Two trade-blankets sewn together with string hanging +over an opening in the wall at the far end of the room suggested, +nevertheless, that the other sex might be within ear-shot. + +"The horses?" Fred demanded again, a bit peremptorily. + +One of the men who had met us smirked and made apologetic motions +with his hands. + +"They will be attended to, effendi--" + +"I know it! I guarantee it! By the ace of brute force, if a horse +is missing--! Arabaiji!" + +One of our three Zeitoonli stepped forward. + +"Take the other two men, Arabaiji, and go down to the horses. Groom +them. Feed them. If any one prevents you, return and tell me." +Then he turned to our hosts. "Some natives of Somaliland once ate +my horse for supper, but I learned that lesson. So did they! I +trust I needn't be severe with you!" + +There was no furniture in the room, except a mat at one corner. +They were standing all about us, and perfectly able to murder us +if so disposed, but none made any effort to restrain our Zeitoonli. + +"Now we're three to their twenty!" I whispered, and Will nodded. +But Fred carried matters with a high hand. + +"Send a man down with them to show them where the horses are, please!" + +There seemed to be nobody in command, but evidently one man was least +of all, for they all began at once to order him below, and he went, +grumbling. + +"You see, effendi, we have no meat at all," said the man who had +spoken first. + +"But you don't look hungry," asserted Fred. + +They were a ragged crowd, unshaven and not too clean, with the usual +air of men whose only clothes are on their backs and have been there +for a week past. All sorts of clothes they wore--odds and ends for +the most part, probably snatched and pulled on in the first moment +of a night alarm. + +"Not yet, effendi. But we have no meat, and soon we shall have eaten +all the grain." + +"Well," said Fred, "if you need horse-meat, gosh durn you, take it +from the Turks!" + +"Gosh durn you!" grinned three or four men, nudging one another. + +They were lost between a furtive habit born of hiding for dear life, +a desire to be extremely friendly, and a new suspicion of Fred's +high hand. Fred's next words added disconcertment. + +"Where is Miss Vanderman?" he demanded, suddenly. + +Before any one had time to answer Will made a swift move to the wall, +and took his stand where nobody could get behind him. He did not +produce his pistol, but there was that in his eye that suggested +it. I followed suit, so that in the event of trouble we stood a +fair chance of protecting Fred. + +"What do you mean?" asked three Armenians together. + +"Did you never see men try to cover a secret before?" Will whispered. + +"Or give it away?" I added. Six of the men placed themselves between +Fred and the opening where the blankets hung, ostentatiously not +looking at the blankets. + +"Have you an American lady with you?" Fred asked, and as he spoke +he reached a hand behind him. But it was not his pistol that he drew. +He carries his concertina slung to him by a strap with the care that +some men lavish on a camera. He took it in both hands, and loosed +the catch. + +"Have you an American lady named Miss Vanderman with you?" he repeated. + +"Effendi, we do not understand." + +He repeated in Armenian, and then in Turkish, but they shook their +heads. + +"Very well," he said, "I'll soon find out. A mission-school pupil +might sing My Country, 'Tis of Thee or Suwannee River or Poor Blind +Joe. You know Poor Blind Joe, eh? Sung it in school? I thought +so. I'll bet you don't know this one." + +He filled his impudent instrument with wind and forthwith the belly +of that ancient castle rang to the strains of a tune no missionaries +sing, although no doubt the missionary ladies are familiar with it +yet from where the Arctic night shuts down on Behring Sea to the +Solomon Islands and beyond--a song that achieved popularity by lacking +national significance, and won a war by imparting recklessness to +typhus camps. I was certain then, and still dare bet to-day that +those ruined castle walls re-echoed for the first time that evening +to the clamor of '--a hot time in the old town to-night!" + +Seeing the point in a flash, we three roared the song together, and +then again, and then once more for interest, the Armenians eying +us spell-bound, at a loss to explain the madness. Then there began +to be unexplained movements behind the blanket hanging; and a minute +later a woman broke through--an unmistakable Armenian, still good-looking +but a little past the prime of life, and very obviously mentally +distressed. She scarcely took notice of us, but poured forth a long +flow of rhetoric interspersed with sobs for breath. I could see +Fred chuckling as he listened. All the facial warnings that a dozen +men could make at the woman from behind Fred's back could not check +her from telling all she knew. + +Nor were Will and I, who knew no Armenian, kept in doubt very long +as to the nature of her trouble. We heard another woman's voice, +behind two or three sets of curtains by the sound of it, that came +rapidly nearer; and there were sounds of scuffling. Then we +heard words. + +"Please play that tune again, whoever you are! Do you hear me? +Do you understand?" + +"Boston!" announced Will, diagnosing accents. + +"You bet your life I understand!" Fred shouted, and clanged through +half a dozen bars again. + +That seemed satisfactory to the owner of the voice. The scuffling +was renewed, and in a moment she had burst through the crude curtains +with two women clinging to her, and stood there with her brown hair +falling on her shoulders and her dress all disarrayed but looking +simply serene in contrast to the women who tried to restrain her. +They tried once or twice to thrust her back through the curtain, +although clearly determined to do her no injury; but she held her +ground easily. At a rough guess it was tennis and boating that had +done more for her muscles than ever strenuous housework did for the +Armenians. + +"Who are you?" she asked, and Will laughed with delight. + +"I reckon you'll be Miss Vanderman?' suggested Fred in outrageous +Yankee accent. She stared hard at him. + +"I am Miss Vanderman. Who are you, please. + +I sat down on the great stone they had rolled over the trap, for +even in that flickering, smoky light I could see that this young +woman was incarnate loveliness as well as health and strength. Will +was our only ladies' man (for Fred is no more than random troubadour, +decamping before any love-affair gets serious). The thought conjured +visions of Maga, and what she might do. For about ten seconds my +head swam, and I could hardly keep my feet. + +Will left the opening bars of the overture to Fred, with rather the +air of a man who lets a trout have line. And Fred blundered +in contentedly. + +"I'll allow my name is Oakes--Fred Oakes," he said. + +"Please explain!" She looked from one to the other of us. + +"We three are American towerists, going the grand trip." (Remember, +a score of Armenians were listening. Fred's intention was at least +as much to continue their contentment as to extract humor from the +situation.) "You being reported missing we allowed to pick you up +and run you in to Tarsus. Air you agreeable?" + +The women were still clinging to her as if their whole future depended +on keeping her prisoner, yet without hurt. She looked down at them +pathetically, and then at the men, who were showing no disposition +to order her release. + +"I don't understand in the least yet. I find you bewildering. Can +you contrive to let us talk for a few minutes alone?" + +"You bet your young life I can!" + +Fred stepped to the wall beside us, but we none of us drew pistol +yet. We had no right to presume we were not among friends. + +"Thirty minutes interlude!" he announced. "The man who stands in +this room one minute from now, or who comes back to the room without +my leave, is not my friend, and shall learn what that means!" + +He repeated the soft insinuation in Armenian, and then in Turkish +because he knows that language best. There is not an Armenian who +has not been compelled to learn Turkish for all official purposes, +and unconsciously they gave obedience to the hated conquerors' tongue, +repressing the desire to argue that wells perennially in Armenian +breasts. They had not been long enough enjoying stolen liberty to +overcome yet the full effects of Turkish rule. + +"And oblige me by leaving that lady alone with us!" Fred continued. +"Let those dames fall away!" + +Somebody said something to the women. Another Armenian remarked +more or less casually that we should be unable to escape from the +room in any case. The others rolled the great stone from the trap +and shoved the smaller stones aside, and then they all filed down +the stone stairs, leaving us alone--although by the trembling blankets +it was easy to tell that the women had not gone far. The last man +who went below handed the spluttering torch to Miss Vanderman, as +if she might need it to defend herself, and she stood there shaking +it to try and make it smoke less until the planks were back in place. +She was totally unconscious of it, but with the torch-light gleaming +on her hair and reflected in her blue eyes she looked like the spirit +of old romance come forth to start a holy war. + +"Now please explain!" she begged, when I had pushed the last stone +in place. "First, what kind of Americans can you possibly be? Do +you all use such extraordinary accents, and such expressions?" + +"Don't I talk American to beat the band?" objected Fred. "Sit down +on this rock a while, and I'll convince you." + +She sat on the rock, and we gathered round her. She was not more +than twenty-two or three, but as perfectly assured and fearless as +only a well-bred woman can be in the presence of unshaven men she +does not know. Fred would have continued the tomfoolery, but Will +oared in. + +"I'm Will Yerkes, Miss Vanderman." + +"Oh!" + +"I know Nurse Vanderman at the mission." + +"Yes, she spoke of you." + +"Fred Oakes here is--" + +"Is English as they make them, yes, I know! Why the amazing efforts to--" + +"I stand abashed, like the leopard with the spots unchangeable!" +said Fred, and grinned most unashamedly. + +"They're both English." + +"Yes, I see, but why--" + +"It's only as good Americans that we three could hope to enter here +alive. They're death on all other sorts of non-Armenians now they've +taken to the woods. We supposed you were here, and of course we +had to come and get you." + +She nodded. "Of course. But how did you know?" + +"That's a long story. Tell us first why you're here, and why you're +a prisoner." + +"I was going to the mission at Marash--to stay a year there and help, +before returning to the States. They warned me in Tarsus that the +trip might be dangerous, but I know how short-handed they are at +Marash, and I wouldn't listen. Besides, they picked the best men +they could find to bring me on the way, and I started. I had a Turkish +permit to travel--a teskere they call it--see, I have it here. It +was perfectly ridiculous to think of my not going." + +"Perfectly!" Fred agreed. "Any young woman in your place would have +come away!" + +She laughed, and colored a trifle. "Women and men are equals in +the States, Mr. Oakes." + +"And the Turk ought to know that! I get you, Miss Vanderman! I +see the point exactly!" + +"At any rate, I started. And we slept at night in the houses of +Armenians whom my guides knew, so that the journey wasn't bad at +all. Everything was going splendidly until we reached a sort of +crossroads--if you can call those goat-tracks roads without stretching +truth too far--and there three men came galloping toward us on blown +horses from the direction of Marash. We could hardly get them to +stop and tell us what the trouble was, they were in such a hurry, +but I set my horse across the path and we held them up." + +"As any young lady would have done!" Fred murmured. + +"Never mind. I did it! They told us, when they could get their breath +and quit looking behind them like men afraid of ghosts, that the +Turks in Marash--which by all accounts is a very fanatical place--had +started to murder Armenians. They yelled at me to turn and run. + +"'Run where?' I asked them. 'The Turks won't murder me!' + +"That seemed to make them think, and they and my six men all talked +together in Armenian much too fast for me to understand a word of +it. Then they pointed to some smoke on the sky-line that they said +was from burning Armenian homes in Marash. + +"s'Why didn't you take refuge in the mission?' I asked them. And +they answered that it was because the mission grounds were already +full of refugees. + +"Well, if that were true--and mind you, I didn't believe it--it was +a good reason why I should hurry there and help. If the mission +staff was overworked before that they would be simply overwhelmed +now. So I told them to turn round and come to Marash with me and +my six men." + +"And what did they say?" we demanded together. + +"They laughed. They said nothing at all to me. Perhaps they thought +I was mad. They talked together for five minutes, and then without +consulting me they seized my bridle and galloped up a goat-path that +led after a most interminable ride to this place." + +"Where they hold you to ransom?" + +"Not at all. They've been very kind to me. I think that at the +bottom of their thoughts there may be some idea of exchanging me +for some of their own women whom the Turks have made away with. +But a stronger motive than that is the determination to keep me safe +and be able to produce me afterward in proof of their bona fides. +They've got me here as witness, for another thing. And then, I've +started a sort of hospital in this old keep. There are literally +hundreds of men and women hiding in these hills, and the women are +beginning to come to me for advice, and to talk with me. I'm pretty +nearly as useful here as I would be at Marash." + +"And you're--let's see--nineteen-twenty--one--two--not more than +twenty-two," suggested Fred. + +"Is intelligence governed by age and sex in England." she retorted, +and Fred smiled in confession of a hit. + +"Go on," said Will. "Tell us." + +"There's nothing more to tell. When I started to run toward +the--ah--music, the women tried to prevent me. They knew Americans +had come, and they feared you might take me away." + +"They were guessing good!" grinned Will. + +She shook her head, and the loosened coils of hair fell lower. One +could hardly have blamed a man who had desired her in that lawless +land and sought to carry her off. The Armenian men must have been +temptation proof, or else there had been safety in numbers. + +"I shall stay here. How could I leave them? The women need me. +There are babies--daily--almost hourly--here in these lean hills, +and no organized help of any kind until I came." + +"How long have you been here?" I asked. + +"Nearly two days. Wait till I've been here a week and you'll see." + +"We can't wait to see!" Will answered. "We've a friend of our own +in a tight place. The best we can do is to rescue you--" + +"I don't need to be rescued!" + +"--to rescue you--take you back to Tarsus, where you'll be safe until +the trouble's over--and then hurry to the help of our own man." + +"Who is your own man? Tell me about him." + +"He's a prince." + +"Really?" + +"No, really an earl--Earl of Montdidier. White. White all through +to the wish-bone. Whitest man I ever camped with. He's the goods." + +"If you'd said less I'd have skinned you for an ingrate!" Fred +announced. "Monty is a man men love." + +Miss Vanderman nodded. "Where is he?" + +"On the way to a place called Zeitoon," answered Will. + +"He's a hostage, held by Armenians in the hope of putting pressure +on the Turks. Kagig--the Armenians, that's to say--let us go to +rescue you, knowing that he was sufficiently important for +their purpose." + +"And you left your friend to help me?" + +"Of course. What do you suppose?" + +"And if I were to go with you to Tarsus, what then?" + +"He says we're to ride herd on the consulate and argue." + +"Will you?" + +"Sure we'll argue. We'll raise particular young hell. Then back +we go to Zeitoon to join him!" + +"Would you have gone to Tarsus except on my account?" + +Will hesitated. + +"No. I see. Of course you wouldn't. Well. What do you take me +for? You did not know me then. You do now. Do you think I'd consent +to your leaving your fine friend in pawn while you dance attendance +on me? Thank you kindly for your offer, but go back to him! If +you don't I'll never speak to one of you again!" + + + + +Chapter Ten +"When I fire this Pistol--" + + +THESE LITTLE ONES + +If Life were what the liars say +And failure called the tune +Mayhap the road to ruin then +Were cluttered deep wi' broken men; +We'd all be seekers blindly led +To weave wi' worms among the dead, +If Life were what the liars say +And failure called the tune. + +But Life is Father of us all +(Dear Father, if we knew!) +And underneath eternal arms +Uphold. We'll mock the false alarms, +And trample on the neck of pain, +And laugh the dead alive again, +For Life is Father to us all, +And thanks are overdue! + +If Truth were what the learned say +And envy called the tune +Mayhap 'twere trite what treason saith +That man is dust and ends in death; +We'd slay with proof of printed law +Whatever was new that seers saw, +If Truth were what the learned say +And envy called the tune. + +But Truth is Brother of us all +(Oh, Brother, if we knew!) +Unspattered by the muddied lies +That pass for wisdom of the wise-- +Compassionate, alert, unbought, +Of purity and presence wrought,-- +Big Brother that includes us all +Nor knows the name of Few! + +If Love were what the harlots say +And hunger called the tune +Mayhap we'd need conserve the joys +Weighed grudgingly to girls and boys, +And eat the angels trapped and sold +By shriven priests for stolen gold, +If Love were what the harlots say +And hunger called the tune. + +But Love is Mother of us all +(Dear Mother, if we knew!)-- +So wise that not a sparrow falls, +Nor friendless in the prison calls +Uncomforted or uncaressed. +There's magic milk at Mercy's breast, +And little ones shall lead us all +When Trite Love calls the tune! + + +Naturally, being what we were, with our friend Monty held in durance +by a chief of outlaws, we were perfectly ready to kidnap Miss Vanderman +and ride off with her in case she should be inclined to delay +proceedings. It was also natural that we had not spoken of that +contingency, nor even considered it. + +"We never dreamed of your refusing to come with us," said Will. + +"We still don't dream of it!" Fred asserted, and she turned her head +very swiftly to look at him with level brows. Next she met my eyes. +If there was in her consciousness the slightest trace of doubt, or +fear, or admission that her sex might be less responsible than ours, +she did not show it. Rather in the blue eyes and the athletic poise +of chin, and neck, and shoulders there was a dignity beyond ours. + +Will laughed. + +"Don't let's be ridiculous," she said. "I shall do as I see fit." + +Fred's neat beard has a trick of losing something of its trim when +he proposes to assert himself, and I recognized the symptoms. But +at the moment of that impasse the Armenians below us had decided +that self-assertion was their cue, and there came great noises as +they thundered with a short pole on the trap and made the stones +jump that held it down. + +At that signal several women emerged from behind the hanging +blankets--young and old women in various states of disarray--and stood +in attitudes suggestive of aggression. One did not get the idea that +Armenians, men or women, were sheeplike pacifists. They watched +Miss Vanderman with the evident purpose of attacking us the moment +she appealed to them. + +"If you don't roll the stones away I think there'll be trouble," +she said, and came and stood between Will and me. Fred got behind +me, and began to whisper. I heard something or other about the trap, +and supposed he was asking me to open it, although I failed to see +why the request should be kept secret; but the women forestalled +me, and in a moment they had the stones shoved aside and the men +were emerging one by one through the opening. + +Then at last I got Fred's meaning. There was a second of indecision +during which the Armenians consulted their women-folk, in two minds +between snatching Miss Vanderman out of our reach or discovering +first what our purpose might be. I took advantage of it to slip +down the stone stairs behind them. + +The opening in the castle wall was easy to find, for the star-lit +sky looked luminous through the hole. Once outside, however, the +gloom of ancient trees and the castle's shadow seemed blacker than +the dungeon had been. I groped about, and stumbled over loose stones +fallen from the castle wall, until at last one of our own Zeitoonli +discovered me and, thinking I might be a trouble-maker, tripped me +up. Cursing fervently from underneath his iron-hard carcass I made +him recognize me at last. Then he offered me tobacco, unquestionably +stolen from our pack, and sat down beside me on a rock while I recovered +breath. + +It took longer to do that than he expected, for he had enjoyed the +advantage of surprise while hampered by no compunctions on the ground +of moderation. When the agony of windlessness was gone and I could +question him he assured me that the horses were well enough, but +that he and his two companions were hungry. Furthermore, he added, +the animals were very closely watched--so much so that the other +two, Sombat and Noorian, were standing guard to watch the watchers. + +"But I am sure they are fools," he added. + +This man Arabaiji had been an excellent servant, but decidedly +supercilious toward the others from the time when he first came to +us in the khan at Tarsus. Regarding himself as intelligent, which +he was, he usually refused to concede that quality, or anything +resembling it, to his companions. + +"That is why I was looking for you when you hit me in the dark with +that club of a fist of yours," I answered. "I wanted to speak with +you alone because I know you are not a fool." + +He felt so flattered that he promptly let his pipe go out. + +"While Sombat and Noorian are keeping an eye on the horses, I want +you to watch for trouble up above here," I said. "In case the people +of this place should seek to make us prisoner, then I want you to +gallop, if you can get your horse, and run otherwise, to the nearest--" + +He checked me with a gesture and one word. + +"Kagig!" + +"What about him?" I demanded. + +"If I were to bring Turks here, Kagig would never rest until my fingers +were pulled off one by one!" + +"If you were to bring Turks here, or appeal to Turks," said I, "Kagig +would never get you." + +"How not?" + +"Unless he should find your dead carcass after my friends and I had +finished with it!" + +"What then?" + +He lighted his pipe again by way of reestablishing himself in his +own esteem, and it glowed and crackled wetly in the dark beside me +in response to the workings of his intelligence. + +"In case of trouble up here, and our being held prisoner, go and +find other Armenians, and order them in Kagig's name to come and +rescue us." + +"Those who obey Kagig are with Kagig," he answered. + +"Surely not all?" + +"All that Kagig could gather to him after eleven years!" + +"In that case go to Kagig, and tell him." + +"Kagig would not come. He holds Zeitoon." + +"Are you a fool?" + +"Not I! The other two are fools." + +"Then do you understand that in case these people should make +us prisoner--" + +He nodded. "They might. They might propose to sell you to the +Turks, perhaps against their own stolen women-folk." + +"Then don't you see that if you were gone, and I told them you had +gone to bring Kagig, they would let us go rather than face +Kagig's wrath?" + +"But Kagig would not come." + +"I know that. But how should they know it?" + +I knew that he nodded again by the motion of the glowing tobacco +in his pipe. It glowed suddenly bright, as a new idea dawned on +him. He was an honest fellow, and did not conceal the thought. + +"Kagig would not send me back to you," he said. "He is short of +men at Zeitoon." + +"Never mind," said I. "In case of trouble up above here, but not +otherwise, will you do that?" + +"Gladly. But give it me in writing, lest Kagig have me beaten for +running from you without leave." + +That was my turn to jump at a proposal. I tore a sheet from my +memorandum book, and scribbled in the dark, knowing he could not +read what I had written. + +"This writing says that you did not run away until you had made quite +sure we were in difficulties. So, if you should run too soon, and +we should not be in difficulties after all, Kagig would learn that +sooner or later. What would Kagig do in that case?" + +"He would throw me over the bridge at Zeitoon--if he could catch +me! Nay! I play no tricks." + +"Good. Then go and hide. Hide within call. Within an hour, or +at most two hours we shall know how the land lies. If all should +be well I will change that writing for another one, and send you +to Kagig in any case. No more words now--go and hide!" + +He put his pipe out with his thumb, and took two strides into a shadow, +and was gone. Then I went back through the gap in the dungeon wall, +and stumbled to the stairs. Apparently not missing me yet, they +had covered up the trap, and I had to hammer on it for admission. +They were not pleased when my head appeared through the hole, and +they realized that I had probably held communication with our men. +I suppose Fred saw by my face that I had accomplished what I went +for, because he let out a laugh like a fox's bark that did nothing +toward lessening the tension. + +On the other hand it was quite clear that during my absence Miss +Vanderman had not been idle. Excepting the two men who had admitted +me, every one was seated--she on the floor among the women, with +her back to the wall, and the rest in a semicircle facing them. +Two of the women had their arms about her, affectionately, but not +without a hint of who controlled the situation. + +"What have you been doing?" Fred demanded, and he laughed at Gloria +Vanderman with an air of triumph. + +"Making preparations," I said, "to take Miss Vanderman to Tarsus." + +I wish I could set down here a chart of the mixed emotions then +expressed on that young lady's face. She did not look at Will, +knowing perhaps that she already had him captive of her bow and spear. +Neither did Will look at us, but sat tracing figures with a forefinger +in the dust between his knees, wondering perhaps how to excuse or +explain, and getting no comfort. + +If my guess was correct, Gloria Vanderman was about equally distracted +between the alternative ignominy of submitting her free will to Armenians +or else to us. Compassion for the women in their predicament weighed +one way--knowledge that our friend Monty was in durance vile contingent +on her actions pulled heavily another Fred was frankly enjoying himself, +which influenced her strongly toward the Armenian side, she being +young and, doubtless the idol of a hundred heart-sick Americans, +contemptuous of forty-year-old bachelors. + +"Of course we shall not let you go!" one of the Armenians assured +her in quite good English, and I began fumbling at the pistol in +my inner pocket, for if Arabaiji was to run to Zeitoon, then the +sooner the better. But it needed only that imputation of helplessness +to tip the beam of Miss Gloria's judgment. + +"You can attend to the sick ones. You can play music for us all. +Doubtless these other two have qualifications." + +I was too busy admiring Gloria to know what effect that announcement +had on Fred and Will. She shook herself free from the women, and +stood up, splendid in the flickering yellow light. There was a sort +of swift move by every one to be ready against contingencies, and +I judged it the right moment to spring my own surprise. + +"When I fire this pistol," I said, producing it, "a man will start +at once for Zeitoon to warn Kagig. He has a note in his pocket written +to Kagig. Judge for yourselves how long it will take Kagig and his +men to reach this place!" + +The nearest man made a very well-judged spring at me and pinned my +elbows from behind. Another man knocked the pistol from my hand. +The women seized Gloria again. But Fred was too quick--drew his +own pistol, and fired at the roof. + +"Twice, Fred!" I shouted, and he fired again. + +"There!" said I. "Do what you like. The messenger has gone!" + +And then Gloria shook herself free a last time, and took command. + +"Is that true?" she demanded. + +I nodded. "The best of our three men was to start on his way the +minute he heard the second shot." + +Then I was sure she was Boadicea reincarnate, whether the old-time +British queen did or did not have blue eyes and brown hair. + +"I will not have brave men brought back here on my account! Kagig +must be a patriot! He needs all his men! I don't blame him for +making a hostage of Lord Montdidier! I would do the same myself!" + +Will had evidently given her a pretty complete synopsis of our +adventure while I was outside talking with Arabaiji. It is always +a mystery to the British that Americans should hold themselves a +race apart and rally to each other as if the rest of the Anglo-Saxon +race were foreigners, but those two had obeyed the racial rule. +They understood each other--swiftly--a bar and a half ahead of +the tune. + +"This old castle is no good!" she went on, not raising her voice +very high, but making it ring with the wholesomeness of youth, and +youth's intolerance of limits. "The Turks could come to this place +and burn it within a day if they chose!" + +"The Turks won't trouble. They'll send their friends the Kurds instead," +Fred assured her. + +"Ah-h-h-gh!" growled the Armenians, but she waved them back to silence. + +"How much food have you? Almost none! How much ammunition?" + +"Ah-h-h-h!" they chorused in a very different tone of voice. + +"D'you mean you've got cartridges here?" Fred demanded. + +"Fifty cases of cartridges for government Mauser rifles!" bragged +the man who was nearest to Will. + +"Gee! Kagig 'ud give his eyes for them!" (Will devoted his eyes +to the more poetic purpose of exchanging flashed encouragement +with Gloria.) + +"Men, women and children--how many of you are there?" + +"Who knows? Who has counted? They keep coming." + +"No, they don't. You've set a guard to keep any more away for fear +the food won't last--I know you have! Well--what does it matter +how many you are? I say let us all go to Zeitoon and help Kagig!" + +"Oh, bravo!" shouted Fred, but it was Will's praise that proved +acceptable and made her smile. + +"Second the motion!" + +I added a word or two by way of make-weight, that did more as a matter +of fact than her young ardor to convince those very skeptical men +and women. No doubt she broke up their determination to sit still, +but it was my words that set them on a course. + +"Kagig will be angry when he comes. He's a ruthless man," said I, +and the Armenians, men as well as women, sought one another's eyes +and nodded. + +"Kagig must be more of a ruthless bird than we guessed!" Will whispered. + +Counting women, there was less than a score of refugees in the room, +and if we had only had them to convince, our work was pretty nearly +done. There was the guard among the trees down-hill that we knew +about still to be converted, or perhaps coerced. But just at the +moment when we felt we held the winning hand, there came a ladder +thrust down through the hole in the corner of the roof, and a man +whom they all greeted as Ephraim began to climb down backward. He +was so loaded with every imaginable kind of weapon that he made more +noise than a tinker's cart. + +Nor was Ephraim the only new arrival. Man after man came down backward +after him, each man cursed richly for treading on his predecessor's +fingers--a seeming endless chain of men that did not cease when the +room was already uncomfortably overcrowded. Some of these men wore +clothes that suggested Russia, but the majority were in rags. The +ladder swayed and creaked under them, and finally, at a word from +Ephraim, the last-comers sat on the upper rungs, bending the frail +thing with their weight into a complaining loop. + +Several of the newcomers had torches, and their acrid smoke turned +the twice-breathed air of the place into evil-tasting fog. + +Three men put their faces close to Ephraim's and proceeded to enlighten +him as to what had passed. He seemed to be recognized as some sort +of chieftain, and carried himself with a commanding air, but so many +men talked at once, and all in Armenian, that we could not pick out +more than a word or two here and there. Even Fred, with his gift +of tongues, could hardly make head or tail of it. + +We three pressed through the swarm and took our stand beside Gloria, +not hesitating to thrust the other women aside. They dragged at their +men-folk to call attention to us, but the argument was too hot to +be missed, and the women clawed and screamed in vain. + +"I believe we could get out!" I shouted in Will's ear. But he shook +his head. At least six men were standing on the trap, and we could +not have driven them off it because there was no other space on the +floor that they could occupy. So I turned to Fred. + +"Couldn't we shake those ruffians off the ladder, and climb up it +and escape?" I shouted. But Fred shook his head, and went on listening, +trying to follow the course of the dispute. + +At last somebody with louder lungs than any other man made Ephraim +understand that it was I who sent the messenger to Zeitoon. Instantly +that solved the problem to his mind. I should be hanged, and that +would be all about it. He gesticulated. The men swarmed down off +the ladder to the already overcrowded floor, and mistaking Will for +me several men started to thrust him forward. A face appeared through +the hole in the roof and its owner was sent running for a rope. +I had not recovered my pistol, and my rifle was slung at my back +where I could not possibly get at it for the crowd. But Fred had +a Colt repeater handy in his hip-pocket and he promptly screwed the +muzzle of it into Ephraim's ear. What he said to him I don't know, +but Ephraim's convictions underwent a change of base and he began +to yell for silence. The men who had seized Will let go of him just +as the rope with a disgusting noose in the end was lowered through +the roof. And then Ossa was imposed on Pelion. + +A new face appeared at the hole. Not that we could see the face. +We could only see the form of a man who shook the bloody stump of +a forearm at us, and shrieked unintelligible things. After thirty +seconds even the men in the far corner were aware of him, and then +there was stony silence while he had his say. He repeated his message +a dozen times, as if he had it by heart exactly, spitting foam out +of his mouth and never ceasing to shake the butchered stump of an +arm. At about the dozenth time he fainted and fell headlong down +the ladder bringing up on the shoulders of the men below. + +"What does he say?" I bellowed in Fred's car. But Fred was forcing +his way closer to Gloria, to tell her. + +"He says the Kurds are coming! He says two regiments of Kurdish +cavalry have been turned loose by the Turks with orders to 'rescue' +Armenians. They are on their way, riding by night for a wonder. +They cut both his hands off, but he got away by shamming dead. + +He says they are cutting off the feet of people and bidding them +walk to Tarsus. They are taking the women and girls for sale. Old +women and very little children they are making what they call sport +with. Have you heard of Kurds? Their ideas of sport are worse than +the Red-man's ever were." + +Every tongue in the room broke loose. In another second every man +was still. They looked toward Ephraim. He who could order a hanging +so glibly should shoulder the new responsibility. + +But Ephraim was not ready with a plan, and could not speak English. +Wild-eyed, he seized the lapel of my coat in trembling fingers, and +with a throat grown suddenly parched, crackled a question at me in +Armenian. I could have understood Volopuk easier. + +"What does he say, Fred?" + +"He wants to know how soon Kagig can be here." + +"Kagig!" Ephraim echoed, clutching at my collar. "Yes, yes, yes! +Kagig! Come--how soon?" + +"We shall be all right," said another man in English over on the +far side of the room. His hoarse voice sounded like a bellow in +the silence. "Kagig will come presently. Kagig will butcher the +Kurds. Kagig will certainly save us." + +"Kagig!" Ephraim insisted. "Come----how soon?" + +But I knew Kagig would not come, that night or at any time, and Ephraim +shook me in frenzied impatience for an answer. + + + + +Chapter Eleven +"That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" + + +"MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM" + +The ancient orders pass. The fetters fall. +All-potent inspiration stirs dead peoples to new birth. +And over bloodied fields a new, clear call +Rings kindlier on deadened ears of earth. +Man--male--usurping--unwise overlord, +Indoctrinated, flattered, by himself betrayed +And all-betraying since with idiot word +He bade his woman bear and be afraid, +Awakes to see delusion of the past +Unmourned along with all injustice die, +Himself by woman wisdom blessed at last +And her unchallenged right the reason why. + + +Now for a moment I became the unwilling vortex of that mob of anxious +men and women--I who by, my own confession knew Kagig, I who had +sent Kagig a message, I who five minutes ago was on the verge of +being hanged in the greasy noose that still swung above the ladder +through the hole in the roof--I who therefore ought to be thoroughly +plastic-minded and obedient to demands. + +The place had become as evil smelling as the Black Hole of Calcutta. +Everybody was sweating, and they shoved and milled murderously in +the effort to get near me and learn, each with his own ears from +my lips, just when Kagig might be expected. Ephraim, their presumptive +leader, got shuffled to the outside of the pack--the only silent +man between the four walls, watchful for new opportunity. + +With my clothing nearly torn off and cars in agony from bellowed +questions, the only remedy I could think of was to yell to Fred to +start up a tune on his concertina; I had seen him change a crowd's +temper many a time in just that way. But even supposing my advice +had been good, he could not get his arms free, and it was Gloria +Vanderman who saved that day. + +Whoever has tried to write down the quality that makes the college +girl, United States or English, what she is has failed, just as whoever +has tried to muzzle or discredit her has failed. She is something +new that has happened to the world, not because of men and women +and the priests and pundits, but in spite of them. Part of the reason +can be given by him who knows history enough, and commands almost +unlimited leisure and page; but that would only be the uninteresting +part that we could easily dispense with. The college girl has happened +to the world, as light did in Genesis 1:3. + +Gloria Vanderman, with her back against the wall, struggled and +contrived to get her foot on Will's bent knee. Another struggle +sent her breast-high above the sea of sweating faces. There was +fitful light enough to see her by, because the man who held a pine +torch was privileged. If there had not been hot sparks scattering +from the thing doubtless they would have closed in on him and crushed +it down, and out, but he had elbow-room, and accordingly Gloria's +face glowed golden in its frame of disordered chestnut hair. One +heard her voice because it was clear, and sweet with reasonableness, +so that it vibrated in an unobstructed orbit. + +"Surely you are not cowards?" she began, and they grew silent, because +that idea called for consideration. + +"Kagig is a patriot. Kagig is fighting for all Armenia. Surely +you are not the men to let brave Kagig be tempted away from his post +of danger at Zeitoon? If I know you men and women you will hasten +to meet Kagig, taking your food, and weapons, and children with you. +You will hurry--hurry--hurry to meet him--to meet him as near Zeitoon +as possible, so as to turn him back to his post of duty!" + +Then Ephraim saw his chance. Some whisperer translated to him and +he owned a voice that was worth gold for political purposes. + +He took up the tale in Armenian, working himself up into a splendid +fervor, and so amplifying the argument that he could almost fairly +claim it as his own before he was half-done. She had introduced +the light, but he exploited it, and he knew his nation--knew the +tricks of speech most likely to spur them into action. + +Within five minutes they were shoving the stones off the trap at +imminent risk of anybody's legs, and the ladder bent groaning under +the weight of twice as many as it ought to bear, as half of them +essayed the short cut over the roof. A blast of sweet air through +the opened trap ejected most of the smoky ten-times-breathed stuff +out with the climbers; and as the room emptied and we wiped the +grimy sweat from our faces I heard Will talking to Gloria Vanderman +in a new tongue--new, that is to say, to the old world. + +"Good goods! Stampeded 'em! They'll vote for you for any office--your +pick! If that guy Ephraim plans buttering the slide we'll +set him on it--watch!" + +"You bet," she answered sentimentally. "I wasn't cheer leader for +nothing. Besides, I delivered the valedictory--say, what are we +waiting here for?" + +"Come on, then!" I urged her. "We'll leave our mule-load behind +in case they've eaten your horse. Come with us to the stables and--" + +But she interrupted me. + +"You men go down and get the horses. Do what you can with the crowd. +I'll get the women into something like order if that's possible, +and we'll all meet wherever there's open ground and moonlight at +the foot of the hill." + +"I'll come with you," Will proposed. "You'll need--" + +"No you won't! The women are easy. They've been taught to obey +orders! It'll take all the wit you three men own between you to +get the men in line! Let's get busy!" + +The men had treated the hanging blankets with the respect the ancient +Jews accorded to the veil of the Holy of Holies. (We learned afterward +that there was an Armenian man of the party who had followed a circus +one summer all across the States, and had brought that sensible +precaution home with him as rule number one for successful management +of mixed assemblies.) Gloria Vanderman made a run for the curtain +and dived behind it. We heard the women welcome her. + +"Let's go!" said Will. + +Will had ever been our ladies' man in all our wanderings, because +women could never resist his unaffected comradeship. Even among +Americans he was rare in his gift of according to women equality +not only of liberty, but of understanding and good sense, and it +went like wine to the heads of some we had met, so that Will was +seldom without a sex-problem on his hands and ours. But Will was +too good a comrade to be surrendered to any woman lightly. + +"Damn that chicken!" murmured Fred by way of praying fervently, pausing +in the breach in the wall to rub his shin. "Feel that bruise, will +you! No young woman ever brought me luck yet!" + +"What are you waiting for?" complained a voice from outer darkness. +"Come on, you rummies!" + +Fred sat down on the protruding stone that had injured his shin, +and detained me with his arm across the opening. + +"Mark my words! In order that that young woman may be educated to +consider Will Yerkes a paragon of unimaginable virtues, we--you and +I--are going to have to do what he calls 'hustle.' We're going to +see speed, and we're going to sweat, trying to catch up. There isn't +a scatterbrained adventure conceivable that we're not going to be +forced into, nor an imaginable peril that we're not going to have +to pull him out of. We're going to be cursed for our trouble, and +ridiculed to make amusement for her majesty. And at the end of it +all we're going to be patronized for a couple of ignorant damned +fools who don't know better than be bachelors. What's worse, we're +going to submit tamely. What is infinitely worse, we're going to +like it! There are times when I doubt the sanity of my whole sex!" + +"Have you guys taken root?" demanded the familiar voice and we heard +Will's returning footsteps. + +"No, America. But I have to sit down when my shin hurts and I'm +seized with the gift of prophecy." + +"Huh! We'll find Miss Vanderman tired of waiting for us with the +women. Since when has a crack on the shin made a baby of you? You +used to be tough enough!" + +"D'you get the idea?" chuckled Fred. "We're coming, Will, we're +coming." + +Perfectly unconsciously Will took the lead, and most outrageously +he drove us. Not that his driving was not shrewd, for his usually +practical and quick mind seemed to take on added brilliancy. And +since we first joined partnership--he and Monty and Fred and I--we +had always been contented to follow the lead of whichever held it +at the moment. But there was new efficiency, and impatience of a +brand-new kind that would not rest until every man and animal had +been rummaged in darkness out of that old ruin, and men, horses, +cows, goats, bags of grain, and fifty cases of cartridges were driven +down through the forest like water forced through a sieve, and were +gathered in the only open space discoverable. + +There we cooled our heels, fearful and full of vague imaginings until +Miss Vanderman should bring the women, not at all encouraged by shouts +in the distance that well might be the exulting of plundering Kurds, +nor by occasional rifle-shots that sounded continually nearer, nor +by the angry crimson glow of burning roofs that lighted half +the horizon. + +We waited an hour, Will objecting whenever either of us proposed +to return and speed Miss Vanderman. + +"Aw, what's the use? D'you suppose she doesn't know we're waiting?" + +At last Fred proposed that Will himself go and investigate. He went +through the form of demurring, but yielded gracefully. + +"The spirit," Fred chuckled, "is weak, and the flesh is willing!" + +Will handed his mule's reins to an Armenian and started alone up-hill +through the pitch-dark forest; and because the world is mixed of +unexpectedness and grim jest in fairly equal proportions, five minutes +after he left us Gloria Vanderman came leading the women by +another path. + +To avoid confusion with our part, and for sake of silence, she had +led them a circuit, and except for the occasional wail of a child +and a little low talking that blended like the hum of insects with +the night, they made very little noise. The rear was brought up +by the strongest women carrying the sick and wounded on litters that +had been improvised in a hurry, and like most things of +the sort were much too heavy. + +"Your mule is ready," said I. But she shook her head. + +"You gentlemen must give your mules up to the sick and wounded. +We well ones can walk." + +I did not know how to answer her, although I knew she was wrong. +The way to organize a marching column is not to level down to the +ability of the weakest, although the pace of the weakest may have +to be the measure of speed. We, who had to protect the column and +shepherd it, would need our mounts; without them we should all be +at the mercy of any enemy, with no corresponding gain to any one +except the litter-bearers. All the same, I did not care to take +issue with that capable young woman then and there. She would have +put me in the wrong and left me speechless and indignant, after the +fashion that is older than poor Shylock's tale. + +But Fred is made of sterner stuff than I, and was never above amusing +himself at the expense of anybody's dignity. + +"Will is the youngest," he answered. "Besides, he's keeping us all +waiting with his love-affairs! He ought to be made to walk!" + +"His love-affairs?" + +"He went into the woods to see a woman," Fred answered imperturbably. +"Let him forfeit his mule. Here he comes. Did you find her, America?" + +Will emerged out of gloom with a grin on his face. + +"Just my luck!" he said simply. "What are we waiting for? I can +hear the Kurds. Let's start." + +At that Gloria got excited. + +"D'you mean you're willing to leave a woman behind alone in that +forest?" she demanded, and Will's jaw dropped. + +Fred nudged my ribs. + +"Come on! We've given 'em a ground for their first quarrel. They'll +never thank us if we wait a week. Mount! Walk--ride!" + +We sent our two Zeitoonli in advance to show the way. True to his +word, Arabaiji had left us, mule and all, and we missed him as we +strove to get the unwieldy column marshaled and moving in line. +We did not see Will and Gloria again that night, except when they +passed between us, walking, arguing--Will explaining--we sitting +on our mules on either side of the track until the last of the swarm +tailed by. Then we brought up the rear together, to drive the stragglers +and look out for pursuit. + +"Not that I know what the devil we'll do if the Kurds get after us!" +said Fred. + +"Let's hope they make for the castle to-night, and waste time plundering +that." + +"Piffle!" he answered. + +"Why?" + +"Because, you ass, if they get to the place and find if empty they'll +deduce, being less than idiots, that we're not far off and that we're +at their mercy in the open! Let's hope to God they funk attacking +in the dark, and wait out of range of the walls until daylight. +In that case we've a chance. Otherwise--I've still got six rifle +cartridges, and four for my pistol. How many have you?" + +"Six of each." + +"Then you owe me one for my pistol." + +I passed it to him. + +"So. Now we're good for exactly twenty-two Kurds between us. If +we're pursued I propose to give those two young lovers a chance by +making every cartridge count from behind cover." + +"They'd hear the shooting and--" + +"Not if we drop far enough behind." + +"They'd hear shooting and Will, at any rate, would ride back." + +"He couldn't! He'd have to look after the girl and the column." + +"All the same--Will's--" + +"I know he is. Very well. I'll arrange it another way. You wait +behind here." + +So I rode along slowly, and he spurred his horse to a trot. But +he did not hold the trot long. I could hear him objurgating, coaxing, +encouraging, explaining, and the shrill voices of women answering, +as he tried at one and the same time to pass the unfortunates in +the dark and to make them see the grim necessity for speed. Soon +I grew as busy as he, bullying litter-bearers and mothers burdened +with crying babies. In times of massacre and war, survivors are +not necessarily those who enjoyed the best of it. Nearly-drowned +men brought to life again would forego the process if the choice +were theirs, and there were nearly twenty women who would have preferred +death to that night's march. But I did not dare load my horse with +babies, since it would likely be needed before dawn for sterner work. + +It was more than an hour before Fred loomed in sight again, standing +beside his horse in wait for me. He, too, had resisted the temptation +to relieve mothers of their living loads (not that they ever expected it). + +"How did you manage?" I asked, for I could tell by his air that the +errand had been successful. + +"I lied to him." + +"Of course. What did you say?" + +"Said if the straggling got bad you and I might fall a long way behind +and fire our pistols, so as to give the impression Kurds are in pursuit. +That would tickle up the rear-end to a run!" + +"And he believed that?" Will knew as well as I Fred's not exactly +subtle way of maneuvering to get the post of greatest danger for himself. + +"He'd have believed anything! He's head-, heart-and heels-over-end +in love with the girl, and she's as bad as he is. They're talking +political economy and international jurisprudence. When I reached +'em they'd just arrived at the conclusion that the United States +can save the world, maybe--maybe not, but nothing else can. I was +decidedly de trop. They're pretty to watch. No, he hasn't kissed +her yet--you could tell that even in the dark. It's my belief he +won't for a long time; America's way with women is beyond belief. +They're telling each other all they know, and like, and dislike, +and believe, and hope. It 'ud take a bullet to divide their destinies. +I delivered my message, and they were so devilish polite you'd think +I was the parson come to marry 'em. They'd forgotten my very existence. +When it dawned on 'em who I was they were so keen to be rid of me +they'd have agreed to anything at all. So it was easy." + +"Good." + +"No, it's bad. Will's a friend of mine. I hate to see him squandered +on a woman. However, I did better than that." + +"How so?" + +As I spoke there loomed out of the darkness just ahead of us eight +men surrounding something on the track, their rifles sticking up +above their shoulders. + +"I've found eight men with rifles all alike that fit the ammunition +in the boxes. It's stolen Turkish government ammunition, by the +way. The rifles come from the same source. The point is that a +man caught with a stolen government rifle and ammunition in his +possession would be tortured. Incidentally the men seem game. +Therefore, if we have to fight a rear-guard action we can reasonably +count on them. Haide!" he called to the eight men, and they picked +up the case of cartridges, and resumed the march just ahead of us. + +Fred lit his pipe contentedly, as he always is contented when he +can make satisfactory arrangements to sacrifice himself unselfishly +and pretend to himself he is a cynic. Whether because the armed +guard of their own people put new courage in them, or because rifles +at their rear made them more afraid, the stragglers gave less trouble +for the next few hours. Perhaps they were growing more used to the +march, and some of them were numb with anxiety, while not so weary +yet that feet would not carry them forward. + +Somewhere in advance a man with a high tenor voice began to sing +a wild folk-song, of the sort that is common to all countries whose +heritage is hope unstrangled. He and others like him with love and +music in their brave hearts sang the tortured column through its +night of agony, keeping alive faint hope that hell must have an end. +Dawn broke sweet and calm. For it makes no matter if a nation writhes +in agony, or man wreaks hate on man, the wind and the sky still whisper +and smile; and the scent of wild flowers is not canceled by the +stench of tired humanity. + +Fred knocked his pipe out and rode to the top of shoulder of rock +beside the track, beckoning to me to follow. We could see our column, +astonishingly long drawn, winding like a line of ants in and out +and over, following the leaders in a dream because there seemed nothing +else to do or dream about. Once I thought I caught sight of Will +on his horse, passing between trees, but I was not sure. Fred turned +his horse about and looked in the direction we had come from. Presently, +he nudged me. + +"That smoke might be the castle we were in last night. See--it's +red underneath. What'll you bet me Kurds don't show up in pursuit +before the day's an hour old?" + +That was nothing to bet about, and that kind of dawn is not the hour +for roseate optimism. + +"If they come," said I, "I hope I don't live to see what they'll +do to the women." + +Fred met my eyes and laughed. + +"That's all right," he said. "You ride on. This rock commands the +track. I'll follow later when pursuit's called off." + +"Ride on yourself!" I answered, and he chuckled as he lighted his +pipe again. + +One of the men had a kerosene can filled with odds and ends of personal +belongings. I turned them out in a hollow of the rock, and sent +him to fill the can with drinking water at a spring. Then Fred and +I chose stations, and Fred went to vast pains lecturing every one +of us on how to keep cover. We had nothing to eat, and therefore +no notion of putting up anything but a short fight. Our best point +was the surprise that unexpected, organized resistance would be likely +to produce on plundering Kurds. + +It was pleasant enough where we lay, and reminded both of us of far +less strenuous days. The little animals that are always curious +to the point of their undoing came out and investigated our tracks +as soon as the noise of the stragglers had ceased. The Armenians +took no notice of the wild life; persecuted people seldom do, having +their own hard case too much in mind; but Fred knew the name of +nearly every bird and animal that showed itself, and even ceased +smoking as his interest increased. + +"Ever go fishing as a boy?" he asked. + +"Didn't I!" + +"Get up before daylight and escape from the house by the back way--" + +"Stealing bread and cheese from the pantry on the way out--" + +"And stopping where the grass was long near the watering place to +dig worms--" + +"And unchain the dog with frantic efforts to keep him from barking--" + +"Yes, but the rascal always would do it--bark and wake everybody! +Lucky if nobody saw you as you slipped through the gate into the fields!" + +"Ah! But then what a time the dog had--it was almost as good fun +as the fishing to watch him scamper. And how hungry he got--and +he ate more than his share of the bread and cheese, so that you'd +have had to go home early because of the aching void if it hadn't +been for the cottage where they gave a fellow milk out of a brown dish." + +"Yumm! Didn't that country milk taste good! Snff--snff--they were +mornings just like this at home when I went fishing. Cool and sweet +and full of scent. Snff--snff!" + +We sat still behind the ledge and let the air and scenery revive +kind memories. The only noise was what our horses made cropping +the grass in a hollow behind us, for the Armenians were well content +to ruminate. Most likely they would have fallen asleep if we had +not been there to keep an eye on them, for prolonged subjection to +too much fear is soporific, so that tortured poor wretches sleep +on the tightened rack. + +I was very nearly asleep myself, having had practically none of it +for two nights in succession, and had taken to watching the horses +to keep my mind busy, when the movement of my horse's ears struck +me as peculiar. Presently he ceased grazing and raised his head. +I thought he was going to whinny, and turned to see Fred squinting +down his rifle at something that was not in the range of my vision. + +"Here they come!" he whispered. + +As he spoke a Kurd stepped out from between the trees, and we could +see that he had tied his horse to a branch in the gloom behind him. +He had the long sleeves reaching nearly to the ground peculiar to +his race, and the unmistakable sheeny nose and cruel lips. From +the rifle that he carried cavalierly over his shoulder hung a woman's +undergarment, with a dark stain on it that looked suspiciously like +blood. My horse whinnied then, and his beast answered. At that +he brought his rifle to the "ready" and nearly jumped out of his skin. + +"I'm judge, jury, witness, prosecutor and executioner!" Fred whispered. +"That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" + +Then he fired, and Fred could not miss at that range if he tried. +The Kurd clapped a hand to his throat and fell backward, and one +of our Armenians ran before we could stop him to seize the tied horse, +and any other plunder. One of the things he brought back with him, +besides the horse and rifle and ammunition belt, was a woman's finger +with the ring not yet removed. He said he found it in the +cartridge pouch. + +In proof that organized defense was the last thing they reckoned +on, nine more Kurds came galloping down the track pell-mell toward +the place where they had heard the solitary rifle-shot, doubtless +supposing their own man had come upon the quarry. We fired too fast, +for the Armenians were not drilled men, but we dropped two horses +and five Kurds, and the remaining four fled, with the riderless animals +stampeding in their wake. + +"What next?"' said I, as Fred wiped out his rifle-barrel. + +"They'll return in greater force. We'd better change ground. D'you +notice how this rock is covered by that other one a quarter of a +mile to the right? Higher ground, too, and the last place they'll +look--come on!" + +The man with the water-can spilled it all, for the sake of his medley +of possessions, and I had to send him all the way back for more. +But we took up our new stand at last with the horses well hidden +and enough to drink to last the day out, and then had to wait half +an hour before any Kurds came back to the attack. + +They came on the second time with infinite precaution, lurking among +the trees on the outskirts of the clearing and firing several random +shots at our old position in the hope of drawing our fire. Finally, +they emerged from the forest thirty strong and rushed our supposed +hiding-place at full gallop. + +They were not even out of pistol range. Fred used the Mauser rifle +taken from the dead Kurd, and then we both emptied our pistols at +the fools, the Armenians meanwhile keeping up a savage independent +fire so ragged and rapid that it might have been the battle of Waterloo. + +The Kurds never knew whether or not we were another party or the +first one. They never discovered whether our former post was deserted +or not. We never knew how many of them we hit, for after about a +dozen had tumbled out of the saddle the remainder galloped for their +lives. For minutes afterward we heard them crashing and pounding +away in the distance to find their friends. + +Our loot consisted of two wounded prisoners and four good horses, +in addition to rifles and cartridges. We let the dead lie where +they were for a warning to other scoundrels, and we looked on while +our Armenians searched the bodies for anything likely to be of slightest +use. They found almost nothing originally Kurdish, but more Armenian +trinkets than would have stocked a traveling merchant's show-case, +including necklaces and earrings. + +Fred took the two prisoners aside and in Persian, which every Kurd +can understand and speak after a fashion, offered them their choice +between telling the whole truth or being handed over to Armenians. +And as there isn't a bloody rascal in the world but suspects his +intended victims of worse hankerings than his own, they loosed their +tongues and told more than the truth, adding whatever they thought +likely to please Fred. + +"They say there were only about fifty of them in this raiding party +to begin with, and several came to trouble before they met us. Seems +there are Armenians hidden here and there who are able to give an +account of themselves. Ten or twelve elected to stay near the castle +we were in last night. They've burned it, but they have some captured +women and propose to enjoy themselves. Shall we ride back and break +in on the party?" + +He meant what he said, but it was out of the question. "The party +we've just trounced will give the alarm," I objected. "We'd only +ride into a trap. Besides, you've no proof these prisoners are not +lying to you." + +"They say their raiding party is the only one within thirty miles. +They rode ahead of the regiments to get first picking." + +"We're none of us fit for anything but food and sleep," said I, and +Fred had to concede the point. + +Fortunately the food problem was solved for the moment by the Kurds, +who had a sort of cheese with them whose awful taste deprived one +of further appetite. We ate, and tied our two wounded prisoners +on one horse; and as we had nothing to treat their wounds with except +water they finished their trip in exquisite discomfort. Surprise +that we should attend to their wounds at all, added to their despondency +after they had time to consider what it meant. There was only one +burden to their lamentation: + +"What are you going to do with us? We will tell what we know! We +will name names! We are your slaves! We kiss feet! Ask, and we +will answer!" + +They thought they were being kept alive for torture, and we let them +keep on thinking it. Fred tied their horse to his own saddle and +towed them along, singing at the top of his lungs to keep the rest +of us awake; and for all his noise I fell asleep until he reached +for his concertina and, the humor of the situation dawning on him, +commenced a classic of his own composition, causing the morning to +re-echo with irreverence, and making all of us except the prisoners +aware of the fact that life is not to be taken seriously, even in +Armenia. The prisoners intuitively guessed that the song had reference +to ways and means they would rather have forgotten. + +"Ow! My name it is 'orrible 'Enery 'Emms, +And I 'ails from a 'ell of a 'ole! +The things I 'ave thought an' the deeds I 'ave did +Are remarkable lawless an' better kep' hid, +So if Morgan you think of, an' Sharkey an' Kidd, +Forget 'em! To name such beginners as them's +An insult, so shivver my soul! Yow! +In every port o' the whole seven seas +I 'ave two or three wives on the rates, +For I'm free wi' my fancy an' fly wi' my picks, +And I've promised 'em plenty, an' given 'em nix, +But have left ev'ry one in a 'ell of a fix! +'Ooever said Bluebeard was brother to me's +Either jealous or misunderstates! + +"Wow! For awful atrocity, murder an' theft, +For battery, arson and hate, +From breakin' the Sabbath to coveting cows, +An' false affidavits an' perjurin' vows, +I'm adept at whatever the law disallows, +And the gallowsmen gape at the noose that I left, +For I flit while the bally fools wait!" + +Fred kept us awake all right. Like most of his original songs, that +one had sixty or seventy verses. + + + + +Chapter Twelve +"America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" + + +CUI BONO? + +Did caution keep the gates of Greece, +Ye saints of "safety first!" +Twixt Thessaly and Locris when +Leonidas' thousand men +Died scornful of the proffered peace +Of Xerxes the accurst? +Watch ye have kept, ward ye have kept, +But watch and ward were vain +If love and gratitude have slept +While ye stood guard for gain. + +Or ye, who count the niggard cost +In time and coin and gear +Of succoring the under-dog, +How often have ye seen a hog, +Establishing his glutton boast, +Survive a famine year? +Fast ye have kept, feast ye have made; +Vain were the deeds and doles +If it was fear that ye obeyed +To save your coward souls. + +Ye banish beauty to the stews +For lack of eyes that see, +And stifle joy with deadly rote +As empty as the texts ye quote, +The while forgiveness ye refuse +Lest wrath dishonored be. +Gray are your days, drab are your ways, +Strong are your fashioned bars, +But, ye who ask if service pays-- +Who polishes the stars? + + +Spring in Armenia is almost as much like heaven as heaven itself +could be, if it were not for the unspeakable Turk, but his blight +rests on everything. I could have kept awake that morning without +Fred's irreverent music, simply for sake of the scenery, if its freshness +had been untainted. But there hung a sickly, faint pall of smoke +that robbed the green landscape of all liveliness. One breathed +weariness instead of wine. + +We could not possibly have lost the way, because our crawling column +had left a swath behind it of trampled grass and trodden crossing-places +where the track wound and rewound in a game of hide-and-seek with +tinkling streams. But we began to wonder, nevertheless, why we caught +up with nobody. + +It was drawing on to ten in the morning, and I had dozed off for +about the dozenth time, with my horse in pretty much the same condition, +when I heard Will's voice at last, and looked up. He was standing +alone on a ledge overlooking the track, but I could see the ends +of rifles sticking up close by. If we had been an enemy, we should +have stood small chance against him. + +"Where are the rest of you?" I asked, and he laughed! + +"Women, kids and wounded all swore a pitched battle was raging behind +them. Most of them wanted to turn back and lend a hand. I thought +you guys mighty cruel to put all that scare into a crowd in their +condition--but I see--" + +"Guests, America! My country's at peace with Turkey! Where shall +we stow our guests?" + +"There's a village below here." + +He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. But behind him was the apex +of a spur thrust out in midcurve of the mountainside, and one could +not see around that. We had emerged out of the straggling outposts +of the forest high above the plain, and to our right the whole panorama +lay snoozing in haze. The path by which we had turned our backs +on Monty and Kagig went winding away and away below, here and there +an infinitesimal thin line of slightly lighter color, but more often +suggested by the contour of the hills. Our Zeitoonli in their zeal +to return to their leader had been evidently cutting corners. If +the smudge of smoke to the right front overhung Marash, then we were +probably already nearer Zeitoon than when we and Kagig parted company. + +"Come up and see for yourselves," said Will. + +Fred passed the line that held his prisoners in tow to an Armenian, +and we climbed up together on foot. Around the corner of the spur, +within fifty feet of where Will stood, was an almost sheer escarpment, +and at the foot of that, a thousand feet below us, with ramparts +of living rock on all four sides, crouched a little village fondled +in the bosom of the mountains. + +"They've piled down there and made 'emselves at home. The place +was deserted, prob'ly because it 'ud be too easy to roll rocks down +into it. But I can't make 'em listen. Ours is a pretty chesty lot, +with guts, and our taking part with 'em has stiffened their courage. +They claim they're goin' to hold this rats' nest against all the +Turks and Kurds in Asia Minor!" + +"That's where the rest of us are," said Will + +"Where's Miss Vanderman?" + +"Asleep--down in the village. The're all asleep. You guys go down +there and sleep, too. I'll follow, soon as I've posted these men +on watch. That small square hut next the big one in the middle is +ours. She's in the big one with a crowd of women. Now don't make +a fool row and wake her! Tie your horses in the shade where you +see the others standing in line; there's a little corn for them, +and a lot of hay that the owners left behind." + +So we undertook not to wake the lady, and left Will there carefully +choosing places, in which the men fell fast asleep almost the minute +his back was turned. Sleep was in the air that morning--not mere +weariness of mind and limb that a man could overcome, but inexplicable +coma. Whole armies are affected that way on occasion. There was +a man once named Sennacherib. + +"Sleepy hollow!" said Fred, and as he spoke his horse pitched forward, +almost spilling him; the rope that held the prisoners in tow was +all that saved the lot of them from rolling down-hill. Fred dismounted, +and drove the horse in front of him with a slap on the rump, but +the beast was almost too sleepy to make the effort to descend. + +There was no taint of gas or poison fumes. The air tasted fresh +except for the faint smoke, and the birds were all in full song. +Yet we all had to dismount, and to let the prisoners walk, too, because +the horses were too drowsy to be trusted. The path that zigzagged +downward to the village was dangerous enough without added risk, +and the eight Armenian riflemen refused point-blank to lead the way +unless they might drive the animals ahead of them. + +Even so, neither we nor they were properly awake, when we reached +the village. We tied up the horses in a sort of dream--fed them +from instinct and habit--and made our way to the hut Will had pointed +out like men who walked in sleep. + +Nobody was keeping watch. Nobody noticed our arrival. Men and women +were sleeping in the streets and under the eaves of the little houses. +Nothing seemed awake but the stray dogs nosing at men's feet and +hunting hopelessly among the bundles. + +The little house Will had reserved for our use contained a stool +and a string-cot. On the stool was food--cheese and very dry bread; +and because even in that waking dream we were conscious of hunger, +we ate a little of it. Then we lay down on the floor and fell +asleep--we, and the prisoners, and the eight Armenian riflemen. +Within a quarter of an hour Will followed us into the house, but +we knew nothing about that. Then he, too, fell asleep, and until +two or three hours after dark we were a village of the dead. + +To this day there is no explaining it. Certainly no human watch +or ward saved us from destruction at the hands of roving enemies. +I was awakened at last by a brilliant light, and the effort made +by our two prisoners, still tied together, to crawl across my body. +I threw them off me, and sat up, rubbing my eyes and wondering where +I was. + +In the door stood Kagig, with a lantern in his right hand thrust +forward into the room. His eyes were ablaze with excitement, and +between black beard and mustache his teeth showed in a grin mixed +of scorn and amusement. + +Next I beard Will's voice: "Jimminy!" and Will sat up. Then Fred +gave tongue: + +"That you, Kagig? Where's Monty? Where's Lord Montdidier?" + +Kagig strode into the room, set the lantern on the floor, struck +the remnants of the food from off the little stool, and sat down. +I could see now that he was deathly tired. + +"He is in Zeitoon," he answered. + +Noises from outside began then to assert themselves in demonstration +that the village was awake at last--also that the population had +swollen while we slept. I could hear the restless movement of more +than twice the number of horses we had had with us. + +Kagig began to laugh--a sort of dry cackle that included wonder as +well as rebuke. He threw both hands outward, palms upward, in a +gesture that complemented the motion of shoulders shrugged up to +his ears. + +"All around--high hills! From every side from fifty places rocks +could have been rolled upon you! So--and so you sleep!" + +"I set guards!" Will exploded. + +"Eleven guards I found--all together in one place--fast asleep!" + +He showed his splendid teeth and the palms of his hands again in +actual enjoyment of the situation. For the first time then I saw +there was wet blood on his goat-skin coat. + +"Kagig--you're wounded!" + +He made a gesture of impatience. + +"It is nothing--nothing. My servant has attended to it." + +So Kagig had a servant. I felt glad of that. It meant a rise from +vagabondage to position among his people. + +Of all earthly attainments, the first and most desirable and last +to let go of is an honest servant--unless it be a friend. (But the +difference is not so distinct as it sounds.) + +A huge fear suddenly seized Fred Oakes. + +"You said Monty is in Zeitoon--alive or dead? Quick, man! Answer!" + +"Should I leave Zeitoon," Kagig answered slowly, unless I left a +better man in charge behind me? He is alive in Zeitoon--alive--alive! +He is my brother! He and I love one purpose with a strong love that +shall conquer! You speak to me of Lord what-is-it? Hah! To me +forever he is Monty, my brother--my--" + +"Where's Miss Vanderman?" I interrupted. + +"Here!" she said quietly, and I turned my head to discover her sitting +beside Will in the shadow cast by Kagig's lantern. She must have +entered ahead of Kagig or close behind him, unseen because of his +bulk and the tricky light that he swung in his right hand. + +Kagig went on as if he had not heard me. + +"There is a castle--I think I told you?--perched on a crag in the +forest beside Zeitoon. My men have cut a passage to it through the +trees, for it had stood forgotten for God knows how long. Later +you shall understand. There came Arabaiji, riding a mule to death, +saying you and this lady are in danger of life at the hands of my +nation. I did not believe that, but Monty--he believed it." + +"And I'll wager you found him a hot handful!" laughed Fred. +"Not so hot. Not so hot. But very determined. Later you shall +understand. He and I drove a bargain." + +"Dammit!" Fred rose to his feet. "D'you mean you used our predicament +as a club to drive him with?" + +Kagig laughed dryly. + +"Do you know your friend so little, and think so ill of me? He named +terms, and I agreed to them. I took a hundred mounted men to find +you and bring you to Zeitoon, spreading them out like a fan, to scour +the country. Some fell in with a thing the Turks call a hamidieh +regiment; that is a rabble of Kurds under the command of Tenekelis." + +"What are they?" + +"Tenekelis? The word means 'tin-plate men.' We call them that because +of the tin badges given them to wear in their head-dress. In no +other way do they resemble officers. They are brigands favored by +official recognition, that is all. Their purpose is to pillage +Armenians. While you slept in this village, and your watchmen slept +up above there, that whole rabble of bandits with their tin-plate +officers passed within half a mile, following along the track by +which you came! If you had been awake--and cooking--or singing--or +making any sort of noise they must have heard you! Instead, they +turned down toward the plain a little short distance too soon--and +my men met them--and there was a skirmish--and I rallied my other +men, and attacked them suddenly. We accounted for two of the tin-plate +men, and so many of the thing they call a regiment that the others +took to flight. Jannam! (My soul!) But you are paragons of sleepers!" + +"Do you never sleep?" I asked him. + +"Shall a man keep watch over a nation, and sleep?" he answered. +"Aye--here a little, there a little, I snatch sleep when I can. +My heart burns in me. I shall sleep on my horse on the way back +to Zeitoon, but the burning within will waken me by fits and starts." + +He got up and stood very politely in front of Gloria Vanderman, +removing his cossack kalpak for the first time and holding it with +a peculiar suggestion of humility. + +"You shall be put to no indignity at the hands of my people," he +said. "They are not bad people, but they have suffered, and some +have been made afraid. They would have kept you safe. But now you +shall have twenty men if you wish, and they shall deliver you safely +into Tarsus. If you wish it, I will send one of these gentlemen +with you to keep you in countenance before my men; they are foreigners +to you, and no one could blame you for fearing them. The gentleman +would not wish to go, but I would send him!" + +She shook her head, pretty merrily for a girl in her predicament. + +"I was curious to meet you, Mr. Kagig, but that's nothing to the +attraction that draws me now. I must meet the other man--is it Monty +you all call him--or never know a moment's peace!" + +"You mean you will not go to Tarsus?" + +"Of course I won't!" + +"Of course!" laughed Fred. "Any young woman--" + +"Of course?" Kagig repeated the extravagant gesture of shrugged shoulders +and up-turned palms. "Ah, well. You are American. I will not argue. +What would be the use?" + +He turned his back on us and strode out with that air that not even +the great stage-actors can ever acquire, of becoming suddenly and +utterly oblivious of present company in the consciousness of deeds +that need attention. Generals of command, great captains of industry, +and a few rare statesmen have it; but the statesmen are most rare, +because they are trained to pretend, and therefore unconvincing. +The generals and captains are detested for it by all who have never +humbled themselves to the point where they can think, and be unselfishly +absorbed. Kagig stepped out of one zone of thought into the next, +and shut the door behind him. + +A minute later we heard his voice uplifted in command, and the business +of shepherding those women and children was taken out of our hands +by a man who understood the business. The intoxicating sounds that +armed men make as they evolve formation out of chaos in the darkness +came in through open door and windows, and in another moment Kagig +was back again with a hand on each door-post. + +"You have brought all those cartridges!" + +He thrust out both hands in front of him, and made the knuckles of +every finger crack like castanets. In another second he was gone +again. But we knew we were now forgiven all our sins of omission. + +Somewhere about midnight, with a nearly full moon rising in a golden +dream above the rim of the ravine, we started. And no wheeled vehicle +could have followed by the track we took. It was no mean task for +men on foot, and our burdened animals had to be given time. Whether +or not Kagig slept, as he had said he would, on horse-back, he kept +himself and our prisoners out of sight somewhere in the van; and +this time the rear was brought up by a squadron of ragged irregular +horse that would have made any old campaigner choke with joy to look +at them. + +Drill those men knew very little of--only sufficient to make it possible +to lead them. No two men were dressed alike, and some were not even +armed alike, although stolen Turkish government rifles far predominated. +But they wore unanimously that dare-devil air, not swaggering because +there is no need, that has been the key to most of the sublime surprises +of all war. The commander, whose men sit that way in the saddle +and toss those jokes shoulder over shoulder down the line, dare tackle +forlorn hopes that would seem sheer leap-year lunacy to the martinet +with twenty times their number. + +"Who'd have thought it?" said Fred. "We've all heard the Turk was +a first-class fighting man, but I'd rather command fifty of these, +than any five hundred Turks I ever saw. + +There was no gainsaying that. Whoever had seen armies with an +understanding eye must have agreed. + +"Turks don't hate Armenians for their faults," I answered. "From +what I know of the Turk he likes sin, and prefers it cardinal. If +Armenians were mere degenerates, or murdering ruffians like the Kurds, +the Turk would like them." + +Fred laughed. + +"Then if a Turk liked me, you'd doubt my social fitness?" + +"Sure I would, if he liked you well enough to attract attention. +The fact that the Turk hates Armenians is the best advertisement +Armenians have got." + +We were entering the heart of savage hills that tossed themselves +in ever increasing grandeur up toward the mist-draped crags of Kara +Dagh, following a trail that was mostly watercourse. The simple +savagery of the mountains laid naked to view in the liquid golden +light stirred the Armenians behind us to the depths of thought; +and theirs is a consciousness of warring history; of dominion long +since taken from them, and debauched like pearls by swine; of hope, +eternally upwelling, born of love of their trampled fatherland. +They began to sing, and the weft and woof of their songs were grief +for all those things and a cherished, secret promise that a limit +had been set to their nation's agony. + +In his own way, with his chosen, unchaste instrument Fred is a musician +of parts. He can pick out the spirit of old songs, even when, as +then, he hears them for the first time, and make his concertina interpret +them to wood and wind and sky. Indoors he is a mere accompanist, +and in polite society his muse is dumb. But in the open, given fair +excuse and the opportunity, he can make such music as compels men's +ears and binds their hearts with his in common understanding. + +Because of Fred's concertina, quite without knowing it, those Armenians +opened their hearts to us that night, so that when a day of testing +came they regarded us unconsciously as friends. Taught by the atrocity +of cruel centuries to mistrust even one another, they would surely +have doubted us otherwise, when crisis came. Nobody knows better +than the Turk how to corrupt morality and friendship, and Armenia +is honeycombed with the rust of mutual suspicion. But real music +is magic stuff. No Turk knows any magic. + +At dawn, twisting and zigzagging in among the ribs of rock-bound +hills, we sighted the summit of Beirut Dagh all wreathed in jeweled +mist. Then the only life in sight except ourselves was eagles, +nervously obsessed with goings-on on the horizon. I counted as many +as a dozen at one time, wheeling swiftly, and circling higher for +a wider view, but not one swooped to strike. + +Once, as we turned into a track that they told us led to El Oghlu, +we saw on a hill to our left a small square building, gutted by fire. +Twenty yards away from it, on top of the same round hill, strange +fruit was hanging from a larger oak than any we had seen +thereabouts--fruit that swung unseemly in the tainted wind. + +"Turks!" announced one of Kagig's men, riding up to brag to us. +"That square building is the guard-house for the zaptieh, put there +by the government to keep check on robbers. They are the worst robbers!" + +The man spoke English with the usual mission-school air suggestive +of underdone pie. As a rule they go to school at such great sacrifice, +and then so limited for funds, that they have to get by heart three +times the amount an ordinary, undriven youth can learn in the allotted +time. But by heart they have it. And like the pie they call to +mind, only the surface of their talk is pale. Because their heart +is in the thing, they under-stand. + +"By hanging Turkish police," said Fred, "you only give the Turks +a good excuse for murdering your friends." + +"Come!" said the man of Zeitoon. "See." + +He led the way down a path between young trees to a clearing where +a swift stream gamboled in the sun. Down at the end of it, where +the grass sloped gently upward toward the flanks of a great rock +was a little row of graves with a cross made of sticks at the head +of each--clearly not Turkish graves. + +"Three men--eleven women," our guide said simply. + +"You mean that the Turkish police--" + +"There were fifteen on their way to Zeitoon. One survived, and +reached Zeitoon, and told. Then he died, and we rode down to avenge +them all. The Turks took the three men and beat them on the feet +with sticks until the soles of their feet swelled up and burst. +Then they made them walk on their tortured feet. Then they beat +them to death. Shall I say what they did to the women?" + +"What did you do to the Turks?" said I. + +"Hanged them. We are not animals--we simply, hanged them." + +Somewhere about noon we rode down a gorge into the village of El +Oghlu. It was a miserable place, with a miserable, tiny kahveh in +the midst of it, and Kagig set that alight before our end of the +column came within a quarter of a mile of it. We burned the rest +of the village, for he sent back Ephraim to order no shelter left +for the regiments that would surely come and hunt us down. But the +business took time, and we were farther than ever behind Kagig when +the last wooden roof began to cockle and crack in the heat. + +Will and Gloria were somewhere on in front, and Fred and I began +to put on speed to try to overtake them. But from the time of leaving +the burned village of El Oghlu there began to be a new impediment. + +"We are not taking the shortest way," said Ephraim. "The shortest +way is too narrow--good for one or two men in a hurry, but not for +all of us." + +We were gaining no speed by taking the easier road. There began +to be vultures in evidence, mostly half-gorged, flopping about from +one orgy to the next. And out from among the rocks and bushes there +came fugitive Armenians--famished and wounded men and women, clinging +to our stirrups and begging for a lift on the way to Zeitoon. Zeitoon +was their one hope. They were all headed that way. + +Fred detached a dozen mounted men to linger behind on guard against +pursuit, and the rest of us overloaded our horses with women and +children, giving up all hope of overtaking Gloria and Will, forgetting +that they had come first on the scene. In my mind I imagined them +riding side by side, Will with his easy cowboy seat, and Gloria looking +like a boy except for the chestnut hair. But that imagination went +the way of other vanities. + +There was neither pleasure nor advantage in striding slowly beside +my laboring horse, nor any hope of mounting him again myself. So +I walked ahead and, being now horseless, ceased to be mobbed by +fugitives. At the end of an hour I overtook two horses loaded with +little children; but there was no sign of Gloria and Will, and losing +zest for the pursuit as the sun grew stronger I sat down by the ways-side +on a fallen tree. + +It was then that I heard voices that I recognized. The first was +a woman's. + +"I'm simply crazy to know him." + +A man's, that I could not mistake even amid the roar of a city, answered +her. + +"You've a treat in store. Monty is my idea of a regular he-man." + +"Is he good-looking?" + +"Yes. Stands and looks like a soldier. I've seen a plainsman in +Wyoming who'd have matched him to a T all except the parted hair +and the mustache." + +"I like a mustache on a tall man." + +"It suits Monty. The first idea you get of him is strength--strength +and gentleness; and it grows on you as you know him better. It's +not just muscles, nor yet will-power, but strength that makes your +heart flutter, and you know for a moment how a woman must feel when +a fellow asks her to be his wife. That's Monty." + +I got up and retraced a quarter of a mile, to wait for Fred where +I could not accuse myself of "listening in." + +"Fred," I said, when he overtook me at last and we strode along side +by side, "you were right. America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" + +I told him what I had heard, and he thought a while. + +"How about Maga Jhaere's way, when she and Will and the Vanderman +meet?" he said at last, smiling grimly. + + + + +Chapter Thirteen +"'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib, +obeyed my lord bahadur's orders." + + +"TO-MORROW WE DIE" + +All that is cynical; all that refuses +Trust in an altruist aim; +Every specious plea that excuses +Greed in necessity's name; +Studied indifference; scorn that amuses; +Cleverness, shifting the blame; +Selfishness, pitying trust it abuses-- +Treason and these are the same. +Finally, when the last lees ye shall turn from +(E'en intellectuals flinch in the end!) +Ashes of loneliness then ye shall learn from-- +All that's worth keeping's the faith of a friend. + + +Never to be forgotten is that journey to Zeitoon. We threaded toward +the heart of opal mountains along tracks that nothing on wheels--not +even a wheel-barrow--could have followed. Perpetually on our right +there kept appearing brilliant green patches of young rice, more +full of livid light than flawless emeralds. And, as in all rice +country, there were countless watercourses with frequently impracticable +banks along which fugitives felt their way miserably, too fearful +of pursuit to risk following the bridle track. + +There is a delusion current that fugitives go fast. But it stands +to reason they do not; least of all, unarmed people burdened with +children and odds and ends of hastily snatched household goods. +We found them hiding everywhere to sleep and rest lacerated feet, +and there was not a mile of all that distance that did not add twenty +or thirty stragglers to our column, risen at sight of us out of their +lurking places. We scared at least as many more into deeper hiding, +without blame to them, for there was no reason why they should know +us at a distance from official murderers. Hamidieh regiments, the +militia of that land, wear uniforms of their own choosing, which +is mostly their ordinary clothes and weapons added. + +With snow-crowned Beirut Dagh frowning down over us, and the track +growing every minute less convenient for horse or man, word came +from the rear that the hamidieh were truly on our trail. Then we +had our first real taste of what Armenians could do against drilled +Turks, and even before Fred and I could get in touch with Will and +Gloria we realized that whether or not we took part with them there +was going to be no stampede by the men-folk. + +Nothing would persuade Gloria to go on to Zeitoon and announce our +coming. Kagig came galloping back and found us four met together +by a little horsetail waterfall. He ordered her peremptorily to +hurry and find Monty, but she simply ignored him. In another moment +he was too bent on shepherding the ammunition cases to give her a +further thought. + +Men began to gather around him, and he to issue orders. They had +either to kill him or obey. He struck at them with a rawhide whip, +and spurred his horse savagely at every little clump of men disposed +to air their own views. + +"You see," he laughed, "unanimity is lacking!" Then his manner changed +back to irritation. "In the name of God, effendim, what manner of +sportmen are you? Will not each of you take a dozen men and go and +destroy those cursed Turks?" (They call every man a Turk in that +land who thinks and acts like one, be he Turk, Arab, Kurd or Circassian.) + +It was all opposed to the consul's plan, and lawless by any reckoning. +To attack the troops of a country with which our own governments +were not at war was to put our heads in a noose in all likelihood. +Perhaps if he had called us by any other name than "sportmen" we +might have seen it in that light, and have told him to protect us +according to contract. But he used the right word and we jumped +at the idea, although Gloria, who had no notions about international +diplomacy, was easily first with her hat in the ring. + +"I'll lead some men!" she shouted. "Who'll follow me?" Her voice +rang clear with the virtue won on college playing fields. + +"Nothing to it!" Will insisted promptly. "Here, you, Kagig--I'll +make a bargain with you!" + +"Watch!" Fred whispered. "Will is now going to sell two comrades +in the market for his first love! D'you blame him? But it +won't work!" + +"Send Miss Vanderman to Zeitoon with an escort and we three--" + +"What did I tell you?" Fred chuckled. + +"--will fight for you all you like!" + +But Gloria had a dozen men already swarming to her, with never a +symptom of shame to be captained by a woman; and others were showing +signs of inclination. She turned her back on us, and I saw three +men hustle a fourth, who had both feet in bandages, until he gave +her his rifle and bandolier. She tossed him a laugh by way of +compensation, and he seemed content, although he had parted with +more than the equivalent of a fortune. + +"That girl," said Kagig, from the vantage point of his great horse, +"is like the brave Zeitoonli wives! They fight! They can lead in +a pinch! They are as good as men--better than men, for they think +they know less!" + +Fred swiftly gathered himself a company of his own, the older men +electing to follow his lead. Gloria had the cream of the younger +ones--men who in an earlier age would have gone into battle wearing +a woman's glove or handkerchief--twenty or thirty youths blazing +with the fire of youth. Will went hot-foot after her with most of +the English-speaking contingent from the mission schools. Kagig +had the faithful few who had rallied to him from the first--the fighting +men of Zeitoon proper, including all the tough rear-guard who had +sent the warning and remained faithfully in touch with the enemy +until their chief should come. + +That left for me the men who knew no English, and Ephraim was enough +of a politician to see the advantage to himself of deserting Fred's +standard for mine; for Fred could talk Armenian, and give his own +orders, but I needed an interpreter. I welcomed him at the first +exchange of compliments, but met him eye to eye a second later and +began to doubt. + +"I'm going to hold these men in reserve," I told him, "until I know +where they'll do most good. You know this country? Take high ground, +then, where we can overlook what's going on and get into the fight +to best advantage." + +"But the others will get the credit," he began to object. + +"I'll ask Kagig for another interpreter. Wait here." + +At that he yielded the point and explained my orders to the men, +who began to obey them willingly enough. But he went on talking +to them rapidly as we diverged from the path the others had taken +and ascended a trail that wild goats would have reveled in, along +the right flank of where fighting was likely to take place. I did +not doubt he was establishing notions of his own importance, and +with some success. + +Firing commenced away in front and below us within ten minutes of +the start, but it was an hour before I could command the scene with +field-glasses, and ten minutes after that before I could make out +the positions of our people, although the enemy were soon evident--a +long, irregular, ragged-looking line of cavalry thrusting lances +into every hole that could possibly conceal an Armenian, and an almost +equally irregular line of unmounted men in front of them, firing +not very cautiously nor accurately from under random cover. + +It became pretty evident, after studying the positions for about +fifteen minutes and sweeping every contour of the ground through +glasses, that the enemy had no chance whatever of breaking through +unless they could outflank Kagig's line. I held such impregnable +advantage of height and cover and clear view that the men I had with +me were ample to prevent the turning of our right wing. Our left +flank rested on the brawling Jihun River that wound in and out between +the rice fields and the rocky foot-hills. There lay the weakness +of our position, and more than once I caught sight of Kagig spurring +his horse from cover to cover to place his men. Once I thought I +recognized Fred, too, over near the river-bank; but of Will or of +Gloria I saw nothing. + +It was obvious that if reserves were needed anywhere it would be +over on that left flank by the fordable Jihun. Ephraim saw that, +and proceeded to preach it like gospel to the men before consulting +me. Then, arrogant in the consciousness of majority approval, he +came and advised me. + +"Those--ah--hamidieh not coming this--ah--way. We cross over +to--ah--other side. Then Kagig is being pleased with us. I give +orders--yes?" + +He did not propose to wait for my consent, but I detained him with +a hand on his shoulder. It would have taken us two hours to get +into position by the river-bank. + +"Find out how many of the men can ride," I ordered. + +Taken by surprise he called out the inquiry without stopping to discover +my purpose first. It transpired there were seventeen men who had +been accustomed to horseback riding since their youth. That would +leave nine men for another purpose. I separated sheep from goats, +and made over the nine to Ephraim. + +"You and these nine stay here," I ordered, "and hold this flank until +Kagig makes a move." I did not doubt Kagig would fall back on Zeitoon +as soon as he could do that with advantage. Neither did I doubt +Ephraim's ability to spoil my whole plan if he should see fit. Yet +I had to depend on his powers as interpreter. + +There are two ways of relieving a weak wing, and the obvious one +of reenforcing it is not of necessity the best. I could see through +the glasses a bowl of hollow grazing ground in which the dismounted +Kurds had left their horses; and I could count only five men guarding +them. Most of the horses seemed to be tied head to head by the reins, +but some were hobbled and grazing close together. + +"Tell these seventeen men I have chosen that I propose to creep up +to the enemy's horses and steal or else stampede them," I ordered. + +Ephraim hesitated. Glittering eyes betrayed fear to be left out +of an adventure, disgust to see his own advice ignored, and yet that +he was alert to the advantage of being left with a lone command. + +"But we should--ah--cross to the--ah--other side and--ah--help Kagig," +he objected. Perhaps he hoped to build political influence on the +basis of his own account to Kagig afterward of how he had argued +for the saner course. + +"Please explain what I have said--exactly!" + +He continued to hesitate. I could see the Kurdish riflemen responding +to orders from their rear and beginning to concentrate in the direction +of our left wing. Our center, where Gloria and Will were probably +concealed by rocks and foliage, poured a galling fire on them, and +they had to reform, and detach a considerable company to deal with +that; but two-thirds of their number surged toward our left, and +if my plan was to succeed almost the chief element was time. + +"But Kagig will--" + +One of the men had a hide rope, very likely looted from the village +we had burned. I took it from him and tied a running noose in the +end. Then I made the other end fast to the roots of a tree that +had been rain-washed until they projected naked over fifty feet of +sheer rock. + +"Now," I said, "explain what I said, or I'll hang you in sight of +both sides!" + +I wondered whether he would not turn the tables and hang me. I knew +I would not have been willing to lessen Kagig's chances by shooting +any of them if they had decided to take Ephraim's part. But the +politician in the man was uppermost and he did not force the issue. + +"All right, effendi--oh, all right!" he answered, trying to laugh +the matter off. + +"Explain to them, then!" + +I made him do it half a dozen times, for once we were on our way +along the precipitous sides of the hills the only control I should +have would be force of example, aided to some extent by the sort +of primitive signals that pass muster even in a kindergarten. +If they should talk Turkish to me slowly I might understand a little +here and there, but to speak it myself was quite another matter; +and in common with most of their countrymen, though they understood +Turkish perfectly and all that went with it, they would rather eat +dirt than foul their months with the language of the hated conqueror. + +But, once explained, the plan was as obvious as the risk entailed, +and they approved the one as swiftly as they despised the other. +The Kurds below were not oblivious to the risk of reprisals from +the hills, and we spent five minutes picking out the men posted to +keep watch, making careful note of their positions. At the point +where we decided to debouch on to the plain there were two sentries +taking matters fairly easy, and I told off four men to go on ahead +and attend to those as silently as might be. + +Then we started--not close together, for the Kurds would certainly +be looking out for an attack from the hills in force, and would not +be expecting individuals--but one at a time, two Armenians leading, +and the rest of them following me at intervals of more than fifty yards. + +At the moment of starting I gave Ephraim another order, and within +two hours owed my life and that of most of my men to his disobedience. + +"You stay here with your handful, and don't budge except as Kagig +moves his line! Few as you are, you can hold this flank safe if +you stay firm." + +He stayed firm until the last of my seventeen had disappeared around +the corner of the cliff; and five minutes later I caught sight of +him through the glasses, leading his following at top speed downward +along a spur toward the plain. The Kurds on the lookout saw him +too and, concentrating their attention on him, did not notice us +when we dodged at long intervals in full sunlight across the face +of a white rock. + +There was little leading needed; rather, restraining, and no means +of doing it. Instead of keeping the formation in which we started +off, those in the rear began to overtake the men in front and, rather +than disobey the order to keep wide intervals, to extend down the +face of the hill, so that within fifteen minutes we were in wide-spaced +skirmishing order. Then, instead of keeping along the hills, as +I had intended, until we were well to the rear of the Kurdish firing-line, +they turned half-left too soon, and headed in diagonal bee line toward +the horses, those who had begun by leading being last now, and the +last men first. Being shorter-winded than the rest of them and more +tired to begin with, that arrangement soon left me a long way in +the rear, dodging and crawling laboriously and stopping every now +and then to watch the development of the battle. There was little +to see but the flash of rifles; and they explained nothing more +than that the Kurds were forcing their way very close to our center +and left wing. + +Not all the fighting had been done that day under organized leadership. +I stumbled at one place and fell over the dead bodies of a Kurd and +an Armenian, locked in a strangle-hold. That Kurd must have been +bold enough to go pillaging miles in advance of his friends, for +the two had been dead for hours. But the mutual hatred had not died +off their faces, and they lay side by side clutching each other's +throats as if passion had continued after death. + +The sight of Ephraim and his party hurrying across their front toward +Kagig's weak left wing had evidently convinced the Kurds that no +more danger need be expected from their own left. There can have +been no other possible reason why we were unobserved, for the recklessness +of my contingent grew as they advanced closer to the horses, and +from the rear I saw them brain one outpost with a rock and rush in +and knife another with as little regard for concealment as if these +two had been the only Kurds within eagle's view. Yet they were unseen +by the enemy, and five minutes later we all gathered in the shelter +of a semicircle of loose rocks, to regain wind for the final effort. + +"Korkakma!" I panted, using about ten per cent. of my Turkish vocabulary, +and they laughed so loud that I cursed them for a bunch of fools. +But the man nearest me chose to illustrate his feeling for Turks +further by taking the corner of his jacket between thumb and finger +and going through the motions of squeezing off an insect--the last, +most expressive gesture of contempt. + +The horses were within three hundred yards of us. On rising ground +between us and the Kurdish firing-line was a little group of Turkish +officers, and to our right beyond the horses was miscellaneous baggage +under the guard of Kurds, of whom more than half were wounded. I +could see an obviously Greek doctor bandaging a man seated on an +empty ammunition box. + +But our chief danger was from the mounted scoundrels who were so +busy murdering women and children and wounded men half a mile away +to the rear. They had come along working the covert like hunters +of vermin, driving lances into every possible lurking place and no +doubt skewering their own wounded on occasion, for which Armenians +would afterward be blamed. We could hear them chorusing with glee +whenever a lance found a victim, or when a dozen of them gave chase +to some panic-stricken woman in wild flight. Through the glasses +I could see two Turkish officers with them, in addition to their +own nondescript "tin-plate men"; and if officers or men should get +sight of us it was easy to imagine what our fate would be. + +That thought, and knowledge that Gloria Vanderman and Will and Fred +were engaged in an almost equally desperate venture within a mile +of me (evidenced by dozens of wild bullets screaming through the +air) suggested the idea of taking a longer chance than any I had +thought of yet. A moment's consideration brought conviction that +the effort would be worth the risk. Yet I had no way of communicating +with my men! + +I pointed to the Turkish officers clustered together watching the +effort of their firing-line. From where we lay to the horses would +be three hundred yards; from the horses to those officers would +be about two hundred and fifty yards farther at an angle of something +like forty degrees. Counting their orderlies and hangers-on we +outnumbered that party by two to one; and "the fish starts stinking +from the head" as the proverb says. With the head gone, the whole +Kurdish firing-line would begin to be useless. + +I tried my stammering Turkish, but the men were in no mood to be +patient with efforts in that loathly tongue. None of them knew a +word in English. I tried French--Italian--smattering Arabic--but +they only shook their heads, and began to think nervousness was driving +me out of hand. One of them laid a soothing hand on my shoulder, +and repeated what sounded like a prayer. + +To lose the confidence of one's men under such circumstances at that +stage of the game was too much. I grew really rattled, and at random, +as a desperate man will I stammered off what I wanted to say in the +foreign tongue that I knew best, regardless of the fact that Armenians +are not black men, and that there is not even a trace of connection +between their language and anything current in Africa. Zanzibar +and Armenia are as far apart as Australia and Japan, with about as +much culture in common. + +To my amazement a man answered in fluent Kiswahili! He had traded +for skins in some barbarous district near the shore of Victoria Nyanza, +and knew half a dozen Bantu languages. In a minute after that we +had the plan well understood and truly laid; and, what was better, +they had ceased to believe me a victim of nerves--a fact that gave +me back the nerve that had been perilously close to vanishing. + +We paid no more attention to the firing-line, nor to the mounted +Kurds who were drawing the coverts nearer and nearer to us. It was +understood that we were to sacrifice ourselves for our friends, and +do the utmost damage possible before being overwhelmed. We shook +hands solemnly. Two or three men embraced each other. The five +who by common consent were reckoned the best rifle shots lay down +side by side with me among the rocks, and the remainder began crawling +out one by one on their stomachs toward the horses, with instructions +to take wide open order as quickly as possible, with the idea of +making the Kurds believe our numbers were greater than they really were. + +When I judged they were half-way toward the horses we six opened +fire on the Turkish officers. And every single one of us missed! +At the sound of our volley the devoted horse-thieves rose to their +feet and rushed on the horse-guards, forgetting to fire on them from +sheer excitement, and as a matter of fact one of them was shot dead +by a horse-guard before the rest remembered they had deadly weapons +of their own. + +I remedied the first outrageous error to a slight extent by killing +the Turkish colonel's orderly, missing the commander himself by almost +a yard. My five men all missed with their second shots, and then +it was too late to pull off the complete coup we had dared to hope +for. The entire staff took cover, and started a veritable hail of +fire with their repeating pistols, all aimed at us, and aimed as +wildly as our own shots had been. + +Meanwhile the mounted Kurds at the rear had heard the firing and +were coming on full pelt, yelling like red Indians. I could see, +in the moment I snatched for a hurried glance in that direction, +that the purpose of cutting loose and stampeding the horses was being +accomplished; but even that comparatively simple task required time, +and as the Kurds galloped nearer, the horses grew as nervous as the +men who sought to loose them. + +But conjecture and all caution were useless to us six bent on attacking +the colonel and his staff. We crawled out of cover and advanced, +stopping to fire one or two shots and then scrambling closer, giving +away our own paucity of numbers, but increasing the chance of doing +damage with each yard gained. And our recklessness had the additional +advantage of making the staff reckless too. The colonel kept in +close hiding, but the rest of them began dodging from place to place +in an effort to outflank us from both sides, and I saw four of them +bowled over within a minute. Then the remainder lay low again, and +we resumed the offensive. + +The next thing I remember was hearing a wild yell as our party seized +a horse apiece and galloped off in front of the oncoming Kurds--straight +toward Kagig's firing-line. That, and the yelling of the horsemen +in pursuit drew the attention of the riflemen attacking Kagig to +the fact that most of their horses were running loose and that there +was imminent danger to their own rear. I only had time to get a +glimpse of them breaking back, for the Turkish colonel got my range +and sent a bullet ripping down the length of the back of my shooting +jacket. That commenced a duel----he against me--each missing as +disgracefully as if we were both beginners at the game of life or +death, and I at any rate too absorbed to be aware of anything but +my own plight and of oceans of unexplained noise to right and left. +I knew there were galloping horses, and men yelling; but knowledge +that the Turkish military rifle I was using must be wrongly sighted, +and that my enemy had no such disadvantage, excluded every other +thought. + +I had used about half the cartridges in my bandolier when a Kurd's +lance struck me a glancing blow on the back of the head. His horse +collapsed on top of me, as some thundering warrior I did not see +gave the stupendous finishing stroke to rider and beast at once. + +There followed a period of semi-consciousness filled with enormous +clamor, and upheavings, and what might have been earthquakes for +lack of any other reasonable explanation, for I felt myself being +dragged and shaken to and fro. Then, as the weight of the fallen +horse was rolled aside there surged a tide of blissful relief that +carried me over the border of oblivion. + +When I recovered my senses I was astride of Rustum Khan's mare, with +a leather thong around my shoulders and the Rajput's to keep me from +falling. We were proceeding at an easy walk in front of a squadron +of ragged-looking irregulars whom I did not recognize, toward the +center of the position Kagig had held. Kagig's men were no longer +in hiding, but standing about in groups; and presently I caught +sight of Fred and Will and Kagig standing together, but not Gloria +Vanderman. A cough immediately behind us made me turn my head. +The Turkish colonel, who had fought the ridiculously futile duel +with me, was coming along at the mare's tail with his hands tied +behind him and a noose about his neck made fast to one of the +saddle-rings. + +"Much obliged, Rustum Khan!" I said by way of letting him know I +was alive. "How did you get here?" + +"Ha, sahib! Not going to die, then? That is good! I came because +Colonel Lord Montdidier sahib sent me with a squadron of these mountain +horsemen--fine horsemen they are--fit by the breath of Allah to draw +steel at a Rajput's back!" + +"He sent you to find me?" + +"Ha, sahib. To rescue you alive if that were possible." + +"How did he know where I was?" + +"An Armenian by name of Ephraim came and said you had gone over to +the Turks. Certain men he had with him corroborated, but three of +his party kept silence. My lord sahib answered 'I have hunted, and +camped, and fought beside that man--played and starved and feasted +with him. No more than I myself would he go over to Turks. He must +have seen an opportunity to make trouble behind the Turks' backs. +Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib, obeyed +my lord bahadur's orders." + +"Where is Lord Montdidier now?" + +"Who knows, sahib. Wherever the greatest need at the moment is." + +"Tell me what has happened." + +"You did well, sahib. The loosing of the horses and the shooting +behind their backs put fear into the Kurds. They ceased pressing +on our left wing. And I--watching from behind cover on the right +wing--snatched that moment to outflank them, so that they ran pell-mell. +Then I saw the mounted Kurds charging up from the rear, and guessed +at once where you were, sahib. The Kurds were extended, and my men +in close order, so I charged and had all the best of it, arriving +by God's favor in the nick of time for you, sahib. Then I took this +colonel prisoner. Only once in my life have I seen a greater pile +than his of empty cartridge cases beside one man. That was the pile +beside you, sahib! How many men did you kill, and he kill? And +who buried them?" + +"Where is Miss Vanderman?" I asked, turning the subject. + +"God knows! What do I know of women? Only I know this: that there +is a gipsy woman bred by Satan out of sin itself, who will make things +hot for any second filly in this string! Woe and a woman are one!" + +Not caring to listen to the Indian's opinions of the other sex any +more than he would have welcomed mine about the ladies of his own +land, I made out my injuries were worse than was the case, and groaned +a little, and grew silent. + +So we rode without further conversation up to where Fred and Will +were standing with Kagig, and as I tumbled off into Fred's arms I +was greeted with a chorus of welcome that included Gloria's voice. + +"That's what I call using your bean!" she laughed, in the slangy +way she had whenever Will had the chance to corrupt her Boston manners. + +"It feels baked," I said. "I used it to stop a Kurd's lance with. +Hullo! What's the matter with you?" + +"I stopped a bullet with my forearm!" + +She was sitting in a sort of improvised chair between two dwarfed +tree-trunks, and if ever I saw a proud young woman that was she. +She wore the bloody bandage like a prize diploma. + +"And I've seen your friend Monty, and he's better than the accounts +of him!" + +I glanced at Will, alert for a sign of jealousy. + +"Monty is the one best bet!" he said. And his eyes were generous +and level, as a man's who tells the whole truth. + + + + +Chapter Fourteen +"Rajput, I shall hang you if you make more trouble!" + + +"LO, THIS IS THE MAN--" + (Psalm 52) + +Choose, ye forefathers of to-morrow, choose! +These easy ways there be +Uncluttered by the wrongs each other bears, +And warmly we shall walk who can not see +How thin some other fellow's garment wears, +Nor need to notice whose. + +Choose, ye stock-owners in to-morrow, choose! +The road these others tread +Is littered deep with jetsam and the bones +Of their dishonored dead. +What altruism for defeat atones? +Have ye not much to lose? + +Choose, ye inheritors of ages, choose! +What owe ye to the past? +The burly men who Magna Charta wrung +From tyranny entrenched would stand aghast +To see the ripples from that stone they flung, +They, too, had selfish views. + +Choose, ye investors in the future, choose! +Ye need pick cautious odds; +To-morrow's fruit is seeded down to-day, +And unwise purpose like the unknown gods +Tempts on a wasteful way. +"Ware well what guide ye use! + +We went and bivouacked by the brawling Jihun under a roof of thatch, +whose walls were represented by more or less upright wooden posts +and debris; for Kagig would not permit anything to stand even for +an hour that Turks could come and fortify. None of us believed that +the repulse of that handful of Kurdish plunderers and the capture +of a Turkish colonel would be the end of hostilities--rather the +beginning. + +Kagig, when Gloria asked him what he proposed to do with Rustum Khan's +prisoner, smiled cynically and ordered him searched by two of the +Zeitoonli standing guard. Rustum Khan was standing just out of low +ear-shot absorbed in contemplation of the lie of the country. I +noticed that Fred began to look nervous, but he did not say anything. +Will was too busy fussing with Gloria's wound, making a new bandage +for it and going through the quite unnecessary motions of keeping +up her spirits, to observe any other phenomena. An Armenian woman +named Anna, who had attached herself to Gloria because, she said, +her husband and children had been killed and she might as well serve +as weep, sat watching the two of them with quiet amusement. + +The Turk offered no further objection than a shrug of his fatalist +shoulders and a muttered remark about Ermenie and bandits. Even +when the mountaineers laughed at the chink of stolen money in all +his pockets he did not exhibit a trace of shame. They shook him, +and pawed him, and poured out gold in little heaps on the ground +(out of the magnanimity of his official heart he had doubtless left +all silver coin for his hamidieh to pouch); but Kagig only had eyes +for the papers they pulled out of his inner pocket and tossed away. +He pounced on them. + +"Hah!" he laughed. "There! Did I tell you? These are his +orders--signed by a governor's secretary--countersigned by the governor +himself--to 'set forth with his troops and rescue Armenians in the +Zeitoon district.' Rescue them! Have you seen? Did you observe +his noble rescue work? Here--see the orders for yourselves! Observe +how the Stamboulis propose to prove their innocence after the event!" + +Since they were written in Turkish they were of no conceivable use +to any one but Fred and Rustum Khan. Fred glanced over them, and +shouted to Rustum Khan to come and look. That was a mistake, for +it called the Rajput's attention to what had been happening to his +prisoner. He came striding toward us with his black beard bristling +and eyes blazing with anger. + +"Who searched him?" he demanded. + +"He was searched by my order," Kagig answered in the calm level voice +that in a man of such spirit was prophetic of explosion. + +"Who gave thee leave to order him searched, Armenian?" + +"I left you his money," Kagig answered with biting scorn, pointing +to the little heaps of gold coin on the ground. + +I had no means of knowing what peaks of friction had already been +attained between the two, and it was not likely that I should instantly +choose sides against the man who within the hour had saved my life +at peril of his own. But Will saw matters in another light, and +Fred began humming through his nose. Will left Gloria and walked +straight up to Rustum Khan. He had managed to shave himself with +cold Jihun water and some laundry soap, and his clean jaw suggested +standards set up and sworn to since ever they gave the name of Yankee +to men possessed by certain high ideals. + +"Kagig needs no leave from any one to order prisoners searched!" +he said, shaping each word distinctly. + +Rustum Khan spluttered, and kicked at a heap of coin. + +"Perhaps you have bargained for your share of all loot? I have heard +that in America men--" + +'Rajput!" said Kagig, looking down on him from slightly higher ground, +"I will hang you if you make more trouble!" + +At that I interfered. I was not the only one in Rustum Khan's debt; +it was likely his brilliant effort at the critical moment had saved +our whole fighting line. Besides, I saw the Turk grinning to himself +with satisfaction at the rift in our good will. + +"Suppose we refer this dispute to Monty," I proposed, reasoning that +if it should ever get as far as Monty, tempers would have died away +meanwhile. Not that Monty could not have handled the problem, tempers +and all. + +"I refer no points of honor," growled the Rajput. "I have been +insulted." + +"Rot!" exclaimed Fred, getting to his feet. When his usually neat +beard has not been trimmed for a day or two he looks more truculent +than he really is. "I've been listening. The insolence was on the +other side." + +"Do you deny Kagig's right to question prisoners?" I asked, thinking +I saw a way out of the mess. + +"Can I not question him?" Rustum Khan turned on me with a gesture +that made it clear he held me to no friendship on account of +service rendered. + +He strode toward his prisoner, with heaven knows what notion in his +head, but Fred interposed himself. The likeliest thing at that moment +was a blow by one or the other that would have banished any chance +of a returning reign of reason. Rustum Khan turned his back to the +Turk and thrust out his chest toward Fred as if daring him to strike. +Even the kites seemed to expect bloodshed and circled nearer. + +It was Gloria who cut the Gordian knot. It was her unwounded hand, +not Fred's, that touched the Rangar's breast. + +"Rustum Khan," she said, "I think better of you than to believe you +would take advantage of our ignorance. You're a soldier. We are +only civilians trying to help a tortured nation. We know nothing +of Rajput customs. Won't you go to Lord Montdidier and tell him +about it, and ask him to decide? We'll all obey Monty, you know." + +Rustum Khan looked down at her bandaged wrist, and then into violet +eyes that were not in the least degree afraid of him but only looking +diligently for the honor he so boasted. + +"Who can refuse a beautiful young woman?" he said, beginning to melt. +But he refused to meet her eyes again, or even to acknowledge +our existence. + +"I give you the prisoner!" He made her a motion of arrogant extravagance +with his right hand as if performing the act of transfer. Then he +turned on his heel with a little simultaneous mock salute, and striding +to his bay mare, mounted and rode away. + +Kagig took over the prisoner at once without comment and began to +question him under a tree twenty yards away, paying no attention +to the riflemen who matched one another, laughing, for the plundered +money. We four went back to the shelter of the thatch roof, for the +plan was to remain behind with the company of Zeitoonli whom Kagig +had placed carefully at vantage points, and give stragglers a chance +to save themselves before we resumed the journey to Zeitoon. + +Naturally enough, Rustum Khan and his fiery unreason was the subject +we discussed, and Fred laid law down as to how he should be dealt +with whenever the chance should come to bring him to book. But Rustum +Khan was a bagatelle compared to what was coming, if we had only +known it. While we talked I saw Gregor Jhaere, the attaman of gipsies, +ride down the track on a brown mule and dismount within ten yards +of Kagig. He hobbled his mule, and went and sat close by Kagig and +the Turk, engaging in a three-cornered talk with them. Kagig seemed +to have expected him, for there was no sign of greeting or surprise. + +There was nothing disturbing about Gregor's arrival on the scene; +he was evidently helping Kagig to cross-examine the Turk and check +up facts. Within their limits gipsies are about the best spies +obtainable because of their ability to take advantage of credulity +and their own immeasurable unbelief in protest or appearances. It +was the individual who followed Gregor at a distance, and dismounted +from a gray stallion quite a long way off in order not to draw attention +to herself, who made my blood turn cold. I caught sight of Maga Jhaere +first because the others had their backs toward her. Then the expression +of my face brought Fred to his feet. By that time Magi had vanished +out of view unaware that any one had seen her, creeping like a +pantheress from rock to rock. + +"What's the matter?" Fred demanded, sitting down again, ill-tempered +with himself for being startled. + +"Maga Jhaere!" + +"How exciting!" said Gloria. "I'm crazy to meet her." + +But Will looked less excited and more anxious than I had ever seen +him, and we all three laughed. + +"All right!" he said. "I tell you it's no joke. That woman believes +she's got her hooks in." + +We tried to go on talking naturally, but lapsed into uncomfortable +silence as the minutes dragged by and no Maga put in her appearance. +Fred began humming through his nose again in that ridiculous way +that he thinks seems unconcerned, but that makes his best friends +yearn to smite him hip and thigh. + +"I guess you were mistaken," Will said at last, spreading out his +shoulders with relief at the mere suggestion. But I was facing the +direction of Zeitoon, as he was not, and again the expression of +my face betrayed the facts. + +There were two large stones leaning together, with a small triangular +gap between them, less than thirty feet from where we sat. In that +gap I could see a pair of eyes, and nothing else. They had almost +exactly the expression of a panther's that is stalking, not its quarry, +but its mortal foe. In spite of having seen Maga approaching, I +would have believed them an animal's eyes, only that from experience +I knew an animal's eyes betray fear and anger without reason, whereas +these blazed with the desperate reasoning that holds fear in contempt. +Panthers can hate, be afraid, sweep fear aside with anger, and plan +painstakingly for murderous attack; but it is only behind human +eyes that one may recognize the murder--purpose based on argument. + +"I see her," I said. "I suspect she's got a pistol, and--" + +I had not known until that moment that the short hair was standing +up the back of my head, but I felt it go down with a creepy cold +chill as I spoke. Then once more it rose. Knowing she was seen +and recognized, Maga got to her feet and stood on the larger of the +two stones, looking down on us. Her hands were on her hips, and +I could see no weapon, but her lips moved in voiceless imprecation. + +"Are you Maga Jhaere?" asked Gloria, first of us all to recover some +measure of self-command. + +Maga nodded. She was barefooted, clothed only in bodice and leather +jacket and a rather short ochre-colored skirt that blew in the gaining +wind and showed the outline of her lithe young figure. Her long +black hair billowed and galloped in the wind behind her. + +"I am Maga Jhaere," she said slowly, addressing Gloria. "Who +are you?" + +"My name is Gloria Vanderman." + +"And that man beside you--who is he?" + +Gloria did not answer. Will looked more embarrassed than the devil +caught in daylight, and Fred recovered his mental equilibrium +sufficiently to chuckle. + +"Is he your husband?" + +"No." + +"Then what you want with 'im?" + +No one said a word. Only, Fred made a movement with his hand behind +him that Maga noticed and spurned with a toss of her chin. + +"You coming to Zeitoon?" + +Gloria nodded. Glancing over toward Kagig I saw that he was aware +of Maga and was watching her out of the corner of his eye while he +talked with Gregor and the Turk. They were both getting angry with +the Turk and using gestures suggestive of impending agony by way +of emphasis. The Turk was growing fidgety. + +Maga spread her arms out as if she were embracing all the universe +and called it hers. + +"Then--if you ar-re coming to Zeitoon--you choose first a 'usband. +There are--many 'usbands. Some 'ave lost a wife--some 'ave sick +wife--some not yet never 'ad no wife. Plenty Armenians--also two +other men there--but you let that one--Will--alone! Choose a +'usband--marry,'im--then you come to Zeitoon! If you come without +a 'usband--I will keel you--do you understand?" + +"Now then, America!" grinned Fred in a stage aside that Maga could +hear as clearly as if it had been intended for her. "Let's see the +eagle scream for liberty!" + +"Eagle scream?" said Maga, almost screaming herself. "What you know +about eagles? You ol' fool! That man Will is thinking you ar-re +'is frien'. You ar-re not 'is frien'! Let 'im come with me, an' +I will show 'im what ar-re eagles--what is freedom--what is +knowledge--what is life! I know. You ol' fool, you not know! You +ol' fool, you marry that woman--then you can bring 'er to Zeitoon an' +she is safe! Otherwise--" + +She reached in the bosom of her blouse and drew out, not the +mother-o'-pearl-plated pistol that I feared, but a knife with an +eighteen-inch blade of glittering steel. Instantly Fred covered +her with his own repeater, but she laughed in his face. + +"You ol' fool, you ar-re afraid to shoot me!" + +If she meant that Fred would feel squeamish about shooting before +she hurled the knife, then she was certainly right. But she knew +better than to make one preliminary motion. And Kagig knew better +than to permit further pleasantries. I saw him whisper to Gregor, +and the gipsy attaman started on hands and knees to creep round behind +her. But Maga's eyes were practised like those of all other wild +creatures in detecting movement behind her as well as in front. +She spat, and gave vent to a final ultimatum. + +"You 'ave 'eard. I said--you let that man Will Yerr-kees alone! +An' don't you dare come to Zeitoon without a 'usband!" + +Then she turned and dodged Gregor, and ran for her gray stallion--mounted +the savage brute with a leap from six feet away, and rode like the +wind toward the gut of the pass that shut off Zeitoon from our view. +A minute later a shell from a small-bore cannon screamed overhead, +and burst a hundred yards beyond us on a sheet of rock. + +"Not bad for a ranging shot!" said Fred, suddenly as self-possessed +as if the world never held such a thing as an untamed woman. + +"Observe, you sportmen all!" Kagig exclaimed, getting to his feet. +"The Turkish nobility are proceeding to rescue poor Armenians. Behold, +their charity comes even from the cannon's mouth! It is time to +go now, lest it overtake us! No cannon can come in sight of Zeitoon. +Follow me." + +With his usual sudden oblivion of everything but the main objective +Kagig mounted and rode away, followed by Gregor in charge of the +prisoner, and by a squadron or so of mounted Zeitoonli who attempted +no formation but came cantering as each detachment realized that +their leader was on the move. We found ourselves last, without an +armed man between us and the enemy, although without a doubt there +were still dozens of fugitive poor wretches who had not had the +courage or perhaps the strength to overtake us yet. + +Kagig had had the forethought to leave comparatively fresh mules +for us to ride, and there was not any particular reason for hurry. +Will went ahead, with Gloria and Anna beside him on one mule--Gloria +laughing him out of countenance because of his nervousness on her +account, but he insistent on the danger in case of repeated gun-fire. +Fred rode slowly beside me in the rear, for we still hoped to encourage +a few stray fugitives to come out of their hiding holes and follow +us to safety. + +A second cannon shot, not nearly so well aimed as the first had been, +went screaming over toward our left and landed without bursting among +low bushes. A third and a fourth followed it, and the last one did +explode. That was plainly too much for some one who had dodged into +hiding when the second shot fell; we saw him come rushing out from +cover like a lunatic, unconscious of direction and only intent on +shielding the top of his head with his hands. + +"Is the poor devil hurt?" I said, wondering. But Fred broke into +a roar of laughter; and he is not a heartless man--merely gifted +more than usual with the hunter's eye that recognizes sex and species +of birds and animals at long range. I can see farther than Fred +can, but at recognizing details swiftly I am a blind bat compared +to him. + +"The martyred biped!" he laughed. "Peter Measel by the God +of happenings!" + +We rode over toward him, and Peter it was, running with his eyes +shut. He screamed when we stopped him, and sobbed instead of talking +when we pulled him in between our mules and offered him two stirrup +leathers to hold. He seemed to think that standing between the mules +would protect him from the artillery fire, and as we were not in +any hurry we took advantage of that delusion to let him recover a +modicum of nerve. + +And the moment that began to happen he was the same sweet Peter Measel +with the same assurance of every other body's wickedness and his +own divinity, only with something new in his young life to add poignancy. + +"What were you doing there?" demanded Fred, as we got him to towing +along between us at last. + +"I was looking for her." + +"For whom?" + +"For Maga Jhaere." + +Fred allowed his ribs to shake in silent laughter that annoyed the +mule, and we had to catch Measel all over again because the beast's +crude objections filled the martyred biped full of the desire to run. + +"Somebody must save that girl!" he panted. "And who else can do +it? Who else is there?" + +"There's only you!" Fred agreed, choking down his mirth. + +"I'm glad you agree with me. At least you have that much blessedness, +Mr. Fred. D'you know that girl was willing to be a murderess? Yes! +She tried to murder Rustum Khan. Rustum Khan ought to be hanged, +for he is a villain--a black villain! But she must not have blood +on her hands--no, no!" + +"Why didn't she murder him?" demanded Fred. "Qualms at the last moment?" + +"No. I'm sorry to say no. She has no God-likeness yet. But that +will come. She will repent. I shall see to that. It was I who +prevented her, and she all but murdered me! She would have murdered +me, but Kagig held her wrist; and to punish her he gave an order +that I should preach to her morning, afternoon, and evening--three +times a day. So I had my opportunity. There was a guard of gipsy +women set to see that she obeyed." + +"Continue," said Fred. "What happened?" + +"She broke away, and came down to see the fighting." + +"Why did you follow her? Weren't you afraid?" + +"Oh, Mr. Fred, if you only knew! Yet I felt impelled to find her. +I could not trust her out of sight." + +"Why not? She seems fairly well able to look after herself." + +"Oh, I can not allow wickedness. I must make it to cease! It entered +my head that she intended to find Kagig!" + +"Well? Why not?" + +"Oh, Mr. Fred--tell me! You may know--you perhaps as well as any +one, for you are such an ungodly man! What are her relations with +Kagig? Does he--is he--is there wickedness between them?" + +"Dashed if I know. She's a gipsy. He's a fine half-savage. Why +should it concern you?" + +"Oh, I could not endure it! It would break my heart to believe it!" + +"Then why think about it?" + +"How can I help it? I love her! Oh, I love her, Mr. Fred! I never +loved a woman in all my life before. It would break my heart if +she were to be betrayed into open sin by Kagig! Oh, what shall I +do? What shall I do? I love her! What shall I do?" + +"Do?" said Fred, looking forward in imagination to new worlds of +humor, "why--make love, if you love her! Make hot love and strong!" + +"Will you help me, Mr. Fred?" the biped stammered. "You see, she's +rather wild--a little unconventional--and I've never made love even +to a sempstress. Will you help me?" + +"Certainly!" Fred chuckled. "Certainly. I'll guarantee to marry +her to you if you'll dig up the courage. Have you a ring?" + +Peter Measel produced a near-gold ring with a smirk almost of +recklessness, a plain gold ring whose worn appearance called to mind +the finger taken from a dead Kurd's cartridge pouch. It may be that +Measel bought it, but neither Fred nor I spoke to him again, for +half an hour. + + + + +Chapter Fifteen +"Scenery to burst the heart!" + + +THE REBEL'S HYMN + +The seeds that swell within enwrapping mould, +Gray buds that color faintly in the northing sun, +Deep roots that lengthen after winter's rest, +The flutter of year's youth in April's breast +As young leaves in the warming hour unfold-- +These and my heart are one! + +Go dam the river-course with carted earth; +Or bind with iron bands that riven stone +That century on century has slept +Until into its heart a tendril crept, +And in the quiet majesty of birth +New nature broke into her own! +Or bid the sun stand still! Or fashion wings +To herd the heaven's stars and make them be +Subservient to will and rule and whim! +Or rein the winds, and still the ocean's hymn! +More surely ye shall manage all these things +Than chain the Life in me! + +Great mountains shedding the reluctant snow, +Vision of the finish of the thing begun, +Spirit of the beauty of the torrent's song, +Unconquerable peal of carillon, +And secrets that in conquest overflow-- +These and my heart are one! + + +Yet another night we were destined to spend on the Zeitoon road, +for we had not the heart to leave behind us the stragglers who balked +fainting in the gut of the pass. Some were long past the stage where +anything less than threats could make impression on them, and only +able to go forward in a dull dream at the best. But there were numbers +of both men and women unexpectedly capable of extremes of heroism, +who took the burden of misery upon themselves and exhibited high +spirits based on no evident excuse. Nothing could overwhelm those, +nothing discourage them. + +"To Zeitoon!" somebody shouted, as if that were the very war-cry +of the saints of God. Then in a splendid bass voice he began to +sing a hymn, and some women joined him. So Fred Oakes fell to his +old accustomed task, and played them marching accompaniments on his +concertina until his fingers ached and even he, the enthusiast, loathed +the thing's bray. In one way and another a little of the pall of +misery was lifted. + +Kagig sent us down bread and yoghourt at nightfall, so that those +who had lived thus far did not die of hunger. Women brought the +food on their heads in earthen crocks--splendid, good-looking women +with fearless eyes, who bore the heavy loads as easily as their mountain +men-folk carried rifles. They did not stay to gossip, for we had +no news but the stale old story of murder and plunder; and their +news was short and to the point. + +"Come along to Zeitoon!" was the burden of it, carried with a singsong +laugh. "Zeitoon is ready for anything!" + +Before we had finished eating, each two of them gathered up a poor +wretch from our helpless crowd and strode away into the mountains +with a heavier load than that they brought. + +"Come along to Zeitoon!" they called back to us. But even Fred's +concertina, and the hymns of the handful who were not yet utterly +spent, failed to get them moving before dawn. + +We did not spend the night unguarded, although no armed men lay between +us and the enemy. We could hear the Kurds shouting now and then, +and once, when I climbed a high rock, I caught sight of the glow +of their bivouac fires. Imagination conjured up the shrieks of tortured +victims, for we had all seen enough of late to know what would happen +to any luckless straggler they might have caught and brought to make +sport by the fires. But there was no imagination about the calls +of Kagig's men, posted above us on invisible dark crags and ledges +to guard against surprise. We slept in comfortable consciousness +that a sleepless watch was being kept--until fleas came out of the +ground by battalions, divisions and army corps, making rest impossible. + +But even the flea season was a matter of indifference to the hapless +folk who lay around us, and although we fussed and railed we could +not persuade them to go forward before dawn broke. Then, though, +they struggled to their feet and started without argument. But an +hour after the start we reached the secret of the safety of Zeitoon, +without which not even the valor of its defenders could have withstood +the overwhelming numbers of the Turks for all those scores of years; +and there was new delay. + +The gut of the pass rose toward Zeitoon at a sharp incline--a ramp +of slippery wet clay, half a mile long, reaching across from buttress +to buttress of the impregnable hills. It was more than a ridden +mule could do to keep its feet on the slope, and we had to dismount. +It was almost as much as we ourselves could do to make progress with +the aid of sticks, and we knew at last what Kagig had meant by his +boast that nothing on wheels could approach his mountain home. The +poor wretches who had struggled so far with us simply gave up hope +and sat down, proposing to die there. The martyred biped copied +them, except that they were dry-eyed and he shed tears. "To think +that I should come to this--that I should come to this!" he sobbed. +Yet the fool must have come down by that route, and have gone up +that way once. + +We should have been in a quandary but for the sound of axes ringing +in the mountain forest on our left--a dense dark growth of pine and +other evergreens commencing about a hundred feet above the naked +rock that formed the northerly side of the gorge. Where there were +axes at work there was in all likelihood a road that men could march +along, and our refugees sat down to let us do the prospecting. + +"It would puzzle Napoleon to bring cannon over this approach, and +the Turks don't breed Napoleons nowadays!" Fred shouted cheerily. +"Give me a hundred good men and I'll hold this pass forever! Wait +here while I scout for a way round." + +He tried first along the lower edge of the line of timber, encouraged +by ringing axes, falling trees, and men shouting in the distance. + +"It looks as if there once had been a road here," he shouted down +to us, "but nothing less than fire would clear it now, and everything +is sopping wet. I never saw such a tangle of roots and rocks. A +dog couldn't get thought!" + +Will volunteered to cross to the right-hand side and hunt over there +for a practicable path. Gloria stayed beside me, and I had my first +opportunity to talk with her alone. She was very pale from the effects +of the wound in her wrist, which was painful enough to draw her young +face and make her eyes burn feverishly. Even so, one realized that +as an old woman she would still be beautiful. + +I watched the eagles for a minute or two, wondering what to say to +her, and she did not seem to object to silence, so that I forced +an opening at last as clumsily as Peter Measel might have done it. + +"What is it about Will that makes all women love him?" I asked her. + +"Oh, do they all love him?" + +"Looks like it!" said I. + +She still wore the bandolier they had stripped from the man with +the bandaged feet, although Will had relieved her of the rifle's +weight. To the bottom of the bandolier she had tied the little bag +of odds and ends without which few western women will venture a mile +from home. Opening that she produced a small round mirror about +twice the size of a dollar piece, and offered it to me with a smile +that disarmed the rebuke. + +"Perhaps it's his looks," she suggested. + +I took the mirror and studied what I saw in it. In spite of a cracking +headache due to that and the gaining sun (for I had lost my hat when +the Kurd rode me down with his lance) the episode of Rustum Khan +carrying me back out of death's door on his bay mare had not lingered +in memory. There had been too much else to think about. Now for +the first time I realized how near that lance-point must have come +to finishing the chapter for me. I had washed in the Jihun when +we bivouacked, but had not shaved; later on, my scalp had bled anew, +so that in addition to unruly hair tousled and matted with dry blood +I had a week-old beard to help make me look like a graveyard ghoul. + +"I beg pardon!" I said simply, handing her the mirror back. + +At that she was seized with regret for the unkindness, and utterly +forgot that I had blundered like a bullock into the sacred sanctuary +of her newborn relationship to Will. + +"Oh, I don't know which of you is best!" she said, taking my hand +with her unbandaged one. "You are great unselfish splendid men. +Will has told me all about you! The way you have always stuck to +your friend Monty through thick and thin--and the way you are following +him now to help these tortured people--oh, I know what you are--Will +has told me, and I'm proud--" + +The embarrassment of being told that sort of thing by a young and +very lovely woman, when newly conscious of dirt and blood and +half-inch-long red whiskers, was apparently not sufficient for the +mirth of the exacting gods of those romantic hills. There came +interruption in the form of a too-familiar voice. + +"Oh, that's all right, you two! Make the most of it! Spoon all +you want to! My girl's in the clutches of an outlaw! Kiss her if +you want to--I won't mind!" + +I dropped her hand as if it were hot lead. As a matter of fact I +had hardly been conscious of holding it. + +"Oh, no, don't mind me!" continued the "martyred biped" in a tone +combining sarcasm, envy and impudence. + +"Shall I kill him?" I asked. + +"No! no!" she said. "Don't be violent--don't--" + +Peter Measel, whom we had inevitably utterly forgotten, was sitting +up with his back propped against a stone and his legs stretched straight +in front of him, enjoying the situation with all the curiosity of +his unchastened mind. I hove a lump of clay at him, but missed, +and the effort made my headache worse. + +"If you think you can frighten me into silence you're mistaken!" +he sneered, getting up and crawling behind the rock to protect himself. +But it needed more than a rock to hide him from the fury that took +hold of me and sent me in pursuit in spite of Gloria's remonstrance. + +Viewed as revenge my accomplishment was pitiful, for I had to chase +the poor specimen for several minutes, my headache growing worse +at every stride, and he yelling for mercy like a cur-dog shown the +whip, while the Armenians--women and little children as well as +men--looked on with mild astonishment and Gloria objected volubly. +He took to the clay slope at last in hope that his light weight would +give him the advantage; and there at last I caught him, and clapped +a big gob of clay in his mouth to stop his yelling. + +Even viewed as punishment the achievement did not amount to much. +I kicked him down the clay slope, and he was still blubbering and +picking dirt out of his teeth when Will shouted that he had found +a foot-track. + +"Do you understand why you've been kicked?" I demanded. + +"Yes. You're afraid I'll tell Mr. Yerkes!" + +"Oh, leave him!" said Gloria. "I'm sorry you touched him. Let's go!" + +"It was as much your fault as his, young woman!" snarled the biped, +getting crabwise out of my reach. "You'll all be sorry for this before +I'm through with you!" + +I was sorry already, for I had had experience enough of the world +to know that decency and manners are not taught to that sort of specimen +in any other way than by letting him go the length of his disgraceful +course. Carking self-contempt must be trusted to do the business +for him in the end. Gloria was right in the first instance. I should +have let him alone. + +However, it was not possible to take his threat seriously, and more +than any man I ever met he seemed to possess the knack of falling +out of mind. One could forget him more swiftly than the birds forget +a false alarm. I don't believe any of us thought of him again until +that night in Zeitoon. + +The path Will had discovered was hardly a foot wide in places, and +mules could only work their way along by rubbing hair off their flanks +against the rock wall that rose nearly sheer on the right hand. +From the point of view of an invading army it was no approach at all, +for one man with a rifle posted on any of the overhanging crags could +have held it against a thousand until relieved. It was a mystery +why Kagig, or some one else, had not left a man at the foot of the +clay slope to tell us about this narrow causeway; but doubtless +Kagig had plenty to think about. + +He and most of his men had gone struggling up the clay slope, as +we could tell by the state of the going. But they were old hands +at it and knew the trick of the stuff. We had all our work cut out +to shepherd our poor stragglers along the track Will found, and even +the view of Zeitoon when we turned round the last bend and saw the +place jeweled in the morning mist did not do much to increase the speed. + +As Kagig had once promised us, it was "scenery to burst the heart!" +Not even the Himalayas have anything more ruggedly beautiful to show, +glistening in mauve and gold and opal, and enormous to the eye because +the summits all look down from over blowing cloud-banks. + +There were moss-grown lower slopes, and waterfalls plunging down +wet ledges from the loins of rain-swept majesty; pine trees looming +blue through a soft gray fog, and winds whispering to them, weeping +to them, moving the mist back and forth again; shadows of clouds +and eagles lower yet, moving silently on sunny slopes. And up above +it all was snow-dazzling, pure white, shading off into the cold blue +of infinity. + +Men clad in goat-skin coats peered down at us from time to time from +crags that looked inaccessible, shouting now and then curt recognition +before leaning again on a modern rifle to resume the ancient vigil +of the mountaineer, which is beyond the understanding of the +plains-man because it includes attention to all the falling water +voices, and the whispering of heights and deeps. + +We came on Zeitoon suddenly, rising out of a gorge that was filled +with ice, or else a raging torrent, for six months of the year. +Over against the place was a mountainside so exactly suggesting painted +scenery that the senses refused to believe it real, until the roar +and thunder of the Jihun tumbling among crags dinned into the ears +that it was merely wonderful, and not untrue. + +The one approach from the southward--that gorge up which we trudged--was +overlooked all along its length by a hundred inaccessible +fastnesses from which it seemed a handful of riflemen could have +disputed that right of way forever. The only other line of access +that we could see was by a wooden bridge flung from crag to crag +three hundred feet high across the Jihun; and the bridge was overlooked +by buildings and rocks from which a hail of lead could have been +made to sweep it at short range. + +Zeitoon itself is a mountain, next neighbor to the Beirut Dagh, not +as high, nor as inaccessible; but high enough, and inaccessible +enough to give further pause to its would-be conquerors. Not in +anything resembling even rows, but in lawless disorder from the base +to the shoulder of the mountain, the stone and wooden houses go piling +skyward, overlooking one another's roofs, and each with an unobstructed +view of endless distances. The picture was made infinitely lovely +by wisps of blown mist, like hair-lines penciled in the violet air. + +Distances were all foreshortened in that atmosphere, and it was +mid-afternoon before we came to a halt at last face to face with +blank wall. The track seemed to have been blocked by half the mountain +sitting down across it. We sat down to rest in the shadow of the +shoulder of an overhanging rock, and after half an hour some one +looked down on us, and whistled shrilly. Kagig with a rifle across +his knees looked down from a height of a hundred and fifty feet, +and laughed like a man who sees the bitter humor of the end of shams. + +"Welcome!" he shouted between his hands. And his voice came echoing +down at us from wall to wall of the gorge. Five minutes later he +sent a man to lead us around by a hidden track that led upward, +sometimes through other houses, and very often over roofs, across +ridiculously tiny yards, and in between walls so closely set together +that a mule could only squeeze through by main force. + +We stabled the mules in a shed the man showed us, and after that +Kagig received us four, and Anna, Gloria's self-constituted maid, +in his own house. It was bare of nearly everything but sheer +necessities, and he made no apology, for he had good taste, and +perfect manners if you allowed for the grim necessity of being curt +and the strain of long responsibility. + +A small bench took the place of a table in the main large room. +There was a fireplace with a wide stone chimney at one end, and some +stools, and also folded skins intended to be sat on, and shiny places +on the wall where men in goat-skin coats had leaned their backs. + +Two or three of the gipsy women were hanging about outside, and one +of the gipsies who had been with him in the room in the khan at Tarsus +appeared to be filling the position of servitor. He brought us yoghourt +in earthenware bowls--extremely cool and good it was; and after +we had done I saw him carry down a huge mess more of it to the house +below us, where many of the stragglers we had brought along were +quartered by Kagig's order. + +"Where's Monty?" Fred demanded as soon as we entered the room. + +"Presently!" Kagig answered--rather irritably I thought. He seemed +to have adopted Monty as his own blood brother, and to resent all +other claims on him. + +The afternoon was short, for the shadow of the surrounding mountains +shut us in. Somebody lighted a fire in the great open chimney-place, +and as we sat around that to revel in the warmth that rests tired +limbs better than sleep itself, Kagig strode out to attend to a million +things--as the expression of his face testified. + +Then in came Maga, through a window, with self-betrayal in manner +and look of having been watching us ever since we entered. She went +up to Will, who was squatted on folded skins by the chimney corner, +and stood beside him, claiming him without a word. Her black hair +hung down to her waist, and her bare feet, not cut or bruised like +most of those that walk the hills unshod, shone golden in the firelight. +I looked about for Peter Measel, expecting a scene, but he had taken +himself off, perhaps in search of her. + +She had eyes for nobody but Gloria, and no smile for any one. Gloria +stared back at her, fascinated. + +"You married?" she asked; and Gloria shook her head. "You 'eard +me, what I said back below there!" + +Gloria nodded. + +"You sing?" + +"Sometimes." + +"You dance?" + +"Oh, yes. I love it." + +"Ah! You shall sing--you shall dance--against me! First you sing--then +I sing. Then you dance--then I dance--to-night--you understan'? +If I sing better as you sing--an' if I dance better as you dance--then +I throw you over Zeitoon bridge, an' no one interfere! But if you +sing better as I sing--an' if you dance better as I dance--then you +shall make a servant of me; for I know you will be too big fool +an' too chicken 'earted to keel me, as I would keel you! You understan'?" + +It rather looked as if an issue would have to be forced there and +then, but at that minute Gregor entered, and drove her out with an +oath and terrific gesture, she not seeming particularly afraid of +him, but willing to wait for the better chance she foresaw was coming. +Gregor made no explanation or apology, but fastened down the leather +window-curtain after her and threw more wood on the fire. + +Then back came Kagig. + +"Where the devil's Monty?" Fred demanded. + +"Come!" was the only answer. And we all got up and followed him +out into the chill night air, and down over three roofs to a long +shed in which lights were burning. All the houses--on every side +of us were ahum with life, and small wonder, for Zeitoon was harboring +the refugees from all the district between there and Tarsus, to say +nothing of fighting men who came in from the hills behind to lend +a hand. But we were bent on seeing Monty at last, and had no patience +for other matters. + +However, it was only the prisoners he had led us out to see, and +nothing more. + +"Look, see!" he said, opening the heavy wooden door of the shed as +an armed sentry made way for him. (Those armed men of Zeitoon did +not salute one another, but preserved a stoic attitude that included +recognition of the other fellow's right to independence, too.) "Look +in there, and see, and tell me--do the Turks treat Armenian prisoners +that way?" + +We entered, and walked down the length of the dim interior, passing +between dozens of prisoners lying comfortably enough on skins and +blankets. As far as one could judge, they had been fed well, and +they did not wear the look of neglect or ill-treatment. At the end, +in a little pen all by himself, was the colonel whom Rustum Khan +had made a present of to Gloria. + +"What's the straw for?" Fred demanded. + +"Ask him!" said Kagig. "He understands! If there should be treachery +the straw will be set alight, and he shall know how pigs feel when +they are roasted alive! Never fear--there will be no treachery!" + +We followed him back to his own house, he urging us to make good +note of the prisoners' condition, and to bear witness before the +world to it afterward. + +"The world does not know the difference between Armenians and Turks!" +he complained again and again. + +Once again we arranged ourselves about his open chimney-place, this +time with Kagig on a foot-stool in the midst of us. Heat, weariness, +and process of digestion were combining to make us drowsily comfortable, +and I, for one, would have fallen asleep where I sat. But at last +the long-awaited happened, and in came Monty striding like a Norman, +dripping with dew, and clean from washing in the icy water of some +mountain torrent. + +"Oh, hello, Didums!" Fred remarked, as if they had parted about an +hour ago. "You long-legged rascal, you look as if you'd been having +the time of your life!" + +"I have!" said Monty. And after a short swift stare at him Fred +looked glum. Those two men understood each other as the clapper +understands the bell. + + + + +Chapter Sixteen +"What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" + + +"IT WAS VERY GOOD" + (Genesis 1:31) + +I saw these shambles in my youth, and said +There is no God! No Pitiful presides +Over such obsequies as these. The end +Alike is darkness whether foe or friend, +Beast, man or flower the event abides. +There is no heaven for the hopeful dead-- +No better haven than forgetful sod +That smothers limbs and mouth and ears and eyes, +And with those, love and permanence and strife +And vanity and laughter that they thought was life, +Making mere compost of the one who dies. +To whose advantage? Nay, there is no God! +But He, whose other name is Pitiful, was pleased +By melting gentleness whose measures broke +The ramps of ignorance and keeps of lust, +Tumbling alike folly and the fool to dust, +To teach me womanhood until there spoke +Still voices inspiration had released, +And I heard truly. All the voices said: +Out of departed yesterday is grown to-day; +Out of to-day to-morrow surely breaks; +Out of corruption the inspired awakes; +Out of existence earth-clouds roll away +And leave all living, for there are no dead! + + +After we had made room for Monty before the fire and some one had +hung his wet jacket up to dry, we volleyed questions at him faster +than he could answer. He sat still and let us finish, with fingers +locked together over his crossed knee and, underneath the inevitable +good humor, a rather puzzled air of wishing above all things to +understand our point of view. Over and over again I have noticed +that trait, although he always tried to cover it under an air of +polite indifference and easy tolerance that was as opaque to a careful +observer as Fred's attempts at cynicism. + +In the end he answered the last question first. + +"My agreement with Kagig?" + +"Yes, tell them!" put in Kagig. "If I should, they would say I lied!" + +"It's nothing to speak of," said Monty offhandedly. "It dawned on +our friend here that I have had experience in some of the arts of +war. I proposed to him that if he would take a force and go to find +you, I would help him to the limit without further condition. +That's all." + +"All, you ass? Didums, I warned you at the time when you let them +make you privy councilor that you couldn't ever feel free again to +kick over traces! Dammit, man, you can be impeached by parliament!" + +"Quite so, Fred. I propose that parliament shall have to do something +at last about this state of affairs." + +"You'll end up in an English jail, and God help you!--social position +gone--milked of your last pound to foot the lawyers' bills--otherwise +they'll hang you!" + +"Let 'em hang me after I'm caught! I've promised. Remember what +Byron did for Greece? I don't suppose his actual fighting amounted +to very much, but he brought the case of Greece to the attention +of the public. Public opinion did the rest, badly, I admit, but +better badly and late than never. I'm in this scrimmage, Fred, until +the last bell rings and they hoist my number." + +"Fine!" exclaimed Gloria, jumping to her feet. "So am I in it to +a finish!" + +Monty smiled at her with understanding and approval. + +"Almost my first duty, Miss Vanderman," he said kindly, "will be +to arrange that you can not possibly come to harm or be prejudiced +by any course the rest of us may decide on." + +"Quite so!" Will agreed with a grin, and Fred began chuckling like +a schoolboy at a show. + +"Nonsense!" she answered hotly. "I've come to harm already--see, +I'm wounded--I've been fighting--I'm already prejudiced as you call +it! If you're an outlaw, so am I!" + +She flourished her bandaged wrist and looked like Joan of Arc about +to summon men to sacrifice. But the argument ready on her lips was +checked suddenly. The night was without wind, yet the outer door +burst open exactly as if a sudden hurricane had struck it, and Maga +entered with a lantern in her hand. She tried to kick the door shut +again, but it closed on Peter Measel who had followed breathlessly, +and she turned and banged his head with the bottom of the lantern +until the glass shattered to pieces. + +"That fool!" she shouted. "Oh, that fool!" Then she let him come +in and close the door, giving him the broken lantern to hold, which +he did very meekly, rubbing the crown of his head with the other +hand; and she stood facing the lot of us with hands on her hips +and a fine air of despising every one of us. But I noticed that +she kept a cautious eye on Kagig, who in return paid very little +attention to her. + +"Fight?" she exclaimed, pointing at Gloria. "What does she know +about fighting? If she can fight,--let her fight me! I stand ready--I +wait for 'er! Give 'er a knife, an' I will fight 'er with my +bare 'ands!" + +Gloria turned pale and Will laid a hand on her shoulder, whispering +something that brought the color back again. + +"Maga!" + +Kagig said that one word in a level voice, but the effect was greater +than if he had pointed a pistol. The fire died from her eyes and +she nodded at him simply. Then her eyes blazed again, although she +looked away from Gloria toward a window. The leather blind was tied +down at the corners by strips of twisted hide. + +She began to jabber in the gipsy tongue--then changed her mind and +spat it out in English for our joint benefit. + +"All right. She is nothing to do with me, that woman, and she shall +come to a rotten end, I know, an' that is enough. But there is some +one listening! Not a woman--not with spunk enough to be a woman! +That dirty horse-pond drinking unshaven black bastard Rustum Khan +is outside listening! You think 'e is busy at the fortifying? Then +I tell you, No, 'e is not! 'E is outside listening!" + +The surprising answer to that assertion was a heavy saber thrust +between the window-frame and blind and descending on the thong. Next +followed Rustum Khan's long boot. Then came the man himself with +dew all over his upbrushed beard, returning the saber to its scabbard +with an accompanying apologetic motion of the head. + +"Aye, I was listening!" He spoke as one unashamed. "Umm Kulsum" +(that was his fancy name for Maga) "spoke truth for once! I came +from the fortifying, where all is finished that can be done to-night. +I have been the rounds. I have inspected everything. I report all +well. On my way hither I saw Umm Kulsum, with that jackal trotting +at her heel--he made a scornful gesture in the direction of Peter +Measel, who winced perceptibly, at which Fred Oakes chuckled and +nudged me--"and I followed Umm Kulsum, to observe what harm she might +intend." + +"Black pig!" remarked Maga, but Rustum Khan merely turned his splendid +back a trifle more toward her. His color, allowing for the black beard, +was hardly darker than hers. + +"Why should I not listen, since my heart is in the matter? Lord +sahib--Colonel sahib bahadur!--take back those words before it is +too late! Undo the promise made to this Armenian! What is he to +thee? Set me instead of thee, sahib! What am I? I have no wives, +no lands any longer since the money-lenders closed their clutches +on my eldest son, no hope, nor any fellowship with kings to lose! +But I can fight, as thou knowest! Give me, sahib, to redeem thy +promise, and go thou home to England!" + +"Sit down, Rustum Khan!" + +"But, sahib--" + +"Sit down!" Monty repeated. + +"I will not see thee sacrificed for this tribe of ragged people, +Colonel sahib!" + +Monty rose to his feet slowly. His face was an enigma. The Rajput +stood at attention facing him and they met each other's eyes--East +facing West--in such fashion that manhood seemed to fill the smoky +room. Every one was silent. Even Maga held her breath. Monty strode +toward Rustum Khan; the Rajput was the first to speak. + +"Colonel sahib, I spoke wise words!" + +It seemed to me that Monty looked very keenly at him before he answered. + +"Have you had supper, Rustum Khan? You look to me feverish from +overwork and lack of food." + +"What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" the Rajput +answered. "Shall I live to see Turks fling thy carcass to the birds? +I have offered my own body in place of thine. Am I without honor, +that my offer is refused?" + +Monty answered that in the Rajput tongue, and it sounded like the +bass notes of an organ. + +"Brother mine, it is not the custom of my race to send substitutes +to keep such promises. That thou knowest, and none has reason to +know better. If thy memories and honor urge thee to come the way +I take, is there no room for two of us?" + +"Aye, sahib!" said the Rajput huskily. "I said before, I am thy +man. I come. I obey!" + +"Obey, do you?" Monty laid both hands on the Rajput's shoulders, +struck him knee against knee without warning and pressed him down +into a squatting posture. "Then obey when I order you to sit!" + +The Rajput laughed up at him as suddenly sweet-tempered as a child. + +"None other could have done that and not fought me for it!" he said +simply. "None other would have had the strength!" he added. + +Monty ignored the pleasantry and turned to Maga, so surprising that +young woman--that she gasped. + +"Bring him food at once, please!" + +"Me? I? I bring him food? I feed that black--" + +"Yes!" snapped Kagig suddenly. "You, Maga!" + +Maga's and Kagig's eyes met, and again he had his way with her instantly. +Peter Measel, standing over by the door, looked wistful and +sighed noisily. + +"Why should you obey him?" he demanded, but Maga ignored him as she +passed out, and Fred nudged me again. + +"A miracle!" he whispered. "Did you hear the martyred biped suggest +rebellion to her? He'll be offering to fight Kagig next! Guess +what is Kagig's hold over the girl--can you?" + +But a much greater miracle followed. Rather than disobey Monty again; +rather than seem to question his authority, or differ from his judgment +in the least, Rustum Khan forebore presently from sending for his +own stripling servant and actually accepted food from Maga's hands. + +As a Mahammadan, he made in theory no caste distinctions. But as +a Rajput be had fixed Hindu notions without knowing it, and almost +his chief care was lest his food should be defiled by the touch of +outcasts, of whom he reckoned gipsies lowest, vilest and least +cleansible. Nevertheless he accepted curds that had been touched +by gipsy fingers, and ate greedily, in confirmation of Monty's diagnosis; +and after a few minutes he laid his head on a folded goat-skin in +the corner, and fell asleep. + +Then Monty sent a servant to his own quarters for some prized possession +that he mentioned in a whisper behind his hand. None of us suspected +what it might be until the man returned presently with a quart bottle +of Scotch whisky. Kagig himself got mugs down from a shelf three +inches wide, and Monty poured libations. Kagig, standing with legs +apart, drank his share of the strong stuff without waiting; and +that brought out the chief surprise of the evening. + +"Ah-h-h!" he exclaimed, using the back of his hand to wipe mobile +lips. "Not since I drank in Tony's have I tasted that stuff! The +taste makes me homesick for what never was my home, nor ever can be! +Tony's--ah!" + +"What Tony's?" demanded Will, emerging from whispered interludes +with Gloria like a man coming out of a dream. + +"Tony's down near the Battery." + +"What--the Battery, New York--?" + +"Where else? Tony was a friend of mine. Tony lent me money when +I landed in the States without a coin. It was right that I should +take a last drink with Tony before I came away forever." + +Fred reached into the corner for a lump of wood and set it down +suggestively before the fire. Kagig accepted and sat down on it, +stretching his legs out rather wearily. + +"I noticed you've been remembering your English much better than +at first," said Will. "Go on, man, tell us!" + +Kagig cleared his throat and warmed himself while his eyes seemed +to search the flames for stories from a half-forgotten past. + +"Weren't the States good enough for you?" Will suggested, by way +of starting him off. + +"Good enough? Ah!" He made all eight fingers crack like castanets. +"Much too good! How could I live there safe and comfortable--eggs +and bacon--clean shirt--good shoes--an apartment with a bath in it--easy +work--good pay--books to read--kindness--freedom--how could +I accept all that, remembering my people in Armenia?" + +He ran his fingers through his hair, and stared in the fire +again--remembering America perhaps. + +"There was a time when I forgot. All young men forget for a while +if you feed them well enough. The sensation of having money in my +pocket and the right to spend it made me drunk. I forgot Armenia. +I took out what are called first papers. I was very prosperous--very +grateful." + +He lapsed into silence again, holding his head bowed between his +hands. + +"Why didn't you become a citizen?" asked Will. + +"Ah! Many a time I thought of it. I am citizen of no land--of no +land! I am outlaw here--outlaw in the States! I slew a Turk. They +would electrocute me in New York--for slaying the man who--have you +heard me tell what happened to my mother, before my very eyes? +Well--that man came to America, and I slew him!" + +"Why did you leave Armenia in the first place?" asked Gloria, for +he seemed to need pricking along to prevent him from getting off +the track into a maze of silent memory. + +"Why not? I was lucky to get away! That cursed Abdul Hamid had +been rebuked by the powers of Europe for butchering Bulgars, so he +turned on us Armenians in order to prove to himself that he could +do as he pleased in his own house. I tell you, murder and rape in +those days were as common as flies at midsummer! I escaped, and +worked my passage in the stoke-hole of a little merchant steamer--they +were little ships in those days. And when I reached America +without money or friends they let me land because I had been told +by the other sailors to say I was fleeing from religious persecution. +The very first day I found a friend in Tony. I cleaned his windows, +and the bar, and the spittoons; and he lent me money to go where +work would be plentiful. Those were the days when I forgot Armenia." + +He began to forget our existence again, laying his face on his forearms +and staring down at the floor between his feet. + +"What brought it back to memory?" asked Gloria. + +"The Turk brought it back--Fiamil--who bought my mother from four +drunken soldiers, and ill-treated her before my eyes. He came to +the Turkish consulate, not as consul but in some peculiar position; +and by that time I was thriving as head-waiter and part-owner of +a New York restaurant. Thither the fat beast came to eat daily. +And so I met him, and recognized him. He did not know me. + +"Remember, I was young, and prosperous for the first time in all +my life. You must not judge me by too up-right standards. At first +I argued with myself to let him alone. He was nothing to me. I +no longer believed in God. My mother was long dead, and Armenia +no more my country. My money was accumulating in a savings bank. +I was proud of it, and I remember I saw visions of great restaurants +in every city of America, all owned by me! I did not like to take +any step that should prevent that flow of money into the savings bank. + +"But Fiamil inflamed my memory, and I saw him every day. And at +last it dawned on me what his peculiar business in America must be. +He was back at his old games, buying women. He was buying American +young women to be shipped to Turkey, all under the seal of consular +activity. One day, after he had had lunch and I had brought him +cigarettes and coffee, he made a proposal. And although I did not +care very deeply for the women of a free land who were willing to +be sold into Turkish harems, nevertheless, as I said, he inflamed +my memory. A love of Armenia returned to me. I remembered my people, +I remembered my mother's shame, and my own shame. + +"After a little reflection I agreed with Fiamil, and met him that +night in an up-stairs room at a place he frequented for his purposes. +I locked the door, and we had some talk in there, until in the end +he remembered me and all the details of my mother's death. After +that I killed him with a corkscrew and my ten fingers, there being +no other weapon. And I threw his body out of the window into the +gutter, as my mother's body had been thrown, myself escaping from +the building by another way. + +"Not knowing where to hide, I kept going--kept going; and after +two days I fell among sportmen--cow-punchers they called themselves, +who had come to New York with a circus, and the circus had gone broke. +To them I told some of my story, and they befriended me, taking me +West with them to cook their meals; and for a year I traveled in +cow camps. In those days I remembered God as well as Armenia, and +I used to pray by starlight. + +"And Armenia kept calling--calling. Fiamil had wakened in me too +many old memories. But there was the money in the savings bank that +I did not dare to draw for fear the police might learn my address, +yet I had not the heart to leave behind. + +"So I took a sportman into my confidence, and told him about my money, +and why I wanted it. He was not the foreman, but the man who took +the place of foreman when the real foreman was too drunk--the hungriest +man of all, and so oftenest near the cook-fire. When I had told him, +he took me to a township where a lawyer was, and the lawyer drew +up a document, which I signed. + +"Then the sportman--his name was Larry Atkins, I remember--took that +document and went to draw the money on my behalf. And that was the +last I saw of him. Not that he was not sportman--all through. He +told me in a letter afterward that the police arrested him, supposing +him to be me, but that he easily proved he was not me, and so got +away with the money. Enclosed in the package in which the letter +came were his diamond ring and a watch and chain, and he also sent +me an order to deliver to me his horse and saddle. + +"He explained he had tried to double my money by gambling, but had +lost. Therefore he now sent me all he had left, a fair exchange +being no robbery. Oh, he was certainly sportman! + +"So I sold his watch and chain and the horse--but the diamond ring +I kept--behold it!--see, on Maga's hand!--it was a real diamond that +a woman had given him; and with the proceeds I came back to Armenia. +In Armenia I have ever since remained, with the exception of one +or two little journeys in time of war, and one or two little temporary +hidings, and a trip into Persia, and another into Russia to +get ammunition. + +"How have I lived? Mostly by robbery! I rob Turks and all friends +of Turks, and such people as help make it possible for Turks as a +nation to continue to exist! I--we--I and my men--we steal a cartridge +sooner than a piaster--a rifle sooner than a thousand roubles! Outlaws +must live, and weapons are the chief means! I am the brains and +the Eye of Zeitoon, but I have never been chieftain, and am not now. +Observe my house--is it not empty? I tell you, if it had not been +for my new friend Monty there would have been six or seven rival +chieftains in Zeitoon to-night! As it is, they sulk in their houses, +the others, because Monty has rallied all the fighting men to me! +Now that Monty has come I think there will be unity forever in Zeitoon!" + +He turned toward Monty with a gesture of really magnificent approval. +Caesar never declined a crown with greater dignity. + +"You, my brother, have accomplished in a few days what I have failed +to do in years! That is because you are sportman! Just as Larry +Atkins was sportman! He sent me all he had, and could not do more. +I understood him. Why did he do it? Simply sportman--that is all! +Why do you do this? Why do you throw your life into the hot cauldron +of Zeitoon? Because you are sportman! And my people see, and +understand. They understand, as they have never understood me! +I will tell you why they have never understood me. This is why: + +"I have always kept a little in reserve. At one time money in a bank. +At another time money buried. Sometimes a place to run and hide in. +Now and then a plan for my own safety in case a defense should fail. +Never have I given absolutely quite all, burning all my bridges. +Had I been Larry Atkins I would not have gambled with the money of +a man who trusted me; but, having lost the money, I would not have +sent my diamond and the watch and chain! Neither, if the horse and +saddle bad been within my reach would I have sent an order to deliver +those! That is why Zeitoon has never altogether trusted me! Some, +but never all, until to-night! + +"My brother--" + +He stood up, with the motions of a man who is stiff with weariness. + +"I salute you! You have taught me my needed lesson!" + +"I wonder!" whispered Fred to me. "Remember Peter at the fireside? +Methinks friend Kagig doth too much protest! We'll see. Nemesis +comes swiftly as a rule." + +I shoved Fred off his balance, rolled him over, and sat on him, because +cynicism and iconoclasm are twin deities I neither worship nor respect. +But at times Fred Oakes is gifted with uncanny vision. While he +struggled explosively to throw me off, the door began resounding +to steady thumps, and at a sign from Kagig, Maga opened it. + +There strode in nine Armenians, followed closely by one of the gipsies +of Gregor Jhaere's party, who whispered to Maga through lips that +hardly moved, and made signals to Kagig with a secretive hand like +a snake's head. I got off Fred's stomach then, and when he had had +his revenge by emptying hot pipe ashes down my neck he sat close +beside me and translated what followed word for word. It was all +in Armenian, spoken in deadly earnest by hairy men on edge with anxiety +and yet compelled to grudging patience by the presence of strangers +and knowledge of the hour's necessity. + +When the gipsy had finished making signals to Kagig be sat down and +seemed to take no further interest. But a little later I caught +sight of him by the dancing fire-light creeping along the wall, and +presently he lay down with his head very close to Rustum Khan's. +Nothing points more clearly to the clarifying tension of that night +than the fact that Rustum Khan with his notions about gipsies could +compel himself to lie still with a gipsy's head within three inches +of his own, and sham sleep while the gipsy whispered to him. I was +not the only one who observed that marvel, although I did not know +that at the time. + +The nine Armenians who had entered were evidently influential men. +Elders was the word that occurred as best describing them. They +were smelly with rain and smoke and the close-kept sweat beneath +their leather coats--all of them bearded--nearly all big men--and +they strode and stood with the air of being usually heard when they +chose to voice opinion. Kagig stood up to meet them, with his back +toward the fire--legs astraddle, and hands clasped behind him. + +"Ephraim says," began the tallest of the nine, who had entered first +and stood now nearest to Kagig and the firelight, "that you will +yourself be king of Armenia!" + +"Ephraim lies!" said Kagig grimly. "He always does lie. That man +can not tell truth!" + +Two of the others grunted, and nudged the first man, who made an +exclamation of impatience and renewed the attack. + +"But there is the Turk--the colonel whom your Indian friend took +prisoner--he says--" + +"Pah! What Turk tells the truth?" + +"He says that the Indian--what is his name? Rustum Khan--was purposing +to use him as prisoner-of-war, whereas in accordance with a private +agreement made beforehand you were determined to make matters easy +for him. He demands of us better treatment in fulfilment of promise. +He says that the army is coming to take Zeitoon, and to make you +governor in the Sultan's name. He offered us that argument thinking +we are your dupes. He thought to--" + +"Dupes?" snarled Kagig. "How long have ye dealt with Turks, and +how long with me, that ye take a Turk's word against mine?" + +"But the Turk thought we are your friends," put in a harsh-voiced +man from the rear of the delegation. "Otherwise, how should he have +told us such a thing?" + +"If he had thought you were my friends," Kagig answered, "he would +never have dared. If you had been my friends, you would have taken +him and thrown him into Jihun River from the bridge!" + +"Yet he has said this thing," said a man who had not spoken yet. + +"And none has heard you deny it, Kagig!" added the man nearest the door. + +"Then hear me now!" Kagig shouted, on tiptoe with anger. Then he +calmed himself and glanced about the room for a glimpse of eyes +friendly to himself. "Hear me now. Those Turks--truly come to set +a governor over Zeitoon. I forgot that the prisoner might understand +English. I talked with this friend of mine--he made a gesture toward +Monty. "Perhaps that Turk overheard, he is cleverer than he looks. +I had a plan, and I told it to my friend. The Turk was near, I +remember, eating the half of my dinner I gave him." + +"Have you then a plan you never told to us?" the first man asked +suspiciously. + +"One plan? A thousand! Am I wind that I should babble into heedless +ears each thought that comes to me for testing? First it was my +plan to arouse all Armenia, and to overthrow the Turk. Armenia failed +me. Then it was my plan to arouse Zeitoon, and to make a stand here +to such good purpose that all Armenia would rally to us. Bear me +witness whether Zeitoon trusted me or not? How much backing have +I had? Some, yes; but yours? + +"So it was plain that if the Turks sent a great army, Zeitoon could +only hold out for a little while, because unanimity is lacking. +And my spies report to me that a greater army is on the way than +ever yet came to the rape of Armenia. These handful of hamidieh +that ye think are all there is to be faced are but the outflung +skirmishers. It was plain to me that Zeitoon can not last. So I +made a new plan, and kept it secret." + +"Ah-h-h! So that was the way you took us into confidence? Always +secrets behind secrets, Kagig! That is our complaint!" + +"Listen, ye who would rather suspect than give credit!" He used +one word in the Armenian. "It was my plan--my new plan, that seeing +the Turks insist on giving us a governor, and are able to overwhelm +us if we refuse, then I would be that governor!" + +"Ah-h-h! What did we say! Unable to be king, you will be governor!" + +"I talked that over with my new friend, and he did not agree with +me, but I prevailed. Now hear my last word on this matter: I will +not be governor of Zeitoon! I will lead against this army that is +coming. If you men prevent me, or disobey me, or speak against me, +I will hang you--every one! I will accept no reward, no office, +no emolument, no title--nothing! Either I die here, fighting for +Zeitoon, or I leave Zeitoon when the fighting is over, and leave +it as I came to it--penniless! I give now all that I have to give. +I burn my bridges! I take inviolable oath that I will not profit! +And by the God who fed me in the wilderness, I name my price for +that and take my payment in advance! I will be obeyed! Out with +you! Get out of here before I slay you all! Go and tell Zeitoon +who is master here until the fight is lost or won!" + +He seized a great firebrand and charged at them, beating right and +left, and they backed away in front of him, protesting from under +forearms raised to protect their faces. He refused to hear a word +from them, and drove, them back against the door. + +Strange to say, it was Rustum Khan who gave up all further pretense +at sleeping and ran round to fling the door open--Rustum Khan who +took part with Kagig, and helped drive them out into the dark, and +Rustum Khan who stood astraddle in the doorway, growling after them +in Persian--the only language he knew thoroughly that they likely +understood: + +"Bismillah! Ye have heard a man talk! Now show yourselves men, +and obey him, or by the beard of God's prophet there shall be war +within Zeitoon fiercer than that without! Take counsel of your +women-folk! Ye--" (he used no drawing-room word to intimate their +sex)--"are too full of thoughts to think!" + +Then he turned on Kagig, and held out a lean brown hand. Kagig +clasped it, and they met each other's eyes a moment. + +"Am I sportman?" Kagig asked ingenuously. + +"Brother," said Rustum Khan, "next after my colonel sahib I accept +thee as a man fit to fight beside!" + +We were all standing. A free-for-all fight had seemed too likely, +and we had not known whether there were others outside waiting to +reinforce the delegation. Rustum Khan sought Monty's eyes. + +"You have the news, sahib?" + +Kagig laughed sharply, and dismissed the past hour from his mind +with a short sweep of the hand. + +"No. Tell me," said Monty. + +"The gipsy brought it. A whole division of the Turkish regular army +is on the march. Their rear-guard camps to-night a day's march this +side of Tarsus. Dawn will find the main body within sight of us. +Half a brigade has hurried forward to reenforce the men we have just +beaten. Are there any orders?" + +Fred's face fell, and my heart dropped into my boots. A division +is a horde of men to stand against. + +"No," said Monty. "No orders yet." + +"Then I will sleep again," said Rustum Khan, and suited action to +the word, laying his head on the same folded goat-skin he had used +before and breathing deeply within the minute. + +Nobody spoke. Rustum Khan's first deep snore had not yet announced +his comment on the situation, and we all stood waiting for Kagig +to say something. But it was Peter Measel who spoke first. + +"I will pray," he announced. "I saw that gipsy whispering to the +Indian, and I know there is treachery intended! O Lord--O righteous +Lord--forgive these people for their bloody and impudent plans! +Forgive them for plotting to shed blood! Forgive them for arrogance, +for ambition, for taking Thy name in vain, for drinking strong drink, +for swearing, for vanity, and for all their other sins. Forgive +above all the young woman of the party, who is not satisfied with +a wound already but looks forward with unwomanly zest to further +fighting! Forgive them for boasting and--" + +"Throw that fool out!" barked Kagig suddenly. + +"O Lord forgive--" + +Fred was nearest the door, and opened it. Maga laughed aloud. I +was nearest to Peter Measel, so it was I who took him by the neck +and thrust him into outer darkness. Kagig kicked the door shut +after him; but even so we heard him for several minutes grinding +out condemnatory prayers. + +"Now sleep, sportmen all!" said Kagig, blessing us with both hands. +"Sleep against the sport to-morrow!" + + + + +Chapter Seventeen +"I knew what to expect of the women!" + + +"AND DELILAH SAID--" + +Always at fault is the fellow betrayed +(Majorities murder to prove it!) +As Samson discovered, Delilah lies, +The stigma's stuck on by the cynical wise, +And nothing can ever remove it. +We'll cast out Delilah and spit on her dead, +(That revenge is remarkably human), +And pity the victim of underhand tricks +So be that it's moral (the sexes don't mix); +But, oh, think what the cynical wise would have said +If Judas were only a woman! + + +We slept until Monty called us, two hours before dawn, although I +was conscious most of the night of stealthy men and women who stepped +over me to get at Kagig and whisper to him. His marvelous spy system +was working full blast, and he seemed to run no risks by letting +the spies report to any one but himself. Fred, who slept more lightly +than I did, told me afterward that the women principally brought +him particulars of the workings of local politics; the men detailed +news of the oncoming concrete enemy. + +There was breakfast served by Maga in the dark--hot milk, and a +strange mess of eggs and meat. For some reason no one thought of +relighting the fire, and although the ashes glowed we shivered until +the food put warmth in us. + +By the light of the smoky lamp I thought that Monty wore a strangely +divided air, between gloom and exultation. Fred had been wide awake +and talking with him since long before first cock-crow and was obviously +out of sorts, shaking his head at intervals and unwilling more than +to poke at his food with a fork. I crossed the room to sit beside +them, and came in for the tail end of the conversation. + +"I might have known it, Didums, when I let you go on alone. I'll +never forgive myself. I had a premonition and disobeyed it. You +pose as a cast-iron materialist with no more ambition than money +enough to retrieve your damned estates, and all the while you're +the most romantic ass who ever wore out saddle-leather! Found it, +have you? Then God help us all! I know what's coming! You're about +to 'vert back to Crusader days, and try to do damsilly deeds of +chivalry without the war-horse or the suit of mail!" + +"No need for you to join me, Fred. You take charge of the others +and get them away to safety." + +"Take charge of hornets! I'd leave you, of course, like a shot! +But can you see Will Yerkes, for instance, riding off and leaving +you to play Don Quixote? Damn you, Didums, can't you see--?" + +"Destiny, Fred. Manifest destiny." + +"Can't you see crusading is dead as a dead horse?" + +"So am I, old man. I'm no use but to do this very thing. I can serve +these people. If I'm killed, there'll be a howl in the papers. +If I'm taken, there'll be a row in parliament." + +"You don't intend to be taken--I know you!" + +"Honest, Fred, I--" + +"Have I known you all these years to be fooled now? Smelling rats +'ud be subtle to it--I can feel the air bristling! You mean to raise +the Montdidier banner and die under it, last of your race. But you're +not last, you bally ass!" + +"Last in the direct line, Fred." + +"Yes, but there's that rotter Charles ready to inherit! If you're +bent on suicide--" + +"I'm not. You know I'm not." + +"--you might have the decency to kill that miserable cousin first +and bring the line to an end in common honor! He'll survive you, +and as sure as I sit here and swear at you, he'll bring the Montdidier +name into worse disgrace than Judas Iscariot's!" + +"I've no intention of suicide, Fred. I assure you--" + +But Fred waved the argument aside contemptuously, and stood up to +gather our attention. + +"Listen!" He thrust forward his Van Dyke beard that valiantly strove +to hide a chin like a piece of flint. "Monty has found the robbers' +nest that used to belong to his infernal ancestors. I charge any +of you who count yourselves his friends to help me prevent him from +behaving like an idiot!" + +"That'll do, Fred!" said Monty, pressing him back against the wall. +"The fact is," he twisted at his black mustache and eyed us each +for a second in turn, looking as handsome as the devil, "that I have +found what I originally set out to look for. It overlooks Zeitoon, +hidden among trees. I propose to use it. As for quixotism--is +there any one here not willing to fight in the last ditch to help +Kagig and these Armenians?" + +"I'm with you!" laughed Gloria, and she and Will had a scuffle over +near the fireplace. + +"I knew what to expect of the women," said Monty rather bitterly. +"I'm speaking to Fred and the men!" + +"Where's Peter Measel?" I asked. But the others did not see +the connection. + +"Come along," said Monty. "Seems to me we're wasting time," and +he strode out through the window on to the roof of the house +below--usually the shortest way from point to point in Zeitoon. Kagig +followed him, and then Rustum Khan. The stars were no longer shining +in the pale sky overhead, but it was dark where we were because of +the mountains that shut out the dawn. Fred came last, grumbling +and stumbling, too disturbed to look where he was going. + +"Fancy me acting Cassandra at my time of life and none to believe +me!" he muttered. Then, louder: "I warn you all! I know that +fellow Monty. If he comes out of this alive it'll be because we +haul him out by the hair! Won't you listen?" + +Outside the window I remembered the field-glasses I had laid down +in a corner, and returned to get them. In the room were Maga and +the woman Anna, who had appointed herself Gloria Vanderman's maid; +they were apparently about to sweep the floor and tidy the place, +but as I crossed the room an older gipsy woman entered by the door, +and she and Maga promptly drove Anna out through the window after +my party. Then the old woman came close to me, her beady bright +eyes fixed on mine, and went through the suggestive gipsy motions +that invite the crossing of a palm with silver. + +There seemed at first no excuse for listening to her. Every gipsy +will beg, whether there is need or not, and knowledge of their habits +did not make me less short-tempered; besides I had no silver within +reach, nor time to waste. + +"Not now!" I said, pushing her aside. + +But Maga came to her rescue, and clutched my arm. + +"See!" she said, and took a Maria Theresa dollar from some hiding-place +in her skirt. "I give silver for you. So." The old hag pouched +the coin with exactly the same avidity with which she would have +taken it from me. "Now she will make magic. Then I see. Then I +tell you something. You listen!" + +It began to dawn on me that I would better listen after all. Every +human is superstitious, whether or not he admits if to himself; +but the particular fraud of pretending to tell fortunes never did +happen to find the joint in my own armor. It seemed likely these +two women had some plan that included the preliminary deception of +myself, and the sooner I knew something about it the better. So +I sat down on Kagig's stool, to give them a better opinion of their +advantage over me, there being nothing like making the enemy too +confident. Then I held out the palm of my hand for inspection and +tried to look like a man pretending he does not believe in magic. +Whatever Maga thought, the old hag was delighted. She began to croak +an incantation, shuffling first with one foot, then with the other, +and finally with both together in a weird dance that almost shook +her old frame apart. Then she went through a pantomime of +finger-pointing, as if transferring from herself to Maga the gift +of divining about me. + +Presently, standing a little to one side of me, with eyes on the +old hag's and my hand held between her two, Maga began chanting in +English. The fact that her voice was musical and low where the bag's +had been high-pitched and rasping heightened interest, if nothing else. + +"You now four men," she began, with a little pause, and something +like a swallow between each sentence. "You all love one another +ver' much. You all like Kagig. Kagig is liking you. But Turks +are coming presently, and they keel Kagig--keel heem, you understan'? +That man Monty is also keel--keel dead. That man Fred--I not know--I +not see. You I see----you I see two ways. First way, you marry +that woman Gloria--you go away--all well--all good. Second way--you +not marry her. Then you all die--dam' quick--Monty, Fred, Will, +you, Gloria, everybody--an' Zeitoon is all burn' up by bloody Turks!" + +She paused and looked at me sidewise under lowered eyelids. I stared +straight in front of me, as if in the state of self-hypnotism that +is the fortune-teller's happy hunting-ground. + +"You understan'?" + +"Yes," I said. "I think I see. But how shall I marry Miss Gloria? +Suppose she does not want me?" + +"You must! Never mind what she want! Listen! This is only way +to save your frien's and Zeitoon! I am giving men--four--five--six +men. They are seizing Gloria. You go with them. They take you +safe away. Then Zeitoon is also safe, an' your frien's are also safe." + +"Monty, too?" I asked. + +"Yes, then he is also safe." But--I felt her hands tremble slightly +as she said that. + +"Do you mean I should leave him?" I asked. + +"You must! You must!" She almost screamed at me, and shook my hand +between her two palms as if by that means to drive the fact into +my consciousness. The old hag had her eyes fixed on my right temple +as if she would burn a hole there, and between them they were making +a better than amateur effort to control me by suggestion. It seemed +wise to help them deceive themselves. Maga let go my hand gently, +and began passing her ten fingers very softly through my hair, and +there are other men who will bear me witness that there exists sensation +less appealing than when a pretty girt does that. + +"You must!" she said again more quietly. "That is the only way to +save Zeitoon. God is angry." + +"What do you know about God?" I asked unguardedly, knowing well that +whatever their open pretenses, gipsies despise all religion except +diabolism. They study creeds for the sake of plunder, just as hunters +study the habits of the wild. + +"Maybe nothing--maybe much! Peter Measel, he say--" + +She paused, as if in doubt whether she was using the right argument. +And in that moment I recalled what Rustum Khan had once said about +her being no true gipsy. + +"Go on," I urged her. "Peter Measel is an expert. He's a high priest. +He knows it all." + +"Peter Measel is saying, God is ver' angry with Zeitoon and is sending +to destroy such bloody people what plan fighting and rebellion." + +"I'll think it over," I said, moving to get up. But independent +thinking was the last thing that Maga intended to permit me. + +"No, no! No, no, no! You must dee-cide now--at once! There is +no time. Now--now I give you five--six mens--now they seize that +woman Gloria--now you carry 'er away into the mountains--now you +make 'er yours--your own, you understan', so as she is ashamed to +deny it afterward--yes?--you see?" + +"Where are the men?" I demanded. + +"I fetch them quick!" + +I could see the hilt of her knife, and the bulge of her repeating +pistol, but I could also feel the weight of my own loaded Colt against +my hip. I did not doubt I could escape before her men could arrive +on the scene, but that would have been to leave some secret only +part uncovered. There was obviously more behind this scheme than +met the ear. It is my experience that if we throw fear to the winds, +and are willing to wait in tight places for the necessary inspiration, +then we get it. + +"Very well," I said. "I agree. Bring your men." + +"You wait. I get 'em." + +I nodded, and she said something in the gipsy language to the old +hag, who went out through the door in a hurry. Alone with Maga I +felt less than half as safe as I had been. She proceeded to make +use of every moment in the manner they say makes millionaires. + +"Gloria, she is ver' nice girl!" She made a wonderful gesture of +both hands that limned in empty air the curves of her detested rival. +"You will love her. By-and-by she love you--also ver' much." + +The thought flashed through my head again that I ought to escape +whole while I had the chance; but the answer to that was the certainty +that she would thence-forward be on guard against me without having +given me any real information. I was perfectly convinced there was +a deep plot underlying the foolishness she had proposed. The fact +that she considered me so venial and so gullible was no proof that +the hidden purpose was not dangerous. The mystery was how to seem +to be fooled by her and yet get in touch with my friends. Then +suddenly I recalled that she and the hag had been trying to use +the gipsy's black art. Unless they can trick their victim into a +mental condition in which innate superstition becomes uppermost, +players of that dark game are helpless. + +Yet gipsies are more superstitious than any one else. Hanging to +her neck by a skein of plaited horse-hair was the polished shell +of a minute turtle--smaller than a dollar piece. + +"Give me that," I said, "for luck," and she jumped at the idea. + +"Yes, yes--that is to bring you luck--ver' much luck!" + +She snatched it off and hung it around my neck, pushing the turtle-shell +down under my collar out of sight. + +"That is love-token!" she whispered. "Now she love you immediate'! +Now you 'ave ver' much luck!" + +The last part of her prophecy was true. The luck seemed to change. +That instant the key was given me to escape without making her my +relentless enemy, a voice that I would know among a million began +shouting for me petulantly from somewhere half a dozen roofs away. + +"What in hell's keeping you, man? Here's Monty getting up a tourist +party to his damned ancestral nest and you're delaying the whole shebang! +Good lord alive! Have you fallen in love with a woman, or taken +the belly-ache, or fallen down a well, or gone to sleep again, or +all of them, or what?" + +"Coming, Fred!" I shouted. "Coming!" + +"You'd better!" + +He began playing cat-calls on his concertina--imitation bugle-calls, +and fragments of serenades. For a second Maga looked reckless--then +suspicious--then, as it began to dawn on her from studying my face +that I, too, was afraid of Fred, relieved. + +"Does he know anything?" I asked her. + +"He? That Fred? No! No, no, no! An' you no tell 'im. You 'ear +me? You no tell 'im! You go now--go to 'im, or else 'e is get +suspicious--understan'? My men--they go an' get that woman. When +they finish getting that woman, then I send for you an' you come +quick--understan'?" + +I nodded. + +"Listen! If you tell your frien's--if you tell that Frrred, or those +others--then I not only keel you, but my men put out your eyes first +an' then pull off your toes an' fingers--understan'?" + +I shrugged my shoulders, suggesting an attempt to seem at ease. + +"Besides--I warn you! You tell Kagig anything against me an' Kagig +is at once your enemy!" + +I nodded, and tried to look afraid. Perhaps the speculation that +the last boast started in my mind helped give me a look that +convinced her. + +Fred began calling again. + +"You go!" she ordered imperiously, with a last effort to impress +me with her mental predominance. "Go quickly!" + +I made motions of hand and face as nearly suggestive of underhanded +cunning as I could compass, and climbed out through the window without +further invitation. Seeing me emerge, Fred beckoned from fifty yards +away and turned his back. Morning was just beginning to descend +into the valley, suddenly bright from having finished all the dawn +delays among the crags higher up; but there were deep shadows here +and especially where one roof overhung another. + +Jumping from roof to roof to follow Fred, I was suddenly brought +up short by a figure in shadow that gesticulated wildly without +speaking. It was below me, in a narrow, shallow runway between +two houses, and I had been so impressed by my interview with Maga +that assassination was the first thought ready to mind. I sprang +aside and tried to check myself, missed footing, and fell into the +very runway I had tried to avoid. + +A friend unmistakable, Anna--Gloria's self-constituted maid--ran +out of the darkest shadow and kept me from scrambling to my feet. + +"Wait!" she whispered. "Don't be seen talking to me. Listen!" + +My ankle pained considerably and I was out of breath. I was willing +enough to lie there. + +"Maga has made a plot to betray Zeitoon! She has been talking with +that Turkish colonel who was captured. I don't know what the plot +is, but I listened through a chink in the wall of the prison, and +I heard him promise that she should have Will Yerkes!" + +"What else did you hear?" + +"Nothing else. There was wind whistling, and the straw made a noise." + +At that moment Fred chose to turn his head to see whether I was +following. Not seeing me, he came back over the roofs, shouting +to know what had happened. I got to my feet but, although he hardly +looks the part, he is as active as a boy, and he had scrambled to +a higher roof that commanded a view of my runway before my twisted +ankle would permit me to escape. + +"So that's it, eh? A woman!" + +"Keep an eye on Miss Gloria!" I whispered to Anna, and she ducked +and ran. + +If I had had presence of mind I would have accepted the insinuation, +and turned the joke on Fred. Instead, I denied it hotly like a fool, +and nothing could have fed the fires of his spirit of raillery +more surely. + +"I've unearthed a plot," I began, limping along beside him. + +"No, sir! It was I who unearthed the two of you!" + +"See here, Fred--" + +"Look? I'd be ashamed! No, no--I wasn't looking!" + +"Fred, I'm serious!" + +"Entanglements with women are always serious!" + +"I tell you, that girl Maga--" + +"Two of 'em, eh? Worser and worser! You'll have Will jealous into +the bargain!" + +"Have it your own way, then!" I said, savage with pain (and the reasons +he did not hesitate to assign to my strained ankle were simply +scandalous). "I'll wait until I find a man with honest ears." + +"Try Kagig!" he advised me dryly. + +And Kagig I did try. We came on him at our end of the bridge that +overhung the Jihun River. Our party were waiting on the far side, +and Fred hurried over to join them. Kagig was listening to the reports +of a dozen men, and while I waited to get his ear I could see Fred +telling his great joke to the party. It was easy to see that Gloria +Vanderman did not enjoy the joke; nor did I blame her. I did not +blame her for sending word there and then to Anna that her services +would not be required any more. + +As soon as Kagig saw me he dismissed the other men in various directions +and made to start across the bridge. I called to him to wait, and +walked beside him. + +"I've uncovered a plot, Kagig," I began. "Maga Jhaere has been talking +with the Turkish prisoner." + +"I know it. I sent her to talk with him!" + +"She has bargained with him to betray Zeitoon!" + +For answer to that Kagig turned his head and stared sharply at me--then +went off into peals of diabolic laughter. He had not a word +to offer. He simply utterly, absolutely, unqualifiedly disbelieved +me--or else chose to have it appear so. + + + + +Chapter Eighteen +"Per terram et aquam." + + +AND HE WHO WOULD SAVE HIS LIFE SHALL LOSE IT + +The fed fools beat their brazen gong +For gods' ears dulled by blatant praise, +Awonder why the scented fumes +And surplices at evensong +Avail not as in other days. +Shrunken and mean the spirit fails +Like old snow falling from the crags +And priest and pedagog compete +With nostrums for the age that ails, +But learn not why the spirit lags. +Tuneless and dull the loose lyre thrums +Ill-plucked by fingers strange to skill +That change and change the fever'd chords, +But still no inspiration comes +Though priest and pundit labor still. +Lust-urged the clamoring clans denounce +Whate'er their sires agreed was good, +And swift on faith and fair return +With lies the feud-leaders pounce +Lest Truth deprive them of their food. +Dog eateth dog and none gives thanks; +All crave the fare, but grudge the price +Their nobler forbears proudly paid, +That now for moonstruck madness ranks-- +The only true coin--Sacrifice! + + +The man who is a hero to himself perhaps exists, but the surface +indications are no proof of it. I don't pretend to be satisfied, +and made no pretense at the time of being satisfied with my share +in Maga's treachery. But I claim that it was more than human nature +could have done, to endure the open disapproval of my friends, begun +by Fred's half-earnest jest, and continued by my own indignation; +and at the same time to induce them to take my warning seriously. + +Will avoided me, and walked with Gloria, who made no particular secret +of her disgust. Fred naturally enough kept the joke going, to save +himself from being tripped in his own net. He had probably persuaded +himself by that time that the accusation was true, and therefore +equally probably regretted having made it; for he would have been +the last man in the world to give tongue about an offense that he +really believed a friend of his had committed. + +Monty, who believed from force of habit every single word Fred said, +walked beside me and was good enough to give me fatherly advice. + +"Not the time, you know, to fool with women. I don't pretend, of +course, to any right to judge your private conduct, but--you can +be so awfully useful, you know, and all that kind of thing, when +you're paying strict attention. Women distract a man." + +All, things considered, I might have done worse than decide to say +no more about the plot, but to keep my own eyes wide open. (I was +particularly sore with Gloria, and derived much unwise consolation +from considering stinging remarks I would make to her when the actual +truth should out.) + +Monty began making the best of my, in his eyes, damaged character +by explaining the general dispositions he and Kagig had made for +the defense of Zeitoon. + +"According to my view of it," he said, "this bridge we've just crossed +is the weakest point--or was. I think we can hold that clay ramp +you came up yesterday against all comers. But there's a way round +the back of this mountain that leads to the dismantled fort you see +on this side of the river. That is the fort built by the Turkish +soldiers whom Kagig told us the women of Zeitoon threw one by one +over the bridge." + +He stopped (we had climbed about two hundred feet of a fairly steep +track leading up the flank of Beirut Dagh) and let the others gather +around us. + +"You see, if the enemy can once establish a footing on this hill, +they'll then command the whole of Zeitoon opposite with rifle fire, +even if they don't succeed in bringing artillery round the mountain." + +Between us and Zeitoon there now lay a deep, sheer-sided gash, down +at the bottom of which the Jihun brawled and boiled. I did not envy +any army faced with the task of crossing it, even supposing the bridge +should not be destroyed. But they would not need to cross in order +to make the town untenable. + +"The Zeitoonli are, you might say, superstitious about that bridge," +Monty went on. "They refuse as much as to consider making arrangements +to blow it up in case of need. Another remarkable thing is that +the women claim the bridge defense as their privilege. That doesn't +matter. They look like a crowd of last-ditch fighters, and we're +awfully short of men. But we're almost equally short of ammunition; +and if it ever gets to the point where we're driven in so that we +have to hold that bridge, we shall be doling out cartridges one by +one to the best shots! I have tried to persuade the women to leave +the bridge until there's need of defending it, and to lend us a +hand elsewhere meanwhile; but they've always held the bridge, and +they propose to do the same again. Even Kagig can't shift them, +although the women have been his chief supporters all along." + +Fred interrupted, pointing toward a few acres of level land to our +left, below Zeitoon village but still considerably above the +river level. + +"Is that Rustum Khan?" + +"He it is," said Kagig. "A devil of a man--a wonder of a devil--no +friend of mine, yet I shook hands with him and I salute him! A genius! +A cavalryman born. Our people are not cavalrymen. No place for +horses, this. Yet, as you have seen, there are some of us who can +ride, and that Rustum Khan found many others--refugees from this +and that place. See how he drills them yonder--see! It was the +gift of God that so many horses fell into our hands. Some of the +refugees brought horses along for food. Instead, Rustum Khan took +men's corn away, to feed the hungry horses!" + +"We could never have held the place without Rustum Khan," said Monty. +"As it is we've a chance. The last thing the Turks will expect from +us is mounted tactics. Allowing for plenty of spare horses, we shall +have two full squadrons--one under Rustum Khan, and one I'll lead +myself. From all accounts they're bringing an awful number of men +against us, and we expect them to try to force the clay ramp. In +that case--but come and see." + +He led on up-hill, and after a few minutes the well-worn track +disappeared, giving place to a newly cleared one. Trees had been +cut down roughly, leaving stumps in such irregular profusion that, +though horses could pass between them easily, no wheeled traffic +could have gone that way. The undergrowth and the tree-trunks had +been piled along either side, so that the new path was fenced in. +It was steep and crooked, every section of it commanded by some +other section higher up, with plenty of crags and boulders that +afforded even better cover than the trees. + +"Discovered this the first day I got here," said Monty. "Asked +about bears, and a man offered to show me where a dozen of them lived. +I was curious to see where a 'dozen bears could live in amity +together--didn't believe a word of it. We set out that afternoon, +and didn't reach the top until midnight. Worst climb I ever experienced. +Lost ourselves a hundred times. Next day, however, Kagig agreed to let +me have as many men as could be crowded together to work, and I took +a hundred and twenty. Set them to cutting this trail and another +one. They worked like beavers. But come along and look." + +"How about the bears?" Fred demanded. "Did you get them?" + +"Smelt 'em. Saw one--or saw his shadow, and heard him. Followed +him up-hill by the smell, and so found the castle wall. Haven't +seen a bear since." + +"Hssh!" said Kagig, and sprang up-hill ahead of us to take the lead. +"There are guards above there, and they are true Zeitoonli--they +will shoot dam' quick!" + +They did not shoot, because we all lay in the shadow of a great +rock as soon as we could see a ragged stone wall uplifted against +the purple sky, and Kagig whistled half a dozen times. We plainly +heard the snap of breech-blocks being tested. + +"They are weary of talking fight!" Kagig whispered. + +But the sixth or seventh whistle was answered by a shout, and we +began to climb again. Close to the castle the tree-cutters had been +able to follow the line of the original road fairly closely, and +there were places underfoot that actually seemed to have been paved. +Finally we reached a steep ramp of cemented stone blocks, not one +of which was out of place, and went up that toward an arch--clear, +unmistakable, round Roman that had once been closed by a portcullis +and an oak gate. All of the woodwork had long ago disappeared, but +there was little the matter with the masonry. + +Under the echoing arch we strode into a shadowy courtyard where the +sun had not penetrated long enough to warm the stones. In the midst +of it a great stone keep stood as grim and almost as undecayed as +when Crusaders last defended it. That castle had never been built +by Crusaders; they had found it standing there, and had added to +it, Norman on to Roman. + +The courtyard was littered with weeds that Kagig's men had slashed +down, and here and there a tree had found root room and forced its +way up between the rough-hewn paving stones. Animals had laired +in the place, and had left their smell there together with an air +of wilderness. But now a new-old smell, and new-old sounds were +awakening the past. There were horses again in the stables, whose +roof formed the fighting-platform behind the rampart of the outer wall. + +Monty led the way to the old arched entrance of the keep, and pointed +upward to a spot above the arch where some one had been scraping +and scrubbing away the stains of time. There, clean white now in +the midst of rusty stonework, was a carved device--shield-shaped--two +ships and two wheat-sheaves; and underneath on a scroll the motto +in Latin--Per terram et aquam--By land and sea--in token that the +old Montdidiers held themselves willing to do duty on either element. +The same device and the same motto were on the gold signet ring on +Monty's little finger. + +"What's happening on top of the keep?" demanded Will. + +Fred laughed aloud. We could not see up from inside, for at least +one of the stone floors remained intact. + +"Can't you guess?" demanded Fred. "Didn't I tell you the man has +'verted to Crusader days?" + +But Monty explained. + +"There's an old stone socket up there that used to hold the flag-pole. +Two or three fellows have been kind enough to haul a tree up there, +and they're trimming it to fit." + +"If we were wise we'd hang you to it, Didums, and save you from a +lousy Turkish jail!" + +"Thank you, Fred," Monty answered. "There are capitulations still, +I fancy. No Turk can legally try me, or imprison me a minute. I'm +answerable to the British consul." + +"They're fine, legal-minded sticklers for the rules, the Turks are!" +Fred retorted. + +"But we've a net laid for the Turks!" smiled Monty. + +Fred shook his head. Monty led the way toward stone steps, whose +treads bad been worn into smooth hollows centuries before by the +feet of men in armor. + +Up above on the outer rampart we could see Kagig's sentries outlined +against the sky, protected against the chilly mountain air by +goat-skin outer garments and pointed goat-skin hats. We mounted +the stone stair, holding to a baluster worn smooth by the rub of +countless forgotten hands, as perfect yet as on the day when the +masons pronounced it finished; and emerged on to a wide stone floor +above the stables, guarded by a breast-high parapet pierced by slits +for archers. + +From below the breathing of the pines came up to us, peculiarly +audible in spite of the Titan roar of Jihun River. Immediately below +us was a ledge of forest-covered rock, and beyond that we could see +sheer down the tree-draped flank of Beirut Dagh to the foaming water. +We leaned our elbows on the parapet, and stared in silence all in +a row, stared at in turn by the more than half-suspicious sentries. + +"How does it feel, old man" asked Will at last, "standing on ramparts +where your ancestors once ruled the roost?" + +"Stranger than perhaps you think," Monty answered, not looking to +right or left, or downward, but away out in front of him toward the +sky-line on top of the opposite hills. + +"I bet I know," said Will. "You hate to see the old order passing. +You'd like the old times back." + +"You're wrong for once, America!" Monty turned his back on the +parapet and the view, and with hands thrust deep down in his pockets +sought for words that could explain a little of his inner man. Fred +had perhaps seen that mood before, but none of the rest of us. +Usually he would talk of anything except his feelings. He felt the +difficulty now, and checked. + +"How so?" demanded Will. + +"I've watched the old order passing. I'm part of it. I'm passing, too." + +Gloria watched him with melting eyes. Fred turned his back and went +through the fruitless rigmarole of trying to appear indifferent, +going to the usual length at last of humming through his nose. + +"That's what I said. You'd like these castle days back again." + +"You're wrong, Will. I pray they never may come back. The place +is an anachronism. So am I!--useless for most modern purposes. +You'd have to tear castle or me so to pieces that we'd be unrecognizable. +The world is going forward, and I'm glad of it. It shall have no +hindrance at my hands." + +"If men were all like you--" began Gloria, but he checked her with +a frown. + +"You can call this castle a robbers' nest, if you like. It's easy +to call names. It stood for the best men knew in those days--protection +of the countryside, such law and order as men understood, and the +open road. It was built primarily to keep the roads safe. There +are lots of things in England and America to-day, Will, that your +descendants (being fools) will sneer at, just as it's the fashion +to-day to sneer at relics of the past like this--and me!" + +"Who's sneering? Not I! Not we!" + +"This castle was built for the sake of the countryside. I've a mind +to see it end as it began--that's all." + +"Aw--what's eating you, Monty?" + +"Shut up croaking, you old raven!" grumbled Fred. + +"Show us the view you promised. This isn't it, for there isn't a +Turk in sight." + +Monty knew better than mistake Fred's surliness for anything but +friendship in distress. Without another word he led the way along +the parapet toward a ragged tower at the southern corner. It had +been built by Normans, evidently added to the earlier Roman wall. + +"Now tell me if the old folk didn't know their business," said Monty. +"Very careful, all! The steps inside are rough. The roof has fallen +in, and the ragged upper edge that's left probably accounts for the +castle remaining undetected from below all these years--looks like +fangs of discolored rock." + +We followed him through the doorless gap in the tower wall, and up +broken stone stairs littered with fragments of the fallen roof, until +we stood at last in a half-circle around the jagged rim, our feet +wedged between rotten masonry, breasts against the saw-edge parapet, +and heads on a level with the eagles. From that dizzy height we +had a full view between the mountains, not only of the immediate +environs of Zeitoon, but of most of the pass--up which we ourselves +had come, and of some of the open land beyond it. + +"D'you see Turks now?" + +Monty pointed, but there was no need. Dense masses of men were +bivouacked beyond the bottom of the wide clay ramp. Through the +glasses I could see artillery and supply wagons. They were coming +to make a thorough job of "rescuing" Zeitoon this time! After a +while I was able to make out the dark irregular line of Kagig's men, +and here and there the lighter color of freshly dug entrenchments. +None of Zeitoon's defenders appeared to be thrown out beyond the +clay ramp, but they evidently flanked it on the side of the pass +that was farthest from us. + +"Now look this way, and you'll understand." + +Monty pointed to our right, and the significance of the voices we +had heard so close to us when Fred was searching for a path around +the clay on the morning of our arrival, was made plain instantly. +Down from the ledge on which the castle stood to a point apparently +within a few yards of the clay ramp there had been cut a winding +swath through the forest, along which four horses abreast could be +ridden, or as many men marched. + +"How did you do all that in time?" demanded Will. "It looks like +one of those contractor's jobs in the States--put through while you +wait and to hell with everything!" + +"It follows the old road," Monty answered. "There was too much +cobble-paving for the trees to take hold, and most of what they had +to cut was small stuff. That accounts, too, for the freedom from +stumps. But, do you get the idea? The trees between the end of +the cutting and the clay ramp are cut almost through--ready to fall, +in fact. I'm afraid of a wind. If it blows, our screen may fall +too soon! But if the Turks try to storm the ramp, we'll draw them +on. Then, hey--presto! Down go the remaining trees, and into the +middle of 'em rides our cavalry!" + +"What's the use of cavalry four abreast?" demanded Fred, in no mood +to be satisfied with anything. + +"Rustum Khan is concentrating all his energy on teaching that one +maneuver," Monty answered. "We come--" + +"Thought it 'ud be 'we!' Your place is at the rear, giving orders!" + +"We come down the track at top speed, and the impetus will carry +us clear across the ramp. Some of the horses'll go down, because +the slope is slippery. But the remainder will front form squadron, +and charge down hill in line. Then watch!" + +"All right," Fred grumbled. "But how about you rear while all that's +going on? The Turk must have worked his way around Beirut Dagh on +former occasions--or how else could he ever have built and held that +dismantled fort? What's to stop him from doing it again?" + +"It's a fifteen-mile fight ahead of him," Monty answered, "with +riflemen posted at every vantage-point all the way--" + +"Who is in charge of the riflemen?" + +Kagig leaned back until he looked in danger of falling, and tapped +his breast significantly three times. + +"I--I have picked the men who will command those riflemen and women!" + +"Well," Fred grumbled, "what are your plans for us?" + +"For the last time, Fred, I want you, old man, to help me to persuade +these others to escape into the hills while there's still a chance, +and I want you to go with them." + +"I also!" exclaimed Kagig. "I also desire that!" + +"Now you've got that off your chest, Didums, suppose you talk sense," +suggested Fred. "What are your plans?" + +Monty recognized the unalterable, and set his face. + +"You first, Miss Vanderman. There's one way in which we can always +use a gentlewoman's services." + +"Mayn't I fight?" she begged, and we all laughed. + +"'Fraid not. No. The women have cleared out several houses for +a hospital. Please go and superintend." + +"Damn!" exclaimed Gloria, Boston fashion, not in the least under +her breath. + +"I am sending word," said Kagig, "that they shall obey you or learn +from me!" + +"The rest of us," Monty went on, "will know better what to do when +we know what the Turk intends, but I expect to send all of you from +time to time to wherever the fighting is thickest. Kagig, of course, +will please himself, and my orders are subject to his approval." + +"I'll go, then," said Gloria. "Good-by!" And she kissed Will on +the mouth in full view of all of us, he blushing furiously, and Kagig +cracking all his finger-joints. + +"Go with her, Will!" urged Monty, as she disappeared down the steps. +"Go and save yourself. You're young. I've notions of my own that +I've inherited, and the world calls me a back number. You go with +Miss Vanderman!" + +I seconded that motion. + +"Go with her, Will! I've warned you she's unsafe alone! Go and +protect her!" + +Will grinned, wholly without malice. + +"Thanks!" he said. "She's a back number, too. So'm I! If I left +Monty in this pinch she'd never look at me, and I'd not ask her to! +Inherited notions about merit and all that kind of thing, don't you +know, by gosh! No, sir! She and I both sat into this game. She +and I both stay! Wish Esau would open the ball, though. I'm tired +of talking." + + + + +Chapter Nineteen +"Such drilling as they have had--such little drilling!" + + +ICH DIEN + +Is honor out of fashion and the men she named +Fit only to be buried and defamed +Who dared hold service was true nobleness +And graced their service in a fitting dress? +Are manners out of date because the scullions scoff +At whosoever shuns the common trough +Liking dry bread better than the garbled stew +Nor praising greed because the style is new? +Let go the ancient orders if so be their ways +Are trespassing on decency these days. +So I go, rather than accept the trampled spoil +Or gamble for what great men earned by toil. +For rather than trade honor for a mob's foul praise +I'll keep full fealty to the ancient ways +And, hoistinq my forebear's banner in the face of hell, +Will die beneath it, knowing I die well! + + +Fifteen minutes after Gloria Vanderman left us I saw a banner go +jerkily mounting up the newly placed flag-pole on the keep. A man +blew a bugle hoarsely by way of a salute. I raised my hat. Monty +raised his. In a moment we were all standing bare-headed, and the +great square piece of cloth caught the wind that whistled between +two crags of Beirut Dagh. + +Fred, our arch-iconoclast, stood uncovered longest. + +"Who the devil made it for you?" he inquired. + +Stitched on the banner in colored cloth were the two wheat-sheaves +and two ships of the Montdidiers, and a scroll stretched its length +across the bottom, with the motto doubtless, although in the wind +one could not read it. + +"The women. Good of 'em, what? Miss Vanderman drew it on paper. +They cut it out, and sat up last night sewing it." + +"I suppose you know that's filibustering, to fly your private banner +on foreign soil?" + +"They may call it what they please," said Monty. "I can't well fly +the flag of England, and Armenia has none yet. Let's go below, Fred, +and see if there's any news." + +"Yes, there is news," said Kagig, leading the way down. "I did not +say it before the lady. It is not good news." + +"That's the only kind that won't keep. Spit it out!" said Will. + +Kagig faced us on the stable roof, and his finger-joints cracked again. + +"It is the worst! They have sent Mahmoud Bey, against us. I would +rather any six other Turks. Mahmoud Bey is not a fool. He is a +young successful man, who looks to this campaign to bolster his ambition. +He is a ruthless brute!" + +"Which Turk isn't?" asked Will. + +"This one is most ruthless. This Mahmoud is the one who in the +massacres of five years ago caused Armenian prisoners to have +horse-shoes nailed to their naked feet, in order, he said, that +they might march without hurt. He will waste no time about +preliminaries!" + +Kagig was entirely right. Mahmoud Bey began the overture that very +instant with artillery fire directed at the hidden defenses flanking +the clay ramp. Next we caught the stuttering chorus of his machine +guns, and the intermittent answer of Kagig's riflemen. + +"Now, effendim, one of you down to the defenses, please! There is +risk my men may use too many cartridges. Talk to them--restrain them. +They might listen to me, but--" His long fingers suggested unhappy +fragments of past history. + +"You, Fred!" said Monty, and Fred hitched his concertina to a more +comfortable angle. + +Fred was the obvious choice. His gift of tongues would enable him +better than any of us to persuade, and if need were, compel. We +had left our rifles leaning by the wall at the castle entrance, and +in his cartridge bag was my oil-can and rag-bag. I asked him for +them, and he threw them to me rather clumsily. Trying to catch +them I twisted for the second time the ankle I had hurt that morning. +Fred mounted and rode out through the echoing entrance without a +backward glance, and I sat down and pulled my boot off, for the agony +was almost unendurable. + +"That settles your task for to-day," laughed Monty. "Help him back +to the top of the tower, Will. Keep me informed of everything you +see. Will--you go with Kagig after you've helped him up there." + +"All right," said Will. "Where's Kagig bound for?" + +"Round behind Beirut Dagh," Kagig announced grimly. "That's our +danger-point. If the Turks force their way round the mountain--" +He shrugged his expressive shoulders. Only he of all of us seemed +to view the situation seriously. I think we others felt a thrill +rather of sport than of danger. + +I might have been inclined to resent the inactivity assigned to me, +only that it gave me a better chance than I had hoped for of watching +for signs of Maga Jhaere's promised treachery. Will helped me up +and made the perch comfortable; then he and Kagig rode away together. +Presently Monty, too, mounted a mule, and rode out under the arch, +and fifteen minutes later fifty men marched in by twos, laughing +and joking, and went to saddling the horses in the semicircular stable +below me. After that all the world seemed to grow still for a while, +except for the eagles, the distant rag-slitting rattle of rifle-fire, +and the occasional bursting of a shell. Most of the shells were +falling on the clay ramp, and seemed to be doing no harm whatever. + +Away in the distance down the pass, out of range of the fire of our +men, but also incapable of harm themselves until they should advance +into the open jaws below the clay ramp, I could see the Turks massing +in that sort of dense formation that the Germans teach. Even through +the glasses it was not possible to guess their numbers, because the +angle of vision was narrow and cut off their flanks to right and +left; but I sent word down to Monty that a frontal attack in force +seemed to be already beginning. + +For an hour after that, while the artillery fire increased but our +rifle-fire seemed to dwindle under Fred's persuasive tongue, I watched +Monty mustering reenforcements in the gorge below the town. He +overcame some of the women's prejudice, for it was a force made up +of men and women that he presently led away. I was rather surprised +to see Rustum Khan, after a talk with Monty, return to his squadron +and remain inactive under cover of the hill; that fire-eater was +the last man one would expect to remain willingly out of action. +However, twenty minutes later, Rustum Khan appeared beside me, breathing +rather hard. He begged the glasses of me, and spent five minutes +studying the firing-line minutely before returning them. + +"The lord sahib has more faith in these undrilled folk than I have!" +he grumbled at last. "Observe: he goes with that bullet-food of +men and women mixed, to hide them in reserve behind the narrow gut +at the head of the ramp. The Turks are fools, as Kagig said, and +their general is also a fool, in spite of Kagig. They propose to +force that ramp. You see that by Frredd sahib's orders the firing +on our side has grown greatly less. That is to draw the Turks on. +See! It has drawn them! They are coming! The lord sahib will send +for Frredd sahib to take command of that reserve, to man the top +of the ramp in case the Turks succeed in climbing too far up it. +Then he himself will gallop back to take charge of my squadron below +there; and I take charge of his squadron up here. He and I are +interchangeable, I having drilled all the men in any case--such +drilling as they have had--such little, little drilling!" + +The Turks began their advance into the jaws of that defile with a +confidence that made my heart turn cold. What did they know? What +were they depending on in addition to their weight of numbers? +Mahmoud Bey had evidently hurried up almost his whole division, and +was driving them forward into our trap as if he knew he could swallow +trap and all. Not even foolish generals act that way. It needs +a madman. Kagig had said nothing about Mahmoud being mad. + +"Listen, Rustum Khan!" I said. "Go with a message to Lord Montdidier. +Tell him the whole Turkish force is in motion and coming on as if +their general knows something for certain that we don't know at all. +Tell him that I suspect treachery at our rear, and have good reason +for it!" + +Rustum Khan eyed me for a minute as if he would read the very middle +of my heart. + +"Can you ride?" he asked. + +"Of course," I answered. "It's only walking that I can't do." + +"Then leave those glasses with me, and go yourself!" + +"Why won't you go?" I asked. + +"Because here are fifty men who would lack a leader in that case." + +The answer was honest enough, yet I had my qualms about leaving the +post Monty had assigned to me. The thought that finally decided +me was that I would have opportunity to gallop past the hospital, +two hundred yards over the bridge on the Zeitoon side, and make sure +that Gloria was safe. + +"Have you seen Maga Jhaere anywhere?" I asked. + +"No," said the Rajput, swearing under his breath at the mere mention +of her name. + +"Then help me down from here. I'll go." + +He muttered to himself, and I think he thought I was off to make +love to the woman; but I was past caring about any one's opinion +on that score. Five minutes later I was trotting a good horse slowly +down the upper, steeper portion of the track toward Zeitoon, swearing +to myself, and dreading the smoother going where I should feel compelled +to gallop whether my ankle hurt or not. As a matter of fact I began +to suspect a broken bone or ligament, for the agonizing pain increased +and made me sit awkwardly on the horse, thus causing him to change +his pace at odd intervals and give me more pain yet. However, gallop +I had to, and I reached the bridge going at top speed, only to be +forced to rein in, chattering with agony, by a man on foot who raced +to reach the bridge ahead of me, and made unmistakable signals of +having an important message to deliver. + +He proved to be from Kagig, with orders to say that every man at +his disposal was engaged by a very strong body of Turks who had spent +the night creeping up close to their first objective, and had rushed +it with the bayonet shortly after dawn. + +"Order the women to stand ready by the bridge!" were the last words +(the man had the whole by heart), and then there was a scribbled +note from Will by way of make-weight. + +"This end of the action looks pretty serious to me. We're badly +outnumbered. The men are fighting gamely, but--tell Gloria for God's +sake to look out after herself!" + +I could hear no firing from that direction, for the great bulk of +Beirut Dagh shut it off. + +"How far away is the fighting?" I demanded. + +"Oh, a long way yet." + +I motioned to him to return to Kagig, and sent my horse across the +bridge, catching sight of Gloria outside the hospital directly after +I had crossed it. She waved her hand to me; so, seeing she was +safe for the present, I let the message to her wait and started +down the valley toward Monty as fast as the horse could go. I had +my work cut out to drive him into the din of firing, for it was +evidently his first experience of bursting shells, and even at +half-a-mile distance he reared and plunged, driving me nearly crazy +with pain. I found Monty shepherding the reserves he had brought +down, watching through glasses from over the top of the spur that +formed the left-hand wall of the gut of the pass. + +"I left Rustum Khan in my place," I began, expecting to be damned +at once for absenting without leave. + +"Glad you came," he said, without turning his head. + +I gave him my message, he listening while he watched the pass and +the oncoming enemy. + +"I tried to warn you of treachery this morning!" I said hotly. Pain +and memory did nothing toward keeping down choler. "Where's Peter +Measel? Seen him anywhere? Where's Maga Jhaere? Seen her, either? +Those Turks are coming on into what they must know is a trap, with +the confidence that proves their leaders have special information! +Look at them! They can see this pass is lined, with our riflemen, +yet on they come! They must suspect we've a surprise in store--yet +look at them!" + +They were coming on line after line, although Fred had turned the +ammunition loose, and the rifle-fire of our well-hidden men was +playing havoc. Monty seemed to me to look more puzzled than afraid. +I went on telling him of the message Kagig had sent, and offered him +Will's note, but he did not even look at it. + +"Ah!" he said suddenly. "Now I understand! Yes, it's treachery. +I beg your pardon for my thoughts this morning." + +"Granted," said I, "but what next?" + +"Look!" he said simply. + +There were two sudden developments. What was left of the first +advancing company of Turks halted below the ramp, and with sublime +effrontery, born no doubt of knowledge that we had no artillery, +proceeded to dig themselves a shallow trench. The Zeitoonli were +making splendid shooting, but it was only a question of minutes until +the shelter would be high enough for crouching men. + +The second disturbing factor was that in a long line extending up +the flank of the mountain, roughly parallel to the lower end of the +track that Monty had caused to be cut from the castle, the trees +were coming down as if struck by a cyclone! There must have been +more than a regiment armed with axes, cutting a swath through the +forest to take our secret road in flank! + +That meant two things clearly. Some one had told Mahmoud of our +plan to charge down from the height and surprise him, thus robbing +us of all the benefit of unexpectedness; and, when the charge should +take place, our men would have to ride down four abreast through +ambush. And, if Mahmoud had merely intended placing a few men to +trap our horsemen, he would never have troubled to cut down the +forest. Plainly, he meant to destroy our mounted men at point-blank +range, and then march a large force up the horse-track, so turning +the tables on us. Considering the overwhelming numbers he had at +his disposal, the game to me looked almost over. + +Not so, however, to Monty. He glanced over his shoulder once at +the men and women waiting for his orders, and I saw the women begin +inspiriting their men. Then he turned on me. + +"Now damn your ankle," he said. "Try to forget it! Climb up there +and tell Fred to choose a hundred men and bring them down himself +to oppose the enemy in front if he comes over the top of that ditch. +Then you gallop back and get word to Rustum Khan to bring both squadrons +down here. Tell him to stay by Fred and hold his horses until the +last minute. Then you get all the women you can persuade to follow +you, and man the castle walls! Hurry, now--that's all!" + +There was a man holding my horse. I tied the horse securely to a +tree instead, and told the man to help me climb, little suspecting +what a Samson I had happened on. He laughed, seized me in his arms, +and proceeded to carry me like a baby up the goat-track leading to +the hidden rifle-pits and trenches. I persuaded him to let me get +up on his shoulders, and in that way I had a view of most of what +was happening. + +Monty led his men and women at a run across the top of the ramp +flanked by the full fire of the entrenched company below; and his +action was so unexpected that the Turks fired like beginners. There +were not many bodies lying quiet, nor writhing either when the last +woman had disappeared among the trees on the far side. Those that +did writhe were very swiftly caused to cease by volleys aimed at +them in obedience to officers' orders. It began to look as if Gloria's +hospital would not be over-worked. + +The tables were now turned on the Turks, except in regard to numbers. +In the first place, as soon as Monty's command had penetrated downward +through the trees parallel with the side of the ramp, he had the +entrenched company in flank. It did not seem to me that he left +more than ten or fifteen men to make that trench untenable, but the +Turks were out of it within five minutes and in full retreat under +a hot fire from Fred's men. + +Then Monty pushed on to the far side of the castle road and held +the remaining fringe of trees in such fashion that the Turks could +not guess his exact whereabouts nor what number he had with him. +Cutting down trees in a hurry is one thing, but cutting them down +in face of hidden rifle-fire is most decidedly another, especially +when the axmen have been promised there will be no reprisals. + +The tree-felling suddenly ceased, and there began a close-quarters +battle in the woods, in which numbers had less effect than knowledge +of the ground and bravery. The Turk is a brave enough fighter, but +not to be compared with mountain-Armenians fighting for their home, +and it was easy to judge which held the upper hand. + +I found Fred smoking his pipe and enjoying himself hugely, with half +a dozen runners ready to carry word to whichever section of the +defenses seemed to him to need counsel. He could see what Monty +had done, and was in great spirits in consequence. + +"I've bagged two Turk officers to my own gun," he announced. "Murder +suits me to a T." + +I gave him the message. + +"Piffle!" he answered. "They can never take the ramp by frontal +attack! The right thing to do is hold the flanks, and wither 'em +as they cone!" + +"Monty's orders!" I said, "and I've got to be going." + +"Damn that fellow Didums!" he grumbled. "All right. But it's my +belief he's turning a classy little engagement into a bloody brawl! +Cut along! I'll pick my hundred and climb down there." + +Cutting along was not so easy. My magnificent human mount was hit +by a bullet--a stray one, probably, shot at a hazard at long range. +He fell and threw me head-long; and the agony of that experience +pretty nearly rendered me unconscious. However, he was not hit badly, +and essayed to pick me up again. I refused that, but he held on +to me and, both of us being hurt in the leg on the same side, we +staggered together down the goat-track. + +Down below we found the horse plunging in a frenzy of fear, and +he nearly succeeded in breaking away from both of us, dragging us +out into full view of the enemy, who volleyed us at long range. +Fortunately they made rotten shooting, and one ill-directed hail +of lead screamed on the far side, causing the horse to plunge toward +me. The Armenian took me by the uninjured foot and flung me into +the saddle, and I left up-pass with a parting volley scattering all +around, and both hands locked into the horse's mane. He needed +neither whip nor spur, but went for Zeitoon like the devil with his +tail on fire. + +I suppose one never grows really used to pain, but from use it becomes +endurable. When Anna ran out to stop me by the great rock on which +the lowest Zeitoon houses stand, and seized me by the foot, partly +to show deference, partly in token that she was suppliant, and also +partly because she was utterly distracted, I was able to rein the +horse and listen to her without swearing. + +"She is gone!" she shouted. "Gone, I tell you! Gloria is gone! +Six men, they come and take her! She is resisting, oh, so hard--and +they throw a sack over her--and she is gone, I tell you! She is gone!" + +"Where is Maga?" + +"Gone, too!" + +"In which direction did they take Miss Gloria?" + +"I do not know!" + +I rode on. There were crowds of women near the bridge, all armed +with rifles, and I hurried toward them. + +But they refused to believe that any one in Zeitoon would do such +a thing as kidnap Gloria, and while I waited for Anna to come and +convince them a man forced himself toward me through the crowd. +He was out of breath. One arm was in a bloody bandage, but in the +other hand he held a stained and crumpled letter. + +It proved to be from Will, addressed to all or any of us. + + "Kagig is a wonder!" it ran, "He has put new life into these + men and we've thrashed the Turk soundly. How's Gloria? Kagig + says, 'Can you send us reenforcements?' If so we can follow + up and do some real damage. Send 'em quick! Make Gloria + keep cover! WILL. + + + + +Chapter Twenty +"So few against so many! I see death, and I am not sorry!" + + +THOU LAND OF THE GLAD HAND + +Thou land of the Glad Hand, whose frequent boast +Is of the hordes to whom thou playest host! +Whose liberty is full! whose standard high +Has reached and taken stars from out the sky! +Whose fair-faced women tread the streets unveiled, +Unchallenged, unaffronted, unassailed! +Whose little ones in park and meadow laugh, +Nor know what cost that precious cup they quaff, +Nor pay in stripes and bruises and regret +Ten times each total of a parent's debt! +Thou nation born in freedom--land of kings +Whose laws protect the very feathered things, +Uplifting last and least to high estate +That none be overlooked--and none too great! +Is all thy freedom good for thee alone? +Is earth thy footstool? Are the clouds thy throne? +Shall other peoples reach thy hand to take +That gladdens only thee for thine own sake? + + +To get word to Rustum Khan was simple enough, for he himself came +riding down to get news. The minute he learned what Monty wanted +of him he turned his horse back up-hill at a steady lope, and I began +on the next item in the program. + +Nor was that difficult. The reading aloud of Will's letter, translated +to them by Anna, convinced the women that their beloved bridge was +in no immediate danger, and no less than three hundred of them marched +off to reenforce Kagig's men behind Beirut Dagh. I reckoned that +by the time they reached the scene of action we would have a few +more than three thousand men and women in the field under arms--against +Mahmoud Bey's thirty thousand Turks! + +There remained to scrape together as many as possible to man the +castle walls; and what with wounded, and middle-aged women, and +men whose weapons did not fit the plundered Turkish ammunition, I +had more than a hundred volunteers in no time. The only disturbing +feature about this new command of mine was that it contained more +than a sprinkling of the type of malcontents who had bearded Kagig +in his den the night before. Those looked like thoroughly excellent +fighting men, if only they could have been persuaded to agree to +trust a common leader. + +Not one of them but knew a thousand times more of Zeitoon, and their +people, and the various needs of defense than, for instance, I did. +Yet they clustered about me for lack of confidence in one another, +and shouted after the women who marched away advice to watch lest +Kagig betray them all. Not for nothing had the unspeakable Turk +inculcated theories of misrule all down the centuries! + +I led them up to the castle, they carrying with them food enough +for several days. We passed Rustum Khan coming down with the horsemen, +and I fell behind to have word with him. + +"Which of these men shall I pick to command the rest?" I asked him. +"You've more experience of them." + +"Any that you choose will be pounced on by the rest as wolves devour +a sheep!" the Rajput answered. + +"Should I have them vote on it?" + +"They would elect you," he answered. + +"I've got to be free to look for Miss Gloria. She's +kidnapped--disappeared utterly!" + +Rustum Khan swore under his breath, using a language that I knew +no word of. + +"A woman again, and more trouble!" he said at last grimly. "Let +like cure like then! Choose a woman herdsman!" he grinned. "It +may be she will surprise them into obedience!" + +"I'll take your advice," said I, although I resented his insinuation +that they were a herd--so swiftly does command make partisans. + +"The last thing you may take from me, sahib!" he answered. + +"How so?" + +"So few against so many! I see death and I am not sorry. Only may +I die leading those good mountain-men of mine!" + +It was part and parcel of him to praise those he had drilled and +scorn the others. I shook hands and said nothing. It did not seem +my place to contradict him. + +"Let us hope these people are the gainers by our finish!" he called +over his shoulder, riding on after his command. "They are not at +all bad people--only un-drilled, and a little too used to the ways +of the Turk! Good-by, sahib!" + +Within the castle gate I found a woman, whom they all addressed as +Marie, very busy sorting out the bundles they had thrown against +the wall. She was putting all the food together into a common fund, +and as I entered she shouted to her own nominees among the other +women to get their cooking pots and begin business. + +Still pondering Rustum Khan's advice, in the dark whether or not +be meant it seriously, I chose Marie Chandrian to take command. +She made no bones about it, but accepted with a great shrill laugh +that the rest of them seemed to recognize--and to respect for old +acquaintance' sake. She turned out to have her husband with her--an +enormous, hairy man with a bull's voice who ought to have been in +one or other of the firing-lines but had probably held back in obedience +to his better half. She made him her orderly at once, and it was +not long before every soul in the castle had his or her place to hold. + +Then I mounted once more and rode at top speed down the new road +that Monty was defending, taking another horse this time, not so +good, but much less afraid of the din of battle. + +I found Monty scarcely fifty paces from the track, on the outside +edge of the fringe of trees that the Turks had been unable to cut +down. There were numbers of wounded laid out on the track itself, +with none to carry them away; and the Turks were keeping up a hot +fire from behind the shelter of the felled trees and standing stumps. +The outside range was two hundred yards, and there were several platoons +of the enemy who had crept up to within thirty or forty yards and +could not be dislodged. + +I pulled Monty backward, for he could not hear me, and he and I stood +behind two trees while I told him what I had done, shouting into +his ear. + +"I've got to go and find Gloria!" I said finally, and he frowned, +and nodded. + +"Go first and take a look at the ramp through the trees. Tell me +what's happening." + +So I limped down to the end of the track and made my way cautiously +through the lower fringe of trees that had been cut three-parts through +in readiness for felling in a hurry. Just as I got there the Turks +began a new massed advance up the ramp, as if in direct proof of +Monty's mental alertness. + +The men posted on the opposite flank to where I was opened a terrific +fire that would have made poor Kagig bite his lips in fear for the +waning ammunition. Then Fred came into action with his hundred, +throwing them in line into the open along the top, where they lay +down to squander cartridges--squandering to some purpose, however, +for the Turkish lines checked and reeled. + +But Mahmoud Bey had evidently given orders that this advance should +be pressed home, and the Turks came on, company after company, in +succeeding waves of men. There were some in front with picks and +shovels, making rough steps in the slippery clay; and I groaned, +hating to go and tell Monty that it was only a matter of minutes +before the frontal attack must succeed and the pass be in enemy hands. + +"Here goes Armenia's last chance!" I thought; and I waited to see +the beginning of the end before limping back to Monty. + +And it was well I did wait. I had actually forgotten Rustum Khan +and his two squadrons. Nor would I ever have believed without seeing +it that one lone man could so inspirit and control that number of +aliens whom he had only as much as drilled a time or two. It said +as much for the Zeitoonli as for Rustum Khan. Without the very +ultimate of bravery, good faith, and intelligence on their part he +could never have come near attempting what he did. + +He brought his two squadrons in line together suddenly over the brow +of the ramp, galloped them forward between Fred's extended riflemen, +and charged down-hill, the horses checking as they felt the slippery +clay under foot and then, unable to pull up, careering head-long, +urged by their riders into madder and madder speed, with Rustum Khan +on his beautiful bay mare several lengths in the lead. + +Cavalry usually starts at a walk, then trots, and only gains its +great momentum within a few yards of the enemy. This cavalry started +at top speed, and never lost it until it buried itself into the +advancing Turks as an avalanche bursts into a forest! No human enemy +could ever have withstood that charge. Many of the horses fell in +the first fifty yards, and none of these were able to regain their +feet in time to be of use. Some of the riders were rolled on and +killed. And some were slain by the half-dozen volleys the astonished +Turks found time to greet them with. But more than two-thirds of +Rustum Khan's men, armed with swords of every imaginable shape and +weight, swept voiceless into an enemy that could not get out of their +way; and regiments in the rear that never felt the shock turned +and bolted from the wrath in front of them. + +I climbed out to the edge of the trees, and yelled for Fred, waving +both arms and my hat and a branch. He saw me at last, and brought +his hundred men down the ramp at a run. + +"Join Monty," I shouted, "and help him clear the woods." + +He led his men into the trees like a pack of hounds in full cry, +and I limped after them, arriving breathless in time to see the Turks +in front of Monty in full retreat, fearful because the Rajput's +cavalry had turned their flank. Then Monty and Fred got their men +together and swung them down into the pass to cover Rustum Khan's +retreat when the charge should have spent itself. + +The Rajput had managed to demoralize the Turkish infantry, but Mahmoud's +guns were in the rear, far out of reach. Bursting shells did more +destruction as he shepherded the squadrons back again than bullet, +bayonet and slippery clay combined to do in the actual charge itself. +Monty gave orders to throw down the fringe of trees and let them +through to the castle road, so saving them from the total annihilation +in store if they had essayed to scramble up the slippery ramp. And +then Fred's men joined Monty's contingent, helping them fortify the +new line--deepening and reversing the trench the Turks had dug below +the ramp, and continuing that line along through the remaining edge +of trees that still stood between the enemy and the castle road. + +But by cutting down the fringe at the end of the road to let Rustum +Khan through we had forfeited the last degree of secrecy. If the +Turks could come again and force the gut of the pass, nothing but +the hardest imaginable fighting could prevent them from swinging +round at that point and making use of our handiwork. + +"That castle has become a weakness, not a strength, Colonel sahib!" +said Rustum Khan, striding through the trees to where Monty and Fred +and I were standing. "I have lost seven and thirty splendid men, +and three and forty horses. One more such charge, and--" + +"No, Rustum Khan. Not again," Monty answered. + +"What else?" laughed the Rajput. "That castle divides our forces, +making for weakness. If only--" + +"We must turn it to advantage, then, Rustum Khan!" + +"Ah, sahib! So speaks a soldier! How then?" + +"Mahmoud knows by now that the trees are down," said I. "His watchers +must have seen them fall. Some of the trees are lying outward toward +the ramp." + +"Exactly," said Monty. "His own inclination will lead him to use +our new road, and we must see that he does exactly that. The guns +are making the ramp too hot just now for amusement, but let some +one--you, Fred--run a deep ditch across the top of the ramp; and +if we can hold them until dark we'll have connected ditches dug at +intervals all the way down." + +Looking over the top of the trees I could just see the Montdidier +standard bellying in the wind. + +"I'll bet you Mahmoud can see that, too!" said I, drawing the others' +attention to it. + +"Let's hope so," Monty answered quietly. "Now, Rustum Khan, find +one of those brave horsemen of yours who is willing to be captured +by the enemy and give some false information. I want it well understood +that our only fear is of a night attack!" + +"You say, Colonel sahib, there will be no further use for cavalry?" + +"Not for a charge down that ramp, at any rate!" + +"Then send me! My word will carry conviction. I can say that as +a Moslem I will fight no longer on the side of Christians. They +will accept my information, and then hang me for having led a charge +into their infantry. Send me, sahib!" + +Monty shook his head. Rustum Khan seemed inclined to insist, but +there came astonishing interruption. Kagig appeared, with arms akimbo, +in our midst. + +"Oh, sportmen all!" he laughed. "This day goes well!" + +"Thank God you're here!" said Monty. "Now we can talk." + +"That Will--what is his name?--Will Yerkees is a wonderful fighter!" +said Kagig, snapping his fingers and making the joints crack. + +"He accuses you of that complaint," said I. + +"Me? No. I am only enthusiast. The road behind Beirut Dagh is +rough and narrow. The Turks had hard work, and less reason for +eagerness than we. So we overcame them. They have fallen back to +where they were at dawn, and they are discouraged"--he made his +finger-joints crack again--"discouraged! The women feel very confident. +The men feet exactly as the women do! The Turks are preparing to +bivouac where they lie. They will attack no more to-day--I know them!" + +"Listen, Kagig!" Monty drew us all together with a gesture of both +hands. "These Turks are too many for us, if we give them time. +Our ammunition won't last, for one thing. We must induce Mahmoud +to attack to-night--coax him up this castle road, and catch him in +a trap. It can be done. It must be done!" + +"I know the right man to send to the Turk to tell him things!" Kagig +answered slowly with relish. + +"That is my business!" growled Rustum Khan, but Kagig laughed at him. + +"No Turk would believe a word you say--not one leetle word!" he said, +snapping his fingers. "You are a good fighter. I saw your charge +from the castle tower; it was very good. But I will send an Armenian +on this errand. Go on, Lord Monty; I know the proper man." + +"That's about the long and short of it," said Monty. "If we can +induce Mahmoud to attack to-night, we've a fair chance of hitting +him so hard that he'll withdraw and let us alone. Otherwise--" + +Kagig's finger-joints cracked harder than ever as his quick mind +reviewed the possibilities. + +"Have you any idea what can have happened to Miss Vanderman?" I +asked him. + +"Miss Vanderman? No? What? Tell me!" + +He seemed astonished, and I told him slowly, lest he miss one grain +of the enormity of Maga's crime. But instead of appearing distressed +he shook his bands delightedly and rattled off a very volley of +cracking knuckles. + +"That is the idea! We have Mahmoud caught! I know Mahmoud! I know +him! The man I shall choose shall tell Mahmoud that Gloria Vanderman--the +beautiful American young lady, who is outlawed because of her +fighting on behalf of Armenians--who--who could not possibly be claimed +by the American consul, on account of being outlawed--is in the castle +to-night and can be taken if he only will act quickly! Oh, how his +eyes will glitter! That Mahmoud--he buys women all the time! A +young--beautiful--athletic American girl--Mahmoud will sacrifice +three thousand men to capture her!" + +Monty ground his teeth. Fred turned his back, and filled his pipe. +Rustum Khan brushed his black beard upward with both hands. + +"Suppose you go now and try to find Miss Vanderman," said Monty rather +grimly to me. "If you find her, hide her out of harm's way and +communicate with Will!" + +So Fred helped me on the horse and I rode back to the castle, where +I explained the details of the fighting below to the defenders, and +then rode on down to Zeitoon by the other road. It was wearing along +into the afternoon, and I had no idea which way to take to look for +Gloria; but I did have a notion that Maga Jhaere might be looking +out for me. There was a chance that she might have been in earnest +in persuading me to elope, and that if I rode alone she might show +herself--she or else Gloria's captors. + +Failing signs of Maga Jhaere or her men, I proposed to ride behind +Beirut Dagh in search of Will, and to get his quick Yankee wit employed +on the situation. + +So, instead of crossing the bridge into Zeitoon I guided my horse +around the base of the mountain, riding slowly so as to ease the +pain in my foot and to give plenty of opportunity to any one lying +in wait to waylay me. + +It happened I guessed rightly. The track swung sharp to the left +after a while, and passed up-hill through a gorge between two cliffs +into wilder country than any I had yet seen in Armenia. From the +top of the cliff on the right-hand side a pebble was dropped and +struck the horse--then another--then a third one. I thought it best +to take no notice of that, although the horse made fuss enough. + +The third pebble was followed by a shrill whistle, which I also decided +to ignore, and continued to ride on toward where a clump of scrawny +bushes marked the opening out of a narrow valley. I heard the bushes +rustle as I drew near them, and was not surprised to see Maga emerge, +looking hot, impatient and angry, although not less beautiful on +that account. + +"Fool!" she began on me. "Why you wait so long? Another half-hour +and it is too late altogether! Come now! Leave the horse. Come quick!" + +Wondering what important difference half an hour should make, it +occurred to me that Will was probably impatient long ago at receiving +no news of Gloria. If I judged Will rightly, he would be on his +way to look for her. + +"Come quick!" commanded Maga. + +"I can't climb that cliff," said I. "I've hurt my foot." + +"I help you. Come!" + +She stepped up close beside me to help me down, but that instant +it seemed to me that I heard more than one horse approaching. + +"Quick!" she commanded, for she heard them, too, and held out her +arms to help me. "Quick! I have two men to help you walk!" + +I could have reached my pistol, but so could she have reached hers, +and her hand and eye were quicker than forked lightning. Besides, +to shoot her would have been of doubtful benefit until Gloria's +whereabouts were first ascertained. She put an arm round me to pull +me from the saddle, and that settled it. I fell on her with all +my weight, throwing her backward into the bushes, and kicking the +horse in the ribs with my uninjured foot. The horse took fright +as I intended, and went galloping off in the direction of the +approaching sounds. + +I had not wrestled since I was a boy at school, and then never with +such a spitting puzzle of live wires as Maga proved herself. I had +the advantage of weight, but I had told her of my injured foot, and +she worked like a she-devil to damage it further, fighting at the +same time with left and right wrist alternately to reach pistol +and knife. + +I let go one wrist, snatched the pistol out of her bosom and threw +it far away. But with the free and she reached her knife, and landed +with it into my ribs. The pain of the stab sickened me; but the +knowledge that she had landed fooled her into relaxing her hold in +order to jump clear. So I got hold of both wrists again, and we +rolled over and over among the bushes, she trying like an eel to wriggle +away, and I doing my utmost to crush the strength out of her. We +were interrupted by Will's voice, and by Will's strong arms dragging +us apart. + +"Catch her!" I panted. "Hold her! Don't let her go!" + +"Never fear!" he laughed. + +"Her men have kidnapped Gloria! Tie her hands!" + +Will had two men with him, one of whom was leading my runaway horse. +They gazed open-eyed while Will tied Maga's wrists behind her back. + +"Kagig--what will he say?" one of them objected, but Will laughed. + +"What you do with me?" demanded Maga. + +"Take you to Kagig, of course. Where's Miss Vanderman?" + +Then suddenly Maga's whole appearance changed. The defiance vanished, +leaving her as if by magic supple again, subtle, suppliant, conjuring +back to memory the nights when she had danced and sung. The fire +departed from her eyes and they became wet jewels of humility with +soft love lights glowing in their depths. + +"You do not want that woman!" she said slowly, smiling at Will. +"You give 'er to this fool!" She glanced at my bleeding ribs, as +if the blood were evidence of folly. "You take me, Will Yerkees! +Then I teach you all things--all about people--all about land, and +love, and animals, and water, and the air--I teach you all!" + +She paused a moment, watching his face, judging the effect of words. +He stood waiting with a look of puzzled distress that betrayed regret +for her tied wrists, but accepted the necessity. Perhaps she mistook +the chivalrous distress for tenderness. + +"I 'ave tried to make that man Kagig king! I 'ave tried, and tried! +But 'e is no good! If 'e 'ad obeyed me, I would 'ave made 'im king +of all Armenia! But 'e is as good as dead already, because Mahmoud +the Turk is come to finish 'im--so!" She spat conclusively. "So +now I make you king instead of 'im! You let that Gloria Vanderman +go to this fool, an' I show you 'ow to make all Armenians follow +you an' overthrow the Turks, an' conquer, an' you be king!" + +Will laughed. "Better stick to Kagig! I'm going to take you to him!" + +"You take me to 'im?" + +She flashed again, swift as a snake to illustrate resentment. + +"Yes." + +"Then I tell 'im things about you, an' 'e believe me!" + +"Let's bargain," laughed Will. "Show me Miss Vanderman, alive and +well, and--" + +"Steady the Buffs!" I warned him. "Gloria's not far away. There +were pebbles dropped on my horse. There may be a cave above this +cliff--or something of the sort." + +Will nodded. "--and I won't tell Kagig you made love to me!" +he continued. + +"Poof! Pah! Kagig, 'e know that long ago!" + +Will turned to his two men and bade them tie the horses to a bush. + +"How are the ribs?" he asked me. + +"Nothing serious," said I. + +"Do you think you can watch her if I tie her feet?" + +"She's slippery and strong! Better tie her to a tree as well!" + +So between them Will and the two men trussed her up like a chicken +ready for the market, making her bound ankles fast to the roots of +a bush. Then he led the two men up the cliff-side, and Maga lay +glaring at me as if she hoped hate could set me on fire, while I +made shift to stanch my wound. + +But she changed her tactics almost before Will was out of sight beyond +a boulder, beginning to scream the same words over and over in the +gipsy tongue and struggling to free her feet until I thought the +thongs would either burst or strip the flesh from her. + +The screams were answered by a shout from up above. Then I heard +Will shout, and some one fired a pistol. There came a clatter of +loose stones, and I got to my feet to be ready for action--not that +my hurts would have let me accomplish much. + +A second later I saw three of Gregor Jhaere's gipsies scurrying along +the cliff-side, turning at intervals to fire pistols at some one +in pursuit. So I joined in the fray with my Colt repeater, and +flattered myself I did not do so badly. The first two shots produced +no other effect than to bring the runaways to a halt. The next three +shots brought all three men tumbling head over heels down the +cliff-side, rolling and sliding and scattering the stones. + +One fell near Maga's feet and lay there writhing. The other two +came to a standstill in a hideous heap beside me, and I stooped to +see if I could recognize them. + +What happened after that was almost too quick for the senses to take +in. One of the gipsies came suddenly to life and seized me by the +neck. The other grasped my feet, and as I fell I saw the third man +slash loose Maga's thongs and help her up. + +My two assailants rolled me over on my back, and while one held me +the other aimed blows at my head with the butt of his empty pistol. +Once he hit me, and it felt like an explosion. Twice by a miracle +I dodged the blows, growing weaker, though, and hopeless. He aimed +a fourth blow, taking his time about it and making sure of his aim, +and I waited in the nearest approach to fatalistic calm I ever +experienced. + +In a strange abstraction, in which every movement seemed to be +slowed down into unbelievable leisureliness, I saw the butt of the +pistol begin to approach my eye--near--nearer. Then suddenly I heard +a woman scream, and a shot ring out. + +Instead of the pistol butt the gipsy's brains splashed on my face, +and the man collapsed on top of me. Next I realized that Gloria +Vanderman was wiping my face with a cloth of some kind, holding a +hot pistol in her other hand, while Will was standing laughing over +me, and Maga Jhaere with the other gipsy had disappeared altogether. + +"Did you shoot Maga?" I mumbled. + +"No," Will laughed. "I'd hate to shoot a woman who'd offered to +make me king! She ought to be hung, though, for a horse-thief! +She and that other gipsy got away with the mounts! Never mind--there +are four of us to carry you, if Gloria lends a hand!" + +But I have no notion how they carried me. All I remember is recovering +consciousness that evening in the castle, to discover myself copiously +bandaged, and painfully stiff, but not so much of an invalid after all. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-one +"Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!" + + +FRAGMENT + +Oh, fear and hate shall have their spate +(For both of the twain are one) +And lust and greed devour the seed +That else had growth begun. +Fiercely the flow of death shall go +And short the good man's shrift! +All hell's awake full toll to take, +And passions hour is swift. + +But there be cracks in evil's tracks +Where seed shall safe abide, +And living rocks shall breast the shocks +Of overflowing tide. +Castle and wall and keep shall fall, +Prophet and plan shall fail, +And they shall thank nor wit nor rank +Who in the end prevail. + + +Looking back after this lapse of time there seems little difference +between the disordered dreams of unconsciousness and the actual +waking turmoil of that night. At first as I came slowly to my senses +there seemed only a sea of voices all about me, and a constant thumping, +as of falling weights. + +There were great pine torches set in the rusty old rings on the wall, +and by their fitful light I saw that I lay on a cot in the castle keep. +Monty, Fred, Will, Kagig and Rustum Khan were conversing at a table. +Gloria sat on an up-ended pine log near me. A dozen Armenians, +including the "elders" who had disagreed with Kagig, stood arguing +rather noisily near the door. + +"What is the thumping?" I asked, and Gloria hurried to the cot-side. +But I managed to sit up, and after she had given me a drink I found +that my foot was still the most injured part of me. It was swollen +unbelievably, whereas my bandaged head felt little the worse for +wear, and the knife-wound did not hurt much. + +"They're bringing in wood," she answered. + +"Why all that quantity?" + +The thumping was continuous, not unlike the noise good stevedores +make when loading against time. + +"To burn the castle!" + +At that moment Rustum Khan left the table, and seeing me sitting +up strode over. + +"Good-by, sahib!" he said, reaching out for my hand. + +"The lord sahib has given me a post of honor and I go to hold it. +Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!" + +I got to my feet to shake hands with him, and I think he appreciated +the courtesy, for his stern eyes softened for a moment. He saluted +Gloria rather perfunctorily as became his attitude toward women, +and strode away to a point half-way between the door and Monty. +There he turned, facing the table. + +"Lord sahib bahadur!" he said sonorously. + +Monty got up and stood facing him. + +"Salaam!" + +"Salaam, Rustum Khan!" Monty answered, returning the salute, and +the others got to their feet in a hurry, and stood at attention. + +Then the Rajput faced about and went striding through the doorless +opening into the black night--the last I was destined to see of +him alive. + +"May we all prove as faithful and brave as that man!" said Monty, +sitting down again, and Kagig cracked his knuckles. + +Gloria and I went over and sat at the table, and seeing me in a state +to understand things Monty gave me a precis of the situation. + +"We're making a great beacon of this castle," he said. "Three hundred +men and women are piling in the felled logs and trees and +down-wood--everything that will burn. We shall need light on the scene. +Rustum Khan has gone to hold the clay ramp and make sure the Turks +turn up this castle road. Fred is to hold the corner; we've fortified +the Zeitoon side of the road, and Fred and his men are to make sure +the Turks don't spread out through the trees. Kagig, Will and I, +with twenty-five very carefully picked men for each of us, wait for +the Turks at the bottom of the road and put up a feint of resistance. +Our business will be to make it look as little like a trap and as +much like a desperate defense as possible. We hope to make it seem +we're caught napping and fighting in the last ditch." + +"Last ditch is true enough!" Fred commented cheerfully. Fred was +obviously in his best humor, faced by a situation that needed no +cynicism to discolor it--full of fight and perfectly contented. + +"Practically all of the rest of the men and women who are not watching +the enemy on the other side of Beirut Dagh," Monty went on, "are +hidden, or will be hidden in the timber on either side of the road. +We're hoping to God they'll have sense enough to keep silent until +the beacon is lighted. You're to light the beacon, since you're +recovering so finely--you and Miss Vanderman." + +"Yes, but when?" said I. + +"When the bugles blow. We've got six bugles--" + +"Only two of them are cornets and one's a trombone," Fred put in. + +"And when they all sound together, then set the castle alight and +kill any one you see who isn't an Armenian!" + +"Or us!" said Fred. "You're asked not to kill one of us!" + +"As a matter of fact," said Monty, "I rather expect to be near you +by that time, because we don't want to give the signal until as many +Turks as possible are caught in the road like rats. At the signal +we dose the road at both ends; Rustum Khan and Fred from the bottom +end, and we at the top." + +"Most of the murder," Fred explained cheerfully, "will be done by +the women hidden in the trees on either flank. As long as they don't +shoot across the road and kill one another it'll be a picnic!" + +"How do you know the Turks will walk into the trap?" I asked. + +"Ten 'traitors,'" said Monty, "have let themselves get caught at +intervals since noon. One of Kagig's spies has got across to us +with news that Mahmoud means to finish the hash of Zeitoon to-night. +His men have been promised all the loot and all the women." + +"Except one!" Fred added with a glance at Gloria. + +"Two! Except two!" remarked Kagig with a glance at the door. We +looked, and held our breath. + +Maga Jhaere stood there, with a hand on the masonry on each side! + +"You fool, Kagig, what you fill this castle full of wood for?" +she demanded. + +Kagig beckoned to her. + +"To burn little traitoresses!" he answered tenderly. "Come here!" + +She walked over to him, and he put his arm around her waist, looking +up from his seat into her face as if studying it almost for the +first time. She began running her fingers through his hair. + +"Is she not beautiful?" he asked us naively. Then, not waiting for +an answer: "She is my wife, effendim. You would not have me be +revengeful--not toward my wife, I think?" + +"Your wife? Why didn't you tell us that before?" + +Gloria seemed the most surprised, as well as the most amused, although +we were all astonished. + +"Not tell you before? Oh--do you remember Abraham--in the Bible--yes? +She has been my best spy now and then. As Kagig's wife what good +would she be?" Yet, had I not married her, I should have lost the +services of most of my best spies--Gregor Jhaere for one. He is +not her father, no. They call her their queen. She is daughter +of another gipsy and of an Armenian lady of very good family. She +has always hoped to see me a monarch!" + +He laughed, and cracked his finger-joints. + +"To make of me a monarch, and to reign beside me! Ha-ha-ha! I did +those gipsies a favor by marrying her, for she was something of a +problem to them, no gipsy being good enough in her eyes, and no busne +(Gentile) caring for the honor until I saw and fell in love! Oh, +yes, I fell in love! I, Kagig, the old adventurer, I fell in love!" + +He drew her down and kissed her as tenderly as if she were a little +child; then rose to his feet. + +"You forgive her, effendim?" he asked. "You forgive her for my sake?" + +None answered him. Perhaps he asked too much. + +"Never mind me, then, effendim. Not for my sake, but for the good +work she has so often done, and for the work she shall do--you +forgive her?" + +We all looked toward Gloria. It was her prerogative. Gloria took +Maga's left hand in her right. + +"I don't blame you," she said, "for coveting Will. I've coveted +him myself! But you needn't have let your men handle me so roughly!" + +"No?" said Maga blandly. "Then why did you 'urt two of them so badly +that they run away? Did not you shoot that other one? So--I give +'im to you. I give you that Will Yerkees--" + +"Thanks!" put in Will, but Maga ignored the interruption. + +"--not because you are cleverer than me--or more beautiful. You +are uglee! You can not dance, and as for fighting, I could keel +you with one 'and! But because I like Kagig better after all!" + +At that Kagig suddenly dismissed all such trivialities as treachery +and matrimony from his mind with one of his Napoleonic gestures. + +"It is time, effendim, to be moving!" He led the way out without +another word, I limping along last and the Armenian "elders" +following me. + +It was pitchy dark in the castle courtyard, and without the light +from numerous kerosene lanterns it would not have been possible to +find the way between the heaped-up logs. There was only a crooked, +very narrow passage left between the keep and the outer gate, and +they had long ago left off using the gate for the lumber, but were +hoisting it over the wall with ropes. One improvised derrick squealed +in the darkness, and the logs came in by twos and tens and dozens. +No sooner were we out of the keep than women came and tossed in logs +through the door and windows, until presently that building, too, +contained fuel enough to decompose the stone. And over the whole +of it, here, there and everywhere, men were pouring cans and cans +of kerosene, while other men were setting dry tinder in +strategic places. + +There was no moon that night. Or if there was a moon, then the +dark clouds hid it. No doubt Mahmoud thought he had a night after +his own heart for the purpose of overwhelming our little force; +for how should he know that we were ready for the massed battalions +forming to storm the gorge again. At a little after eight o'clock +Mahmoud resumed the offensive with his artillery, and a messenger +that Monty sent down to watch returned and reported the shells all +bursting wild, with Rustum Khan's men taking careful cover in the +ditches they had zigzagged down the whole face of the ramp. + +An hour later the Turk's infantry was reported moving, and shortly +before ten o'clock we heard the opening rattle of Rustum Khan's +stinging defense. There was intended to be no deception about that +part of our arrangements; nor was there. The oncoming enemy was +met with a hail of destruction that checked and withered his ranks, +and made the succeeding companies only too willing to turn at the +castle road instead of struggling straight forward. + +Nor was the turn accomplished without further loss; for our Zeitoonli, +still entrenched on the flank of the pass, loosed a murderous storm +of lead through the dark that swept every inch of the open castle +road, and the turn became a shambles. + +But Mahmoud had reckoned the cost and decided to pay it. Company +after company poured up the gorge in the rear of the front ones, +and turned with a roar up the road, butchered and bewildered, but +ever adding to the total that gained shelter beyond the first turn +in the road. + +Those, however, had to deal at once with Monty, Will and Kagig, who +opened on them guerrilla warfare from behind trees--never opposing +them sufficiently to check them altogether, but leading them steadily +forward into the two-mile trap. From where I stood on the top of +the castle wall I could judge pretty accurately how the fight went; +and I marveled at the skill of our men that they should retire up +the road so slowly, and make such a perfect impression of desperate +defense. Gloria refused from the first to remain inactive beside +me, but went through the trees down the line of the road, crossing +at intervals from side to side, urging and begging our ambushed +people to be patient and reserve their fire until the chorus of bugles +should blow. + +About eleven o'clock a breathless messenger came to say that the +Turks had renewed the attack on the other side of Beirut Dagh; but +I did not even send him on to Kagig. If the attack was a feint, +as was probable, intended to distract us from the main battle, then +there were men enough there to deal with it. If, on the other hand, +Mahmoud had divided forces and sent a formidable number around the +mountain, then our only chance was nevertheless to concentrate on +our great effort, and defeat the nearest first. There was not the +slightest wisdom in sending down a message likely to distract Monty +or Will or Kagig from their immediate task. + +The women kept piling in the pine trees, until I thought the very +weight of lumber might defeat our purpose by delaying the blaze too +long. But Kagig had requisitioned every drop of kerosene in Zeitoon, +and the stuff was splashed on with the recklessness that comes of +throwing parsimony to the winds. Then I grew afraid lest they should +fire the stuff too soon, or lest some stray spark from a man's pipe +or an overturned lantern should do the work. Every imaginable fear +presented itself, because, having no active part in the fighting, +I had nothing to distract me from self-criticism. It became almost +a foregone conclusion after a while that the night's work was destined +to be spoiled entirely by some oversight or stupidity of mine. + +The battle down in the valley dinned and screamed like the end of +the world, although the Turks could not use their artillery for +fear of slaughtering their own men. I could hear Fred hotly engaged, +holding the corner of the turn where the Turks were seeking in vain +to widen it. Probably the Turks supposed he was put there with a +hundred men to defend the road, instead of to drive their thinned +battalions up it. + +In the end it was an accident that set the bugles blowing, and probably +that accident saved our fortunes. Monty shouted to a man to run +and ask for news of the fighting below. Mistaking the words in the +din, the messenger ran to the rock in the clearing on which the +musicians waited, and a minute later the first bars of the Marseillaise +rang clearly through the trees. + +The almost instant answer was a volley from each side of the road +that sounded like the explosion of the whole world. And the Turks +hardly half into the trap yet! Monty and Will and Kagig brought +their men back up the road at the double, as the only way to escape +the fire of our ambushed friends. I was two minutes fumbling with +matches in the wind before I could light the kindling set ready in +the entrance arch; and it was about three minutes more before the +first long flame shot skyward and the beacon we had set began to +do its appointed work. + +Then, though, that castle proved to be a very Vesuvius, for the +draught poured in through the doorless arch and hurried the hot +flames skyward to be mushroomed roaring against the belly of black +clouds. None of us knew then where Mahmoud was, nor that he had +given the order that minute to his trapped battalions to halt, face +the trees on either side, and advance in either direction in order +to widen their front. + +The firing of the castle, for some mad reason of the sort that mothers +every catastrophe, caused them to disobey that order and, instead, +to charge forward at the double. In a moment the new fury (for it +was not panic, nor yet exactly the reverse) communicated itself all +along the road, and the regiments at the rear, in spite of the murderous +fire from our ambush, yelled and milled to drive the men in front +more swiftly. + +Then Fred saw the castle flames, and led his men forward to plug +up the lower end of the road. Next Rustum Khan saw it, and advanced +three hundred down the ramp to hold the ditch at the bottom and prevent +reserves from coming to the rescue. + +It was then, so he told us afterward, that Fred realized who was +the person in authority who had sought to change the line of battle +at the critical moment. Mahmoud himself, surrounded by his staff, +had ridden forward to see what the true nature of the difficulty +might be, and had got caught in the trap when Fred closed it and +Rustum Khan cut off the flow of men! + +Fred did his best by rapid fire to put an end to Mahmoud, staff and +all. But the light from the castle did not reach down in among the +trees, and when he told the nearest men who the target was that only +made the shooting wilder. Nor was Mahmoud a man without decision. +Realizing that he was trapped, at any rate from behind, he galloped +forward with his staff, scattering bewildered men to right and left +of him, to find out whether the trap could not be forced from the +upper end, knowing that there were plenty of men on the road already +to account for any possible total we could bring against them, if +only they could be led forward and deployed. + +So it came about that Mahmoud on a splendid war-horse, and five of +his mounted staff, arrived at the head of the oncoming column; and +Kagig saw them in a moment when the flare from the castle roared +like a rocket hundreds of feet high and scattered all the shadows +on that section of the road. Kagig passed the word along, but it +was Monty who devised the instant plan, and one of Will's men who +came running to find me. + +So I forgot pain and disability in the excitement of having a part +to play. Gloria had found her way back to the castle, and it was +she who rallied all the men and women who had worked at piling fuel, +and brought them to where I lay. Then I begged her to get back +somewhere and hide, but she laughed at me. + +Our business was to burry down the road and plug it against Mahmoud +and his men, while Kagig got behind him by sheer hand-to-hand fighting, +and Monty and Will approached him from the flanks. We had to be +cautious about shooting, because of Kagig, for one thing, but for +another, Will had sent the message, "Don't kill Mahmoud." And that, +of course, was obvious. Mahmoud alive would be worth a thousand +to us of any Mahmoud dead. + +Gloria ran down the road beside me, and Will caught sight of her +in the dancing light. I heard him shout something in United States +English about women and hell-fire and burned fingers, but beyond +that it was not polite, and was intended for me as much as for Gloria, +I did not get the gist of it. Then the battle closed up around us, +and we all fought hand to hand--women harder than the men--to close +in on Mahmoud and drag him from his horse. + +Three times in the fitful dark and even more deceptive dancing light +we almost had him. But the first time he fought free, and his +war-horse kicked a clear way for him for a few yards through the +scrimmage. Then Kagig closed in on him from the rear. But three +of the staff engaged Kagig alone, and twenty or thirty of Mahmoud's +infantry drove Kagig's men back on the still advancing column. Kagig +went down, fighting and shouting like a Berserker, and Monty let +Mahmoud go to run to Kagig's rescue. + +Monty did not go alone, for his men leapt after him like hounds. +But he fought his way in the lead with a clubbed rifle, and stood +over Kagig's body working the weapon like a flail. That was all +I saw of that encounter, for Mahmoud decided to attempt escape by +the upper way again, and it was I who captured him. I landed on +him through the darkness with my clenched fist under the low hung +angle of his jaw and, seizing his leg, threw him out of the saddle. +There Gloria helped me sit on him; and the greater part of what +we had to do was to keep the women from tearing him to pieces. + +At last Gloria and I, with a dozen of them, took Mahmoud up-hill +and made him sit down in full firelight with his back against a +rock. He had nothing to say for himself, but stared at Gloria with +eyes that explained the whole philosophy of all the Turks; and she, +for sake of the decency that was her birthright, went and stood on +the far side of the rock and kept the bulge of it between them. + +Then I sent for Kagig, and Monty, and Will; And after they had seen +to the barricading of the upper end of the road with fallen trees +and a fairly wide ditch, Kagig and Will came, followed by half a +dozen of the elders, who had been lending a stout hand during that +part of the night's work. Kagig was out of breath, but apparently +not hurt much. + +They came so slowly that I wondered. Gloria, who could see much +farther through the dark than I, gave a little scream and ran forward. +I saw then by a sudden burst of flame from the castle that they were +carrying something heavy, and I guessed what it was although my heart +rebelled against belief; but I did not dare leave Mahmoud, who +seemed inclined to take advantage of the first stray opportunity. +I stuck my pistol into his ear and dared him to move hand or foot. + +Gloria came back in tears, and took Mahmoud's cape and my jacket, +and spread them on the ground. On these they laid Monty very tenderly, +Kagig looking on with cracking finger-joints that I could hear quite +plainly in spite of the awful rage of battle that thundered and +crashed and screamed among the woods. It was as one sometimes hears +the ticking of a watch beneath the pillow in a nightmare. + +Monty was alive, but in spite of what Gloria could do the dark blood +was welling out from a sword gash on his right side, and we had not +a surgeon within miles of us. From somewhere out of the darkness +Maga appeared, bringing water, her face all black with the filth +of fighting among trees, and her eyes on fire. + +Monty seemed to be listening to the noise of battle--Kagig to think +of nothing but his loss. He pointed at Mahmoud, who was eying Monty +curiously. + +"See the prisoner!" he said. "Ha! I would give a hundred of him +a hundred times for Monty, my brother!" + +Monty turned his head to see Mahmoud, and appeared partly satisfied. + +"You hold the key," he said painfully. "Mahmoud will make terms. +But it will take time to stop the fighting. You must send down +reserves to Fred and Rustum Khan--that is where the strain is--you +must see that surely--the enemy from below will be trying to come +forward, and those in the trap to return. Fred and Rustum Khan are +bearing all the brunt. Relieve them!" + +It did not look good to me that Will should leave Gloria again; +and Kagig must surely stay there to do the bargaining. So I took +Monty's hand to bid him good-by, and limped off through the dark +to try to find men who would come with me to the shambles below. +It wag Kagig and Will together who overtook me, picked me off my +feet, and dragged me back, and Will went down alone, with a wave +of the hand to Gloria, and a laugh that might have made the devil +think he liked it. + +Then began the conference, I holding a mere watching brief with a +pistol reasonably close to Mahmoud's ear. And for a time, while +Monty lived, the elders supported Kagig and insisted on the full +concession of his demands. But Monty, with his head on Gloria's +lap, died midway of the proceedings; and after that the elders' +suspicion of Kagig reawoke, so that Mahmoud took courage and grew +more obstinate. Kagig called them aside repeatedly to make them +listen to his views. + +"You fools!" he swore at them, cracking his knuckles and twisting +at his beard alternately. "Do you not realize that Mahmoud is +ambitious! Do you not understand that he must yield all, if you +insist! Otherwise we hang him here to a tree in sight of the burning +castle and his own men! No ambitious rascal is ever willing to +be hanged! Insist! Insist!" + +"Ah, Kagig!" one of them answered. "Speak for yourself. You would +not like to be hanged perhaps! But we must concede him something, +or how shall he satisfy ambition? He must be able to go back with +something to his credit in order to satisfy the politicians." + +"Oh, my people! Oh, my people!" grumbled Kagig. "Can you never see?" + +But they went back to Mahmoud with a fresh proposal, milder than +the first; and eventually, after yielding point by point, until +Kagig begged them kindly to blow his brains out and bury him with +Monty, they reached a basis on which Mahmoud was willing to +capitulate--or to oblige them, as he expressed it. + +He won his main point: Zeitoon was to accept a Turkish governor. +They won theirs, that the governor was to bring no troops with him, +but to be contented with a body-guard of Zeitoonli. For the rest: +Mahmoud was to go free, taking his wounded with him, but surrendering +all the uninjured Turkish soldiers in the trap as hostages for the +release of all Armenian prisoners taken anywhere between Tarsus and +Zeitoon. It was agreed there were to be no subsequent reprisals +by either side, and that hostages were not to be released until after +Mahmoud's army corps should have returned to whence it came. + +Kagig wrote the terms in Turkish by the light of the holocaust in +Monty's ancestral keep, and Mahmoud signed the paper in the presence +of ten witnesses. But whether he, or his brother Turks, have kept, +for instance, the last clause of the agreement, history can answer. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-two +"God go with you to the States, effendim!" + + +ARMENIA + +First of the Christian nations; the first of us all to feel +The fire of infidel hatred, the weight of the pagan heel; +Faithfullest down the ages tending the light that burned, +Tortured and trodden therefore, spat on and slain and spurned; +Branded for others' vices, robbed of your rightful fame, +Clinging to Truth in a truthless land in the name of the ancient Name; +Generous, courteous, gentle, patient under the yoke, +Decent (hemmed in a harem land ye were ever a one-wife folk); +Royal and brave and ancient--haply an hour has struck +When the new fad-fangled peoples shall weary of raking muck, +And turning from coward counsels and loathing the parish lies, +In shame and sackcloth offer up the only sacrifice. +Then thou who hast been neglected, who hast called o'er a world in vain +To the deaf deceitful traders' ears in tune to the voice of gain, +Thou Cinderella nation, starved that our appetites might live, +When we come with a hand outstretched at last--accept it, and forgive! + + +The fighting lasted nearly until dawn, because of the difficulty +of conveying Mahmoud's orders to the Turks, and Kagig's orders to +our own tree-hidden firing-line. But a little before sunrise the +last shot was fired, at about the time when most of the castle walls +fell in and a huge shower of golden sparks shot upward to the paling +sky. The cease fire left all Zeitoon's defenders with scarcely a +thousand rounds of rifle ammunition between them; but Mahmoud did +not know that. + +An hour after dawn Fred joined us. He had the news of Monty's death +already, and said nothing, but pointed to something that his own +men bore along on a litter of branches. A minute or two later they +laid Rustum Khan's corpse beside Monty's, and we threw one blanket +over both of them. + +I don't remember that Fred spoke one word. He and Monty had been +closer friends than any brothers I ever knew. No doubt the awful +strain of the fighting at the corner of the woods had left Fred numb +to some extent; but he and Monty had never been demonstrative in +their affection, and, as they had lived in almost silent understanding +of each other, hidden very often for the benefit of strangers by +keen mutual criticism, so they parted, Fred not caring to make public +what he thought, or knew, or felt. + +Kagig, not being in favor with the elders, vanished, Maga following +with food for him in a leather bag, and we saw neither of them again +until noon that day, by which time we ourselves had slept a little +and eaten ravenously. Then he came to us where we still sat by the +great rock with Mahmoud under guard (for nobody would trust him to +fulfil his agreement until all his troops had retired from the district, +leaving behind them such ammunition and supplies as they had carried +to the gorge below the ramp). + +We had laid both bodies under the one blanket in the shade, and +Kagig pointed to them. + +"I have found the place--the proper place, effendim!" he said simply. +"Maga has made it fit." + +Not knowing what he meant by that last remark, we invited some big +Armenians to come with us to carry our honored dead, and followed +Kagig one by one up a goat track (or a bear track, perhaps it was) +that wound past the crumbled and blackened castle wall and followed +the line of the mountain. Here and there we could see that Kagig +had cleared it a little on his way back, and several times it was +obvious that there had been a prepared, frequented track in +ancient days. + +"It took time to find," said Kagig, glancing back, "but I thought +there must be such a place near such a castle." + +Presently we emerged on a level ledge of rock, from a square hole +in the midst of which a great slab had been levered away with the +aid of a pole that lay beside it. All around the opening Maga had +spread masses of wild flowers, and either she or Kagig had spread +out on the rock the great banner with its ships and wheat-sheaves +that the women had made by night in Monty's honor. + +We could read the motto plainly now--Per terram et aquam--By land +and sea; and Kagig pointed to some marks on the stone slab. Moss +had grown in them and lichens, but he or else Maga had scraped them +clean; and there on the stone lay the same legend graven bold and +deep, as clear now as when the last crusader of the family was buried +there, lord knew how many centuries before. + +The tomb was an enormous place--part cave, and partly hewn--twenty +feet by twenty by as many feet deep at the most conservative guess; +and on four ledges, one on each side, not in their armor, but in +the rags of their robes of honor, lay the bones of four earlier +Montdidiers--all big men, broad-shouldered and long of shin and thigh. + +We did not need to go down into the tomb and break the peace of +centuries. Under the very center of the opening was a raised table +of hewn rock, part of the cavern floor, about eight feet by eight +that seemed to have been left there ready for the next man, or next +two men when their time should come. + +Down on to that we lowered Monty's body carefully with leather ropes, +and then Rustum Khan's beside him, Rustum Khan receiving Christian +burial, as neither he nor his proud ancestors would have preferred. +But his line was as old as Monty's, and he died in the same cause +and the selfsame battle, so we chose to do his body honor; and if +the prayers that Fred remembered, and the other cheerfuller prayers +that Gloria knew, were an offense to the Rajput's lingering ghost, +we hoped he might forgive us because of friendship, and esteem, and +the homage we did to his valor in burying his body there. + +We covered Monty's body with the banner the women had made, and +Rustum Khan's with flowers, for lack of a better shroud; then +levered and shoved the great slab back until it rested snugly in +the grooves the old masons had once cut so accurately as to preserve +the bones beneath. + +Then, when Gloria had said the last prayer: + +"What next, Kagig?" Will demanded. + +Kagig was going to answer, but thought better of it and strode away +in the lead, we following. He did not stop until we reached the +open and the smoking ruins of the castle walls. When he stopped: + +"Has any one seen Peter Measel?" I asked. + +"Forget him!" growled Will. + +"Why?" demanded Maga. "Will you bury him in that same hole with +them two?" + +"Has any one seen him?" I asked again, uncertain why I asked, but +curious and insistent. + +"Sure!" said Maga. "Yes. Me I seen 'im. I keel 'im--so--with a +knife--las' night! You not believe?" + +Whether we believed or not, the news surprised us, and we waited +in silence for an explanation. + +"You not believe? Why not? That dog! 'E make of me a dam-fool! +'E tell me about God. 'E say God is angry with Zeitoon, an' Kagig +is as good as a dead man, an' I shall take advantage. 'E 'ope 'e +marry me. I 'ope if Kagig die I marry Will Yerkees, but I agree +with Measel, making pretend, an' 'e run away to talk 'is fool secrets +with the Turks. Then I make my own arrangements! But Mahmoud is +not succeeding, and I like Kagig better after all. An' then last +night in the darkness Peter Measel he is coming on a 'orse with +Mahmoud because Mahmoud is not trusting him out of sight. An' I +see him, an' 'e see me, an' 'e call me, an' I go to 'im through all +the fighting, an' 'e get off the 'orse an' reach out 'is arms to me, +an' I keel 'im with my knife--so! An' now you know all about it!" + +"What next?" Will demanded dryly. + +"Next?" said Kagig. "You effendim make your escape! The Turks will +surely seek to be revenged on you. I will show you a way across the +mountains into Persia." + +"And you?" I asked. + +"Into hiding!" he answered grimly. "Maga--little Maga, she shall +come with me, and teach me more about the earth and sky and wind +and water! Perhaps at last some day she shall make me--no, never +a king, but a sportman." + +"Come with us," said Will. "Come to the States." + +"No, no, effendi. I know my people. They are good folk. They +mistrust me now, and if I were to stay among them where they could +see me and accuse me, and where the Turks could make a peg of me +on which to hang mistrust, I should be a source of weakness to them. +Nevertheless, I am ever the Eye of Zeitoon! I shall go into hiding, +and watch! There will come an hour again--infallibly--when the +Turks will seek to blot out the last vestige of Armenia. If I hide +faithfully, and watch well, by that time I shall be a legend among +my people, and when I appear again in their desperation they will +trust me." + +Will met Gloria's eyes in silence for a moment. + +"I've a mind to stay with you, Kagig, and lend a hand," he said at last. + +"Nay, nay, effendi!" + +"We can attach ourselves to some mission station, and be lots of use," +Gloria agreed. + +"Use?" said Kagig, cracking his fingers. "The missions have done +good work, but you can be of much more use--you two. You have each +other. Go back to the blessed land you come from, and be happy together. +But pay the price of happiness! You have seen. Go back and tell!" + +"Tell about Armenian atrocities?" said Will. "Why, man alive, the +papers are full of them at regular intervals!" + +Kagig made a gesture of impatience. + +"Aye! All about what the Turks have done to us, and how much about +us ourselves? America believes that when a Turk merely frowns the +Armenian lies down and holds his belly ready for the knife! Who +would care to help such miserable-minded men and women? But you +have seen otherwise. You know the truth. You have seen that Armenia +is undermined by mutual suspicion cunningly implanted by the Turk. +You have also seen how we rally around one man or a handful whom +we know we dare trust!" + +"True enough!" said Will. "I've wondered at it." + +"Then go and tell America," Kagig almost snarled with blazing eyes, +"to come and help us! To give us a handful of armed men to rally round! +Tell them we are men and women, not calves for the shambles! Tell +them to reach us out but one finger of one hand for half a dozen +years, and watch us grow into a nation! Preach it from the house-tops! +Teach it! Tell it to the sportmen of America that all we need is +a handful to rally round, and we will all be sportmen too! Go and +tell them--tell them!" + +"You bet we will!" said Gloria. + +"Then go!" said Kagig. "Go by way of Persia, lest the Turks find +ways of stopping up your mouths. Monty has died to help us. I +live that I may help. You go and tell the sportmen all. Tell them +we show good sport in Zeitoon--in Armenia! God go with you +all, effendim!" + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eye of Zeitoon, by Talbot Mundy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EYE OF ZEITOON *** + +***** This file should be named 5241.txt or 5241.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/4/5241/ + +Produced by M.R.J. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Eye of Zeitoon + +Author: Talbot Mundy + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5241] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[Most recently updated June 29, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE EYE OF ZEITOON *** + + + + +This eBook was transcribed by M.R.J. + + + +THE EYE OF ZEITOON +By Talbot Mundy + +Author of Rung Ho, King--of the Khyber Rifles, Hira Singh, +The Ivory Trail, etc. + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter Page + +I Parthians, Medes and Elamites .............................. 1 +II "How did sunshine get into the garden? By whose leave came + the wind?" .............................................. 21 +III "Sahib, there is always work for real soldiers!" ......... 40 +IV "We are the robbers, effendi!" ............................ 52 +V "Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning!" ........... 74 +VI "Passing the buck to Allah!" ............................. 91 +VII "We hold you to your word!" .............................. 118 +VIII "I go with that man!" ................................... 128 +IX "And you left your friend to help me?" ................... 142 +X "When I fire this pistol--" ................................ 163 +XI "That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" ....... 176 +XII "America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" .......... 195 +XIII " 'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' + And I, sahib, obeyed my lord bahadur's orders." ......... 211 +XIV "Rajput, I shall hang you if you make more trouble!"...... 229 +XV "Scenery to burst the heart!" ............................. 243 +XVI "What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" 257 +XVII "I knew what to expect of the women!" .................. 277 +XVIII "Per terram et aquam" .................................. 290 +XIX "Such drilling as they have had--such little drilling!" .. 303 +XX "So few against so many! I see death, and I am not sorry!" 316 +XXI "Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!". 333 +XXII "God go with you to the States, effendim!" .............. 349 + + + + +Chapter One +Parthians, Medes and Elamites + +SALVETE! + +Oh ye, who tread the trodden path +And keep the narrow law +In famished faith that Judgment Day +Shall blast your sluggard mists away +And show what Moses saw! +Oh thralls of subdivided time, +Hours Measureless I sing +That own swift ways to wider scenes, +New-plucked from heights where Vision preens +A white, unwearied wing! +No creed I preach to bend dull thought +To see what I shall show, +Nor can ye buy with treasured gold +The key to these Hours that unfold +New tales no teachers know. +Ye'll need no leave o' the laws o' man, +For Vision's wings are free; +The swift Unmeasured Hours are kind +And ye shall leave all cares behind +If ye will come with me! +In vain shall lumps of fashioned stuff +Imprison you about; +In vain let pundits preach the flesh +And feebling limits that enmesh +Your goings in and out, +I know the way the zephyrs took +Who brought the breath of spring, +I guide to shores of regions blest +Where white, uncaught Ideas nest +And Thought is strong o' wing! +Within the Hours that I unlock +All customed fetters fall; +The chains of drudgery release; +Set limits fade; horizons cease +For you who hear the call +No trumpet note--no roll of drums, +But quiet, sure and sweet-- +The self-same voice that summoned Drake, +The whisper for whose siren sake +They manned the Devon fleet, +More lawless than the gray gull's wait, +More boundless than the sea, +More subtle than the softest wind! + + * * * * * * + +Oh, ye shall burst the ties that bind +If ye will come with me! + + +It is written with authority of Tarsus that once it was no mean +city, but that is a tale of nineteen centuries ago. The Turko-Italian +War had not been fought when Fred Oakes took the fever of the place, +although the stage was pretty nearly set for it and most of the +leading actors were waiting for their cue. No more history was +needed than to grind away forgotten loveliness. + +Fred's is the least sweet temper in the universe when the ague grips +and shakes him, and he knows history as some men know the Bible--by +fathoms; he cursed the place conqueror by conqueror, maligning them +for their city's sake, and if Sennacherib, who built the first +foundations, and if Anthony and Cleopatra, Philip of Macedon, +Timour-i-lang, Mahmoud, Ibrahim and all the rest of them could have +come and listened by his bedside they would have heard more personal +scandal of themselves than ever their contemporary chroniclers dared +reveal. + +All this because he insisted on ignoring the history he knew so +well, and could not be held from bathing in the River Cydnus. +Whatever their indifference to custom, Anthony and Cleopatra knew +better than do that. Alexander the Great, on the other hand, flouted +tradition and set Fred the example, very nearly dying of the ague +for his pains, for those are treacherous, chill waters. + +Fred, being a sober man and unlike Alexander of Macedon in several +other ways, throws off fever marvelously, but takes it as some persons +do religion, very severely for a little while. So we carried him +and laid him on a nice white cot in a nice clean room with two beds +in it in the American mission, where they dispense more than royal +hospitality to utter strangers. Will Yerkes had friends there but +that made no difference; Fred was quinined, low-dieted, bathed, +comforted and reproved for swearing by a college-educated nurse, +who liked his principles and disapproved of his professions just +as frankly as if he came from her hometown. (Her name was +Van-something-or-other, and you could lean against the Boston +accent--just a little lonely-sounding, but a very rock of gentle +independence, all that long way from home!) + +Meanwhile, we rested. That is to say that, after accepting as much +mission hospitality as was decent, considering that every member of +the staff worked fourteen hours a day and had to make up for attention +shown to us by long hours bitten out of night, we loafed about the +city. And Satan still finds mischief. + +We called on Fred in the beginning twice a day, morning and evening, +but cut the visits short for the same reason that Monty did not go +at all: when the fever is on him Fred's feelings toward his own +sex are simply blunt bellicose. When they put another patient in +the spare bed in his room we copied Monty, arguing that one male +at a time for him to quarrel with was plenty. + +Monty, being Earl of Montdidier and Kirkudbrightshire, and a privy +councilor, was welcome at the consulate at Mersina, twenty miles +away. +The consul, like Monty, was an army officer, who played good chess, +so that that was no place, either, for Will Yerkes and me. Will +prefers dime novels, if he must sit still, and there was none. And +besides, he was never what you could call really sedative. + +He and I took up quarters at the European hotel--no sweet abiding-place. +There were beetles in the Denmark butter that they pushed on to the +filthy table-cloth in its original one-pound tin; and there was a +Turkish officer in riding pants and red morocco slippers, back from +the Yemen with two or three incurable complaints. He talked out-of-date +Turkish politics in bad French and eked out his ignorance of table +manners with instinctive racial habit. + +To avoid him between meals Will and I set out to look at the historic +sights, and exhausted them all, real and alleged, in less than half +a day (for in addition to a lust for ready-cut building stone the +Turks have never cherished monuments that might accentuate their +own decadence). After that we fossicked in the manner of prospectors +that we are by preference, if not always by trade, eschewing polite +society and hunting in the impolite, amusing places where most of +the facts have teeth, sharp and ready to snap, but visible. + +We found a khan at last on the outskirts of the city, almost in sight +of the railway line, that well agreed with our frame of mind. It +was none of the newfangled, underdone affairs that ape hotels, with +Greek managers and as many different prices for one service as there +are grades of credulity, but a genuine two-hundred-year-old Turkish +place, run by a Turk, and named Yeni Khan (which means the new rest +house) in proof that once the world was younger. The man who directed +us to the place called it a kahveh; but that means a place for donkeys +and foot-passengers, and when we spoke of it as kahveh to the obadashi-- +the elderly youth who corresponds to porter, bell-boy and chambermaid +in one--he was visibly annoyed. + +Truly the place was a khan--a great bleak building of four high outer +walls, surrounding a courtyard that was a yard deep with the dung +of countless camels, horses, bullocks, asses; crowded with arabas, +the four-wheeled vehicles of all the Near East, and smelly with +centuries of human journeys' ends. + +Khans provide nothing except room, heat and water (and the heat costs +extra); there is no sanitation for any one at any price; every +guest dumps all his discarded rubbish over the balcony rail into +the courtyard, to be trodden and wheeled under foot and help build +the aroma. But the guests provide a picture without price that with +the very first glimpse drives discomfort out of mind. + +In that place there were Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and all the +rest of the list. There was even a Chinaman. Two Hindus were unpacking +bundles out of a creaking araba, watched scornfully by an unmistakable +Pathan. A fat swarthy-faced Greek in black frock coat and trousers, +fez, and slippered feet gesticulated with his right arm like a pump-handle +while he sat on the balcony-rail and bellowed orders to a crowd mixed +of Armenians, Italians, Maltese, Syrians and a Turk or two, who labored +with his bales of cotton goods below. (The Italians eyed everybody +sidewise, for there were rumors in those days of impending trouble, +and when the Turk begins hostilities he likes his first opponents +easy and ready to hand.) + +There were Kurds, long-nosed, lean-lipped and suspicious, who said +very little, but hugged long knives as they passed back and forth +among the swarming strangers. They said nothing at all, those Kurds, +but listened a very great deal. + +Tall, mustached Circassians, with eighteen-inch Erzerum daggers at +their waists, swaggered about as if they, and only they, were history's +heirs. It was expedient to get out of their path alertly, but they +cringed into second place before the Turks, who, without any swagger +at all, lorded it over every one. For the Turk is a conqueror, +whatever else he ought to be. The poorest Turkish servant is +race-conscious, and unshakably convinced of his own superiority to +the princes of the conquered. One has to bear that fact in mind +when dealing with the Turk; it colors all his views of life, and +accounts for some of his famous unexpectedness. + +Will and I fell in love with the crowd, and engaged a room over the +great arched entrance. We were aware from the first of the dull red +marks on the walls of the room, where bed-bugs had been slain with +slipper heels by angry owners of the blood; but we were not in search +of luxury, and we had our belongings and a can of insect-bane brought +down from the hotel at once. The fact that stallions squealed and +fought in the stalls across the courtyard scarcely promised us +uninterrupted sleep; but sleep is not to be weighed in the balance +against the news of eastern nights. + +We went down to the common room close beside the main entrance, and +pushed the door open a little way; the men who sat within with their +backs against it would only yield enough to pass one person in gingerly +at a time. We saw a sea of heads and hats and faces. It looked +impossible to squeeze another human being in among those already +seated on the floor, nor to make another voice heard amid all that +babel. + +But the babel ceased, and they did make room for us--places of honor +against the far wall, because of our clean clothes and nationality. +We sat wedged between a Georgian in smelly, greasy woolen jacket, +and a man who looked Persian but talked for the most part French. +There were other Persians beyond him, for I caught the word poul--money, +the perennial song and shibboleth of that folk. + +The day was fine enough, but consensus of opinion had it that snow +was likely falling in the Taurus Mountains, and rain would fall the +next day between the mountains and the sea, making roads and fords +impassable and the mountain passes risky. So men from the ends of +earth sat still contentedly, to pass earth's gossip to and fro--an +astonishing lot of it. There was none of it quite true, and some +of it not nearly true, but all of it was based on fact of some sort. + +Men who know the khans well are agreed that with experience one learns +to guess the truth from listening to the ever-changing lies. We +could not hope to pick out truth, but sat as if in the pit of an +old-time theater, watching a foreign-language play and understanding +some, but missing most of it. + +There was a man who drew my attention at once, who looked and was +dressed rather like a Russian--a man with a high-bridged, prominent, +lean nose--not nearly so bulky as his sheepskin coat suggested, but +active and strong, with a fiery restless eye. He talked Russian +at intervals with the men who sat near him at the end of the room +on our right, but used at least six other languages with any one +who cared to agree or disagree with him. His rather agreeable voice +had the trick of carrying words distinctly across the din of countless +others. + +"What do you suppose is that man's nationality?" I asked Will, shouting +to him because of the roar, although he sat next me. + +"Ermenie!" said a Turk next but one beyond Will, and spat venomously, +as if the very name Armenian befouled his mouth. + +But I was not convinced that the man with the aquiline nose was Armenian. +He looked guilty of altogether too much zest for life, and laughed +too boldly in Turkish presence. In those days most Armenians thereabouts +were sad. I called Will's attention to him again. + +"What do you make of him?" + +"He belongs to that quieter party in the opposite corner." (Will +puts two and two together all the time, because the heroes of dime +novels act that way.) "They're gipsies, yet I'd say he's not--" + +"He and the others are jingaan," said a voice beside me in English, +and I looked into the Persian's gentle brown eyes. "The jingaan +are street robbers pure and simple," be added by way of explanation. + +"But what nationality?" + +"Jingaan might be anything. They in particular would call themselves +Rommany. We call them Zingarri. Not a dependable people--unless--" + +I waited in vain for the qualification. He shrugged his shoulders, +as if there was no sense in praising evil qualities. + +But I was not satisfied yet. They were swarthier and stockier than +the man who had interested me, and had indefinite, soft eyes. The +man I watched had brown eyes, but they were hard. And, unlike them, +he had long lean fingers and his gestures were all extravagant. +He was not a Jew, I was sure of that, nor a Syrian, nor yet a Kurd. + +"Ermenie--Ermenie!" said the Turk, watching me curiously, and spitting +again. "That one is Ermenie. Those others are just dogs!" + +The crowd began to thin after a while, as men filed out to feed cattle +and to cook their own evening meal. Then the perplexing person got +up and came over toward me, showing no fear of the Turk at all. +He was tall and lean when he stood upright, but enormously strong +if one could guess correctly through the bulky-looking outer garment. + +He stood in front of Will and me, his strong yellow teeth gleaming +between a black beard and mustache. The Turk got up clumsily, and +went out, muttering to himself. I glanced toward the corner where +the self-evident gipsies sat, and observed that with perfect unanimity +they were all feigning sleep. + +"Eenglis sportmen!" said the man in front of us, raising both hands, +palms outward, in appraisal of our clothes and general appearance. + +It was not surprising that he should talk English, for what the British +themselves have not accomplished in that land of a hundred tongues +has been done by American missionaries, teaching in the course of +a generation thousands on thousands. (There is none like the American +missionary for attaining ends at wholesale.) + +"What countryman are you?" I asked him. + +"Zeitoonli," he answered, as if the word were honor itself and explanation +bound in one. Yet he looked hardly like an honorable man. "The +chilabi are staying here?" he asked. Chilabi means gentleman. + +"We wait on the weather," said I, not caring to have him turn the +tables on me and become interrogator. + +He laughed with a sort of hard good humor. + +"Since when have Eenglis sportmen waited on the weather? Ah, but +you are right, effendi, none should tell the truth in this place, +unless in hope of being disbelieved!" He laid a finger on his right +eye, as I have seen Arabs do when they mean to ascribe to themselves +unfathomable cunning. "Since you entered this common room you have +not ceased to observe me closely. The other sportman has watched +those Zingarri. What have you learned?" + +He stood with lean hands crossed now in front of him, looking at +us down his nose, not ceasing to smile, but a hint less at his ease, +a shade less genial. + +"I have heard you--and them--described as jingaan," I answered, and +he stiffened instantly. + +Whether or not they took that for a signal--or perhaps he made another +that we did not see--the six undoubted gipsies got up and left the +room, shambling out in single file with the awkward gait they share +in common with red Indians. + +"Jingaan," he said, "are people who lurk in shadows of the streets +to rob belated travelers. That is not my business." He looked very +hard indeed at the Persian, who decided that it might as well be +supper-time and rose stiffly to his feet. The Persians rob and murder, +and even retreat, gracefully. He bade us a stately and benignant +good evening, with a poetic Persian blessing at the end of it. He +bowed, too, to the Zeitoonli, who bared his teeth and bent his head +forward something less than an inch. + +"They call me the Eye of Zeitoon!" he announced with a sort of savage +pride, as soon as the Persian was out of ear-shot. + +Will pricked his ears--schoolboy-looking ears that stand out from +his head. + +"I've heard of Zeitoon. It's a village on a mountain, where a man +steps out of his front door on to a neighbor's roof, and the women +wear no veils, and--" + +The man showed his teeth in another yellow smile. + +"The effendi is blessed with intelligence! Few know of Zeitoon." + +Will and I exchanged glances. + +"Ours," said Will, "is the best room in the khan, over the entrance +gate." + +"Two such chilabi should surely live like princes," he answered without +a smile. If he had dared say that and smile we would have struck +him, and Monty might have been alive to-day. But he seemed to know +his place, although he looked at us down his nose again in shrewd +appraisal. + +Will took out tobacco and rolled what in the innocence of his Yankee +heart he believed was a cigarette. I produced and lit what he +contemptuously called a "boughten cigaroot"--Turkish Regie, with +the scent of aboriginal ambrosia. The Zeitoonli took the hint. + +"Yarim sa' at," he said. "Korkakma!" + +"Meanin'?" demanded Will. + +"In half an hour. Do not be afraid!" said he. + +"Before I grow afraid of you," Will retorted, "you'll need your friends +along, and they'll need knives!" + +The Zeitoonli bowed, laid a finger on his eye again, smiled and backed +away. But he did not leave the room. He went back to the end-wall +against which he had sat before, and although he did not stare at +us the intention not to let us out of sight seemed pretty obvious. + +"That half-hour stuff smacked rather of a threat," said Will. "Suppose +we call the bluff, and keep him waiting. What do you say if we go +and dine at the hotel?" + +But in the raw enthusiasm of entering new quarters we had made up +our minds that afternoon to try out our new camp kitchen--a contraption +of wood and iron we had built with the aid of the mission carpenter. +And the walk to the hotel would have been a long one, through Tarsus +mud in the dark, with prowling dogs to take account of. + +"I'm not afraid of ten of him!" said I. "I know how to cook curried +eggs; come on!" + +"Who said who was afraid?" + +So we went out into darkness already jeweled by a hundred lanterns, +dodged under the necks of three hungry Bactrian camels (they are +irritable when they want their meal), were narrowly missed by a mule's +heels because of the deceptive shadows that confused his aim, tripped +over a donkey's heel-rope, and found our stairway--thoroughly well +cursed in seven languages, and only just missed by a Georgian gentleman +on the balcony, who chose the moment of our passing underneath to +empty out hissing liquid from his cooking pot. + +Once in our four-square room, with the rags on the floor in our especial +honor, and our beds set up, and the folding chairs in place, contentment +took hold of us; and as we lighted the primus burner in the cooking +box, we pitied from the bottom of compassionate young hearts all +unfortunates in stiff white shirts, whose dinners were served that +night on silver and laundered linen. + +Through the partly open door we could smell everything that ever +happened since the beginning of the world, and hear most of the elemental +music--made, for instance, of the squeal of fighting stallions, and +the bray of an amorous he-ass--the bubbling complaint of fed camels +that want to go to sleep, but are afraid of dreaming--the hum of +human voices--the clash of cooking pots--the voice of a man on the +roof singing falsetto to the stars (that was surely the Pathan!) +--the tinkling of a three-stringed instrument--and all of that punctuated +by the tapping of a saz, the little tight-skinned Turkish drum. + +It is no use for folk whose finger-nails were never dirty, and who +never scratched themselves while they cooked a meal over the primus +burner on the floor, to say that all that medley of sounds and smells +is not good. It is very good indeed, only he who is privileged must +understand, or else the spell is mere confusion. + +The cooking box was hardly a success, because bright eyes watching +through the open door made us nervously amateurish. The Zeitoonli +arrived true to his threat on the stroke of the half-hour, and we +could not shut the door in his face because of the fumes of food +and kerosene. (Two of the eggs, like us, were travelers and had +been in more than one bazaar.) + +But we did not invite him inside until our meal was finished, and +then we graciously permitted him to go for water wherewith to wash +up. He strode back and forth on the balcony, treading ruthlessly +on prayer-mats (for the Moslem prays in public like the Pharisees +of old). + +"Myself I am Christian," he said, spitting over the rail, and sitting +down again to watch us. We accepted the remark with reservations. + +When we asked him in at last, and we had driven out the flies with +flapping towels, be closed the door and squatted down with his back +to it, we two facing him in our canvas-backed easy chairs. He refused +the "genuine Turkish" coffee that Will stewed over the primus. Will +drank the beastly stuff, of course, to keep himself in countenance, +and I did not care to go back on a friend before a foreigner, but +I envied the man from Zeitoon his liberty of choice. + +"Why do they call you the Eye of Zeitoon?" I asked, when time enough +had elapsed to preclude his imagining that we regarded him seriously. +One has to be careful about beginnings in the Near East, even as elsewhere. + +"I keep watch!" he answered proudly, but also with a deeply-grounded +consciousness of cunning. There were moments when I felt such strong +repugnance for the man that I itched to open the door and thrust him +through--other moments when compassion for him urged me to offer +money--food--influence--anything. The second emotion fought all +the while against the first, and I found out afterward it had been +the same with Will. + +"Why should Zeitoon need such special watching?" I demanded. "How +do you watch? Against whom? Why?" + +He laughed with a pair of lawless eyes, and showed his yellow teeth. + +"Ha! Shall I speak of Zeitoon? This, then: the Turks never conquered +it! They came once and built a fort on the opposite mountain-side, +with guns to overawe us all. We took their fort by storm! We threw +their cannon down a thousand feet into the bed of the torrent, and +there they lie to-day! We took prisoner as many of their Arab zaptiehs +as still were living--aye, they even brought Arabs against us--poor +fools who had not yet heard of Zeitoon's defenders! Then we came +down to the plains for a little vengeance, leaving the Arabs for +our wives to guard. They are women of spirit, the Zeitoonli wives! + +"Word reached Zeitoon presently that we were being hard pressed on +the plains. It was told to the Zeitoonli wives that they might arrange +to have pursuit called off from us by surrendering those Arab prisoners. +They answered that Zeitoon-fashion. How? I will tell. There is +a bridge of wood, flung over across the mountain torrent, five hundred +feet above the water, spanning from crag to crag. Those Zeitoonli +wives of ours bound the Arab prisoners hand and foot. They brought +them out along the bridge. They threw them over one at a time, each +man looking on until his turn came. That was the answer of the brave +Zeitoonli wives!" + +"And you on the plains?" + +"Ah! It takes better than Osmanli to conquer the men of Zeitoon!" +he gave the Turks their own names for themselves with the air of +a brave fighting man conceding his opponent points. "We heard what +our wives had done. We were encouraged. We prevailed! We fell +back to-ward our mountain and prevailed! There in Zeitoon we have +weapons--numbers--advantage of position, for no roads come near Zeitoon +that an araba, or a gun, or anything on wheels can use. The only +thing we fear is treachery, leading to surprise in overwhelming force. +And against these I keep watch!" + +"Why should you tell us all this?" demanded Will. + +"How do you know we are not agents of the Turkish government?" + +He laughed outright, throwing out both hands toward us. "Eenglis +sportmen!" he said simply. + +"What's that got to do with it?" Will retorted. He has the unaccountable +American dislike of being mistaken for an Englishman, but long ago +gave up arguing the point, since foreigners refuse, as a rule, to +see the sacred difference. + +"I am, too, sportman. At Zeitoon there is very good sport. Bear. +Antelope. Wild boar. One sportman to another--do you understand?" + +We did, and did not believe. + +"How far to Zeitoon?" I demanded. + +"I go in five days when I hurry. You--not hurrying--by horse--seven +--eight--nine days, depending on the roads." + +"Are they all Armenians in Zeitoon?" + +"Most. Not all. There are Arabs--Syrians--Persians--a few Circassians +--even Kurds and a Turk or two. Our numbers have been reenforced +continually by deserters from the Turkish Army. Ninety-five per cent., +however, are Armenians," he added with half-closed eyes, suddenly +suggesting that masked meekness that disguises most outrageous racial +pride. + +"It is common report," I said, "that the Turks settled all Armenian +problems long ago by process of massacre until you have no spirit +for revolt left." + +"The report lies, that is all!" he answered. Then suddenly he beat +on his chest with clenched fist. "There is spirit here! There is +spirit in Zeitoon! No Osmanli dare molest my people! Come to Zeitoon +to shoot bear, boar, antelope! I will show you! I will prove my words!" + +"Were those six jingaan in the common room your men?" I asked him, +and he laughed as suddenly as he had stormed, like a teacher at a +child's mistake. + +"Jingaan is a bad word," he said. "I might kill a man who named me +that--depending on the man. My brother I would kill for it--a stranger +perhaps not. Those men are Zingarri, who detest to sleep between +brick walls. They have a tent pitched in the yard." + +"Are they your men?" + +"Zingarri are no man's men." + +The denial carried no conviction. + +"Is there nothing but hunting at Zeitoon?" Will demanded. + +"Is that not much? In addition the place itself is wonderful--a +mountain in a mist, with houses clinging to the flanks of it, and +scenery to burst the heart!" + +"What else?" I asked. "No ancient buildings?" + +He changed his tactics instantly. + +"Effendi," he said, leaning forward and pointing a forefinger at +me by way of emphasis, "there are castles on the mountains near Zeitoon +that have never been explored since the Turks--may God destroy them! +--overran the land! Castles hidden among trees where only bears dwell! +Castles built by the Seljuks--Armenians--Romans--Saracens--Crusaders! +I know the way to every one of them!" + +"What else?" demanded Will, purposely incredulous. + +"Beyond Zeitoon to north and west are cave-dwellers. Mountains so +hollowed out that only a shell remains, a sponge--a honeycomb! No +man knows how far those tunnels run! The Turks have attempted now +and then to smoke out the inhabitants. They were laughed at! One +mountain is connected with another, and the tunnels run for miles +and miles!" + +"I've seen cave-dwellings in the States," Will answered, unimpressed. +"But just where do you come in?" + +"I do not understand." + +"What do you propose to get out of it?" + +"Nothing! I am proud of my country. I am sportman. I am pleased +to show." + +We both jeered at him, for that explanation was too outrageously +ridiculous. Armenians love money, whatever else they do or leave +undone, and can wring a handsome profit out of business whose very +existence the easier-going Turk would not suspect. + +"See if I can't read your mind," said Will. "You'll guide us for +some distance out of town, at a place you know, and your jingaan-gipsy +brethren will hold us up at some point and rob us to a fare-you-well. +Is that the pretty scheme?" + +Some men would have flown into a fury. Some would have laughed the +matter off. Any and every crook would have been at pains to hide +his real feelings. Yet this strange individual was at a loss how +to answer, and not averse to our knowing that. + +For a moment a sort of low cunning seemed to creep over his mind, +but he dismissed it. Three times be raised his hands, palms upward, +and checked himself in the middle of a word. + +"You could pay me for my services," he said at last, not as if that +were the real reason, nor as if he hoped to convince us that it was, +but as if he were offering an excuse that we might care to accept +for the sake of making peace with our own compunctions. + +"There are four in our party," said Will, apropos apparently of nothing. +The effect was unexpected. + +"Four?" His eyes opened wide, and be made the knuckle-bones of both +hands crack like caps going off. "Four Eenglis sportman?" + +"I said four. If you're willing to tell the naked truth about what's +back of your offer, I'll undertake to talk it over with my other +friends. Then, either we'll all four agree to take you up, or we'll +give you a flat refusal within a day or two. Now--suit yourself." + +"I have told the truth--Zeitoon--caves--boar--antelope--wild boar. +I am a very good guide. You shall pay me handsomely." + +"Sure, we'll ante up like foreigners. But why do you make the proposal? +What's behind it?" + +"I never saw you until this afternoon. You are Eenglis sportmen. +I can show good sport. You shall pay me. Could it be simpler?" + +It seemed to me we had been within an ace of discovery, but the man's +mind had closed again against us in obedience to some racial or religious +instinct outside our comprehension. He had been on the verge of +taking us into confidence. + +"Let the sportmen think it over," he said, getting up. "Jannam! +(My soul!) Effendi, when I was a younger man none could have made +me half such a sportmanlike proposal without an answer on the instant! +A man fit to strike the highway with his foot should be a judge of +men! I have judged you fit to be invited! Now you judge me--the +Eye of Zeitoon!" + +"What is your real name?" + +"I have none--or many, which is the same thing! I did not ask your +names; they are your own affair!" + +He stood with his hand on the door, not irresolute, but taking one +last look at us and our belongings. + +"I wish you comfortable sleep, and long lives, effendim!" he said +then, and swung himself out, closing the door behind him with an +air of having honored us, not we him particularly. And after he +had gone we were not at all sure that summary of the situation was +not right. + +We lay awake on our cots until long after midnight, hazarding guesses +about him. Whatever else he had done he had thoroughly aroused our +curiosity. + +"If you want my opinion that's all he was after anyway!" said Will, +dropping his last cigarette-end on the floor and flattening it with +his slipper. + +"Cut the cackle, and let's sleep!" + +We fell asleep at last amid the noise of wild carousing; for the +proprietor of the Yeni Khan, although a Turk, and therefore himself +presumably abstemious, was not above dispensing at a price mastika +that the Greeks get drunk on, and the viler raki, with which Georgians, +Circassians, Albanians, and even the less religious Turks woo imagination +or forgetfulness. + +There was knife-fighting as well as carousal before dawn, to judge +by the cat-and-dog-fight swearing in and out among the camel pickets +and the wheels of arabas. But that was the business of the men who +fought, and no one interfered. + + + + +Chapter Two +"How did sunshine get into the garden? By whose leave came the wind?" + + +A TIME AND TIMES AND HALF A TIME + +When Cydnus bore the Taurus snows +To sweeten Cleopatra's keels, +And rippled in the breeze that sings +>From Kara Dagh, where leafy wings +Of flowers fall and gloaming steals +The colors of the blowing rose, +Old were the wharves and woods and ways-- +Older the tale of steel and fire, +Involved intrigue, envenomed plan, +Man marketing his brother man +By dread duress to glut desire. +No peace was in those olden days. +Hope like the gorgeous rose sun-warmed +Blossomed and blew away and died, +Till gentleness had ceased to be +And Tarsus knew no chivalry +Could live an hour by Cydnus' side +Where all the heirs of evil swarmed. +And yet--with every swelling spring +Each pollen-scented zephyr's breath +Repeats the patient news to ears +Made dull by dreams of loveless years, +"It is of life, and not of death +That ye shall hear the Cydnus sing!" + + +We awoke amid sounds unexplainable. Most of the Moslems had finished +their noisy ritual ablutions, and at dawn we had been dimly conscious +of the strings of camels, mules and donkeys jingling out under the +arch beneath us. Yet there was a great din from the courtyard of +wild hoofs thumping on the dung, and of scurrying feet as if a mile-long +caravan were practising formations. + +So we went out to yawn, and remained, oblivious of everything but +the cause of all the noise, we leaning with elbows on the wooden +rail, and she laughing up at us at intervals. + +The six Zingarri, or gipsies, had pitched their tent in the very +middle of the yard, ambitious above all other considerations to keep +away from walls. It was a big, low, black affair supported on short +poles, and subdivided by them into several compartments. One could +see unshapely bulges where women did the housekeeping within. + +But the woman who held us spell-bound cared nothing for Turkish custom +--a girl not more than seventeen years old at the boldest guess. +She was breaking a gray stallion in the yard, sitting the frenzied +beast without a saddle and doing whatever she liked with him, except +that his heels made free of the air, and he went from point to point +whichever end up best pleased his fancy. + +Travelers make an early start in Asia Minor, but the yard was by +no means empty yet; some folk were still waiting on the doubtful +weather. Her own people kept to the tent. Whoever else had business +in the yard made common cause and cursed the girl for making the +disturbance, frightening camels, horses, asses and themselves. And +she ignored them all, unless it was on purpose that she brought her +stallion's heels too close for safety to the most abusive. + +It was only for us two that she had any kind of friendly interest; +she kept looking up at us and laughing as she caught our eyes, bringing +her mount uprearing just beneath us several times. She was pretty +as the peep o' morning, with long, black wavy hair all loose about +her shoulders, and as light on the horse as the foam he tossed about, +although master of him without a second's doubt of it. + +When she had had enough of riding--long before we were tired of the +spectacle--she shouted with a voice like a mellow bell. One of the +gipsies ran out and led away the sweating stallion, and she disappeared +into the tent throwing us a laugh over her shoulder. + +"D'you suppose those gipsies are really of that Armenian's party?" +Will wondered aloud. "Now, if she were going to Zeitoon--!" + +Feeling as he did, I mocked at him to hide my feelings, and we hung +about for another hour in hope of seeing her again, but she kept close. +I don't doubt she watched us through a hole in the tent. We would +have sat there alert in our chairs until evening only Fred sent a +note down to say he was well enough to leave the hospital. + +We found him with his beard trimmed neatly and his fevered eyes all +bright again, sitting talking to the nurse on the veranda about a +niece of hers--Gloria Vanderman. + +"Chicken in this desert!" Will wondered irreverently, and Fred, who +likes his English to have dictionary meanings, rose from his chair +in wrath. The nurse made that the cue for getting rid of us. + +"Take Mr. Oakes away!" she urged, laughing. "He threatened to kill +a man this morning. There's too much murder in Tarsus now. If he +should add to it--" + +"You know it wasn't on my account," Fred objected. "It was what +he wrote--and said of you. Why, he has had you prayed for publicly +by name, and you washing the brute's feet! Let me back in there +for just five minutes, and I'll show what a hospital case should +really look like!" + +"Take him away!" she laughed. "Isn't it bad enough to be prayed +for? Must I get into the papers, too, as heroine of a scandal?" + +The head missionary was not there to say good-by to, life in his +case being too serious an affair to waste minutes of a precious morning +on farewells, so we packed Fred into the waiting carriage and drove +all the way to Mersina, where we interrupted Monty's mid-afternoon +game of chess. + +Fred Oakes and Monty were the closest friends I ever met--one problem +for an enemy--one stout, two-headed, most dependable ally for the +lucky man or woman they called friend. + +"Oh, hullo!" said Monty over his shoulder, as our names were called +out by the stately consular kavass. + +"Hullo!" said Fred, and shook hands with the consul. + +"Thought you were due to be sick for another week?" said Monty, closing +up the board. + +"I was. I would have been. Bed would have done me good, and the +nurse is a darling, old enough to be Will's mother. But they put +a biped by the name of Peter Measel in the bed next mine. He's a +missionary on his own account, and keeps a diary. Seems be contributes +to the funds of a Welsh mission in France, and they do what he says. +He has all the people he disapproves of prayed for publicly by name +in the mission hall in Marseilles, with extracts out of his diary +by way of explanation, so that the people who pray may know what +they've got on their hands. The special information I gave him about +you, Monty, will make Marseilles burn! He's got you down as a drunken +pirate, my boy, with no less than eleven wives. But be asked me +one night whether I thought what he'd written about the nurse was +strong enough, and he read it aloud to me. You'd never believe what +the reptile had dared suggest in his devil's log-book! I'm expelled +for threatening to kill him!" + +"The nurse was right," said the consul gloomily. "There'll be murder +enough hereabouts--and soon!" + +He was a fairly young man yet in spite of the nearly white hair over +the temples. He measured his words in the manner of a man whose +speech is taken at face value. + +"The missionaries know. The governments won't listen. I've been +appealed to. So has the United States consul, and neither of us +is going to be able to do much. Remember, I represent a government +at peace with Turkey, and so does he. The Turk has a side to his +character that governments ignore. Have you watched them at prayer?" + +We told him how close we had been on the previous night, and he laughed. + +"Did you suppose I couldn't smell camel and khan the moment you came +in?" + +"That was why Sister Vanderman hurried you off so promptly!" Fred +announced with an air of outraged truthfulness. "Faugh! Slangy +talk and stink of stables!" + +"I was talking of Turks," said the consul. "When they pray, you +may have noticed that they glance to right and left. When they think +there is nobody looking they do more, they stare deliberately to +the right and left. That is the act of recognition of the angel +and the devil who are supposed to attend every Moslem, the angel +to record his good deeds and the devil his bad ones. To my mind +there lies the secret of the Turk's character. Most of the time +he's a man of his word--honest--courteous--considerate--good-humored +--even chivalrous--living up to the angel. But once in so often +he remembers the other shoulder, and then there isn't any limit to +the deviltry he'll do. Absolutely not a limit!" + +"I suppose we or the Americans could land marines at a pinch, and +protect whoever asked for protection?" suggested Monty. + +"No," said the consul deliberately. "Germany would object. Germany +is the only power that would. Germany would accuse us of scheming +to destroy the value of their blessed Baghdad railway." + +A privy councilor of England, which Monty was, is not necessarily +in touch with politics of any sort. Neither were we; but it happened +that more than once in our wanderings about the world things had been +forced on our attention. + +"They would rather see Europe burn from end to end!" Monty agreed. + +"And I think there's more than that in it," said the consul. "Armenians +are not their favorites. The Germans want the trade of the Levant. +The Armenians are business men. They're shrewder than Jews and more +dependable than Greeks. It would suit Germany very nicely, I imagine, +to have no Armenians to compete with." + +"But if Germany once got control of the Near East," I objected, "she +could impose her own restrictions." + +The consul frowned. "Armenians who thrive in spite of Turks--" + +"Would skin a German for hide and tallow," nodded Will. + +"Exactly. Germany would object vigorously if we or the States should +land marines to prevent the Turks from applying the favorite remedy, +vukuart -that means events, you know--their euphemism for massacre +at rather frequent intervals. Germany would rather see the Turks +finish the dirty work thoroughly than have it to do herself later on." + +"You mean," said I, "that the German government is inciting to massacre?" + +"Hardly. There are German missionaries in the country, doing good +work in a funny, fussy, rigorous fashion of their own. They'd raise +a dickens of a hocus-pocus back in Germany if they once suspected +their government of playing that game. No. But Germany intends +to stand off the other powers, while Turks tackle the Armenians; +and the Turks know that." + +"But what's the immediate excuse for massacre?" demanded Fred. + +The consul laughed. + +"All that's needed is a spark. The Armenians haven't been tactful. +They don't hesitate to irritate the Turks--not that you can blame +them, but it isn't wise. Most of the money-lenders are Armenians; +Turks won't engage in that business themselves on religious grounds, +but they're ready borrowers, and the Armenian money-lenders, who +are in a very small minority, of course, are grasping and give a +bad name to the whole nation. Then, Armenians have been boasting +openly that one of these days the old Armenian kingdom will be +reestablished. The Turks are conquerors, you know, and don't like +that kind of talk. If the Armenians could only keep from quarreling +among themselves they could win their independence in half a jiffy, +but the Turks are deadly wise at the old trick of divide et impera; +they keep the Armenians quarreling, and nobody dares stand in with +them because sooner--or later--sooner, probably--they'll split among +themselves, and leave their friends high and dry. You can't blame 'em. +The Turks know enough to play on their religious prejudices and set +one sect against another. When the massacres begin scarcely an Armenian +will know who is friend and who enemy." + +"D'you mean to say," demanded Fred, "that they're going to be shot +like bottles off a wall without rhyme or reason?" + +"That's how it was before," said the consul. "There's nothing to +stop it. The world is mistaken about Armenians. They're a hot-blooded +lot on the whole, with a deep sense of national pride, and a hatred +of Turkish oppression that rankles. One of these mornings a Turk +will choose his Armenian and carefully insult the man's wife or daughter. +Perhaps he will crown it by throwing dirt in the fellow's face. +The Armenian will kill him or try to, and there you are. Moslem +blood shed by a dog of a giaour--the old excuse!" + +"Don't the Armenians know what's in store for them?" I asked. + +"Some of them know. Some guess. Some are like the villagers on +Mount Vesuvius--much as we English were in '57 in India, I imagine +--asleep--playing games--getting rich on top of a volcano. The difference +is that the Armenians will have no chance." + +"Did you ever hear tell of the Eye of Zeitoon?" asked Will, apropos +apparently of nothing. + +"No," said the consul, staring at him. + +Will told him of the individual we had talked with in the khan the +night before, describing him rather carefully, not forgetting the +gipsies in the black tent, and particularly not the daughter of the +dawn who schooled a gray stallion in the courtyard. + +The consul shook his head. + +"Never saw or heard of any of them." + +We were sitting in full view of the roadstead where Anthony and +Cleopatra's ships had moored a hundred times. The consul's garden +sloped in front of us, and most of the flowers that Europe reckons +rare were getting ready to bloom. + +"Would you know the man if you saw him again, Will?" I asked. + +"Sure I would!" + +"Then look!" + +I pointed, and seeing himself observed a man stepped out of the shadow +of some oleanders. There was something suggestive in his choice +of lurking place, for every part of the oleander plant is dangerously +poisonous; it was as if he had hidden himself among the hairs of death. + +"Him, sure enough!" said Will. + +The man came forward uninvited. + +"How did you get into the grounds?" the consul demanded, and the +man laughed, laying an unafraid hand on the veranda rail. + +"My teskere is a better than the Turks give!" he answered in English. +(A teskere is the official permit to travel into the interior.) + +"What do you mean?" + +"How did sunshine come into the garden? By whose leave came the wind?" + +He stood on no formality. Before one of us could interfere (for +he might have been plying the assassin's trade) he had vaulted the +veranda rail and stood in front of us. As he jumped I heard the +rattle of loose cartridges, and the thump of a hidden pistol against +the woodwork. I could see the hilt of a dagger, too, just emerging +from concealment through the opening in his smock. But he stood +in front of us almost meekly, waiting to be spoken to. + +"You are without shame!" said the consul. + +"Truly! Of what should I be ashamed!" + +"What brought you here?" + +"Two feet and a great good will! You know me." + +The consul shook his head. + +"Who sold the horse to the German from Bitlis?" + +"Are you that man?" + +"Who clipped the wings of a kite, and sold it for ten pounds to a +fool for an eagle from Ararat?" + +The consul laughed. + +"Are you the rascal who did that?" + +"Who threw Olim Pasha into the river, and pushed him in and in again +for more than an hour with a fishing pole--and then threw in the +gendarmes who ran to arrest him--and only ran when the Eenglis consul +came?" + +"I remember," said the consul. + +"Yet you don't look quite like that man." + +"I told you you knew me." + +"Neither does to-day's wind blow like yesterday's!" + +"What is your name?" + +"Then it was Ali." + +"What is it now?" + +"The name God gave me?" + +"Yes." + +"God knows!" + +"What do you want here?" + +He spread out his arms toward us four, and grinned. + +"Look--see! Four Eenglis sportman! Could a man want more?" + +"Your face is hauntingly familiar," said the consul, searching old +memories. + +"No doubt. Who carried your honor's letter to Adrianople in time +of war, and received a bullet, but brought the answer back?" + +"What--are you that man--Kagig?" + +Instead of replying the man opened his smock, and pulled aside an +undershirt until his hairy left breast lay bare down to where the +nipple should have been. Why a bullet that drilled that nipple so +neatly had not pierced the heart was simply mystery. + +"Kagig, by jove! Kagig with a beard! Nobody would know you but +for that scar." + +"But now you know me surely? Tell these Eenglis sportman, then, +that I am good man--good guide! Tell them they come with me to Zeitoon!" + +The consul's face darkened swiftly, clouded by some notion that he +seemed to try to dismiss, but that refused to leave him. + +"How much would you ask for your services?" he demanded. + +"Whatever the effendim please." + +"Have you a horse?" + +He nodded. + +"You and your horse, then, two piasters a day, and you feed yourself +and the beast." + +The man agreed, very bright-eyed. Often it takes a day or two to +come to terms with natives of that country, yet the terms the consul +offered him were those for a man of very ordinary attainments. + +"Come back in an hour," said the consul. + +Without a word of answer Kagig vaulted back across the rail and +disappeared around the corner of the house, walking without hurry +but not looking back. + +"Kagig, by jove! It would take too long now to tell that story of +the letter to Adrianople. I've no proof, but a private notion that +Kagig is descended from the old Armenian kings. In a certain sort +of tight place there's not a better man in Asia. Now, Lord Montdidier, +if you're in earnest about searching for that castle of your Crusader +ancestors, you're in luck!" + +"You know it's what I came here for," said Monty. "These friends +of mine are curious, and I'm determined. Now that Fred's well--" + +"I'm puzzled," said the consul, leaning back and looking at us all +with half-closed eyes. "Why should Kagig choose just this time to +guide a hunting party? If any man knows trouble's brewing, I suspect +be surely does. Anything can happen in the interior. I recall, +for instance, a couple of Danes, who went with a guide not long ago, +and simply disappeared. There are outlaws everywhere, and it's more +than a theory that the public officials are in league with them." + +"What a joke if we find the old family castle is a nest of robbers," +smiled Monty. + +"Still!" corrected Fred. + +I was watching the consul's eyes. He was troubled, but the prospect +of massacre did not account for all of his expression. There was +debate, inspiration against conviction, being fought out under cover +of forced calm. Inspiration won the day. + +"I was wondering," he said, and lit a fresh cigar while we waited +for him to go on. + +"I vouch for my friends," said Monty. + +"It wasn't that. I've no right to make the proposal--no official +right whatever--I'm speaking strictly unofficially--in fact, it's +not a proposal at all--merely a notion." + +He paused to give himself a last chance, but indiscretion was too +strong. + +"I was wondering how far you four men would go to save twenty or +thirty thousand lives." + +"You've no call to wonder about that," said Will. + +"Suppose you tell us what you've got in mind," suggested Monty, putting +his long legs on a chair and producing a cigarette. + +The consul knocked out his pipe and sat forward, beginning to talk +a little faster, as a man who throws discretion to the winds. + +"I've no legal right to interfere. None at all. In case of a massacre +of Armenians--men, women, little children--I could do nothing. Make +a fuss, of course. Throw open the consulate to refugees. Threaten +a lot of things that I know perfectly well my government won't do. +The Turks will be polite to my face and laugh behind my back, knowing +I'm helpless. But if you four men--" + +"Yes--go on--what?" + +"Spill it!" urged Will. + +"--should be up-country, and I knew it for a fact, but did not know +your precise whereabouts, I'd have a grown excuse for raising most +particular old Harry! You get my meaning?" + +"Sure!" said Will. "Monty's an earl. Fred's related to half the +peerages in Burke. Me and him"--I was balancing my chair on one +leg and he pushed me over backward by way of identification--"just +pose as distinguished members of society for the occasion. I get you." + +"It might even be possible, Mr. Yerkes, to get the United States +Congress to take action on your account." + +"Don't you believe it!" laughed Will. "The members for the Parish +Pump, and the senators from Ireland would howl about the Monroe Doctrine +and Washington's advice at the merest hint of a Yankee in trouble +in foreign parts." + +"What about the United States papers?" + +"They'd think it was an English scheme to entangle the United States, +and they'd be afraid to support action for fear of the Irish. No, +England's your only chance!" + +"Well," said the consul, "I've told you the whole idea. If I should +happen to know of four important individuals somewhere up-country, +and massacres should break out after you had started, I could supply +our ambassador with something good to work on. The Turkish government +might have to stop the massacre in the district in which you should +happen to be. That would save lives." + +"But could they stop it, once started?" I asked. + +"They could try. That 'ud be more than they ever did yet." + +"You mean," said Monty, "that you'd like us to engage Kagig and make +the trip, and to remain out in case of--ah--vukuart until we're rescued?" + +"Can't say I like it, but that's what I mean. And as for rescue, +the longer the process takes the better, I imagine!" + +"Hide, and have them hunt for us, eh?" + +"Would it help," I suggested, "if we were to be taken prisoner by +outlaws and held for ransom?" + +"It might," said the consul darkly. "I'd take to the hills myself +and send back a wail for help, only my plain duty is here at the +mission. What I have suggested to you is mad quixotism at the best, +and at the worst--well, do you recall what happened to poor Vyner, +who was held for ransom by Greek brigands? They sent a rescue party +instead of money, and--" + +"Charles Vyner was a friend of mine," said Monty quietly. + +Fred began to look extremely cheerful and Will nudged me and nodded. + +"Remember," said the consul, "in the present state of European politics +there's no knowing what can or can't be done, but if you four men +are absent in the hills I believe I can give the Turkish government +so much to think about that there'll be no massacres in that one district." + +"Whistle up Kagig!" Monty answered, and that was the end of the argument +as far as yea or nay had anything to do with it. Prospect of danger +was the last thing likely to divide the party. + +"How about permits to travel?" asked Will. "The United States consul +told me none is to be had at present." + +The consul rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. + +"It may cost a little more, that's all," he said. "You might go +without, but you'd better submit to extortion." + +He called the kavass, the uniformed consular attendant, and sent +him in search of Kagig. Within two minutes the Eye of Zeitoon was +grinning at us through a small square window in the wall at one end +of the veranda. Then he came round and once more vaulted the veranda +rail, for he seemed to hold ordinary means of entry in contempt. +His eye looked very possessive for that of one seeking employment +as a guide, but he stood at respectful attention until spoken to. + +"These gentlemen have decided to employ you," the consul announced. + +"Mashallah!" (God be praised!) For a Christian he used unusual expletives. + +"They want to find a castle in the mountains, to hunt bear and boar, +and to see Zeitoon." + +"I shall lead them to ten castles never seen before by Eenglismen! +They shall kill all the bears and pigs! Never was such sport as +they shall see!" + +He exploded the word pigs as if he had the Osmanli prejudice against +that animal. Yet he wore a pig-skin cartridge belt about his middle. + +"They will need enormous lots of ammunition!" he announced. + +"What else would the roadside robbers like them to bring?" + +"No Turkish servants! They throw Turks over a bridge-side in Zeitoon! +I myself will provide servants, who shall bring them back safely!" + +It seemed to me that he breathed inward as he said that. A Turk +would have added "Inshallah!"--if God wills! + +"Make ready for a journey of two months," he said. + +"When and where shall the start be?" + +It would obviously be unwise to start from the consulate. + +"From the Yeni Khan in Tarsus," said Will. + +"That is very good--that is excellent! I will send Zeitoonli servants +to the Yeni Khan at once. Pay them the right price. Have you horses? +Camels are of no use, nor yet are wheels--you shall know why later! +Mules are best." + +"I know where you can hire mules," said the consul, "with a Turkish +muleteer to each pair." + +"Oh, well!" laughed Kagig, leaning back against the rail and moving +his hands palms upward as if he weighed one thought against another. +"What is the difference? If a few Turks move or less come to an +end over Zeitoon bridge--" + +It was only for moments at a time that he seemed able to force himself +to speak as our inferior. A Turk of the guide class would likely +have knelt and placed a foot of each of us on his neck in turn as +soon as he knew we had engaged him. This Armenian seemed made of +other stuff. + +"Then be on hand to-morrow morning," ordered Monty. + +But the Eye of Zeitoon had another surprise for us. + +"I shall meet you on the road," he announced with an air of a social +equal. "Servants shall attend you at the Yeni Khan. They will say +nothing at all, and work splendidly! Start when you like; you will +find me waiting for you at a good place on the road. Bring not plenty, +but too much ammunition! Good day, then, gentlemen!" + +He nodded to us--bowed to the consul--vaulted the rail. A second +later he grinned at us again through the tiny window. "I am the +Eye of Zeitoon!" he boasted, and was gone. A servant whom the consul +sent to follow him came back after ten or fifteen minutes saying +he had lost him in a maze of narrow streets. + +His latter, offhanded manner scarcely auguring well, we debated whether +or not to search for some one more likely amenable to discipline +to take his place. But the consul spent an hour telling us about +the letter that went to Adrianople, and the bringing back of the +answer that hastened peace. + +"He was shot badly. He nearly died on the way back. I've no idea +how he recovered. He wouldn't accept a piaster more than the price +agreed on." + +"Let's take a chance!" said Will, and we were all agreed before he +urged it. + +"There's one other thing," said the consul. "I've been told a Miss +Gloria Vanderrnan is on her way to the mission at Marash--" + +"Gee whiz!" said Will. + +The consul nodded. "She's pretty, if that's what you mean. It was +very unwise to let her go, escorted only by Armenians. Of course, +she may get through without as much as suspecting trouble's brewing, +but--well--I wish you'd look out for her." + +"Chicken, eh?" + +Will stuck both hands deep in his trousers pockets and tilted his +chair backward to the point of perfect poise. + +"Cuckoo, you ass!" laughed Fred, kicking the chair over backward, +and then piling all the veranda furniture on top, to the scandalized +amazement of the stately kavass, who came at that moment shepherding +a small boy with a large tray and perfectly enormous drinks. + + + + +Chapter Three +"Sahib, there is always--work for real soldiers!" + + +WHERE TWO OR THREE + +Oh, all the world is sick with hate, +And who shall heal it, friend o' mine? +And who is friend? And who shall stand +Since hireling tongue and alien hand +Kill nobleness in all this land? +Judas and Pharisee combine +To plunder and proclaim it Fate. + +Days when the upright dared be few +Are they departed, friend o' mine? +Are bribery and rich largesse +Fair props for fat forgetfulness, +Or anodynous of distress? +Oh, would the world were drunk with wine +And not this last besotting brew! + +Oh, for the wonderful again - +The greatly daring, friend o' mine! +The simply gallant blade unbought, +The soul compassionate, unsought, +With no price but the priceless thought +Nor purpose than the brave design +Of giving that the world may gain! + + +So we took two rooms at the Yeni Khan instead of one, not being minded +to sleep as closely as the gentry of Asia Minor like to. Will hurried +us down there for a look at the gipsy girl. But the tent was gone +and the gipsies with it, and when we asked questions about them people spat. + +Your good Moslem--and a Moslem is good in those parts who makes a +mountain of observances, regarding mole-hills of mere morals not +at all--affects to despise all giaours; but a giaour, like a gipsy, +who has no obvious religion of any kind, he ranks below the pig in +order of reverence. It did not redound to our credit that we showed +interest in the movements of such people. + +Monty brought an enormous can of bug-powder with him, and restored +our popularity by lending generously after he had treated our quarters +sufficiently for three days' stay. Fred did nothing to our quarters +--stirred no finger, claiming convalescence with his tongue in his +cheek, and strolling about until he fell utterly in love with the +khan and its crowd, and the khan with him. +That very first night he brought out his concertina on the balcony, +and yowled songs to its clamor; and whether or not the various crowd +agreed on naming the noise music, all were delighted with the friendliness. + +Fred talks more languages fluently than he can count on the fingers +of both hands. He began to tell tales in a sing-song eastern snarl +--a tale in Persian, then in Turkish, and the night grew breathless, +full of listening, until pent-up interest at intervals burst bonds +and there were "Ahs" and "Ohs" all amid the dark, like little breaths +of night wind among trees. + +He found small time for sleep, and when dawn came, and four Zeitoonli +servants according to Kagig's promise, they still swarmed around +him begging for more. He went off to eat breakfast with a khan from +Bokhara, sitting on a bale of nearly priceless carpets to drink overland +tea made in a thing like a samovar. + +All the rest of that day, and the next, sleeping only at intervals, +while Monty and Will and I helped the Zeitoonli servants get our +loads in shape, Fred sharpened his wonder-gift of tongues on the +fascinated men of many nations, giving them London ditties and tales +from the Thousand Nights and a Night in exchange for their news of +caravan routes. He left them well pleased with +their bargain. + +Monty went off alone the second day to see about mules. The Turk +with a trade to make believes that of several partners one is always +"easier" than the rest; consequently, one man can bring him to see +swifter reason than a number can. He came back that evening with +twelve good mules and four attendants. + +"One apiece to ride, and two apiece to carry everything. Not another +mule to be had. Unpack the loads again and make them smaller!" + +Fred came and sat with us that night before the charcoal brazier +in his and Monty's room. + +"They all talk of robbers on the road," he said. "Northward, through +the Circassian Gates, or eastward it's all the same. There's a man +in a room across the way who was stripped stark naked and beaten +because they thought he might have money in his clothes. When he +reached this place without a stitch on him he still had all his money +in his clenched fists! Quite a sportsman--what? Imagine his juggling +with it while they whipped him with knotted cords!" + +"What have you heard about Kagig?" + +"Nothing. But a lot about vukuart.* It's vague, but there's something +in the air. You'll notice the Turkish muleteers are having nothing +whatever to say to our Zeitoonli, although they've accepted the same +service. Moslems are keeping together, and Armenians are getting +the silence cure. Armenians are even shy of speaking to one another. +I've tried listening, and I've tried asking questions, although that +was risky. I can't get a word of explanation. I've noticed, though, +that the ugly mood is broadening. They've been polite to me, but +I've heard the word shapkali applied more than once to you fellows. +Means hatted man, you know. Not a serious insult, but implies contempt." + +-------------- +* Turkish word: happenings, a euphemism for massacre. +-------------- + +Nothing but comfort and respectability ever seemed able to make Fred +gloomy. He discussed our present prospects with the air of an epicure +ordering dinner. And Monty listened with his dark, delightful smile +--the kindliest smile in all the world. I have seen unthoughtful +men mistake it for a sign of weakness. + +I have never known him to argue. Nor did he then, but strode straight +down into the khan yard, we sitting on the balcony to watch. He +visited our string of mules first for an excuse, and invited a Kurdish +chieftain (all Kurds are chieftains away from home) to inspect a +swollen fetlock. With that subtle flattery he unlocked the man's +reserve, passed on from chance remark to frank, good-humored questions, +and within an hour had talked with twenty men. At last he called +to one of the Zeitoonli to come and scrape the yard dung from his +boots, climbed the stairs leisurely, and sat beside us. + +"You're quite right, Fred," he said quietly. + +Then there came suddenly from out the darkness a yell for help in +English that brought three of us to our feet. Fred brushed his fierce +mustaches upward with an air of satisfaction, and sat still. + +"There's somebody down there quite wrong, and in line at last to +find out why!" he said. "I've been waiting for this. Sit down." + +We obeyed him, though the yells continued. There came blows suggestive +of a woman on the housetops beating carpets. + +"D'you recollect the man I mentioned at the consulate--the biped +Peter Measel, missionary on his own account, who keeps a diary and +libels ladies in it? Well, he's foul of a thalukdar* from Rajputana, +and of a Prussian contractor, recruiting men for work on the Baghdad +railway. I wasn't allowed to murder him. I see why now--finger +of justice--I'd have been too quick. Sit down, you idiots! You've +no idea what he wrote about Miss Vanderman. Let him scream, I like it!" + +--------------- +* Punjabi Word--landholder. +--------------- + +"Come along," said Monty. "If he were a bad-house keeper he has +had enough!" + +But Will had gone before us, headlong down the stairs with the speed +off the mark that they taught him on the playing field at Bowdoin. +When we caught up he was standing astride a prostrate being who sobbed +like a cow with its throat cut, and a Rajput and a German, either +of them six feet tall, were considering whether or not to resent +the violence of his interference. The German was disposed to yield +to numbers. The Rajput not so. + +"Why are you beating him?" asked Monty. + +"Gott in Hinimel, who would not! He wrote of me in his diary +--der Liminel!--that I shanghai laborers." + +"Do you, or don't you?" asked Monty sweetly. + +"Kreutz-blitzen! What is that to do with you--or with him? What +right had he to write that people in France should pray for me in church?" + +The Rajput all this while was standing simmering, as ready as a boar +at bay to fight the lot of us, yet I thought with an air about him, +too, of half-conscious surprise. Several times he took a half-pace +forward to assert his right of chastisement, looked hard at Monty, +and checked mid-stride. + +"You've done enough," said Monty. + +"Who are you that says so?" the German retorted. + +"He--who--will--attend--to--it--that--you--do--no--more!" Monty's +smooth voce had become without inflection. + +"Bah! That is easy, isn't it? You are four to one!" + +"Five to one!" + +The Rajput's gruff throat thrilled with a new emotion. He sprang +suddenly past me, and thrust himself between Monty and the German, +who took advantage of the opportunity to walk away. + +"Lord Montdidier, colonel sahib bahadur, burra salaam!" + +He made no obeisance, but stood facing Monty eye to eye. The words, +as be roiled them out, were like an order given to a thousand men. +One almost heard the swish of sabers as the squadrons came to the +general salute. + +"I knew you, Rustum Khan, the minute I set eyes on you. Why were +you beating this man?" + +"Sahib bahadur, because he wrote in his book that people in France +should pray for me in church, naming my honorable name, because, +says he--but I will not repeat what he says. It is not seemly." + +"How do you know what is in his diary?" Monty asked. + +"That German read it out to me. We were sitting, he and I, discussing +how the Turks intend to butcher the Armenians, as all the world knows +is written. They say it shall happen soon. Said he to me--the German +said to me--'I know another,' said he, 'who if I had my way should +suffer first in that event.' Saying which he showed the written +book that he had found, and read me parts of it. The German was +for denouncing the fellow as a friend of Armenians, but I was for +beating him at once, and I had my way." + +"Where is the book?" demanded Monty. + +"The German has it." + +"The German has no right to it." + +"I will bring it." + +Rustum Khan strode off into the night, and Monty bent over the sobbing +form of the self-appointed missionary. We were all alone in the midst +of the courtyard, not even watched from behind the wheels of arabas, +for a fight or a thrashing in the khans of Asia Minor is strictly +the affair of him who gets the worst of it. + +"Will you burn that book of yours, Measel, if we protect you from +further assault?" + +The man sobbed that he would do anything, but Monty held him to the +point, and at last procured a specific affirmative. Then Rustum +Khan came back with the offending tome. It was bulky enough to contain +an account of the sins of Asia Minor. + +Fred and I picked the poor fellow up and led him to where the cooking +places stood in one long row. Will carried the book, and Rustum +Khan stole wood from other folks' piles, and fanned a fire. We watched +the unhappy Peter Measel put the book on the flames with his own hands. + +"You're old enough to have known better than keep such a diary!" +said Monty, stirring the charred pages. + +"I am at any rate a martyr!" Measel answered. + +The man could walk by that time--he was presumably abstemious and +recovered from shock quickly. Monty sent me to see him to his room, +which turned out to be next the German's, and until Will came over +from our quarters with first-aid stuff from our chest I spent the +minutes telling the German what should happen to him in case he should +so far forget discretion as to resume the offensive. He said nothing +in reply, but sat in his doorway looking up at me with an expression +intended to make me feel nervous of reprisals without committing him +to deeds. + +Later, when we had done our best for "the martyred biped Measel," +as Fred described him, Will and I found Rustum Khan with Fred and +Monty seated around the charcoal brazier in Monty's room, deep in +the valley of reminiscences. Our entry rather broke the spell, but +Rustum Khan was not to be denied. + +"You used to tell in those days, Colonel sahib bahadur," he said, +addressing Monty with that full-measured compliment that the chivalrous, +old East still cherishes, "of a castle of your ancestors in these +parts. Do you remember, when I showed you the ruins of my family +place in Rajputana, how you stood beside me on the heights, sahib, +and vowed some day to hunt for that Crusaders' nest, as you called it?" + +"That is the immediate purpose of this trip of ours," said Monty. + +"Ah!" said the Rajput, and was silent for about a minute. Fred Oakes +began to hum through his nose. He has a ridiculous belief that doing +that throws keen inquirers off a scent. + +"Colonel sahib, since I was a little butcha not as high as your knee +I have spoken English and sat at the feet of British officers. Little +enough I know, but by the beard of God's prophet I know this: when +a British colonel sahib speaks of 'immediate purposes,' there are +hidden purposes of greater importance!" + +"That well may be," said Monty gravely. "I remember you always were +a student of significant details, Rustum Khan." + +"There was a time when I was in your honor's confidence." + +Monty smiled. + +"That was years ago. What are you doing here, Rustum Khan?" + +"A fair enough question! I hang my head. As you know, sahib, I +am a rangar. My people were all Sikhs for several generations back. +We converts to Islam are usually more thorough-going than born Moslems +are. I started to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, riding overland +alone by way of Persia. As I came, missing few opportunities to +talk with men, who should have been the lights of my religion, I +have felt enthusiasm waning. These weeks past I have contemplated +return without visiting Mecca at all. I have wandered to and fro, +hoping for the fervor back again, yet finding none. And now, sahib, +I find you--I, Rustum Khan, at a loose end for lack of inspiration. +I have prayed. Colonel sahib bahadur, I believe thou art the gift +of God!"' + +Monty sought our eyes in turn in the lantern-lit darkness. We made +no sign. None of us but he knew the Rajput, so it was plainly his affair. + +"Suit yourself," said Will, and the rest of us nodded. + +"We are traveling into the interior," said Monty, "in the rather +doubtful hope that our absence from a coast city may in some way +help Armenians, Rustum Khan." + +The Rajput jumped to his feet that instant, and came to the salute. + +"I might have known as much. Colonel Lord Montdidier sahib, I offer +fealty! My blood be thine to spill in thy cause! Thy life on my +head--thine honor on my life--thy way my way, and God be my witness!" + +"Don't be rash, Rustum Khan. Our likeliest fate is to be taken prisoner +by men of your religion, who will call you a renegade if you defend +Armenians. And what are Armenians to you?" + +"Ah, sahib! You drive a sharp spur into an open sore! I have seen +too much of ill-faith--cruelty--robbery--torture--rapine--butchery, +all in the name of God! It is this last threat to the Armenians +that is the final straw! I took the pilgrimage in search of grace. +The nearer I came to the place they tell me is on earth the home +of grace, the more unfaith I see! Three nights ago in another place +I was led aside and offered the third of the wealth of a fat Armenian +if I would lend my sword to slit helpless throats--in the name of +God, the compassionate, be merciful! My temper was about spoilt +forever when that young idiot over the way described me in his book +as--never mind how he described me--he paid the price! Sahib bahadur, +I take my stand with the defenseless, where I know thou and thy friends +will surely be! I am thy man!" + +"It is not included in our plans to fight," said Monty. + +"Sahib, there is always work for real soldiers!" + +"What do you fellows say? Shall we let him come with us?" + +"I travel at my own charges, sahib. I am well mounted and well armed." + +"Sure, let him come with us!" said Will. "I like the man." + +"He has my leave to come along to England afterward," said Fred, +"if he'll guarantee to address me as the 'gift of God' in public!" + +I left them talking and returned to see whether the "martyred biped +Measel" needed further help. He was asleep, and as I listened to +his breathing I heard voices in the next room. The German was talking +in English, that being often the only tongue that ten men have in +common. Through the partly opened door I could see that his room +was crammed with men. + +"They are spies, every one of them!" I heard him say. "The man I +thrashed is of their party. You yourselves saw how they came to +his rescue, and seduced the Indian by means of threats. This is +the way of the English. ("Curse them!" said a voice.) They write +notes in a book, and when that offense is detected they burn the +book in a corner, as ye saw them do. I saw the book before they +burned it. I thrashed the spy who wrote in the book because he had +written in it reports on what it is proposed to do to infidels at +the time ye know about. I tell you those men are all spies--one +is as bad as the other. They work on behalf of Armenians, to bring +about interference from abroad." + +That he had already produced an atmosphere of danger to us I had +immediate proof, for as I crossed the yard again I dodged behind +an araba in the nick of time to avoid a blow aimed at me with a sword +by a man I could not see. + +"All your charming is undone!" I told Fred, bursting in on our party +by the charcoal brazier. Almost breathless I reeled off what I had +overheard. "They'll be here to murder us by dawn!" I said. + +"Will they?" said Monty. + +We were up and away two hours before dawn, to the huge delight of +our Turkish muleteers, who consider a dawn start late, yet not too +early for the servants of the khan, who knew enough European manners +to stand about the gate and beg for tips. Nor were we quite too +early for the enemy, who came out into the open and pelted us with +clods of dung, the German encouraging from the roof. Fred caught +him unaware full in the face with a well-aimed piece of offal. Then +the khan keeper slammed the gate behind us and we rode into the unknown. + + + + +Chapter Four +"We are the robbers, effendi!" + + +THE ROAD + +There is a mystery concerning roads +And he who loves the Road shall never tire. +For him the brooks have voices and the breeze +Brings news of far-off leafiness and leas +And vales all blossomy. The clinging mire +Shall never weary such an one, nor yet their loads +O'ercome the beasts that serve him. Rock and rill +Shall make the pleasant league go by as hours +With secret tales they tell; the loosened stone, +Sweet turf upturned, the bees' full-purposed drone, +The hum of happy insects among flowers, +And God's blue sky to crown each hill! +Dawn with her jewel-throated birds +To him shall be a new page in the Book +That never had beginning nor shall end, +And each increasing hour delights shall lend-- +New notes in every sound--in every nook +New sights----new thoughts too wide for words, +Too deep for pen, too high for human song, +That only in the quietness of winding ways +>From tumult and all bitterness apart +Can find communication with the heart - +Thoughts that make joyous moments of the days, +And no road heavy, and no journey long! + + +The snow threatened in the mountains had not materialized, and the +weather had changed to pure perfection. About an hour after we started +the khan emptied itself behind us in a long string, jingling and +clanging with horse and camel bells. But they turned northward to +pass through the famed Circassian Gates, whereas we followed the +plain that paralleled the mountain range--our mules' feet hidden +by eight inches of primordial ooze. + +"Wish it were only worse!" said Monty. "Snow or rain might postpone +massacre. Delay might mean cancellation." + +But there was no prospect whatever of rain. The Asia Minor spring, +perfumed and amazing sweet, breathed all about us, spattered with +little diamond-bursts of tune as the larks skyrocketed to let the +wide world know how glad they were. Whatever dark fate might be +brooding over a nation, it was humanly impossible for us to feel +low-spirited. + +Our Zeitoonli Armenians trudged through the mud behind us at a splendid +pace--mountain-men with faces toward their hills. The Turks--owners +of the animals another man had hired to us--rode perched on top of +the loads in stoic silence, changing from mule to mule as the hours +passed and watching very carefully that no mule should be overtaxed +or chilled. In fact, the first attempt +they made to enter into conversation with us was when we dallied +to admire a view of Taurus Mountain, and one of them closed up to +tell us the mules were catching cold in the wind. (If they had been +our animals it might have been another story.) + +Their contempt for the Zeitoonli was perfectly illustrated by the +difference in situation. They rode; the Armenians walked. Yet the +Armenians were less afraid; and when we crossed a swollen ford where +a mule caught his forefoot between rocks and was drowning, it was +Armenians, not Turks, who plunged into the icy water and worked him +free without straining as much as a tendon. + +The Turks were obsessed by perpetual fear of robbers. That, and +no other motive, made them tolerate the hectoring of Rustum Khan, +who had constituted himself officer of transport, and brought up +the rear on his superb bay mare. As he had promised us he would, +he rode well armed, and the sight of his pistol holsters, the rifle +protruding stock-first from a leather case, and his long Rajput saber +probably accomplished more than merely keeping Turks in countenance; +it prevented them from scattering and bolting home. + +His own baggage was packed on two mules in charge of an Armenian +boy, who was more afraid of our Turks than they of robbers. Yet, +when we demanded of our muleteers what sort of men, and of what nation +the dreaded highwaymen might be they pointed at Rustum Khan's lean +servant. At the khan the night before one of them had pointed out +to Monty two Circassians and a Kurd as reputed to have a monopoly +of robbery on all those roads. Nevertheless, they made the new +accusation without blinking. + +"All robbers are Armenians--all Armenians are robbers!" they assured +us gravely. + +When we halted for a meal they refused to eat with our Zeitoonli, +although they graciously permitted them to gather all the firewood, +and accepted pieces of their pasderma (sun-dried meat) as if that +were their due. As soon as they had eaten, and before we had finished, +Ibrahim, their grizzled senior, came to us with a new demand. On +its face it was not outrageous, because we were doing our own cooking, +as any man does who has ever peeped into a Turkish servant's +behind-the-scene arrangements. + +"Send those Armenians away!" he urged. "We Turks are worth twice +their number!" + +"By the beard of God's prophet!" thundered Rustum Khan, "who gave +camp-followers the right to impose advice?" + +"They are in league with highwaymen to lead you into a trap!" Ibrahim +answered. + +Rustum Khan rattled the saber that lay on the rock beside him. + +"I am hunting for fear," he said. "All my life I have hunted for +fear and never found it!" + +"Pekki!" said Ibrahim dryly. The word means "very well." The tone +implied that when the emergency should come we should do well not +to depend on him, for he had warned us. + +We were marching about parallel with the course the completed Baghdad +railway was to take, and there were frequent parties of surveyors +and engineers in sight. Once we came near enough to talk with the +German in charge of a party, encamped very sumptuously near his work. +He had a numerous armed guard of Turks. + +"A precaution against robbers?" Monty asked, and I did not hear what +the German answered. + +Rustum Khan laughed and drew me aside. + +"Every German in these parts has a guard to protect him from his +own men, sahib! For a while on my journey westward I had charge +of a camp of recruited laborers. Therefore I know." + +The German was immensely anxious to know all about us and our intentions. +He told us his name was Hans von Quedlinburg, plainly expecting us +to be impressed. + +"I can direct you to good quarters, where you can rest comfortably +at every stage, if you will tell me your direction," he said. + +But we did not tell him. Later, while we ate a meal, he came and +questioned our Turks very closely; but since they were in ignorance +they did not tell him either. + +"Why do you travel with Armenian servants?" he asked us finally before +we moved away. + +"We like 'em," said Monty. + +"They'll only get you in trouble. We've dismissed all Armenian laborers +from the railway works. Not trustworthy, you know. Our agents are +out recruiting Moslems." + +"What's the matter with Armenians?" + +"Oh, don't you know?" + +"I'm asking." + +The German shrugged his shoulders. + +"I'll tell you one thing. This will illustrate. I had an Armenian +clerk. He worked all day in my tent. A week ago I found him reading +among my private papers. That proves you can't trust an Armenian." + +"Ample evidence!" said Monty without a smile, but Fred laughed as +we rode away, and the German stared after us with a new set of emotions +pictured on his heavy face. + +Late in the afternoon we passed through a village in which about +two hundred Armenian men and women were holding a gathering in a +church large enough to hold three times the number. One of them +saw us coming, and they all trooped out to meet us, imagining we +were officials of some kind. + +"Effendi," said their pastor with a trembling hand on Monty's saddle, +"the Turks in this village have been washing their white garments!" + +We had heard in Tarsus what that ceremony meant. + +"It means, effendi, they believe their purpose holy! What shall +we do--what shall we do?" + +"Why not go into Tarsus and claim protection at the British consulate?" +suggested Fred. + +"But our friends of Tarsus warn us the worst fury of all will be +in the cities!" + +"Take to the hills, then!" Monty advised him. + +"But how can we, sir? How can we? We have homes--property--children! +We are watched. The first attempt by a number of us to escape to +the hills would bring destruction down on all!" + +"Then escape to the hills by twos and threes. You ask my advice +--I give it." + +It looked like very good advice. The slopes of the foot-hills seemed +covered by a carpet of myrtle scrub, in which whole armies could +have lain in ambush. And above that the cliffs of the Kara Dagh +rose rocky and wild, suggesting small comfort but sure hiding-places. + +"You'll never make me believe you Armenians haven't hidden supplies," +said Monty. "Take to the hills until the fury is over!" + +But the old man shook his head, and his people seemed at one with +him. These were not like our Zeitoonli, but wore the settled gloom +of resignation that is poor half-brother to Moslem fanaticism, caught +by subjection and infection from the bullying Turk. There was nothing +we could do at that late hour to overcome the inertia produced by +centuries, and we rode on, ourselves infected to the verge of misery. +Only our Zeitoonli, striding along like men on holiday, retained +their good spirits, and they tried to keep up ours by singing their +extraordinary songs. + +During the day we heard of the chicken, as Will called her, somewhere +on ahead, and we spent that night at a kahveh, which is a place with +all a khan's inconveniences, but no dignity whatever. There they +knew nothing of her at all. The guests, and there were thirty besides +ourselves, lay all around the big room on wooden platforms, and talked +of nothing but robbers along the road in both directions. Every man +in the place questioned each of us individually to find out why we +had not been looted on our way of all we owned, and each man ended +in a state of hostile incredulity because we vowed we had met no +robbers at all. They shrugged their shoulders when we asked for +news of Miss Gloria Vanderman. + +There was no fear of Ibrahim and his friends decamping in the night, +for the Zeitoonli kept too careful watch, waiting on them almost +as thoughtfully as they fetched and carried for us, but never forgetting +to qualify the service with a smile or a word to the Turks to imply +that it was done out of pity for brutish helplessness. + +These Zeitoonli of ours were more obviously every hour men of a different +disposition to the meek Armenians of the places where the Turkish +heel had pressed. But for our armed presence and the respect accorded +to the Anglo-Saxon they would have had the whole mixed company down +on them a dozen times that night. + +"I'm wondering whether the Armenians within reach of the Turks are +not going to suffer for the sins of mountaineers!" said Fred, as +we warmed ourselves at the great open fire at one end of the room. + +"Rot!" Will retorted. "Sooner or later men begin to dare assert +their love of freedom, and you can't blame 'em if they show it foolishly. +Some folk throw tea into harbors--some stick a king's head on a +pole--some take it out for the present in fresh-kid stuff. These +Zeitoonli are men of spirit, or I'll eat my hat!" + +But if we ourselves had not been men of spirit, obviously capable +of strenuous self-defense, our Zeitoonli would have found themselves +in an awkward fix that night. + +We supped off yoghourt--the Turkish concoction of milk--cow's, goat's, +mare's, ewe's or buffalo's (and the buffalo's is best)--that is about +the only food of the country on which the Anglo-Saxon thrives. +Whatever else is fit to eat the Turks themselves ruin by their way +of cooking it. And we left before dawn in the teeth of the owner +of the kahveh's warning. + +"Dangerous robbers all along the road!" he advised, shaking his head +until the fez grew insecure, while Fred counted out the coins to +pay our bill. "Armenians are without compunction--bad folk! Ay, +you have weapons, but so have they, and they have the advantage of +surprise! May Allah the compassionate be witness, I have warned you!" + +"There will be more than warnings to be witnessed!", growled Rustum +Khan as he rode away. "Those others, who sharpened weapons all night +long, and spoke of robbers, have been waiting three days at that +kahveh till the murdering begins!" + +That morning, on Rustum Khan's advice, we made our Turkish muleteers +ride in front of us. The Zeitoon men marched next, swinging along +with the hillman stride that eats up distance as the ticked-off seconds +eat the day. And we rode last, admiring the mountain range on our +left, but watchful of other matters, and in position to cut off retreat. + +"The last time a Turk ran away from me he took my Gladstone bag with +him!" said Fred. "No, only Armenians are dishonest. It was obedience +to his prophet, who bade him take advantage of the giaour--quite +a different thing! Ibrahim's sitting on my kit, and I'm watching +him. You fellows suit yourselves!" + +We passed a number of men on foot that morning all coming our way, +but no Armenians among them. However, we exchanged no wayside gossip, +because our Zeitoonli in front availed themselves of privilege and +shouted to every stranger to pass at a good distance. + +That is a perfectly fair precaution in a land where every one goes +armed, and any one may be a bandit. But it leads to aloofness. +Passers-by made circuits of a half-mile to avoid us, and when we +spurred our mules to get word with them they mistook that for proof +of our profession and bolted. We chased three men for twenty minutes +for the fun of it, only desisting when one of them took cover behind +a bush and fired a pistol at us with his eyes shut. + +"Think of the lies he'll tell in the kahveh to-night about beating +off a dozen robbers single-handed!" Will laughed. + +"Let's chase the next batch, too, and give the kahveh gang an ear-full!" + +"I rather think not," said Monty. "They'll say we're Armenian criminals. +Let's not be the spark." + +He was right, so we behaved ourselves, and within an hour we had +trouble enough of another sort. We began to meet dogs as big as +Newfoundlands, that attacked our unmounted Zeitoonli, refusing to +be driven off with sticks and stones, and only retreating a little +way when we rode down on them. + +"Shoot the brutes!" Will suggested cheerfully, and I made ready to +act on it. + +"For the lord's sake, don't!" warned Monty, riding at a huge black +mongrel that was tearing strips from the smock of one of our men. +The owner of the dog, seeing its victim was Armenian, rather encouraged +it than otherwise, leaning on a long pole and grinning in an unfenced +field near by. + +"The consul warned me they think more of a dog's life hereabouts +than a man's. In half an hour there'd be a mob on our trail. Take +the Zeitoonli up behind us." + +Rustum Khan was bitter about what he called our squeamishness. But +we each took up a man on his horse's rump, and the dogs decided the +fun was no longer worth the effort, especially as we had riding whips. +But skirmishing with the dogs and picking up the Armenians took time, +so that our muleteers were all alone half a mile ahead of us, and +had disappeared where the road dipped between two hillocks, when +they met with the scare they looked for. + +They came thundering back up the road, flogging and flopping on top +of the loads like the wooden monkeys-on-a-stick the fakers used to +sell for a penny on the curb in Fleet Street, glancing behind them +at every second bound like men who had seen a thousand ghosts. + +We brought them to a halt by force, but take them on the whole, now +that they were in contact with us, they did not look so much frightened +as convinced. They had made up their minds that it was not written +that they should go any farther, and that was all about it. + +"Ermenie!" said Ibrahim. And when we laughed at that he stroked +his beard and vowed there were hundreds of Armenians ambushed by +the roadside half a mile ahead. The others corrected him, declaring +the enemy were thousands strong. + +Finally Monty rode forward with me to investigate. We passed between +the hillocks, and descended for another hundred yards along a gradually +sloping track, when our mules became aware of company. We could +see nobody, but their long ears twitched, and they began to make +preparations preliminary to braying recognition of their kin. + +Suddenly Monty detected movement among the myrtle bushes about fifty +yards from the road, and my mule confirmed his judgment by braying +like Satan at a side-show. The noise was answered instantly by a +chorus of neighs and brays from an unseen menagerie, whereat the +owners of the animals disclosed themselves--six men, all smiling, +and unarmed as far as we could tell--the very same six gipsies who +had pitched their tent in the midst of the khan yard at Tarsus. + +Then in a clearing at a little distance we saw women taking down +a long low black tent, and between us and them a considerable herd +of horses, mostly without halters but headed into a bunch by gipsy +children. Somebody on a gray stallion came loping down toward us, +leaping low bushes, riding erect with pluperfect hands and seat. + +"I've seen that stallion before!" said I. + +"And the girl on his back is looking for somebody who owns her heart!" +smiled Monty. "Hullo! Are you the lucky man?"' + +She reined the stallion in, and took a good, long look at us, shading +her eyes with her hand but showing dazzling white teeth between coral +lips. Suddenly the smile departed, and a look of sullen disappointment +settled on her face, as she wheeled the stallion with a swing of +her lithe body from the hips, and loped away. Never, apparently, +did two men make less impression on a maiden's heart. The six gipsies +stood staring at us foolishly, until one of them at last held his +hand up palm outward. We accepted that as a peace signal. + +"Are you waiting here for us?" Monty asked in English, and the oldest +of the six--a swarthy little man with rather bow legs--thought he +had been asked his name. + +"Gregor Jhaere," be answered. + +For some vague reason Monty tried him next in Arabic and then in +Hindustanee, but without result. At last he tried halting Turkish, +and the gipsy replied at once in German. As Monty used to get +two-pence or three-pence a day extra when he was in the British army, +for knowing something of that tongue, we stood at once on common ground. + +"Kagig told us to wait here and bring you to him," said Gregor Jhaere. + +"Where is Kagig?" Monty asked, and the man smiled blankly--much more +effectively than if he had shrugged his shoulders. + +"We obey Kagig at times," he said, as if that admission settled the +matter. Then there was interruption. Rustum Khan came spurring +down the road with his pistol holsters unbuttoned and his saber clattering +like a sutler's pots and pans, to see whether we needed help. He +had no sooner reined in beside us than I caught sight of Will, drawn +between curiosity and fear lest the muleteers might bolt, standing +in his stirrups to peer at us from the top of the track between the +hillocks. Somebody else caught sight of him too. + +There came a shrill about from over where the women were packing +up, and everybody turned to look, Gregor Jhaere included. As hard +as the gray stallion could take her in a bee line toward Will the +daughter of the dawn with flashing teeth and blazing eyes was riding +ventre a terre. + +"Maga!" Gregor shouted at her, and then some unintelligible gibberish. +But she took no more notice of him than if he had been a crow on +a branch. In a minute she was beside Will, talking to him, and from +over the top of the rise we could hear Fred shouting sarcastic +remonstrance. + +"She is bad!" Gregor announced in English. It seemed to be all the +English he knew. + +"Are you her father?" Monty asked, and Gregor answered in very +slipshod German: + +"She is the daughter of the devil. She shall be soundly thrashed! +The chalana!* And he a Gorgio!"** + +---------------- +* Chalana--She jockey (a compliment). +** Gorgio--Gentile (an insult). +---------------- + +Suddenly Fred began to shout for help then, and we rode back, the +gipsies following and Rustum Khan remaining on guard between them +and their camp with his upbrushed black beard bristling defiance +of Asia Minor. Our Turkish muleteers had decided to make a final +bolt for it, and were using their whips on the Zeitoonli, who clung +gamely to the reins. As soon as we got near enough to lend a hand +the Turks resigned themselves with a kind of opportune fatalism. +The Zeitoonli promptly turned the tables on them by laying hold of +a leg of each and tipping them off into the mud. Ibrahim showed +his teeth, and reached for a hidden weapon as he lay, but seemed +to think better of it. It looked very much as if those four Zeitoonli +knew in advance exactly what the interruption in our journey meant. + +Will was out of the running entirely, or else the rest of us were, +depending on which way one regarded it. He had eyes for nobody and +nothing but the girl, nor she for any one but him, and nobody could +rightfully blame either of them. Yankee though he is, Will sat his +mule in the western cowboy style, and he was wearing a cowboy hat +that set his youth off to perfection. She looked fit to flirt with +the lord of the underworld, answering his questions in a way that +would have made any fellow eager to ask more. Strangely enough, +Gregor Jhaere, presumably father of the girl appeared to have lost +his anger at her doings and turned his back. + +Fred, smiling mischief, started toward them to horn in, as Will would +have described it, but at that moment about a dozen of the gipsy +women came padding uproad, fostered watchfully by Rustum Khan, who +seemed convinced that murder was intended somehow, somewhere. They +brought along horses with them--very good horses--and Fred prefers +a horse trade to triangular flirtation on any day of any week. + +The gipsies promptly fell to and off-saddled our loads under Gregor +Jhaere's eye, transferring them to the meaner-looking among the beasts +the women had brought, taking great care to drop nothing in the mud. +And at a word from Gregor two of the oldest hags came to lift us +from our saddles one by one, and hold us suspended in mid-air while +the saddles were transferred to better mounts. But there is an indignity +in being held out of the mud by women that goes fiercely against +the white man's grain, and I kicked until they set me back in +the saddle. + +Monty solved the problem by riding to higher, clean ground near the +roadside, where we could stand on firm grass. + +Seeing us dismounted, the gipsies underwent a subtle mental change +peculiar to all barbarous people. To the gipsy and the cossack, +and all people mainly dependent on the horse, to be mounted is to +signify participation in affairs. To be dismounted means to stand +aside and "let George do it." + +Gregor Jhaere became a different man. He grew noisy and in response +to his yelped commands they swooped in unprovoked attack on our unhappy +muleteers. Before we could interfere they had thrown each Turk face +downward, our Zeitoonli helping, and were searching them with swift +intruding fingers for knives, pistols, money. + +The Turk leaves his money behind when starting on a journey at some +other man's expense; but they did draw forth a most astonishing +assortment of weapons. They were experts in disarmament. Maga Jhaere +lost interest in Will for a moment, and pricked her stallion to a +place where she could judge the assortment better. Without any hesitation +she ordered one of the old women to pass up to her a mother-o'-pearl +ornamented Smith & Wesson, which she promptly hid in her bosom. Judging +by the sounds he made, that pistol was the apple of Ibrahim's old +eye, but he had seen the last of it. When we interfered, and he +could get to her stirrup to demand it back, Maga spat in his face; +which was all about it, except that Monty made generous allowance +for the thing when paying the reckoning presently. As our servants, +those Turks were, of course, entitled to our protection, and besides +that weapon we had to pay for five knives that were gone beyond hope +of recovery. + +Monty paid our Turks off (for it was evident that even had they been +willing they would not have been allowed to proceed with us another +mile). Then, as Ibrahim mounted and marshaled his party in front of him, +he forgot manners as well as the liberal payment. + +"Mashallah!" (God be praised!) he shouted, with the slobber of excitement +on his lips and beard. "Now I go to make Armenians pay for this! +Let the shapkali,* too, avoid me! Ya Ali, ya Mahoma, Alahu!" (Oh, +Ali, oh, Mahomet, God is God!) + +--------------- +* Shapkali--hatted man-foreigner. +--------------- + +"Let's hope they haven't a spark of honesty!" said Monty cryptically, +watching them canter away. + +"Why on earth--?" + +"Let's hope they ride back to the consul and swear they haven't received +one piaster of their pay. That would let him know we're clear away!" + +"Optimist!" jeered Will. "That consul's a Britisher. He'd take +their lie literally, and deduce we're no good!" + +For the moment the girl on the gray stallion had ridden away from +Will and was giving regal orders to the mob of women and shrill children, +who obeyed her as if well used to it. Gregor Jhaere and his men +stood staring at us, Gregor shaking his head as if our letting the +Turks go free had been a bad stroke of policy. + +"Aren't you afraid to travel with all that mob of women and cattle?" +asked Monty. "We've heard of robbers on the road." + +"We are the robbers, effendi!" said Gregor with an air of modesty. +The others smirked, but he seemed disinclined to over-insist on the +gulf between us. + +"Hear him!" growled Rustum Khan. "A thief, who boasts of thieving +in the presence of sahibs! So is corruption, stinking in the sun!" + +He added something in another language that the gipsies understood, +for Gregor started as if stung and swore at him, and Maga Jhaere +left her women-folk to ride alongside and glare into his eyes. They +were enemies, those two, from that hour forward. He, once Hindu, +now Moslem, had no admiration whatever to begin with for unveiled +women. And, since the gipsy claims to come from India and may therefore +be justly judged by Indian standards, and has no caste, but is beneath +the very lees of caste, he loathed all gipsies with the prejudice +peculiar to men who have deserted caste in theory and in self-protection +claim themselves above it. It was a case of height despising deep +in either instance, she as sure of her superiority as he of his. + +There might have been immediate trouble if Monty had not taken his +new, restless, fresh horse by the mane and swung into the saddle. + +"Forward, Rustum Khan!" be ordered. "Ride ahead and let those keen +eyes of yours keep us out of traps!" + +The Rajput obeyed, but as he passed Will he checked his mare a moment, +and waiting until Will's blue eyes met his he raised a warning finger. + +"Kubadar, sahib!" + +Then he rode on, like a man who has done his duty. + +"What the devil does he mean?" demanded Will. + +"Kubadar means, 'Take care'!" said Monty. "Come on, what are we +waiting for?" + +That was the beginning, too, of Will's feud with the Rajput, neither +so remorseless nor so sudden as the woman's, because he had a different +code to guide him and also had to convince himself that a quarrel +with a man of color was compatible with Yankee dignity. We could +have wished them all three either friends, or else a thousand miles +apart two hundred times before the journey ended. + +As we rode forward with even our Zeitoonli mounted now on strong +mules, Maga Jhaere sat her stallion beside Will with an air of +owning him. She was likely a safer friend than enemy, and we did +nothing to interfere. Monty pressed forward. Fred and I fell to +the rear. + +"Haide!"* shouted Gregor Jhaere, and all the motley swarm of women +and children caught themselves mounts--some already loaded with the +gipsy baggage, some with saddles, some without, some with grass halters +for bridles. In another minute Fred and I were riding surrounded +by a smelly swarm of them, he with big fingers already on the keys +of his beloved concertina, but I less enamored than he of the company. + +----------------- +* Haide!--Turkish, "Come on!" +----------------- + +Women and children, loaded, loose and led horses were all mixed together +in unsortable confusion, the two oldest hags in the world trusting +themselves on sorry, lame nags between Fred and me as if proximity +to us would solve the very riddle of the gipsy race. And last of +all came a pack of great scrawny dogs that bayed behind us hungrily, +following for an hour until hope of plunder vanished. + +"That little she-devil who has taken a fancy to Will," said Fred +with a grin, "is capable of more atrocities than all the Turks between +here and Stamboul! She looks to me like Santanita, Cleopatra, Salome, +Caesar's wife, and all the Borgia ladies rolled in one. There's +something added, though, that they lacked." + +"Youth," said I. "Beauty. Athletic grace. Sinuous charm." + +"No, probably they all had all those." + +"Then horsemanship." + +"Perhaps. Didn't Cleopatra ride?" + +"Then what?" said I, puzzled. + +"Indiscretion!" he answered, jerking loose the catch of his infernal +instrument. + +"Don't be afraid, old ladies," he said, glancing at the harridans +between us. "I'm only going to sing!" + +He makes up nearly all of his songs, and some of them, although +irreverent, are not without peculiar merit; but that was one of +his worst ones. + +The preachers prate of fallen man +And choirs repeat the chant, +While unco' guid with unction urge +Repression of the joys that surge, +And jail for those who can't. +The poor deluded duds forget +That something drew the sting +When Adam tiptoed to his fall, +And made it hardly hurt at all. +Of Mother Eve I sing! + +CHORUS +Oh, Mother Eve, dear Mother Eve, +The generations come and go, +But daughter Eve's as live as you +Were back in Eden years ago! + +Oh, hell's not hell with Eve to tell +Again the ancient tale, +But Eden's grassy ways and bowers +Deprived of Eve to ease the hours +Would very soon grow stale! +Red cherry lips that leap to laugh, +And chic and flick and flair +Can make black white for any one-- +The task of Sisyphus good fun! +So what should Adam care! + +CHORUS +Oh, daughter Eve, dear daughter Eve, +The tribulations go and come, +But no adventure's ever tame +With you to make surprises hum! + + + + +Chapter Five +"Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning." + + +THE PATTERAN + +(I) + +Aye-yee--I see--a cloud afloat in air af amethyst +I know its racing shadow falls on banks of gold +Where rain-rejoicing gravel warms the feeding roots +And smells more wonderful than wine. +I know the shoots of myrtle and of asphodel now stir the mould +Where wee cool noses sniff the early mist. +Aye-yee--the sparkle of the little springs I see +That tinkle as they hunt the thirsty rill. +I know the cobwebs glitter with the jeweled dew. +I see a fleck of brown--it was a skylark flew +To scatter bursting music, and the world is still +To listen. Ah, my heart is bursting too--Aye-yee! + +Chorus: +(It begins with a swinging crash, and fades away.) + +Aye-yee, aye-yah--the kites see far +(But also to the foxes views unfold)-- +No hour alike, no places twice the same, +Nor any track to show where morning came, +Nor any footprint in the moistened mould +To tell who covered up the morning star. + Aye-yee--aye-yah! + + +(2) +Aye-yee--I see--new rushes crowding upwards in the mere +Where, gold and white, the wild duck preens himself +Safe hidden till the sun-drawn, lingering mists melt. +I know the secret den where bruin dwelt. +I see him now sun-basking on a shelf +Of windy rock. He looks down on the deer, +Who flit like flowing light from rock to tree +And stand with ears alert before they drink. +I know a pool of purple rimmed with white +Where wild-fowl, warming for the morning flight, +Wait clustering and crying on the brink. +And I know hillsides where the partridge breeds. Aye-yee! + +Chorus: +Aye-yee, aye-yah--the kites see far +(But also to the owls the visions change)-- +No dawn is like the next, and nothing sings +Of sameness--very hours have wings +And leave no word of whose hand touched the range +Of Kara Dagh with opal and with cinnabar. + Aye-yee, aye-yah! + +(3) +Aye-yee--I see--new distances beyond a blue horizon flung. +I laugh, because the people under roofs believe +That last year's ways are this! +No roads are old! New grass has grown! +All pools and rivers hold New water! +And the feathered singers weave +New nests, forgetting where the old ones hung! +Aye-yah--the muddy highway sticks and clings, +But I see in the open pastures new +Unknown to busne* in the houses pent! +I hear the new, warm raindrops drumming on the tent, +I feel already on my feet delicious dew, +I see the trail outflung! And oh, my heart has wings! + + +Chorus: +Aye-yee, aye-yah--the kites see far +(But also on the road the visions pass)-- +The universe reflected in a wayside pool, +A tinkling symphony where seeping waters drool, +The dance, more gay than laughter, of the wind-swept grass-- +Oh, onward! On to where the visions are! + Aye-yee--aye-yah! + +--------------------- +* Busne--Gipsy word--Gentile, or non-gipsy. +--------------------- + + +Russia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Bohemia, Persia, Armenia were all one +hunting-ground to the troupe we rode with. Even the children seemed +to have a smattering of most of the tongues men speak in those intriguing +lands. Will and the girl beside him conversed in German, but the +old hag nearest me would not confess acquaintance with any language +I knew. Again and again I tried her, but she always shook her head. + +Fred, with his ready gift of tongues, attempted conversation with +ten or a dozen of them, but whichever language he used in turn appeared +to be the only one which that particular individual did not know. +All he got in reply was grins, and awkward silence, and shrugs of +the shoulders in Gregor's direction, implying that the head of the +firm did the talking with strangers. But Gregor rode alone with +Monty, out of ear-shot. + +Maga (for so they all called her) flirted with Will outrageously, +if that is flirting that proclaims conquest from the start, and sets +flashing white teeth in defiance of all intruders. Even the little +children had hidden weapons, but Maga was better armed than any one, +and she thrust the new mother-o-pearl-plated acquisition in the face +of one of the men who dared drive his horse between hers and Will's. +That not serving more than to amuse him, she slapped him three times +back-handed across the face, and thrusting the pistol back into her +bosom, drew a knife. He seemed in no doubt of her willingness to +use the steel, and backed his horse away, followed by language from +her like forked lightning that disturbed him more than the threatening +weapon. Gipsies are great believers in the efficiency of a curse. + +Nothing could be further from the mark than to say that Will tried +to take advantage of Maga's youth and savagery. Fred and I had shared +a dozen lively adventures with him without more than beginning yet +to plumb the depths of his respect for Woman. Only an American in +all the world knows how to meet Young Woman eye to eye with totally +unpatronizing frankness, and he was without guile in the matter. +But not so she. We did not know whether or not she was Gregor Jhaere's +daughter; whether or not she was truly the gipsy that she hardly +seemed. But she was certainly daughter of the Near East that does +not understand a state of peace between the sexes. There was nothing +lawful in her attitude, nor as much as the suspicion that Will might +be merely chivalrous. + +"America's due for sex-enlightenment!" said I. + +"Warn him if you like," Fred laughed, "and then steer clear! Our +America is proud besides imprudent!" + +Fred off-shouldered all responsibility and forestalled anxiety on +any one's account by playing tunes, stampeding the whole cavalcade +more than once because the horses were unused to his clanging concertina, +but producing such high spirits that it became a joke to have to +dismount in the mud and replace the load on some mule who had expressed +enjoyment of the tune by rolling in slime, or by trying to kick clouds +out of the sky. + +And strangely enough he brought about the very last thing he intended +with his music--stopped the flirtation's immediate progress. Maga +seemed to take to Fred's unchastened harmony with all the wildness +that possessed her. Some chord he struck, or likelier, some abandoned +succession of them touched off her magazine of poetry. And so she sang. + +The only infinitely gorgeous songs I ever listened to were Maga's. +Almighty God, who made them, only really knows what country the gipsies +originally came from, but there is not a land that has not felt their +feet, nor a sorrow they have not witnessed. Away back in the womb +of time there was planted in them a rare gift of seeing what the +rest of us can only sometimes hear, and of hearing what only very +few from the world that lives in houses can do more than vaguely +feel when at the peak of high emotion. The gipsies do not understand +what they see, and hear, and feel; but they are aware of infinities +too intimate for ordinary speech. And it was given to Maga to sing +of all that, with a voice tuned like a waterfall's for open sky, +and trees, and distances--not very loud, but far-carrying, and flattened +in quarter-tones where it touched the infinite. + +Fred very soon ceased from braying with his bellowed instrument. +Her songs were too wild for accompaniment--interminable stanzas of +unequal length, with a refrain at the end of each that rose through +a thousand emotions to a crash of ecstasy, and then died away to +dreaminess, coming to an end on an unfinished rising scale. + +All the gipsies and our Zeitoonli and Rustum Khan's lean servant +joined in the refrains, so that we trotted along under the snow-tipped +fangs of the Kara Dagh oblivious of the passage of time, but very +keenly conscious of touch with a realm of life whose existence hitherto +we had only vaguely guessed at. + +The animals refused to weary while that singing testified of tireless +harmonies, as fresh yet as on the day when the worlds were born. +We rattled forward, on and upward, as if the panorama were unrolling +and we were the static point, getting out of nobody's way for the +best reason in the world--that everybody hid at first sight or sound +of us, except when we passed near villages, and then the great +fierce-fanged curs chased and bayed behind us in short-winded fury. + +"The dogs bark," quoted Fred serenely, "but the caravan moves on!" + +An hour before dark we swung round a long irregular spur of the hills +that made a wide bend in the road, and halted at a lonely kahveh +--a wind-swept ruin of a place, the wall of whose upper story was +patched with ancient sacking, but whose owner came out and smiled +so warmly on us that we overlooked the inhospitable frown of his +unplastered walls, hoping that his smile and the profundity of his +salaams might prove prophetic of comfort and cleanliness within. +Vain hope! + +Maga left Will's side then, for there was iron-embedded custom to +be observed about this matter of entering a road-house. In that +land superstition governs just as fiercely as the rest those who +make mock of the rule-of-rod religions, and there is no man or woman +free to behave as be or she sees fit. Every one drew aside from +Monty, and he strode in alone through the split-and-mended door, +we following next, and the gipsies with their animals clattered noisily +behind us. The women entered last, behind the last loaded mule, +and Maga the very last of all, because she was the most beautiful, +and beauty might bring in the devil with it only that the devil is +too proud to dawdle behind the old hags and the horses. + +We found ourselves in an oblong room, with stalls and a sort of pound +for animals at one end and an enormous raised stone fireplace at +the other. Wooden platforms for the use of guests faced each other +down the two long sides, and the only promise of better than usual +comfort lay in the piles of firewood waiting for whoever felt rich +and generous enough to foot the bill for a quantity. + +But an agreeable surprise made us feel at home before ever the fire +leaped up to warm the creases out of saddle-weary limbs. We had +given up thinking of Kagig, not that we despaired of him, but the +gipsies, and especially Maga, had replaced his romantic interest +for the moment with their own. Now all the man's own exciting claim +on the imagination returned in full flood, as he arose leisurely +from a pile of skins and blankets near the hearth to greet Monty, +and shouted with the manner of a chieftain for fuel to be piled on +instantly--"For a great man comes!" he announced to the rafters. +And the kahveh servants, seven sons of the owner of the place, were +swift and abject in the matter of obeisance. They were Turks. All +Turks are demonstrative in adoration of whoever is reputed great. +Monty ignored them, and Kagig came down the length of the room to +offer him a hand on terms of blunt equality. + +"Lord Montdidier," he said, mispronouncing the word astonishingly, +"this is the furthest limit of my kingdom yet. Kindly be welcome!" + +"Your kingdom?" said Monty, shaking hands, but not quite accepting +the position of blood-equal. He was bigger and better looking than +Kagig, and there was no mistaking which was the abler man, even at +that first comparison, with Kagig intentionally making the most of +a dramatic situation. + +Kagig laughed, not the least nervously. + +"Mirza," he said in Persian, "duzd ne giriftah padshah ast!" (Prince, +the uncaught thief is king.) + +He was wearing a kalpak--the head-gear of the cossack, which would +make a high priest look outlawed, and a shaggy goat-skin coat that +had seen more than one campaign. Unmistakably the garment had been +slit by bullets, and repaired by fingers more enthusiastic than adept. +There was a pride of poverty about him that did not gibe well with +his boast of being a robber. + +"That's the first gink we've met in this land who didn't claim to +be something better than he looked!" Will whispered. + +"Hopeless, I suppose!" Fred answered. "Never mind. I like the man." + +It was evident that Monty liked him, too, for all his schooled reserve. +Kagig ordered one of the owner's sons to sweep a place near the fire, +and there he superintended the spreading of Monty's blankets, close +enough to his own assorted heap for conversation without mutual offense. +Will cleaned for himself a section of the opposite end of the platform, +and Fred and I spread our blankets next to his. That left Rustum +Khan in a quandary. He stood irresolute for a minute, eying first +the gipsies, who had stalled most of their animals and were beginning +to occupy the platform on the other side; then considering the wide +gap between me and Monty. The dark-skinned man of breeding is far +more bitterly conscious of the color-line than any white knows how to be. + +We watched, disinclined to do the choosing for him, racial instinct +uppermost. Rustum Khan strolled back to where his mare was being +cleaned by the lean Armenian servant, gave the boy a few curt orders, +and there among the shadows made his mind up. He returned and stood +before Monty, Kagig eying him with something less than amiability. +He pointed toward the ample room remaining between Monty and me. + +"Will the sahib permit? My izzat (honor) is in question." + +"Izzat be damned!" Monty answered. + +Rustum Khan colored darkly. + +"I shared a tent with you once on campaign, sahib, in the days before +--the good days before--those old days when--" + +"When you and I served one Raj, eh? I remember," Monty answered. +"I remember it was your tent, Rustum Khan. Unless memory plays tricks +with me, the Orakzai Pathans had burned mine, and I had my choice +between sharing yours or sleeping in the rain." + +"Truly, huzoor." + +"I don't recollect that I mouthed very much about honor on that occasion. +If anybody's honor was in question then, I fancy it was yours. I +might have inconvenienced myself, and dishonored you, I suppose, +by sleeping in the wet. You can dishonor the lot of us now, if you +care to, by--oh, tommyrot! Tell your man to put your blankets in +the only empty place, and behave like a man of sense!" + +"But, huzoor--" + +Monty dismissed the subject with a motion of his hand, and turned +to talk with Kagig, who shouted for yoghourt to be brought at once; +and that set the sons of the owner of the place to hurrying in great +style. The owner himself was a true Turk. He had subsided into +a state of kaif already over on the far side of the fire, day-dreaming +about only Allah knew what rhapsodies. But the Turks intermarry +with the subject races much more thoroughly than they do anything +else, and his sons did not resemble him. They were active young +men, rather noisy in their robust desire to be of use. + +The gipsies, with Gregor Jhaere nearest to the owner of the kahveh +and the fireplace, occupied the whole long platform on the other +side, each with his women around him--except that I noticed that +Maga avoided all the men, and made herself a blanket nest in deep +shadow almost within reach of a mule's heels at the far end. I believed +at the moment that she chose that position so as to be near to Will, +but changed my mind later. Several times Gregor shouted for her, +and she made no answer. + +The place had no other occupants. Either we were the only travelers +on that road that night or, as seemed more likely, Kagig had exercised +authority and purged the kahveh of other guests. Certainly our coming +had been expected, for there was very good yoghourt in ample quantity, +and other food besides--meat, bread, cheese, vegetables. + +When we had all eaten, and lay back against the stone wall looking +at the fire, with great fanged shadows dancing up and down that made +the scene one of almost perfect savagery, Gregor called again for +Maga. Again she did not answer him. So be rose from his place and +reached for a rawhide whip. + +"I said she shall be thrashed!" be snarled in Turkish, and he made +the whip crack three times like sudden pistol-shots. Will did not +catch the words, and might not have understood them in any case, +but Rustum Khan, beside me, both heard and understood. + +"Atcha!" he grunted. "Now we shall see a kind of happenings. That +girl is not a true gipsy, or else my eyes lie to me. They stole +her, or adopted her. She lacks their instincts. The gitanas, as +they call their girls, are expected to have aversion to white men. +They are allowed to lure a white man to his ruin, but not to make +hot love to him. She has offended against the gipsy law. The attaman* +must punish. Watch the women. They take it all as a matter of course." + +---------------- +*Attaman, gipsy headman. +---------------- + +"Maga!" thundered Gregor Jhaere, cracking the great whip again. +I thought that Kagig looked a trifle restless, but nobody else went +so far as to exhibit interest, except that the old Turk by the fire +emerged far enough out of kaif to open one eye, like a sly cat's. + +The attaman shouted again, and this time Maga mocked him. So he +strode down the room in a rage to enforce his authority, and dragged +her out of the shadow by an arm, sending her whirling to the center +of the floor. She did not lose her feet, but spun and came to a +stand, and waited, proud as Satanita while he drew the whip slowly +back with studied cruelty. The old Turk opened both eyes. + +Nothing is more certain than that none of us would have permitted +the girl to be thrashed. I doubt if even Rustum Khan, no admirer +of gipsies or unveiled women, would have tolerated one blow. But +Will was nearest, and he is most amazing quick when his nervous New +England temper is aroused. He had the whip out of Gregor's hand, +and stood on guard between him and the girl before one of us had +time to move. The old Turk closed his eyes again, and sighed resignedly. + +"Our preux chevalier--preux but damned imprudent!" murmured Fred. +"Let's hope there's a gipsy here with guts enough to fight for title +to the girl. It looks to me as if Will has claimed her by patteran* +law. The only man with right to say whether or not a woman shall +be thrashed is her owner. Once that right is established--" + +--------------- +* Patteran, a gipsy word: trail. +--------------- + +"Touch her and I'll break your neck!" warned Will, without undue +emotion, but truthfully beyond a shadow of a doubt. + +The gipsy stood still, simmering, and taking the measure of the capable +American muscles interposed between him and his legal prey. Every +gipsy eye in the room was on him, and it was perfectly obvious that +whatever the eventual solution of the impasse, the one thing he could +not do was retreat. We were fewer in number, but much better armed +than the gipsy party, so that it was unlikely they would rally to +their man's aid. Kagig was an unknown quantity, but except that +his black eyes glittered rather more brightly than usual he made +no sign; and we kept quiet because we did not want to start a +free-for-all fight. Will was quite able to take care of any single +opponent, and would have resented aid. + +Suddenly, however, Gregor Jhaere reached inside his shirt. Maga +screamed. Rustum Khan beside me swore a rumbling Rajput oath, and +we all four leapt to our feet. Maga drew no weapon, although she +certainly had both dagger and pistol handy. Instead, she glanced +toward Kagig, who, strangely enough, was lolling on his blankets +as if nothing in the world could interest him less. The glance took +as swift effect as an electric spark that fires a mine. He stiffened +instantly. + +"Yok!" he shouted, and at once there ceased to be even a symptom +of impending trouble. Yok means merely no in Turkish, but it conveyed +enough to Gregor to send him back to his place between his women +and the Turk unashamedly obedient, leaving Maga standing beside Will. +Maga did not glance again at Kagig, for I watched intently. There +was simply no understanding the relationship, although Fred affected +his usual all-comprehensive wisdom. + +"Another claimant to the title!" he said. "A fight between Will +and Kagig for that woman ought to be amusing, if only Will weren't +a friend of mine. Watch America challenge him!" + +But Will did nothing of the kind. He smiled at Maga, offered her +a cigarette, which she refused, and returned to his place beyond +Fred, leaving her standing there, as lovely in the glowing firelight +as the spirit of bygone romance. At that Kagig shouted suddenly +for fuel, and three of the Turk's seven hoydens ran to heap it on. + +Instantly the leaping flames transformed the great, uncomfortable, +draughty barn into a hall of gorgeous color and shadows without limit. +There was no other illumination, except for the glow here and there +of pipes and cigarettes, or matches flaring for a moment. Barring +the tobacco, we lay like a baron's men-at-arms in Europe of the Middle +Ages, with a captive woman to make sport with in the midst, only +rather too self-reliant for the picture. + +Feeling himself warm, and rested, and full enough of food, Fred flung +a cigarette away and reached for his inseparable concertina. And +with his eyes on the great smoked beams that now glowed gold and +crimson in the firelight, he grew inspired and made his nearest to +sweet rnusic. It was perfectly in place--simple as the savagery +that framed us--Fred's way of saying grace for shelter, and adventure, +and a meal. He passed from Annie Laurie to Suwannee River, and all +but made Will cry. + +During two-three-four tunes Maga stood motionless in the midst of +us, hands on her hips, with the fire-light playing on her face, until +at last Fred changed the nature of the music and seemed to be trying +to recall fragments of the song she had sung that afternoon. Presently +he came close to achievement, playing a few bars over and over, and +leading on from those into improvization near enough to the real +thing to be quite recognizable. + +Music is the sure key to the gipsy heart, and Fred unlocked it. +The men and women, and the little sleepy children on the long wooden +platform opposite began to sway and swing in rhythm. Fred divined +what was coming, and played louder, wilder, lawlessly. And Maga +did an astonishing thing. She sat down on the floor and pulled her +shoes and stockings off, as unselfconsciously as if she were alone. + +Then Fred began the tune again from the beginning, and he had it +at his finger-ends by then. He made the rafters ring. And without +a word Maga kicked the shoes and stockings into a corner, flung her +outer, woolen upper-garment after them, and began to dance. + +There is a time when any of us does his best. Money--marriage--praise +--applause (which is totally another thing than praise, and more +like whisky in its workings)--ambition--prayer--there is a key to +the heart of each of us that can unlock the flood-tides of emotion +and carry us nolens volens to the peaks of possibility. Either Will, +or else Fred's music, or the setting, or all three unlocked her gifts +that night. She danced like a moth in a flame--a wandering woman +in the fire unquenchable that burns convention out of gipsy hearts, +and makes the patteran--the trail--the only way worth while. + +Opposite, the gipsies sprawled in silence on their platform, breathing +a little deeper when deepest approval stirred them, a little more +quickly when her Muse took hold of Maga and thrilled her to expression +of the thoughts unknown to people of the dinning walls and streets. + +We four leaned back against our wall in a sort of silent revelry, +Fred alone moving, making his beloved instrument charm wisely, calling +to her just enough to keep a link, as it were, through which her +imagery might appeal to ours. Some sort of mental bridge between +her tameless paganism and our twentieth-century twilight there had +to be, or we never could have sensed her meaning. The concertina's +wailings, mid-way between her intelligence and ours, served well enough. + +My own chief feeling was of exultation, crowing over the hooded +city-folk, who think that drama and the tricks of colored light and +shade have led them to a glimpse of the hem of the garment of Unrest +--a cheap mean feeling, of which I was afterward ashamed. + +Maga was not crowing over anybody. Neither did she only dance of +things her senses knew. The history of a people seized her for a +reed, and wrote itself in figures past imagining between the crimson +firelight; and the shadows of the cattle stalls. + +Her dance that night could never have been done with leather between +bare foot and earth. It told of measureless winds and waters--of +the distances, the stars, the day, the night-rain sweeping down--dew +dropping gently--the hundred kinds of birds-the thousand animals +and creeping things--and of man, who is lord of all of them, and +woman, who is lord of man--man setting naked foot on naked earth +and glorying with the thrill of life, new, good, and wonderful. + +One of the Turk's seven sons produced a saz toward the end--a little +Turkish drum, and accompanied with swift, staccato stabs of sound +that spurred her like the goads of overtaking time toward the peak +of full expression--faster and faster--wilder and wilder--freer and +freer of all limits, until suddenly she left the thing unfinished, +and the drum-taps died away alone. + +That was art--plain art. No human woman could have finished it. +It was innate abhorrence of the anticlimax that sent her, having +looked into the eyes of the unattainable, to lie sobbing for short +breath in her corner in the dark, leaving us to imagine the ending +if we could. + +And instead of anticlimax second climax came. Almost before the +echoes of the drum-taps died among the dancing shadows overhead a +voice cried from the roof in Armenian, and Kagig rose to his feet. + +"Let us climb to the roof and see, effendim," he said, pulling on +his tattered goat-skin coat. + +"See what, Ermenie?" demanded Rustum Khan. The Rajput's eyes were +still ablaze with pagan flame, from watching Maga. + +"To see whether thou hast manhood behind that swagger!" answered +Kagig, and led the way. No man ever yet explained the racial aversions. + +"Kopek!--dog, thou!" growled the Rajput, but Kagig took no notice +and led on, followed by Monty and the rest of us. Maga and the gipsies +came last, swarming behind us up the ladder through a hole among +the beams, and clambering on to the roof over boxes piled in the +draughty attic. Up under the stars a man was standing with an arm +stretched out toward Tarsus. + +"Look!" he said simply. + +To the westward was a crimson glow that mushroomed angrily against +the sky, throbbing and swelling with hot life like the vomit of a +crater. We watched in silence for three minutes, until one of the +gipsy women began to moan. + +"What do you suppose it is?" I asked then. + +"I know what it is," said Kagig simply. + +"Tell then." + +"'Effendi, that is the heart of Armenia burning. Those are the homes +of my nation--of my kin!" + +"And good God, where d'you suppose Miss Vanderman is?" Fred exclaimed. + +Will was standing beside Maga, looking into her eyes as if he hoped +to read in them the riddle of Armenia. + + + + +Chapter Six +"Passing the buck to Allah!" + + +LAUS LACHRIMABILIS + +So now the awaited ripe reward - +Your cactus crown! Since I have urged +"Get ready for the untoward" +Ye bid me reap the wrath I dirged; +And I must show the darkened way, +Who beckoned vainly in the light! +I'll lead. But salt of Dead Sea spray +Were sweeter on my lips to-night! + +Oh, days of aching sinews, when I trod the choking dust +With feet afire that could not tire, atremble with the trust +More mighty in my inner man than fear of men without, +The word I heard on Kara Dagh and did not dare to doubt - +Timely warning, clear to me as starlight after rain +When, sleepless on eternal hills, I saw the purpose plain +And left, swift-foot at dawn, obedient, to break +The news ye said was no avail--advice ye would not take! + +Oh,--nights of tireless talking by the hearth of hidden fires-- +On roofs, behind the trade-bales--among oxen in the byres-- +Out in rain between the godowns, where the splashing puddles warn +Of tiptoeing informers; when I faced the freezing dawn +With set price on my head, but still the set resolve untamed, +Not melted by the mockery, by no suspicion shamed, +To hide by day in holes, abiding dark and wind and rain +That loosed me straining to the task ye ridiculed again! + +Oh, weeks of empty waiting, while the enemy designed +In detail how to loot the stuff ye would not leave behind! +Worse weeks of empty agony when, helpless and alone, +I watched in hiding for the crops from that seed I had sown; + +For dust-clouds that should prove at last Armenia awake-- +A nation up and coming! I had labored for your sake, +I had hungered, I had suffered. Ye had well rewarded then +If ye had come, and hanged me just to prove that ye were men! + +But all the pride was promises, the criticism jeers; +Ye had no heart for sacrifice, and I no time for tears. +I offered--nay, I gave! I squandered body and breath and soul, +I bared the need, I showed the way, I preached a goodly goal, +I urged you choose a leader, since your faith in me was dim, +I swore to serve the chief ye chose, and teach my lore to him, +So he should reap where I had sown. And yet ye bade me wait-- +And waited till, awake at last, ye bid me lead too late! + +And so, in place of ripe reward, +Your cactus crown! And I, who urged +"Get ready for the untoward" +Must drink the dregs of wrath I dirged! +Ye bid me set time's finger back! +And stage anew the opened fight! +I'll lead. But slime of Dead Sea wrack +Were sweeter on my lips this night! + + +The first thought that occurred to each of us four was that Kagig +had probably lied, or that he had merely voiced his private opinion, +based on expectation. The glare in the distance seemed too big and +solid to be caused by burning houses, even supposing a whole village +were in flames. Yet there was not any other explanation we could +offer. A distant cloud of black smoke with bulging red under-belly +rolled away through the darkness like a tremendous mountain range. + +We stood in silence trying to judge how far away the thing might +be, Kagig standing alone with his foot on the parapet, his goat-skin +coat hanging like a hussar's dolman, and Monty pacing up and down +along the roof behind us all. The gipsies seemed able to converse +by nods and nudges, with now and then one word whispered. After +a little while Maga whispered in Will's ear, and he went below with +her. All the gipsies promptly followed. Otherwise in the darkness +we might not have noticed where Will went. + +"That proves she is no gipsy!" vowed Rustum Khan, standing between +Fred and me. "They, would have trusted one of their own kind." + +"They call her Maga Jhaere," said I. "The attaman's name is Jhaere. +Don't you suppose he's her father?" + +"If he were her father he would have no fear," the Rajput answered. +"All gipsies are alike. Their women will dance the nautch, and promise +unchastity as if that were a little matter. But when it comes to +performance of promises the gitana* is true to the Rom.** It is +because she is no gipsy that they follow her now to watch. And it +is because men say that Americans are Mormons and polygamous, and +very swift in the use of revolvers, that all follow instead of one +or two!" + +-------------- +* Gitana, gipsy young woman. +** Rom--Gipsy husband, or family man. +-------------- + +"Go down then, and make sure they don't murder him!" commanded Monty, +and Rustum Khan turned to obey with rather ill grace. He contrived +to convey by his manner that he would do anything for Monty, even +to the extent of saving the life of a man he disliked. At the moment +when he turned there came the sound of a troop of horses galloping +toward us. + +"I will first see who comes," he said. + +"The blood of Yerkes sahib on your head, Rustum Khan!" Monty answered. +At that he went below. + +But neither were we destined to remain up there very long. We heard +colossal thumping in the kahveh beneath us and presently the Rajput's +head reappeared through the opening in the roof. + +"The fools are barricading the door," he shouted. "They make sure +that an enemy outside could burn us inside without hindrance!" + +At that Kagig came along the roof to our corner and looked into Monty's +eyes. Fred and I stood between the two of them and the parapet, +because for the first few seconds we were not sure the Armenian did +not mean murder. His eyes glittered, and his teeth gleamed. It +was not possible to guess whether or not the hand under his goat-skin +coat clutched a weapon. + +"It is now that you Eenglis sportmen shall endure a test!" he remarked. + +Exactly as in the Yeni Khan in Tarsus when we first met him there +was a moment now of intense repulsion, entirely unaccountable, succeeded +instantly by a wave of sympathy. I laughed aloud, remembering how +strange dogs meeting in the street to smell each other are swept +by unexplainable antipathies and equally swift comradeship. He thought +I laughed at him. + +"Neye geldin?" he growled in Turkish. "Wherefore didst thou come? +To cackle like a barren hen that sees another laying? Nichevo," +he added, turning his back on me. And that was insolence in Russian, +meaning that nobody and nothing could possibly be of less importance. +He seemed to keep a separate language for each set of thoughts. +"Let us go below. Let us stop these fools from making too much trouble," +he added in English. "One man ought to stay on the roof. One ought +to be sufficient." + +Since he had said I did not matter, I remained, and it was therefore +I who shouted down a challenge presently in round English at a party +who clattered to the door on blown horses, and thundered on it as +if they had been shatirs* hurrying to herald the arrival of the sultan +himself. There was nothing furtive about their address to the decrepit +door, nor anything meek. Accordingly I couched the challenge in +terms of unmistakable affront, repeating it at intervals until the +leader of the new arrivals chose to identify himself. + +----------------- +* Shatir, the man who runs before a personage's horse. +----------------- + +"I am Hans von Quedlinburg!" he shouted. But I did not remember +the name. + +"Only a thief would come riding in such a hurry through the night!" +said I. "Who is with you?" + +Another voice shouted very fast and furiously in Turkish, but I could +not make head or tail of the words. Then the German resumed the +song and dance. + +"Are you the party who talked with me at my construction camp?" + +"We talk most of the time. We eat food. We whistle. We drink. +We laugh!" said I. + +"Because I think you are the people I am seeking. These are Turkish +officials with me. I have authority to modify their orders, only +let me in!" + +"How many of you?" I asked. I was leaning over at risk of my life, +for any fool could have seen my head to shoot at it against the luminous +dark sky; but I could not see to count them. + +"Never mind how many! Let us in! I am Hans von Quedlinburg. My +name is sufficient." + +So I lied, emphatically and in thoughtful detail. + +"You are covered," I said, "by five rifles from this roof. If you +don't believe it, try something. You'd better wait there while I +wake my chief." + +"Only be quick!" said the German, and I saw him light a cigarette, +whether to convince me he felt confident or because he did feel so +I could not say. I went below, and found Monty and Kagig standing +together close to the outer door. They had not heard the whole of +the conversation because of the noise the owner's sons had made removing, +at their orders, the obstructions they had piled against the door +in their first panic. Every one else had returned to the sleeping +platforms, except the Turkish owner, who looked awake at last, and +was hovering here and there in ecstasies of nervousness. + +I repeated what the German had said, rather expecting that Kagig +at any rate would counsel defiance. It was he, however, who beckoned +the Turk and bade him open the door. + +"But, effendi--" + +"Chabuk! Quickly, I said!" + +"Che arz kunam?" the Turk answered meekly, meaning "What petition +shall I make?" the inference being that all was in the hands of Allah. + +"Of ten men nine are women!" sneered Kagig irritably, and led the +way to our place beside the fire. The Turk fumbled interminably +with the door fastenings, and we were comfortably settled in our +places before the new arrivals rode in, bringing a blast of cold +air with them that set the smoke billowing about the room and made +every man draw up his blankets. + +"Shut that door behind them!" thundered Kagig. "If they come too +slowly, shut the laggards out!" + +"Who is this who is arrogant?" the German demanded in English. + +He was a fine-looking man, dressed in civilian clothes cut as nearly +to the military pattern as the tailor could contrive without transgressing +law, but with a too small fez perched on his capable-looking head +in the manner of the Prussian who would like to make the Turks believe +he loves them. Rustum Khan cursed with keen attention to detail +at sight of him. The man who had entered with him became busy in +the shadows trying to find room to stall their horses, but Von Quedlinburg +gave his reins to an attendant, and stood alone, akimbo, with the +firelight displaying him in half relief. + +"I am a man who knows, among other things, the name of him who bribed +the kaimakam.* on Chakallu," Kagig answered slowly, also in English. + +--------------- +* Kaimakam, headman (Turkish). +--------------- + +The German laughed. + +"Then you know without further argument that I am not to be denied!" +he answered. "What I say to-night the government officials will +confirm to-morrow! Are you Kagig, whom they call the Eye of Zeitoon?" + +"I am no jackal," said Kagig dryly, punning on the name Chakallu, +which means "place of jackals." + +The German coughed, set one foot forward, and folded both arms on +his breast. He looked capable and bold in that attitude, and knew +it. I knew at last who he was, and wondered why I had not recognized +him sooner--the contractor who had questioned us near the railway +encampment along the way, and had offered us directions; but his +manner was as different now from then as a bully's in and out of +school. Then he had sought to placate, and had almost cringed to +Monty. Everything about him now proclaimed the ungloved upper hand. + +His party, finding no room to stall their horses, had begun to turn +ours loose, and there was uproar along the gipsy side of the room--no +action yet, but a threatening snarl that promised plenty of it. +Will was half on his feet to interfere, but Monty signed to him to +keep cool; and it was Monty's aggravatingly well-modulated voice +that laid the law down. + +"Will you be good enough," be asked blandly, "to call off your men +from meddling with our mounts?" He could not be properly said to +drawl, because there was a positive subacid crispness in his voice +that not even a Prussian or a Turk on a dark night could have +over-looked. + +The German laughed again. + +"Perhaps you did not hear my name," he said. "I am Hans von Quedlinburg. +As over-contractor on the Baghdad railway I have the privilege of +prior accommodation at all road-houses in this province--for myself +and my attendants. And in addition there are with me certain Turkish +officers, whose rights I dare say you will not dispute." + +Monty did not laugh, although Fred was chuckling in confident enjoyment +of the situation. + +"You need a lesson in manners," said Monty. + +"What do you mean?" demanded Hans von Quedlinburg. + +Monty rose to his feet without a single unnecessary motion. + +"I mean that unless you call off your men--at once this minute from +interfering with our animals I shall give you the lesson you need." + +The German saluted in mock respect. Then he patted his breast-pocket +so as to show the outline of a large repeating pistol. Monty took +two steps forward. The German drew the pistol with an oath. Will +Yerkes, beyond Fred and slightly behind the German, coughed meaningly. +The German turned his head, to find that he was covered by a pistol +as large as his own. + +"Oh, very well," he said, "what is the use of making a scene?" He +thrust his pistol back under cover and shouted an order in Turkish. +Monty returned to his place and sat down. The newcomers at the rear +of the room tied their horses together by the bridles, and Hans von +Quedlinburg resumed his well-fed smile. + +"Let it be clearly understood," he said, "that you have interfered +with official privilege." + +"As long as you do your best in the way of manners you may go on +with your errand," said Monty. + +Suddenly Fred laughed aloud. + +"The martyred biped!" he yelped. + +He was right. Peter Measel, missionary on his own account, and sometime +keeper of most libelous accounts, stepped out from the shadows and +essayed to warm himself, walking past the German with a sort of mincing +gait not calculated to assert his manliness. Hans von Quedlinburg +stretched out a strong arm and hurled him back again into the darkness +at the rear. + +"Tchuk-tchuk! Zuruck!" he muttered. + +It clearly disconcerted him to have his inferiors in rank assert +themselves. That accounted, no doubt, for the meek self-effacement +of the Turks who had come with him. Peter Measel did not appear +to mind being rebuked. He crossed to the other side of the room, +and proceeded to look the gipsies over with the air of a learned +ethnologist. + +"You speak of my errand," said Hans von Quedlinburg, "as if you imagine +I come seeking favors. I am here incidentally to rescue you and +your party from the clutches of an outlaw. The Turkish officials +who are with me have authority to arrest everybody in this place, +yourselves included. Fortunately I am able to modify that. Kagig +--that rascal beside you--is a well-known agitator. He is a criminal. +His arrest and trial have been ordered on the charge, among other +things, of stirring up discontent among the Armenian laborers on +the railway work. These gipsies are all his agents. They are all +under arrest. You yourselves will be escorted to safety at the coast." + +"Why should we need an escort to safety?" Monty demanded. + +"Were you on the roof?" the German answered. "And is it possible +you did not see the conflagration? An Armenian insurrection has +been nipped in the bud. Several villages are burning. The other +inhabitants are very much incensed, and all foreigners are in danger +--yourselves especially, since you have seen fit to travel in company +with such a person as Kagig." + +"What has Peter Measel got to do with it?" demanded Fred. "Has he +been writing down all our sins in a new book?" + +"He will identify you. He will also identify Kagig's agents. He +brings a personal charge against a man named Rustum Khan, who must +return to Tarsus to answer it. The charge is robbery with violence." + +Rustum Khan snorted. + +"The violence was only too gentle, and too soon ended. As for robbery, +if I have robbed him of a little self-conceit, I will answer to God +for that when my hour shall come! How is it your affair to drag +that whimpering fool through Asia at your tail--you a German and +he English?" + +The German had a hot answer ready for that, but the Turks had discovered +Maga Jhaere in hiding in the shadows between two old women. She +screamed as they tried to drag her forth, and the scream brought +us all to our feet. But this time it was Kagig who was swiftest, +and we got our first proof of the man's enormous strength. Fred, +Will and I charged together round behind the newcomers' horses, in +order to make sure of cutting off retreat as well as rescuing Maga. +Monty leveled a pistol at the German's head. But Kagig did not waste +a fraction of a second on side-issues of any sort. He flew at the +German's throat like a wolf at a bullock. The German fired at him, +missed, and before he could fire again he was caught in a grip he +could not break, and fighting for breath, balance and something more. + +One of the gipsies, who had not seen the need of hurrying to Maga's +aid, now proved the soundness of his judgment by divining Kagig's +purpose and tossing several new faggots on the already prodigious fire. + +"Good!" barked Kagig, bending the struggling German this and that +way as it pleased him. + +Seeing our man with the upper hand, Monty and Rustum Khan now hurried +into the melee, where two Turkish officers and eight zaptieh were +fighting to keep Maga from four gipsies and us three. Nobody had +seen fit to shoot, but there was a glimmering of cold steel among +the shadows like lightning before a thunder-storm. Monty used his +fists. Rustum Khan used the flat of a Rajput saber. Maga, leaving +most of her clothing in the Turk's hands, struggled free and in another +second the Turks were on the defensive. Rustum Khan knocked the +revolver out of an officer's hand, and the rest of them were struggling +to use their rifles, when the German shrieked. All fights are full +of pauses, when either side could snatch sudden victory if alert +enough. We stopped, and turned to look, as if our own lives were +not in danger. + +Kagig had the German off his feet, face toward the flames, kicking +and screaming like a madman. He whirled him twice--shouted a sort +of war-cry--hove him high with every sinew in his tough frame cracking +--and hurled him head-foremost into the fire. + +The Turks took the cue to haul off and stand staring at us. We all +withdrew to easier pistol range, for contrary to general belief, +close quarters almost never help straight aim, especially when in +a hurry. There is a shooting as well as a camera focus, and each +man has his own. + +Pretty badly burnt about the face and fingers, Hans von Quedlinburg +crawled backward out of the fire, smelling like the devil, of singed +wool. Kagig closed on him, and hurled him back again. This time +the German plunged through the fire, and out beyond it to a space +between the flames and the back wall, where it must have been hot +enough to make the fat run. He stood with a forearm covering his +face, while Kagig thundered at him voluminous abuse in Turkish. +I wondered, first, why the German did not shoot, and then why his +loaded pistol did not blow up in the heat, until I saw that in further +proof of strength Kagig had looted his pistol and was standing with +one foot on it. + +Finally, when the beautiful smooth cloth of which his coat was made +bad taken on a stinking overlay of crackled black, the German chose +to obey Kagig and came leaping back through the fire, and lay groaning +on the floor, where the kahveh's owner's seven sons poured water +on him by Kagig's order. His burns were evidently painful, but not +nearly so serious as I expected. I got out the first-aid stuff from +our medicine bag, and Will, who was our self-constituted doctor on +the strength of having once attended an autopsy, disguised as a reporter, +in the morgue at the back of Bellevue Hospital in New York City, +beckoned a gipsy woman, and proceeded to instruct her what to do. + +However, Hans von Quedlinburg was no nervous weakling. He snatched +the pot of grease from the woman's hands, daubed gobs of the stuff +liberally on his face and hands, and sat up--resembling an unknown +kind of angry animal with his eyebrows and mustache burned off except +for a stray, outstanding whisker here and there. In a voice like +a bull's at the smell of blood he reversed what he had shouted through +the flames, and commanded his Turks to arrest the lot of us. + +Kagig laughed at that, and spoke to him in English, I suppose in +order that we, too, might understand. + +"Those Turks are my prisoners!" he said. "And so are you!" + +It was true about the Turks. They had not given up their weapons +yet, but the gipsies were between them and the door, and even the +gipsy women were armed to the teeth and willing to do battle. I +caught sight of Maga's mother-o'-pearl plated revolver, and the Turkish +officer at whom she had it leveled did not look inclined to dispute +the upper hand. + +"You Germans are all alike," sneered Kagig. "A dog could read your +reasoning. You thought these foreigners would turn against me. +It never entered your thick skull that they might rather defy you +than see me made prisoner. Fool! Did men name me Eye of Zeitoon +for nothing? Have I watched for nothing! Did I know the very wording +of the letters in your private box for nothing? Are you the only +spy in Asia? Am I Kagig, and do I not know who advised dismissing +all Armenians from the railway work? Am I Kagig, and do I not know +why? Kopek! (Dog!) You would beggar my people, in order to curry +favor with the Turk. You seek to take me because I know your ways! +Two months ago you knew to within a day or two when these new massacres +would begin. One month, three weeks, and four days ago you ordered +men to dig my grave, and swore to bury me alive in it! What shall +hinder me from burning you alive this minute?" + +There were five good hindrances, for I think that Rustum Khan would +have objected to that cruelty, even had he been alone. Kagig caught +Monty's eye and laughed. + +"Korkakma!" he jeered. "Do not be afraid!" Then be glanced swiftly +at the Turks, and at Peter Measel, who was staring all-eyes at Maga +on the far side of the room. + +"Order your pigs of zaptieh to throw their arms down!" + +Instead, the German shouted to them to fire volleys at us. He was +not without a certain stormy courage, whatever Kagig's knowledge +of his treachery. + +But the Turks did not fire, and it was perfectly plain that we four +were the reason of it. They had been promised an easy prey--captured +women--loot--and the remunerative task of escorting us to safety. +Doubtless Von Quedlinburg had promised them our consul would be lavish +with rewards on our account. Therefore there was added reason why +they should not fire on Englishmen and an American. We had not made +a move since the first scuffle when we rescued Maga, but the Turkish +lieutenant had taken our measure. Perhaps he had whispered to his +men. Perhaps they reached their own conclusions. The effect was +the same in either case. + +"Order them to throw their weapons down!" commanded Kagig, kicking +the German in the ribs. And his coat had been so scorched in the +fierce heat that the whole of one side of it broke off, like a +cinder slab. + +This time Hans von Quedlinburg obeyed. For one thing the pain of +his burns was beginning to tell on him, but he could see, too, that +he had lost prestige with his party. + +"Throw down your weapons!" he ordered savagely. + +But he had lost more prestige than he knew, or else he had less in +the beginning than be counted on. The Turkish lieutenant--a man +of about forty with the evidence of all the sensual appetites very +plainly marked on his face--laughed and brought his men to attention. +Then he made a kind of half-military motion with his hand toward +each of us in turn, ignoring Kagig but intending to convey that we +at any rate need not feel anxious. + +It was Maga Jhaere who solved the riddle of that impasse. She was +hardly in condition to appear before a crowd of men, for the Turks +bad torn off most of her clothes, and she had not troubled to find +others. She was unashamed, and as beautiful and angry as a panther. +With panther suddenness she snatched the lieutenant's sword and pistol. + +It suited neither his national pride nor religious prejudices to +be disarmed by a gipsy woman; but the Turk is an amazing fatalist, +and unexpectedness is his peculiar quality. + +"Che arz kunam?" he muttered--the perennial comment of the Turk who +has failed, that always made Kagig bare his teeth in a spasm of contempt. +"Passing the buck to Allah," as Will construed it. + +But disarming the mere conscript soldiers was not quite so simple, +although Maga managed it. They had less regard for their own skins +than handicapped their officer, and yet more than his contempt for +the female of any human breed. + +They refused point-blank to throw their rifles down, bringing a laugh +and a shout of encouragement from the German. But she screwed the +muzzle of her pistol into the lieutenant's ear, and bade him enforce +her orders, the gipsy women applauding with a chorus of "Ohs" and +"Ahs." The lieutenant succumbed to force majeure, and his men, who +were inclined to die rather than take orders from a woman, obeyed +him readily enough. They laid their rifles down carefully, without +a suggestion of resentment. + +"So. The women of Zeitoon are good!" said Kagig with a curt nod +of approval, and Maga tossed him a smile fit for the instigation +of another siege of Troy. + +The gipsy women picked the rifles up, and Maga went to hunt through +the mule-packs for clothing. Then Kagig turned on us, motioning +with his toe toward Hans von Quedlinburg, who continued to treat +himself extravagantly from our jar of ointment. + +"You do not know yet the depths of this man's infamy!" he said. +"The world professes to loathe Turks who rob, sell and murder women +and children. What of a German--a foreigner in Turkey, who instigates +the murder--and the robbery--and the burning--and the butchery--for +his own ends, or for his bloody country's ends? This man is +an instigator!" + +"You lie!" snarled Von Quedlinburg. "You dog of an Armenian, you lie!" +Kagig ignored him. + +"This is the German sportman who tried once to go to Zeitoon to shoot +bears, as he said. But I knew he was a spy. I am not the Eye of +Zeitoon merely because that title rolls nicely on the tongue. He +has--perhaps he has it in his pocket now--a concession from the +politicians in Stamboul, granting him the right to exploit Zeitoon +--a place he has never seen! He has encouraged this present butchery +in order that Turkish soldiers may have excuse to penetrate to Zeitoon +that he covets. He wants you Eenglis sportmen out of the way. You +were to be sent safely back to Tarsus, lest you should be witnesses +of what must happen. Perhaps you do not believe all this?"' + +He stooped down and searched the German's coat pockets with impatient +fingers that tugged and jerked, tossing out handkerchief and wallet, +cigars, matches that by a miracle had not caught in the heat, and +considerable money to the floor. He took no notice of the money, +but one of the old gipsy women crept out and annexed it, and Kagig +made no comment. + +"He has not his concession with him. I can prove nothing to-night. +I said you shall stand a test. You must choose. This German and +those Turks are my prisoners. You have nothing to do with it. You +may go back to Tarsus if you wish, and tell the Turks that Kagig +defies them! You shall have an escort as far as the nearest garrison. +You shall have fifty men to take you back by dawn to-morrow." + +At that Rustum Khan turned several shades darker and glared truculently. + +"Who art thou, Armenian, to frame a test for thy betters?" he demanded, +throwing a very military chest. And Will promptly bridled at the +Rajput's attitude. + +"You've no call to make yourself out any better than he is!" he +interrupted. And at that Maga Jhaere threw a kiss from across the +room, but one could not tell whether her own dislike of Rustum Khan, +or her approval of Will's support of Kagig was the motive. + +Fred began humming in the ridiculous way he has when be thinks that +an air of unconcern may ease a situation, and of course Rustum Khan +mistook the nasal noises for intentional insult. He turned on the +unsuspecting Fred like a tiger. Monty's quick wit and level voice +alone saved open rupture. + +"What I imagine Rustum Khan means is this, Kagig: My friends and +I have engaged you as guide for a hunting trip. We propose to hold +you strictly to the contract." + +Kagig looked keenly at each of us and nodded. + +"In my day I have seen the hunters hunted!" he said darkly. + +"In my day I have seen an upstart punished!" growled the Rajput, +and sat down, back to the wall. + +"Castles, and bears!" smiled Monty. + +Kagig grinned. + +"What if I propose a different quarry?" + +"Propose and see!" Monty was on the alert, and therefore to all outward +appearance in a sort of well-fed, catlike, dallying mood. + +"This dog," said Kagig, and he kicked the German's ribs again, "has +said nothing of any other person he must rescue. Bear me witness." + +We murmured admission of the truth of that. + +"Yet I am the Eye of Zeitoon, and I know. His purpose was to leave +his prisoners here and hurry on to overtake a lady--a certain Miss +Vanderman, who he thinks is on her way to the mission at Marash. +He desired the credit for her rescue in order better to blind the +world to his misdeeds! Nevertheless, now that she can be no more +use to him, observe his chivalry! He does not even mention her!" + +The German shrugged his shoulders, implying that to argue with such +a savage was waste of breath. + +"What do you know of Miss Vanderman's where-abouts?" demanded Will, +and Maga Jhaere, at the sound of another woman's name, sat bolt upright +between two other women whose bright eyes peeped out from under blankets. + +"I had word of her an hour before you came, effendi," Kagig answered. +"She and her party took fright this afternoon, and have taken to +the hills. They are farther ahead than this pig dreamed"--once more +he kicked Von Quedlinburg--"more than a day's march ahead from here." + +"Then we'll hunt for her first," said Monty, and the rest of us nodded +assent. + +Kagig grinned. + +"You shall find her. You shall see a castle. In the castle where +you find her you shall choose again! It is agreed, effendi!" + +Then he ordered his prisoners made fast, and the gipsies and our +Zeitoonli servants attended to it, he himself, however, binding the +German's hands and feet. Will went and put bandages on the man's burns, +I standing by, to help. But we got no thanks. + +"Ihr seit verruckt!" he sneered. "You take the side of bandits. +Passt mal auf--there will be punishment!" + +The Zeitoonli were going to tie Peter Measel, but he set up such +a howl that Kagig at last took notice of him and ordered him flung, +unbound, into the great wooden bin in which the horse-feed was kept +for sale to wayfarers. There he lay, and slept and snored for the +rest of that session, with his mouth close to a mouse-hole. + +Then Kagig ordered our Zeitoonli to the roof on guard, and bade us +sleep with a patriarchal air of authority. + +"There is no knowing when I shall decide to march," be explained. + +Given enough fatigue, and warmth, and quietness, a man will sleep +under almost any set of circumstances. The great fire blazed, and +flickered, and finally died down to a bed of crimson. The prisoners +were most likely all awake, for their bonds were tight, but only +Kagig remained seated in the midst of his mess of blankets by the +hearth; and I think he slept in that position, and that I was the +last to doze off. But none of us slept very long. + +There came a shout from the roof again, and once again a thundering +on the door. The move--unanimous--that the gipsies' right hands +made to clutch their weapons resembled the jump from surprise into +stillness when the jungle is caught unawares. A second later when +somebody tossed dry fagots on the fire the blaze betrayed no other +expression on their faces than the stock-in-trade stolidity. Even +the women looked as if thundering on a kahveh door at night was nothing +to be noticed. Kagig did not move, but I could see that he was breathing +faster than the normal, and he, too, clutched a weapon. Von Quedlinburg +began shouting for help alternately in Turkish and in German, and +the owner of the place produced a gun--a long, bright, steel-barreled +affair of the vintage of the Comitajes and the First Greek War. +He and his sons ran to the door to barricade it. + +"Yavash!" ordered Kagig. The word means slowly, as applied to all +the human processes. In that instance it meant "Go slow with your +noise!" and mine host so understood it. + +But the thundering on the great door never ceased, and the kahveh +was too full of the noise of that for us to hear what the Zeitoonli +called down from the roof. Kagig arose and stood in the middle of +the room with the firelight behind him. He listened for two minutes, +standing stock-still, a thin smile flickering across his lean face, +and the sharp satyr-like tops of his ears seeming to prick outward +in the act of intelligence. + +"Open and let them in!" he commanded at last. + +"I will not!" roared the owner of the place. "I shall be tortured, +and all my house!" + +"Open, I said!" + +"But they will make us prisoner!" + +Kagig made a sign with his right hand. Gregor Jhaere rose and whispered. +One by one the remaining gipsies followed him into the shadows, and +there came a noise of scuffling, and of oaths and blows. As Gregor +Jhaere had mentioned earlier, they did obey Kagig now and then. +The Turks came back looking crestfallen, and the fastenings creaked. +Then the door burst open with a blast of icy air, and there poured +in nineteen armed men who blinked at the firelight helplessly. + +"Kagig--where is Kagig?" + +"You cursed fools, where should I be!" + +"Kagig? Is it truly you?" Their eyes were still blinded by +the blaze. + +"Shut that door again, and bolt it! Aye--Kagig, Kagig, is it you!" + +"It is Kagig! Behold him! Look!" + +They clustered close to see, smelling infernally of sweaty garments +and of the mud from unholy lurking places. + +"Kagig it is! And has all happened as I, Kagig, warned you it +would happen?" + +"Aye. All. More. Worse!" + +"Had you acted beforehand in the manner I advised?" + +"No, Kagig. We put it off. We talked, and disagreed. And then +it was too late to agree. They were cutting throats while we still +argued. When we ran into the street to take the offensive they were +already shooting from the roofs!" + +"Hah!" + +That bitter dry expletive, coughed out between set teeth, could not +be named a laugh. + +"Kagig, listen!" + +"Aye! Now it is 'Kagig, listen!' But a little while ago it was +I who was sayin 'Listen!' I walked myself lame, and talked myself +hoarse. Who listened to me? Why should I listen to you?" + +"But, Kagig, my wife is gone!" + +"Hah!" + +"My daughter, Kagig!" + +"Hah!' + +A third man thrust himself forward and thumped the butt of a long +rifle on the floor. + -- +"They took my wife and two daughters before my very eyes, Kagig! +It is no time for talking now--you have talked already too much, +Kagi,--now prove yourself a man of deeds! With these eyes I saw +them dragged by the hair down street! Oh, would God that I had put +my eyes out first, then had I never seen it! Kagig--" + +"Aye--Kagig!" + +"You shall not sneer at me! I shot one Turk, and ten more pounced +on them. They screamed to me. They called to me to rescue. What +could I do? I shot, and I shot until the rifle barrel burned my +fingers. Then those cursed Turks set the house on fire behind me, +and my companions dragged me away to come and find others to unite +with us and make a stand! We found no others! Kagig--I tell you +--those bloody Turks are auctioning our wives and daughters in the +village church! It is time to act!" + +"Hah! Who was it urged you in season and out of season--day and +night--month in, month out--to come to Zeitoon and help me fortify +the place? Who urged you to send your women there long ago?" + +"But Kagig, you do not appreciate. To you it is nothing not to have +women near you. We have mothers, sisters, wives--" + +"Nothing to me, is it? These eyes have seen my mother, ravished +by a Kurd in a Turkish uniform!" + +"Well, that only proves you are one with us after all! That only +proves--" + +"One with you! Why did you not act, then, when I risked life and +limb a thousand times to urge you?" + +"We could not, Kagig. That would have precipitated--" + +He interrupted the man with an oath like the aggregate of bitterness. + +"Precipitated? Did waiting for the massacre like chickens waiting +for the ax delay the massacres a day? But now it is 'Come and lead +us, Kagig!' How many of you are there left to lead?" + +"Who knows? We are nineteen--" + +"Hah! And I am to run with nineteen men to the rape of Tarsus +and Adana?" + +"Our people will rally to you, Kagig!" + +"They shall." + +"Come, then!" + +"They shall rally at Zeitoon!" + +"Oh, Kagig--how shall they reich Zeitoon? The cursed Turks have ordered +out the soldiers and are sending regiments--" + +"I warned they would!" + +"The cavalry are hunting down fugitives along the roads!" + +"As I foretold a hundred times!" + +"They were sent to protect Armenians--" + +"That is always the excuse!" + +"And they kill--kill--kill! A dozen of them hunted me for two miles, +until I hid in a watercourse! Look at us! Look at our clothes! +We are wet to the skin--tired--starving! Kagig, be a man!" + +He went back to his mess of blankets and sat down on it, too bitter +at heart for words. They reproached him in chorus, coming nearer +to the fire to let the fierce heat draw the stink out of their clothes. + +"Aye, Kagig, you must not forget your race. You must not forget +the past, Kagig. Once Armenia was great, remember that! You must +not only talk to us, you must act at last! We summon you to be our +leader, Kagig, son of Kagig of Zeitoon!" + +He stared back at them with burning eyes -raised both bands to beat +his temples--and then suddenly turned the palms of his hands toward +the roof in a gesture of utter misery. + +"Oh, my people!" + +That glimpse he betrayed of his agony was but a moment long. The +fingers closed suddenly, and the palms that had risen in helplessness +descended to his knees clenched fists, heavy with the weight of purpose. + +"What have you done with the ammunition?" he demanded. + +"We had it in the manure under John Zimisces' cattle." + +"I know that. Where is it now?" + +"The Turks discovered it at dawn to-day. Some one had told. They +burned Zimisces and his wife and sons alive in the straw!" + +"You fools! They knew where the stuff was a week ago! A month ago +I warned you to send it to Zeitoon, but somebody told you I was +treacherous, and you fools listened! How much ammunition have you +left now?" + +"Just what we have with us. I have a dozen rounds." + +"I ten." + +"I nine." + +"I thirty-three." + +Each man had a handful, or two handfuls at the most. Kagig observed +their contributions to the common fund with scoRN too deep for expression. +It was as if the very springs of speech were frozen. + +"We summon you to lead us, Kagig!" + +Words came to him again. + +"You summon me to lead? I will! From now I lead! By the God who +gave my fathers bread among the mountains, I will, moreover, be obeyed! +Either my word is law--" + +"Kagig, it is law!" + +"Or back you shall go to where the Turks are wearing white, and the +gutters bubble red, and the beams are black against the sky! You +shall obey me in future on the instant that I speak, or run back +to the Turks for mercy from my hand! I have listened to enough talk!" + +"Spoken like a man!" said Monty, and stood up. + +We all stood up; even Rustum Khan, who did not pretend to like him, +saluted the old warrior who could announce his purpose so magnificently. +Maga Jhaere stood up, and sought Will's eyes from across the room. +Fred, almost too sleepy to know what he was doing (for the tail end +of the fever is a yearning for early bed) undid the catch of his +beloved instrument, and made the rafters ring. In a minute we four +were singing "For he's a jolly good fellow," and Kagig stood up, +looking like Robinson Crusoe in his goat-skins, to acknowledge the +compliment. + +The noise awoke Peter Measel, and when we had finished making fools +of ourselves I walked over to discover what he was saying. He was +praying aloud--nasally--through the mouse-hole--for us, not himself. +I looked at my watch. It was two hours past midnight. + +"You fellows," I said, "it's Sunday. The martyred biped has just +waked up and remembered it. He is praying that we may be forgiven +for polluting the Sabbath stillness with immoral tunes!" + +My words had a strange effect. Monty, and Fred, and Will laughed. +Rustum Khan laughed savagely. But all the Armenians, including Kagig, +knelt promptly on the floor and prayed, the gipsies looking on in +mild amusement tempered by discretion. And out of the mouse-hole +in the horse-feed bin came Peter Measel's sonorous, overriding periods: + +"And, O Lord, let them not be smitten by Thine anger. Let them not +be cut down in Thy wrath! Let them not be cast into hell! Give +them another chance, O Lord! Let the Ten Commandments be written +on their hearts in letters of fire, but let not their souls be damned +for ever more! If they did not know it was the Sabbath Day, O Lord, +forgive them! Amen!" + +It was a most amazing night. + + + + +Chapter Seven + "We hold you to your word!" + + +LIBERA NOS, DOMINE! + +A priest, a statesman, and a soldier stood +Hand in each other's hand, by ruin faced, +Consulting to find succor if they could, +Till soon the lesser ones themselves abased, +Their sword and parchment on an altar laid +In deep humility the while the priest he prayed. + +He prayed first for his church, that it might be +Upholden and acknowledged and revered, +And in its opal twilight men might see +Salvation if in truth enough they feared, +And if enough acknowledgment they gave +To ritual, and rosary, and creed that save. + +Then prayed he for the state, that it should wean +Well-tutored counselors to do their part +Full profit and prosperity to glean +With dignity, although with contrite heart +And wisdom that Tradition wisdom ranks, +That church and state might stand and men give thanks. + +Last prayed he for the soldier--longest, too, +That all the honor and the aims of war +Subserving him might carry wrath and rue +Unto repentance, and in trembling awe +The enemy at length should fault confess +And yield, to crave a peace of righteousness. + +Behind them stood a patriot unbowed, +Not arrogant in gilt or goodly cloth, +Nor mincing meek, and yet not poorly proud; +With eyes afire that glittered not with wrath; +Aware of evil hours, and undismayed +Because he loved too well. He also prayed. + +"Oh, Thou, who gavest, may I also give, +Withholding not--accepting no reward; +For I die gladly if the least ones live. +Twice righteous and two-edged be the sword, +'Neath freedom's banner drawn to prove Thy word +And smite me if I'm false!" His prayer was heard. + + +The remainder of that night was nightmare pure and simple--mules +and horses squealing in instinctive fear of action they felt impending +--gipsies and Armenians dragging packs out on the floor, to repack +everything a dozen times for some utterly godless reason--Rustum +Khan seizing each fugitive Armenian in turn to question him, alternating +fierce threats with persuasion--Kagig striding up and down with hands +behind him and his scraggly black beard pressed down on his chest +--and the great fire blazing with reports like cannon shots as one +of the Turk's sons piled on fuel and the resinous wet wood caught. + +The Turk and his other six sons ran away and hid themselves as a +precaution against our taking vengeance on them. With situations +reversed a Turk would have taken unbelievable toll in blood and agony +from any Armenian he could find, and they reasoned we were probably +no better than themselves. The marvel was that they left one son +to wait on us, and take the money for room and horse-feed. + +"Remember!" warned Monty, as we four sidled close together with our +backs against the wall. "Until we're in actual personal danger this +trouble is the affair of Kagig and his men!" + +"I get you. If we horn in before we have to we'll do more harm than +good. Give the Turks an excuse to call us outlaws and shoot instead +of rescue us. Sure. But what about Miss Vanderman?" said Will. + +"I foresee she's doomed!" Fred stared straight in front of him. +"It looks as if we'll lose our little Willy too! One woman at a +time, especially when the lady totes a mother-o'-pearl revolver and +about a dozen knives! If you come out of this alive, Bill, you'll +be wiser!" + +"Fond of bull, aren't you! You'd jest on an ant-heap." + +"There's nothing to discuss," said I. "If there's a lady in danger +somewhere ahead, we all know what we're going to do about it." + +Monty nodded. + +"If we can find her and get word to the consul, that 'ud be one more +lever for him to pull on." + +"D'you suppose they'd dare molest an Englishwoman?" I asked, with +the sudden goose-flesh rising all over me. + +"She's American," said Will between purposely set lips. But I did +not see that that qualified the unpleasantness by much. + +One of the Armenians, whom Rustum Khan had finished questioning, +went and stood in Kagig's way, intercepting his everlasting sentry-go. + +"What is it, Eflaton?" + +"My wife, Kagig!" + +"Ah! I remember your wife. She fed me often." + +"You must come with me and find her, Kagig--my wife and two daughters, +who fed you often!" + +"The daughters were pretty," said Kagig. "So was the wife. A young +woman yet. A brave, good woman. Always she agreed with me, I remember. +Often I heard her urge you men to follow me to Zeitoon and help to +fortify the place!" + +"Will you leave a good woman in the hands of Turks, Kagig? Come--come +to the rescue!" + +"It is too bad," said Kagig simply. "Such women suffer more terribly +than the hags who merely die by the sword. Ten times by the count +--during ten succeeding massacres I have seen the Turks sell Armenian +wives and daughters at auction. I am sorry, Eflaton." + +"My God!" groaned Will. "How long are we four loafers going to sit +here and leave a white woman in danger on the road ahead?" He got +up and began folding his blankets. + +The Armenian whom Kagig had called Eflaton threw himself to the floor +and shrieked in agony of misery. Rustum Khan stepped over him and +came and stood in front of Monty. + +"These men are fools," he said. "They know exactly what the Turks +will do. They have all seen massacres before. Yet not one of them +was ready when the hour set for this one came. They say--and they +say the truth, that the Turks will murder all Europeans they catch +outside the mission stations, lest there be true witnesses afterward +whom the world will believe." + +"But a woman--scarcely a white woman?" This from Will, with the +tips of his ears red and the rest of his face a deathly white. + +"Depending on the woman," answered Rustum Khan. "Old--unpleasing--" +He made an upward gesture with his thumb, and a noise between his +teeth suggestive of a severed wind-pipe. "If she were good-looking +--I have heard say they pay high prices in the interior, say at Kaisarieh +or Mosul. Once in a harem, who would ever know? The road ahead +is worse than dangerous. Whoever wishes to save his life would do +best to turn back now and try to ride through to Tarsus." + +"Try it, then, if you're afraid!" sneered Will, and for a moment +I thought the Rajput would draw steel. + +"I know what this lord sahib and I will do," he said, darkening three +or four shades under his black beard. "It was for men bewitched +by gipsy-women that I feared!" + +Will was standing. Nothing but Monty's voice prevented blows. He +rapped out a string of sudden rhetoric in the Rajput's own guttural +tongue, and Rustum Khan drew back four paces. + +"Send him back, Colonel sahib!" he urged. "Send that one back! +He and Umm Kulsum will be the death of us!" + +Fred went off into a peal of laughter that did nothing to calm the +Rajput's ruffled temper. + +"Who was Umm Kulsum?" I asked him, divining the cause. + +"The most immoral hag in Asian legend! The aggregated essence of +all female evil personified in one procuress!" + +"Say, I'll have to teach that gink--" + +Monty got up and stood between them, but it was a new alarm that +prevented blows. A fist-blow in the Rajput's face would have meant +a blood-feud that nothing less than a man's life could settle, and +Monty looked worried. There came a new thundering on the door that +brought everybody to his feet as if murder were the least of the +charges against us. Only Kagig appeared at ease and unconcerned. + +"Open to them!" he shouted, and resumed his pacing to and fro. + +Our Armenian servants ran to the door, and in a minute returned to +say that fifty mounted men from Zeitoon were drawn up outside. Kagig +gave a curt laugh and strode across to us. + +"I said you Eenglis sportmen should see good sport." + +Monty nodded, with a hand held out behind him to warn us to keep still. + +"I said you shall shoot many pigs!" + +"Lead on, then." + +"Turks are pigs!" + +Monty dd not answer. To have disagreed would have been like flapping +a red cloth at a tiger. Yet to have agreed with him at once might +have made him jump to false conclusions. The consul's last words +to us had been insistent on the unwisdom of posing as anything but +hunters, legitimately entitled to protection from the Turkish government. + +"I would like you gentlemen for allies!" + +"You are our servant at present." + +"Would you think of holding me to that?" demanded Kagig with a gesture +of extreme irritation. It is only the West that can joke at itself +in the face of crisis. + +"If not to that," said Monty blandly, "then what agreements do you keep?" + +Kagig saw the point. He drew a deep impatient breath and drove it +out again hissing through his teeth. Then he took grim hold of himself. + +"Effendi," he said, addressing himself to Monty, but including all +of us with eyes that seemed to search our hearts, "you are a lord, +a friend of the King of Eengland. If I were less than a man of my +word I could make you prisoner and oblige your friend the King of +Eengland to squeeze these cursed Turks!" + +Rustum Khan heard what he said, and made noise enough drawing his +saber to be heard outside the kahveh, but Kagig did not turn his +head. Three gipsies attended to Rustum Khan, slipping between him +and their master, and our four Zeitoonli servants cautiously approached +the Rajput from behind. + +"Peace!" ordered Monty. "Continue, Kagig." + +Kagig held both hands toward Monty, palms upward, as if he were offering +the keys of Hell and Heaven. + +"You are sportmen, all of you. Shall I keep my word to you? Or +shall I serve my nation in its agony?" + +Monty glanced swiftly at us, but we made no sign. Will actually +looked away. It was a rule we four had to leave the playing of a +hand to whichever member of the partnership was first engaged; and +we never regretted it, although it often called for faith in one +another to the thirty-third degree. The next hand might fall to +any other of us, but for the present it was Monty's play. + +"We hold you to your word!" said Monty. + +Kagig gasped. "But my people!" + +"Keep your word to them too! Surely you haven't promised them to +make us prisoner?" + +"But if I am your servant--if I must obey you for two piasters a +day, how shall I serve my nation?" + +"Wait and see!" suggested Monty blandly. + +Kagig bowed stiffly, from the neck. + +"It would surprise you, effendi," he said grimly, "to know how many +long years I have waited, in order that I may see what other men +will do!" + +Monty never answered that remark. There came a yell of "Fire!" and +in less than ten seconds flames began to burst through the door that +shut off the Turks' private quarters, and to lick and roar among +the roof beams. The animals at the other end of the room went crazy, +and there was instant panic, the Armenians outside trying to get +in to help, and fighting with the men and animals and women and children +who choked the way. Then the hay in the upper story caught alight, +and the heat below became intolerable. Monty saw and instantly pounced +on an ax and two crow-bars in the corner. + +"Through the wall!" he ordered. + +Fred, Will and I did that work, he and Kagig looking on. It was +much easier than at first seemed likely. Most of the stones were +stuck with mud, not plaster, and when the first three or four were +out the rest came easily. In almost no time we had a great gap ready, +and the extra draft we made increased the holocaust, but seemed to +lift the heat higher. Then some of the Zeitoonli saw the gap, and +began to hurry blindfolded horses through it and in a very little +while the place seemed empty. I saw the Turkish owner and several +of his sons looking on in fatalistic calm at about the outside edge +of the ring of light, and it occurred to me to ask a question. + +"Hasn't that Turk a harem?" I asked. + +In another second we four were hurrying around the building, and +Will and I burst in the door at the rear with our crow-bars. Monty +and Fred rushed past us, and before I could get the smoke out of +my eyes and throat they were hurrying out again with two old women +in their arms--the women screaming, and they laughing and coughing +so that they could hardly run. Then Will made my blood run cold +with a new alarm. + +"The biped!" he shouted. "The Measel in the corn-bin!" + +They dropped the old ladies, and all four of us raced back to our +hole in the wall--plunged into the hell-hot building, pulled the +lid off the corn-bin (it was fastened like an ancient Egyptian coffin-lid +with several stout Wooden pegs), dragged Measel out, and frog-marched +him, kicking and yelling, to the open, where Fred collapsed. + +"Measel," said Will, stooping to feel Fred's heart, "if you're the +cause of my friend Oakes' death, Lord pity you!" + +Fred sat up, not that he wished to save the "biped" any anguish, +but the wise man vomits comfortably when he can, the necessity being +bad enough without additional torment. + +"See!" said a voice out of darkness. "He empties himself! That +is well. It is only the end of the fever. Now he will be a man +again. But the sahibs should have left that writer of characters +in the corn-bin, where he could have shared the fate of his master +without troubling us again!" + +Rustum Khan strode into the light, with half his fierce beard burned +away from having been the last to leave by the front entrance, and +a decided limp from having been kicked by a frantic mule. + +"What have you done with the German?" demanded Monty. + +"I, sahib? Nothing. In truth nothing. It was the seven sons of +the Turk--abetted I should say by gipsies. It was the German who +set the place alight. The girl, Maga Jhaere they call her, saw him +do it. She watched like a cat, the fool, hoping to amuse herself, +while he burned off his ropes with a brand that fell his way out +of the fire. When another brand jumped half across the room he set +the place alight with it, tossing it over the party wall. He was +an able rascal, sahib." + +"Was?" demanded Monty. + +"Aye, sahib, was! In another second he released the Turkish lieutenant +and shouted in his ear to escape and say that Armenians burned this +kahveh! Gregor Jhaere slew the Turk, however. And Maga followed +the German into the open, where she denounced him to some of the +Zeitoonli who recently arrived. They took him and threw him back +into the fire--where he remained. I begin to like these Zeitoonli. +I even like the gipsies more than formerly. They are men of some +discernment, and of action!" + +"Man of blood!" growled Monty. "What of the Turkish owner and his +seven sons?" + +"They shall burn, too, if the sahib say so!" + +"If they burn, so shall you! Where is Kagig?" + +"Seeing that the sahibs' horses are packed and saddled. I came to +find the sahibs. According to Kagig it is time to go, before Turks +come to take vengeance for a burned road-house. They will surely +say Armenians burned it, whether or not there is a German to support +their accusation!" + +Then we heard Kagig's high-pitched "Haide--chabuk!" and picked up +Peter Measel, and ran around the building to where the horses were +already saddled, and squealing in fear of the flames. We left the +Turk, and his wives and seven sons, to tell what tale they pleased. + + + + +Chapter Eight +"I go with that man!" + + +LO HERE! LO THERE! + +Ye shall not judge men by the drinks they take, +Nor by unthinking oath, nor what they wear, +For look! the mitered liars protest make +And drinking know they lie, and knowing swear. +No oath is round without the rounded fruit, +Nor pompous promise hides the ultimate. +In scarlet as in overalls and tailored suit +To-morrows truemen and the traitors wait +Untold by trick of blazonry or voice. +But harvest ripens and there come the reaping days +When each shall choose one path to bide the choice, +And ye shall know men when they face dividing ways. + + +To those who have never ridden knee to knee with outlaws full pelt +into unknown darkness, with a burning house behind, and a whole horizon +lit with the rolling glow of murdered villages, let it be written +that the sensation of so doing is creepy, most amazing wild, and +not without unrighteous pleasure. + +There was a fierce joy that burned without consuming, and a consciousness +of having crossed a rubicon. Points of view are left behind in a +moment, although the proof may not be apparent for days or weeks, +and I reckon our mental change from being merely hunters of an ancient +castle and big game-tourists-trippers, from that hour. As we galloped +behind Kagig the mesmerism of respect for custom blew away in the +wind. We became at heart outlaws as we rode--and one of us a privy +councilor of England! + +The women, Maga included, were on in front. The night around and +behind us was full of the thunder of fleeing cattle, for the Zeitoonli +had looted the owner of the kahveh's cows and oxen along with their +own beasts and were driving them helter-skelter. The crackling flames +behind us were a beacon, whistling white in the early wind, that +we did well to hurry from. + +It was Monty who called Kagig's attention to the idiocy of tiring +out the cattle before dawn, and then Kagig rode like an arrow until +he could make the gipsies hear him. One long keening shout that +penetrated through the drum of hoofs brought them to a walk, but +they kept Maga in front with them, screened from our view until +morning by a close line of mounted women and a group of men. The +Turkish prisoners were all behind among the fifty Armenians from +Zeitoon, looking very comfortless trussed up on the mounts that nobody +else had coveted, with hands made fast behind their backs. + +A little before dawn, when the saw-tooth tips of the mountain range +on our left were first touched with opal and gold, we turned off +the araba track along which we had so far come and entered a ravine +leading toward Marash. Fred was asleep on horseback, supported between +Will and me and snoring like a throttled dog. The smoke of the gutted +kahveh had dwindled to a wisp in the distance behind us, and there +was no sight or sound of pursuit. + +No wheeled vehicle that ever man made could have passed up this +new track. It was difficult for ridden horses, and our loaded beasts +had to be given time. We seemed to be entering by a fissure into +the womb of the savage hills that tossed themselves in ever-increasing +grandeur up toward the mist-draped heights of Kara Dagh. Oftener +than not our track was obviously watercourse, although now and then +we breasted higher levels from which we could see, through gaps between +hill and forest, backward along the way we had come. There was smoke +from the direction of Adana that smudged a whole sky-line, and between +that and the sea about a dozen sooty columns mushroomed against the +clouds. + +There was not a mile of the way we came that did not hold a hundred +hiding-places fit for ambuscade, but our party was too numerous and +well-armed to need worry on that account. Monty and Kagig drew ahead, +quite a little way behind the gipsies still, but far in front of us, +who had to keep Fred upright on his horse. + +"My particular need is breakfast," said I. + +"And Will's is the woman!" said Fred, admitting himself awake at last. +Will had been straining in the stirrups on the top of every rise his +horse negotiated ever since the sun rose. It certainly was a mystery +why Maga should have been spirited away, after the freedom permitted +her the day before. + +"Rustum Khan has probably made off with her, or cut her head off!" +remarked Fred by way of offering comfort, yawning with the conscious +luxury of having slept. "I don't see Rustum Khan. Let's hope it's +true! That 'ud give the American lady a better chance for her life +in case we should overtake her!" + +Will and Fred have always chosen the most awkward places and the +least excuse for horseplay, and the sleep seemed to have expelled +the last of the fever from Fred's bones, so that he felt like a schoolboy +on holiday. Will grabbed him around the neck and they wrestled, +to their horses' infinite disgust, panting and straining mightily +in the effort to unseat each other. It was natural that Will should +have the best of it, he being about fifteen years younger as well +as unweakened by malaria. The men of Zeitoon behind us checked to +watch Fred rolled out of his saddle, and roared with the delight +of fighting men the wide world over to see the older campaigner suddenly +recover his balance and turn the tables on the younger by a trick. + +And at that very second, as Will landed feet first on the gravel +panting for breath, Maga Jhaere arrived full gallop from the rear, +managing her ugly gray stallion with consummate ease. Her black +hair streamed out in the wind, and what with the dew on it and the +slanting sun-rays she seemed to be wearing all the gorgeous jewels +out of Ali Baba's cave. She was the loveliest thing to look at +--unaffected, unexpected, and as untamed as the dawn, with parted +lips as red as the branch of budding leaves with which she beat +her horse. + +But the smile turned to a frown of sudden passion as she saw Will +land on the ground and Fred get ready for reprisals. She screamed +defiance--burst through the ranks of the nearest Zeitoonli--set her +stallion straight at us--burst between Fred and me--beat Fred savagely +across the face with her sap-softened branch--and wheeled on her +beast's haunches to make much of Will. He laughed at her, and tried +to take the whip away. Seeing he was neither hurt nor indignant, +she laughed at Fred, spat at him, and whipped her stallion forward +in pursuit of Kagig, breaking between him and Monty to pour news +in his ear. + +"A curse on Rustum Khan!" laughed Fred, spitting out red buds. "He +didn't do his duty!" + +He had hardly said that when the Rajput came spurring and thundering +along from the rear. He seemed in no hurry to follow farther, but +drew rein between us and saluted with the semi-military gesture with +which he favored all who, unlike Monty, had not been Colonels of +Indian regiments. + +"I tracked Umm Kulsum through the dark!" he announced, rubbing the +burned nodules out of his singed beard and then patting his mare's +neck. "I saw her ride away alone an hour before you reached that +fork in the road and turned up this watercourse. 'By the teeth of +God,' said I, 'when a good-looking woman leaves a party of men to +canter alone in the dark, there is treason!' and I followed." + +I offered the Rajput my cigarette case, and to my surprise he accepted +one, although not without visible compunction. As a Muhammadan by +creed he was in theory without caste and not to be defiled by European +touch, but the practises of most folk fall behind their professions. +A hundred yards ahead of us Maga was talking and gesticulating furiously, +evidently railing at Kagig's wooden-headedness or unbelief. Monty +sat listening, saying nothing. + +"What did you see, Rustum Khan?" asked Fred. + +"At first very little. My eyes are good, but that gipsy-woman's +are better, and I was kept busy following her; for I could not keep +close, or she might have heard. The noise of her own clumsy stallion +prevented her from hearing the lighter footfalls of my mare, and +by that I made sure she was not expecting to meet an enemy. 'She +rides to betray us to her friends!' said I, and I kept yet farther +behind her, on the alert against ambush." + +"Well?" + +"She rode until dawn, I following. Then, when the light was scarcely +born as yet, she suddenly drew rein at an open place where the track +she had been following emerged out of dense bushes, and dismounted. +>From behind the bushes I watched, and presently I, too, dismounted +to hold my mare's nostrils and prevent her from whinnying. That +woman, Maga Jhaere, knelt, and pawed about the ground like a dog +that hunts a buried bone!" + +In front of us Maga was still arguing. Suddenly Kagig turned on her +and asked her three swift questions, bitten off like the snap of +a closing snuff-box lid. Whether she answered or not I could not +see, but Monty was smiling. + +"I suspect she was making signals!" growled Rustum Khan. "To whom +--about what I do not know. After a little while she mounted and +rode on, choosing unerringly a new track through the bushes. I went +to where she had been, and examined the ground where she had made +her signals. As I say, my eyes are good, but hers are better. I +could see nothing but the hoof-marks of her clumsy gray brute of +a stallion, and in one place the depressions on soft earth where +she had knelt to paw the ground!" + +Monty was beginning to talk now. I could see him smiling at Kagig +over Maga's head, and the girl was growing angry. Rustum Khan was +watching them as closely as we were, pausing between sentences. + +"It may be she buried something there, but if so I did not find it. +I could not stay long, for when she rode away she went like wind, +and I needed to follow at top speed or else be lost. So I let my +mare feel the spurs a time or two, and so it happened that I gained +on the woman; and I suppose she heard me. Whether or no, she waited +in ambush, and sprang out at me as I passed so suddenly that I know +not what god of fools and drunkards preserved her from being cut +down! Not many have ridden out at me from ambush and lived to tell +of it! But I saw who she was in time, and sheathed my steel again, +and cursed her for the gipsy that she half is. The other half is +spawn of Eblis!" + +A hundred yards ahead of us Kagig had reached a decision, but it +seemed to be not too late yet in Maga's judgment to try to convert +him. She was speaking vehemently, passionately, throwing down her +reins to expostulate with both hands. + +"Kagig isn't the man you'd think a young woman would choose to be +familiar with," Fred said quietly to me, and I wondered what he was +driving at. He is always observant behind that superficial air of +mockery he chooses to assume, but what he had noticed to set him +thinking I could not guess. + +Rustum Khan threw away the cigarette I had given him, and went on +with his tale. + +"That woman has no virtue." + +"How do you know?" demanded Will. + +"She laughed when I cursed her! Then she asked me what I had seen." + +"What did you say?" + +"To test her I said I had seen her lover, and would know him again +by his smell in the dark!" + +"What did she say to that?' + +"She laughed again. I tell you the woman has no shame! Then she +said if I would tell that tale to Kagig as soon as I see him she +would reward me with leave to live for one whole week and an extra +hour in which to pray to the devil----meaning, I suppose, that she +intends to kill me otherwise. Then she wheeled her stallion--the +brute was trying to tear out the muscles of my thigh all that time +--and rode away--and I followed--and here I am!" + +"How much truth is there in your assertion that you saw her lover?" +Will demanded. + +"None. I but said it to test her." + +"Why in thunder should she want it believed?" + +"God knows, who made gipsies!" + +At that moment the advance-guard rode into an open meadow, crossed +by a shallow, singing stream at which Kagig ordered a halt to water +horses. So we closed up with him, and he repeated to us what he +had evidently said before to Monty. + +"Maga says--I let her go scouting--she says she met a man who told +her that Miss Gloria Vanderman and a party of seven were attacked +on the road, but escaped, and now have doubled on their tracks so +that they are far on their return to Tarsus." + +Rustum Khan met Monty's eyes, and his lips moved silently. + +"What do you know, sirdar?" Monty asked him. + +"The woman lies!" + +Maga was glaring at Rustum Khan as a leopardess eyes an enemy. As +he spoke she made a significant gesture with a finger across her +throat, which the Rajput, if he saw, ignored. + +"To what extent?" demanded Kagig calmly. + +"Wholly! I followed her. She met no man, although she pawed the +ground at a place where eight ridden horses had crossed soft ground +a day ago." + +Kagig nodded, recognizing truth--a rather rare gift. + +If the Rajput's guess was wrong and Maga did know shame, at any rate +she did not choose that moment to betray it. + +"Oh, very well!" she sneered. "There were eight horses. They were +galloping. The track was nine hours old." + +Kagig nodded without any symptom of annoyance or reproach. + +"There is an ancient castle in the hills up yonder," he said, "in +which there may be many Armenians hiding." + +He took it for granted we would go and find out, and Maga recognized +the drift. + +"Very well," she said. "Let that one go, and that one," pointing +at Fred and me. + +"You'll appreciate, of course," said Monty, "that it's out of the +question for us to go forward until we know where that lady is." + +Kagig bowed gravely. + +"I am needed at Zeitoon," he answered. + +Then Maga broke in shrilly, pointing at Will: + +"Take that one for hostage!" she advised. "Bring him along to Zeitoon. +Then the rest will follow!" + +Kagig looked gravely at her. + +"I shall take this one," he answered, laying a respectful hand on +Monty's sleeve. "Effendi, you are an Eenglis lord. Be your life +and comfort on my head, but I need a hostage for my nation's sake. +You others--I admit the urgency--shall hunt the missionary lady. +If I have this one"--again he touched Monty--"I know well you will +come seeking him! You, effendi, you understand my--necessity?" + +Monty nodded, smiling gravely. There was a fire at the back of Monty's +eyes and something in his bearing I had never seen before. + +"Then I go with my colonel sahib!" announced Rustum Khan. "That +gipsy woman will kill him otherwise!" + +"Better help hunt for the lady, Rustum Khan." + +"Nay, colonel sahib bahadur--thy blood on my head! I go with thee +--into hell and out beyond if need be!" + +"You fellows agreeable?" asked Monty. "There is no disputing Kagig's +decision. We're at his mercy." + +"We've got to find Miss Vanderman!" said Will. + +"You are not at my mercy, effendi," grumbled Kagig. The man was +obviously distressed. "You are rather at my discretion. I am +responsible. For my nation's sake and for my honor I dare not lose +you. Who has not seen how a cow will follow the calf in a wagon? +So in your case, if I hold the one--the chief one--the noble one--the +lord--the cousin of the Eenglis king" (Monty's rank was mounting +like mercury in a tube as Kagig warmed to the argument) --"you others +will certainly hunt him up-hill and down-dale. Thus will my honor +and my country's cause both profit!" + +Monty smiled benignantly. + +"It's all one, Kagig. Why labor the point? I'm going with you. +Rustum Khan prefers to come with me." Kagig looked askance at Rustum +Khan, but made no comment. "One hostage is enough for your purpose. +Let me talk with my friends a minute." + +Kagig nodded, and we four drew aside. + +"Now," demanded Fred, who knew the signs, "what special quixotry +do you mean springing?" + +"Shut up, Fred. There's no need for you fellows to follow Kagig +another yard. He'll be quite satisfied if he has me in keeping. +That will serve all practical purposes. What you three must do is +find Miss Vanderman if you can, and take her back to Tarsus. There +you can help the consul bring pressure to bear on the authorities." + +"Rot!" retorted Fred. "Didums, you're drunk. Where did you get +the drink?" + +Monty smiled, for he held a card that could out-trump our best one, +and he knew it. In fact he led it straight away. + +"D'you mean to say you'd consider it decent to find that young woman +in the mountains and drag her to Zeitoon at Kagig's tail, when Tarsus +is not more than three days' ride away at most? You know the Turks +wouldn't dare touch you on the road to the coast." + +"For that matter," said Fred, "the Turks 'ud hardly dare touch Miss +Vanderman herself." + +"Then leave her in the hills!" grinned Monty. "Kagig tells me that +the Kurds are riding down in hundreds from Kaisarich way. He says +they'll arrive too late to loot the cities, but they're experts at +hunting along the mountain range. Why not leave the lady to the +tender ministrations of the Kurds!" + +"One 'ud think you and Kagig knew of buried treasure! Or has he +promised to make you Duke of Zeitoon?" asked Will. "Tisn't right, +Monty. You've no call to force our band in this way." + +"Name a better way," said Monty. + +None of us could. The proposal was perfectly logical. + +Three of us, even supposing Kagig should care to lend us some of +his Zeitoonli horsemen, would be all too few for the rescue work. +Certainly we could not leave a lady unprotected in these hills, with +the threat of plundering Kurds overhanging. If we found her we could +hardly carry her off up-country if there were any safer course. + +"Time--time is swift!" said Kagig, pulling out a watch like a big +brass turnip and shaking it, presumably to encourage the mechanism. + +"The fact is," said Monty, drawing us farther aside, for Rustum Khan +was growing restive and inquisitive, "I've not much faith in Kagig's +prospects at Zeitoon. He has talked to me all along the road, and +I don't believe he bases much reliance on his men. He counts more +on holding me as hostage and so obliging the Turkish government to +call off its murderers. If you men can rescue that lady in the hills +and return to Tarsus you can serve Kagig best and give me my best +chance too. Hurry back and help the consul raise Cain!" + +That closed the arguments, because Maga Jhaere slipped past Kagig +and approached us with the obvious intention of listening. She +had discovered a knowledge of English scarcely perfect but astonishingly +comprehensive, which she had chosen to keep to herself when we first +met--a regular gipsy trick. Fred threw down the gauntlet to her, +uncovering depths of distrust that we others had never suspected +under his air of being amused. + +"Now, miss!" he said, striding up to her. "Let us understand each +other! This is my friend." He pointed to Monty. "If harm comes +to him that you could have prevented, you shall pay!" + +Maga tossed back her loose coils of hair and laughed. + +"Never fear, sahib!" Rustum Khan called out. "If ought should happen +to my Colonel sahib that Umm Kulsum shall be first to die. The +women shall tell of her death for a generation, to frighten naughty +children!" + +"You hear that?" demanded Fred. + +Maga laughed again, and swore in some outlandish tongue. + +"I hear! And you hear this, you old--" She called Fred by a name +that would make the butchers wince in the abattoirs at Liverpool. +"If anything happens to that man,--she pointed to Will, and her +eyes blazed with lawless pleasure in his evident discomfort--"I myself +--me--this woman--I alone will keel--keel--keel--torture first and +afterwards keel your friend 'at you call Monty! I am Maga! You +have heard me say what I will do! As for that Rustum Khan--you +shall never see him no more ever!" + +Kagig pulled out the enormous watch again. He seemed oblivious of +Maga's threats--not even aware that she had spoken, although she +was hissing through impudent dazzling teeth within three yards of him. + +"The time," he said, "has fleed--has fled--has flown. Now we must +go, effendi!" + +"I go with that man!" announced Maga, pointing at Will, but obviously +well aware that nothing of the kind would be permitted. + +"Maga, come!" said Kagig, and got on his horse. "You gentlemen may +take with you each one Zeitoonli servant. No, no more. No, the +ammunition in your pockets must suffice. Yes, I know the remainder +is yours; come then to Zeitoon and get it! Haide--Haide! Mount! +Ride! Haide, Zeitoonli! To Zeitoon! Chabuk!" + + + + +Chapter Nine +"And you left your friend to help me?" + + +WITH NEW TONGUES + +Oh, bard of Avon, thou whose measured muse +Most sweetly sings Elizabethan views +To shame ungentle smiths of journalese +With thy sublimest verse, what words are these +That shine amid the lines like jewels set +But ere thine hour no bard had chosen yet? +Didst thou in masterly disdain of too much law +Not only limn the truths no others saw +But also, lord not slave of written word, +Lend ear to what no other poet heard +And, liberal minded on the Mermaid bench +With bow for blade and chaff for serving wench +Await from overseas slang-slinging Jack +Who brought the new vocabulary back? + + +So we three stood still in a row disconsolate, with three ragged +men of Zeitoon holding our horses and theirs, and watched Monty ride +away in the midst of Kagig's motley command, he not turning to wave +back to us because he did not like the parting any better than we +did, although he had pretended to be all in favor of it. + +Kagig had left us one mule for our luggage, and the beast was unlikely +to be overburdened, for at the last minute he had turned surly, and +as he sat like a general of division to watch his patch-and-string +command go by he showed how Eye of Zeitoon only failed him for a +title in giving his other eye--the one he kept on us--too little +credit. It was a good-looking crowd of irregulars that he reviewed, +and every bearded, goat-skin clad veteran in it had a word to say +to him, and he an answer--sometimes a sermon by way of answer. But +he saw every item that we removed from the common packs, and sternly +reproved us when we tried to exceed what he considered reasonable. +At that he based our probable requirements on what would have been +surfeit of encumbrance for himself. + +"Empty your pockets, effendim!" he ordered at last. "Six cartridges +each for rifle, and six each for pistol must be all. Your cartridges +I know they are. But my people are in extremity!" + +When he rode away at last, sitting his horse in the fashion of a +Don Cossack and shepherding Maga in front of him because she kept +checking her gray stallion for another look at Will, he left us no +alternative than to take to the mountains swiftly unless we cared +to starve. We watched Monty's back disappear over a rise, with Rustum +Khan close behind, and then Fred signed to one of the three Zeitoonli +to lead on. + +All three of the men Kagig had left with us were surly, mainly, no +doubt, because they disliked separation from their friends. But +there was fear, too, expressed in their manner of riding close together, +and in the fidgety way in which they watched the smoke of burning +Armenian villages that smudged the sky to our left. + +"If they try to bolt after Kagig and leave us in the lurch I'm going +to waste exactly one cartridge as a warning," Fred announced. +"After that--!" + +"Probably Kagig 'ud skin them if they turned up without us," +remarked Will. + +There was something in that theory, for we learned later what Kagig's +ferocity could be when driven hard enough. But from first to last +those men of Zeitoon never showed a symptom of treachery, although +their resentment at having to turn their backs toward home appeared +to deepen hourly. + +With strange unreason they made no haste, whereas we were in a frenzy +of impatience; and when Fred sought to improve their temper by singing +the songs that had hitherto acted like charms on Kagig's whole command, +they turned in their saddles and cursed him for calling attention to us. + +"Inch goozek?" demanded one of them (What would you like?), and with +a gesture that made the blood run cold he suggested the choice between +hanging and disembowelment. + +Will solved the speed problem by striving to push past them along +the narrow track; and they were so determined to keep in front of +us that within half an hour from the start our horses were sweating +freely. Then we began to climb, dismounting presently to lead our +horses, and all notions of speed went the way of other vanity. + +Several times looking back toward our right hand we caught sight +of Kagig's string threading its way over a rise, or passing like +a line of ants under the brow of a gravel bank. But they were too +far away to discern which of the moving specks might be Monty, although +Kagig was now and then unmistakable, his air of authority growing +on him and distinguishing him as long as he kept in sight. + +We saw nothing of the footprints in soft earth that Maga had read +so offhandedly. In fact we took another way, less cluttered up with +roots and bushes, that led not straight, but persistently toward an +up-towering crag like an eye-tooth. Below it was thick forest, shaped +like a shovel beard, and the crag stuck above the beard like an old +man's last tooth. + +But mountains have a discouraging way of folding and refolding so +that the air-line from point to point bears no relation to the length +of the trail. The last kites were drooping lazily toward their perches +for the night when we drew near the edge of the forest at last, and +were suddenly brought to a halt by a challenge from overhead. We +could see nobody. Only a hoarse voice warned us that it was death +to advance another yard, and our tired animals needed no persuasion +to stand still. + +There, under a protruding lock as it were of the beard, we waited +in shadow while an invisible somebody, whose rifle scraped rather +noisily against a branch, eyed every inch of us at his leisure. + +"Who are you?" he demanded at last in Armenian, and one of our three +men enlightened him in long-drawn detail. + +The explanation did not satisfy. We were told to remain exactly +where we were until somebody else was fetched. After twenty minutes, +when it was already pitch-dark, we heard the breaking of twigs, and +low voices as three or four men descended together among the trees. +Then we were examined again from close quarters in the dark, and +there are few less agreeable sensations. The goose-flesh rises and +the clammy cold sweat takes all the comfort out of waning courage. + +But somebody among the shadowy tree-trunks at last seemed to think +he recognized familiar attitudes, and asked again who we might be. +And, weary of explanations that only achieved delay our man lumped +us all in one invoice and snarled irritably: + +"These are Americans!" + +The famous "Open sesame" that unlocked Ali Baba's cave never worked +swifter then. Reckless of possible traps no less than five men flung +themselves out of Cimmerian gloom and seized us in welcoming arms. +I was lifted from the saddle by a man six inches shorter than myself, +whose arms could have crushed me like an insect. + +"We might have known Americans would bring us help!" he panted in +my ear. His breath came short not from effort, but excitement. + +Fred was in like predicament. I could just see his shadow struggling +in the embrace of an enthusiastic host, and somewhere out of sight +Will was answering in nasal indubitable Yankee the questions of three +other men. + +"This way! Come this way! Bring the horses, oh, Zeitoonli! Americans! +Americans! God heard us--there have come Americans!" + +Threading this and that way among tree-trunks that to our unaccustomed +eyes were simply slightly denser blots on blackness, Will managed +to get between Fred and me. + +"We're all of us Yankees this trip!" he whispered, and I knew he +was grinning, enjoying it hugely. So often he had been taken for +an Englishman because of partnership with us that he had almost ceased +to mind; but he spared himself none of the amusement to be drawn +out of the new turn of affairs, nor us any of the chaff that we had +never spared him. + +"Take my advice," he said, "and try to act you're Yanks for all you've +got. If you can make blind men believe it, you may get out of this +with whole skins!" + +I expected the retort discourteous to that from Fred, who was between +Will and me, shepherded like us by hard-breathing, unseen men. But +he was much too subtly skilful in piercing the chain-mail of Will's +humor--even in that hour. + +"Sure!" he answered. "I guess any gosh-durned rube in these parts +'ll know without being told what neck o' the woods I hail from. +Schenectady's my middle name! I'm--" + +"Oh, my God!" groaned Will. "We don't talk that way in the States. +The missionaries--" + +"I'm the guy who put the 'oh!' in Ohio!" continued Fred. "I'm running +mate to Colonel Cody, and I've ridden herd on half the cows in Hocuspocus +County, Wis.! I can sing The Star-Spangled Banner with my head under +water, and eat a chain of frankforts two links a minute! I'm the +riproaring original two-gun man from Tabascoville, and any gink who +doubts it has no time to say his prayers!" + +There were paragraphs more of it, delivered at uneven intervals between +deep gasps for breath as we made unsteady progress up-hill among +roots and rocks left purposely for the confusion of an enemy. At +first it filled Will with despair that set me laughing at him. Then +Will threw seriousness to the winds and laughed too, so that the +spell of impending evil, caused as much as anything by forced separation +from Monty, was broken. + +But it did better than put us in rising spirits. It convinced the +Armenians! That foolish jargon, picked up from comic papers and +the penny dreadfuls, convince more firmly than any written proof +the products of the mission schools, whose one ambition was to be +American themselves, and whose one pathetic peak of humor was the +occasional glimpse of United States slang dropped for their edification +by missionary teachers! + +"By jimminy!" remarked an Armenian near me. + +"Gosh-all-hemlocks!" said another. + +Thenceforward nothing undermined their faith in us. Plenty of amused +repudiation was very soon forthcoming from another source, but it +passed over their heads. Fred and I, because we used fool expressions +without relation to the context or proportion, were established as +the genuine article; Will, perhaps a rather doubtful quantity with +his conservative grammar and quiet speech, was accepted for our sakes. +They took an arm on either side of us to help us up the hill, and +in proof of heart-to-heart esteem shouted "Oopsidaisy!" when we stumbled +in the pitchy dark. When we were brought to a stand at last by a +snarled challenge and the click of rifles overhead, they answered +with the chorus of Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, a classic that ought to have +died an unnatural death almost a quarter of a century before. + +Suddenly we smelt Standard oil, and a man emerged through a gap in +ancient masonry less than six feet away carrying a battered, cheap +"hurricane" lantern whose cracked glass had been reenforced with +patches of brown paper. He was armed to the teeth--literally. He +had a long knife in his mouth, a pistol in his left hand, and a rifle +slung behind him, but after one long look at us, holding the lantern +to each face in turn, he suddenly discarded all appearances of ferocity. + +"You know about pistols?" he demanded of me in English, because I +was nearest, and thrust his Mauser repeater under my nose. "Why +won't this one work? I have tried it every way." + +"Lordy!" remarked Will. + +"Lead on in!" I suggested. Then, remembering my new part, "It'll +have to be some defect if one of us can't fix it!" + +The gap-guard purred approval and swung his lantern by way of invitation +to follow him as he turned on a naked heel and led the way. We entered +one at a time through a hole in the wall of what looked like the +dungeon of an ancient castle, and followed him presently up the narrow +stone steps leading to a trap-door in the floor above. The trap-door +was made of odds and ends of planking held in place by weights. +When he knocked on it with the muzzle of his rifle we could hear +men lifting things before they could open it. + +When a gap appeared overhead at last there was no blaze of light +to make us blink, but a row of heads at each edge of the hole with +nothing but another lantern somewhere in the gloom behind them. +One by one we went up and they made way for us, closing in each time +to scan the next-comer's face; and when we were all up they laid +the planks again, and piled heavy stones in place. Then an old man +lighted another lantern, using no match, although there was a box +of them beside him on the floor, but transferring flame patiently +with a blade of dry grass. Somebody else lit a torch of resinous +wood that gave a good blaze but smoked abominably. + +"What has become of our horses?" demanded Fred, looking swiftly +about him. + +We were in a great, dim stone-walled room whose roof showed a corner +of star-lit sky in one place. There were twenty men surrounding +us, but no woman. Two trade-blankets sewn together with string hanging +over an opening in the wall at the far end of the room suggested, +nevertheless, that the other sex might be within ear-shot. + +"The horses?" Fred demanded again, a bit peremptorily. + +One of the men who had met us smirked and made apologetic motions +with his hands. + +"They will be attended to, effendi--" + +"I know it! I guarantee it! By the ace of brute force, if a horse +is missing--! Arabaiji!" + +One of our three Zeitoonli stepped forward. + +"Take the other two men, Arabaiji, and go down to the horses. Groom +them. Feed them. If any one prevents you, return and tell me." +Then he turned to our hosts. "Some natives of Somaliland once ate +my horse for supper, but I learned that lesson. So did they! I +trust I needn't be severe with you!" + +There was no furniture in the room, except a mat at one corner. +They were standing all about us, and perfectly able to murder us +if so disposed, but none made any effort to restrain our Zeitoonli. + +"Now we're three to their twenty!" I whispered, and Will nodded. +But Fred carried matters with a high hand. + +"Send a man down with them to show them where the horses are, please!" + +There seemed to be nobody in command, but evidently one man was least +of all, for they all began at once to order him below, and he went, +grumbling. + +"You see, effendi, we have no meat at all," said the man who had +spoken first. + +"But you don't look hungry," asserted Fred. + +They were a ragged crowd, unshaven and not too clean, with the usual +air of men whose only clothes are on their backs and have been there +for a week past. All sorts of clothes they wore--odds and ends for +the most part, probably snatched and pulled on in the first moment +of a night alarm. + +"Not yet, effendi. But we have no meat, and soon we shall have eaten +all the grain." + +"Well," said Fred, "if you need horse-meat, gosh durn you, take it +from the Turks!" + +"Gosh durn you!" grinned three or four men, nudging one another. + +They were lost between a furtive habit born of hiding for dear life, +a desire to be extremely friendly, and a new suspicion of Fred's +high hand. Fred's next words added disconcertment. + +"Where is Miss Vanderman?" he demanded, suddenly. + +Before any one had time to answer Will made a swift move to the wall, +and took his stand where nobody could get behind him. He did not +produce his pistol, but there was that in his eye that suggested +it. I followed suit, so that in the event of trouble we stood a +fair chance of protecting Fred. + +"What do you mean?" asked three Armenians together. + +"Did you never see men try to cover a secret before?" Will whispered. + +"Or give it away?" I added. Six of the men placed themselves between +Fred and the opening where the blankets hung, ostentatiously not +looking at the blankets. + +"Have you an American lady with you?" Fred asked, and as he spoke +he reached a hand behind him. But it was not his pistol that he drew. +He carries his concertina slung to him by a strap with the care that +some men lavish on a camera. He took it in both hands, and loosed +the catch. + +"Have you an American lady named Miss Vanderman with you?" he repeated. + +"Effendi, we do not understand." + +He repeated in Armenian, and then in Turkish, but they shook their +heads. + +"Very well," he said, "I'll soon find out. A mission-school pupil +might sing My Country, 'Tis of Thee or Suwannee River or Poor Blind +Joe. You know Poor Blind Joe, eh? Sung it in school? I thought +so. I'll bet you don't know this one." + +He filled his impudent instrument with wind and forthwith the belly +of that ancient castle rang to the strains of a tune no missionaries +sing, although no doubt the missionary ladies are familiar with it +yet from where the Arctic night shuts down on Behring Sea to the +Solomon Islands and beyond--a song that achieved popularity by lacking +national significance, and won a war by imparting recklessness to +typhus camps. I was certain then, and still dare bet to-day that +those ruined castle walls re-echoed for the first time that evening +to the clamor of '--a hot time in the old town to-night!" + +Seeing the point in a flash, we three roared the song together, and +then again, and then once more for interest, the Armenians eying +us spell-bound, at a loss to explain the madness. Then there began +to be unexplained movements behind the blanket hanging; and a minute +later a woman broke through -an unmistakable Armenian, still good-looking +but a little past the prime of life, and very obviously mentally +distressed. She scarcely took notice of us, but poured forth a long +flow of rhetoric interspersed with sobs for breath. I could see +Fred chuckling as he listened. All the facial warnings that a dozen +men could make at the woman from behind Fred's back could not check +her from telling all she knew. + +Nor were Will and I, who knew no Armenian, kept in doubt very long +as to the nature of her trouble. We heard another woman's voice, +behind two or three sets of curtains by the sound of it, that came +rapidly nearer; and there were sounds of scuffling. Then we +heard words. + +"Please play that tune again, whoever you are! Do you hear me? +Do you understand?" + +"Boston!" announced Will, diagnosing accents. + +"You bet your life I understand!" Fred shouted, and clanged through +half a dozen bars again. + +That seemed satisfactory to the owner of the voice. The scuffling +was renewed, and in a moment she had burst through the crude curtains +with two women clinging to her, and stood there with her brown hair +falling on her shoulders and her dress all disarrayed but looking +simply serene in contrast to the women who tried to restrain her. +They tried once or twice to thrust her back through the curtain, +although clearly determined to do her no injury; but she held her +ground easily. At a rough guess it was tennis and boating that had +done more for her muscles than ever strenuous housework did for the +Armenians. + +"Who are you?" she asked, and Will laughed with delight. + +"I reckon you'll be Miss Vanderman?' suggested Fred in outrageous +Yankee accent. She stared hard at him. + +"I am Miss Vanderman. Who are you, please. + +I sat down on the great stone they had rolled over the trap, for +even in that flickering, smoky light I could see that this young +woman was incarnate loveliness as well as health and strength. Will +was our only ladies' man (for Fred is no more than random troubadour, +decamping before any love-affair gets serious). The thought conjured +visions of Maga, and what she might do. For about ten seconds my +head swam, and I could hardly keep my feet. + +Will left the opening bars of the overture to Fred, with rather the +air of a man who lets a trout have line. And Fred blundered +in contentedly. + +"I'll allow my name is Oakes--Fred Oakes," he said. + +"Please explain!" She looked from one to the other of us. + +"We three are American towerists, going the grand trip." (Remember, +a score of Armenians were listening. Fred's intention was at least +as much to continue their contentment as to extract humor from the +situation.) "You being reported missing we allowed to pick you up +and run you in to Tarsus. Air you agreeable?" + +The women were still clinging to her as if their whole future depended +on keeping her prisoner, yet without hurt. She looked down at them +pathetically, and then at the men, who were showing no disposition +to order her release. + +"I don't understand in the least yet. I find you bewildering. Can +you contrive to let us talk for a few minutes alone?" + +"You bet your young life I can!" + +Fred stepped to the wall beside us, but we none of us drew pistol +yet. We had no right to presume we were not among friends. + +"Thirty minutes interlude!" he announced. "The man who stands in +this room one minute from now, or who comes back to the room without +my leave, is not my friend, and shall learn what that means!" + +He repeated the soft insinuation in Armenian, and then in Turkish +because he knows that language best. There is not an Armenian who +has not been compelled to learn Turkish for all official purposes, +and unconsciously they gave obedience to the hated conquerors' tongue, +repressing the desire to argue that wells perennially in Armenian +breasts. They had not been long enough enjoying stolen liberty to +overcome yet the full effects of Turkish rule. + +"And oblige me by leaving that lady alone with us!" Fred continued. +"Let those dames fall away!" + +Somebody said something to the women. Another Armenian remarked +more or less casually that we should be unable to escape from the +room in any case. The others rolled the great stone from the trap +and shoved the smaller stones aside, and then they all filed down +the stone stairs, leaving us alone--although by the trembling blankets +it was easy to tell that the women had not gone far. The last man +who went below handed the spluttering torch to Miss Vanderman, as +if she might need it to defend herself, and she stood there shaking +it to try and make it smoke less until the planks were back in place. +She was totally unconscious of it, but with the torch-light gleaming +on her hair and reflected in her blue eyes she looked like the spirit +of old romance come forth to start a holy war. + +"Now please explain!" she begged, when I had pushed the last stone +in place. "First, what kind of Americans can you possibly be? Do +you all use such extraordinary accents, and such expressions?" + +"Don't I talk American to beat the band?" objected Fred. "Sit down +on this rock a while, and I'll convince you." + +She sat on the rock, and we gathered round her. She was not more +than twenty-two or three, but as perfectly assured and fearless as +only a well-bred woman can be in the presence of unshaven men she +does not know. Fred would have continued the tomfoolery, but Will +oared in. + +"I'm Will Yerkes, Miss Vanderman." + +"Oh!" + +"I know Nurse Vanderman at the mission." + +"Yes, she spoke of you." + +"Fred Oakes here is--" + +"Is English as they make them, yes, I know! Why the amazing efforts to--" + +"I stand abashed, like the leopard with the spots unchangeable!" +said Fred, and grinned most unashamedly. + +"They're both English." + +"Yes, I see, but why--" + +"It's only as good Americans that we three could hope to enter here +alive. They're death on all other sorts of non-Armenians now they've +taken to the woods. We supposed you were here, and of course we +had to come and get you." + +She nodded. "Of course. But how did you know?" + +"That's a long story. Tell us first why you're here, and why you're +a prisoner." + +"I was going to the mission at Marash--to stay a year there and help, +before returning to the States. They warned me in Tarsus that the +trip might be dangerous, but I know how short-handed they are at +Marash, and I wouldn't listen. Besides, they picked the best men +they could find to bring me on the way, and I started. I had a Turkish +permit to travel--a teskere they call it--see, I have it here. It +was perfectly ridiculous to think of my not going." + +"Perfectly!" Fred agreed. "Any young woman in your place would have +come away!" + +She laughed, and colored a trifle. "Women and men are equals in +the States, Mr. Oakes." + +"And the Turk ought to know that! I get you, Miss Vanderman! I +see the point exactly!" + +"At any rate, I started. And we slept at night in the houses of +Armenians whom my guides knew, so that the journey wasn't bad at +all. Everything was going splendidly until we reached a sort of +crossroads--if you can call those goat-tracks roads without stretching +truth too far--and there three men came galloping toward us on blown +horses from the direction of Marash. We could hardly get them to +stop and tell us what the trouble was, they were in such a hurry, +but I set my horse across the path and we held them up." + +"As any young lady would have done!" Fred murmured. + +"Never mind. I did it! They told us, when they could get their breath +and quit looking behind them like men afraid of ghosts, that the +Turks in Marash--which by all accounts is a very fanatical place--had +started to murder Armenians. They yelled at me to turn and run. + +" 'Run where?' I asked them. 'The Turks won't murder me!' + +"That seemed to make them think, and they and my six men all talked +together in Armenian much too fast for me to understand a word of +it. Then they pointed to some smoke on the sky-line that they said +was from burning Armenian homes in Marash. + +" 'Why didn't you take refuge in the mission?' I asked them. And +they answered that it was because the mission grounds were already +full of refugees. + +"Well, if that were true--and mind you, I didn't believe it--it was +a good reason why I should hurry there and help. If the mission +staff was overworked before that they would be simply overwhelmed +now. So I told them to turn round and come to Marash with me and +my six men." + +"And what did they say?" we demanded together. + +"They laughed. They said nothing at all to me. Perhaps they thought +I was mad. They talked together for five minutes, and then without +consulting me they seized my bridle and galloped up a goat-path that +led after a most interminable ride to this place." + +"Where they hold you to ransom?" + +"Not at all. They've been very kind to me. I think that at the +bottom of their thoughts there may be some idea of exchanging me +for some of their own women whom the Turks have made away with. +But a stronger motive than that is the determination to keep me safe +and be able to produce me afterward in proof of their bona fides. +They've got me here as witness, for another thing. And then, I've +started a sort of hospital in this old keep. There are literally +hundreds of men and women hiding in these hills, and the women are +beginning to come to me for advice, and to talk with me. I'm pretty +nearly as useful here as I would be at Marash." + +"And you're--let's see--nineteen-twenty--one--two--not more than +twenty-two," suggested Fred. + +"Is intelligence governed by age and sex in England." she retorted, +and Fred smiled in confession of a hit. + +"Go on," said Will. "Tell us." + +"There's nothing more to tell. When I started to run toward the--ah +--music, the women tried to prevent me. They knew Americans had +come, and they feared you might take me away." + +"They were guessing good!" grinned Will. + +She shook her head, and the loosened coils of hair fell lower. One +could hardly have blamed a man who had desired her in that lawless +land and sought to carry her off. The Armenian men must have been +temptation proof, or else there had been safety in numbers. + +"I shall stay here. How could I leave them? The women need me. +There are babies--daily--almost hourly--here in these lean hills, +and no organized help of any kind until I came." + +"How long have you been here?" I asked. + +"Nearly two days. Wait till I've been here a week and you'll see." + +"We can't wait to see!" Will answered. "We've a friend of our own +in a tight place. The best we can do is to rescue you--" + +"I don't need to be rescued!" + +"--to rescue you--take you back to Tarsus, where you'll be safe until +the trouble's over--and then hurry to the help of our own man." + +"Who is your own man? Tell me about him." + +"He's a prince." + +"Really?" + +"No, really an earl--Earl of Montdidier. White. White all through +to the wish-bone. Whitest man I ever camped with. He's the goods." + +"If you'd said less I'd have skinned you for an ingrate!" Fred +announced. "Monty is a man men love." + +Miss Vanderman nodded. "Where is he?" + +"On the way to a place called Zeitoon," answered Will. + +"He's a hostage, held by Armenians in the hope of putting pressure +on the Turks. Kagig--the Armenians, that's to say--let us go to +rescue you, knowing that he was sufficiently important for +their purpose." + +"And you left your friend to help me?" + +"Of course. What do you suppose?" + +"And if I were to go with you to Tarsus, what then?" + +"He says we're to ride herd on the consulate and argue." + +"Will you?" + +"Sure we'll argue. We'll raise particular young hell. Then back +we go to Zeitoon to join him!" + +"Would you have gone to Tarsus except on my account?" + +Will hesitated. + +"No. I see. Of course you wouldn't. Well. What do you take me +for? You did not know me then. You do now. Do you think I'd consent +to your leaving your fine friend in pawn while you dance attendance +on me? Thank you kindly for your offer, but go back to him! If +you don't I'll never speak to one of you again!" + + + + +Chapter Ten +"When I fire this Pistol--" + + +THESE LITTLE ONES + +If Life were what the liars say +And failure called the tune +Mayhap the road to ruin then +Were cluttered deep wi' broken men; +We'd all be seekers blindly led +To weave wi' worms among the dead, +If Life were what the liars say +And failure called the tune. + +But Life is Father of us all +(Dear Father, if we knew!) +And underneath eternal arms +Uphold. We'll mock the false alarms, +And trample on the neck of pain, +And laugh the dead alive again, +For Life is Father to us all, +And thanks are overdue! + +If Truth were what the learned say +And envy called the tune +Mayhap 'twere trite what treason saith +That man is dust and ends in death; +We'd slay with proof of printed law +Whatever was new that seers saw, +If Truth were what the learned say +And envy called the tune. + +But Truth is Brother of us all +(Oh, Brother, if we knew!) +Unspattered by the muddied lies +That pass for wisdom of the wise-- +Compassionate, alert, unbought, +Of purity and presence wrought,-- +Big Brother that includes us all +Nor knows the name of Few! + +If Love were what the harlots say +And hunger called the tune +Mayhap we'd need conserve the joys +Weighed grudgingly to girls and boys, +And eat the angels trapped and sold +By shriven priests for stolen gold, +If Love were what the harlots say +And hunger called the tune. + +But Love is Mother of us all +(Dear Mother, if we knew!)-- +So wise that not a sparrow falls, +Nor friendless in the prison calls +Uncomforted or uncaressed. +There's magic milk at Mercy's breast, +And little ones shall lead us all +When Trite Love calls the tune! + + +Naturally, being what we were, with our friend Monty held in durance +by a chief of outlaws, we were perfectly ready to kidnap Miss Vanderman +and ride off with her in case she should be inclined to delay +proceedings. It was also natural that we had not spoken of that +contingency, nor even considered it. + +"We never dreamed of your refusing to come with us," said Will. + +"We still don't dream of it!" Fred asserted, and she turned her head +very swiftly to look at him with level brows. Next she met my eyes. +If there was in her consciousness the slightest trace of doubt, or +fear, or admission that her sex might be less responsible than ours, +she did not show it. Rather in the blue eyes and the athletic poise +of chin, and neck, and shoulders there was a dignity beyond ours. + +Will laughed. + +"Don't let's be ridiculous," she said. "I shall do as I see fit." + +Fred's neat beard has a trick of losing something of its trim when +he proposes to assert himself, and I recognized the symptoms. But +at the moment of that impasse the Armenians below us had decided +that self-assertion was their cue, and there came great noises as +they thundered with a short pole on the trap and made the stones +jump that held it down. + +At that signal several women emerged from behind the hanging blankets +--young and old women in various states of disarray--and stood in +attitudes suggestive of aggression. One did not get the idea that +Armenians, men or women, were sheeplike pacifists. They watched +Miss Vanderman with the evident purpose of attacking us the moment +she appealed to them. + +"If you don't roll the stones away I think there'll be trouble," +she said, and came and stood between Will and me. Fred got behind +me, and began to whisper. I heard something or other about the trap, +and supposed he was asking me to open it, although I failed to see +why the request should be kept secret; but the women forestalled +me, and in a moment they had the stones shoved aside and the men +were emerging one by one through the opening. + +Then at last I got Fred's meaning. There was a second of indecision +during which the Armenians consulted their women-folk, in two minds +between snatching Miss Vanderman out of our reach or discovering +first what our purpose might be. I took advantage of it to slip +down the stone stairs behind them. + +The opening in the castle wall was easy to find, for the star-lit +sky looked luminous through the hole. Once outside, however, the +gloom of ancient trees and the castle's shadow seemed blacker than +the dungeon had been. I groped about, and stumbled over loose stones +fallen from the castle wall, until at last one of our own Zeitoonli +discovered me and, thinking I might be a trouble-maker, tripped me +up. Cursing fervently from underneath his iron-hard carcass I made +him recognize me at last. Then he offered me tobacco, unquestionably +stolen from our pack, and sat down beside me on a rock while I recovered +breath. + +It took longer to do that than he expected, for he had enjoyed the +advantage of surprise while hampered by no compunctions on the ground +of moderation. When the agony of windlessness was gone and I could +question him he assured me that the horses were well enough, but +that he and his two companions were hungry. Furthermore, he added, +the animals were very closely watched--so much so that the other +two, Sombat and Noorian, were standing guard to watch the watchers. + +"But I am sure they are fools," he added. + +This man Arabaiji had been an excellent servant, but decidedly +supercilious toward the others from the time when he first came to +us in the khan at Tarsus. Regarding himself as intelligent, which +he was, he usually refused to concede that quality, or anything +resembling it, to his companions. + +"That is why I was looking for you when you hit me in the dark with +that club of a fist of yours," I answered. "I wanted to speak with +you alone because I know you are not a fool." + +He felt so flattered that he promptly let his pipe go out. + +"While Sombat and Noorian are keeping an eye on the horses, I want +you to watch for trouble up above here," I said. "In case the people +of this place should seek to make us prisoner, then I want you to +gallop, if you can get your horse, and run otherwise, to the nearest--" + +He checked me with a gesture and one word. + +"Kagig!" + +"What about him?" I demanded. + +"If I were to bring Turks here, Kagig would never rest until my fingers +were pulled off one by one!" + +"If you were to bring Turks here, or appeal to Turks," said I, "Kagig +would never get you." + +"How not?" + +"Unless he should find your dead carcass after my friends and I had +finished with it!" + +"What then?" + +He lighted his pipe again by way of reestablishing himself in his +own esteem, and it glowed and crackled wetly in the dark beside me +in response to the workings of his intelligence. + +"In case of trouble up here, and our being held prisoner, go and +find other Armenians, and order them in Kagig's name to come and +rescue us." + +"Those who obey Kagig are with Kagig," he answered. + +"Surely not all?" + +"All that Kagig could gather to him after eleven years!" + +"In that case go to Kagig, and tell him." + +"Kagig would not come. He holds Zeitoon." + +"Are you a fool?" + +"Not I! The other two are fools." + +"Then do you understand that in case these people should make +us prisoner--" + +He nodded. "They might. They might propose to sell you to the +Turks, perhaps against their own stolen women-folk." + +"Then don't you see that if you were gone, and I told them you had +gone to bring Kagig, they would let us go rather than face +Kagig's wrath?" + +"But Kagig would not come." + +"I know that. But how should they know it?" + +I knew that be nodded again by the motion of the glowing tobacco +in his pipe. It glowed suddenly bright, as a new idea dawned on +him. He was an honest fellow, and did not conceal the thought. + +"Kagig would not send me back to you," he said. "He is short of +men at Zeitoon." + +"Never mind," said I. "In case of trouble up above here, but not +otherwise, will you do that?" + +"Gladly. But give it me in writing, lest Kagig have me beaten for +running from you without leave." + +That was my turn to jump at a proposal. I tore a sheet from my +memorandum book, and scribbled in the dark, knowing be could not +read what I had written. + +"This writing says that you did not run away until you had made quite +sure we were in difficulties. So, if you should run too soon, and +we should not be in difficulties after all, Kagig would learn that +sooner or later. What would Kagig do in that case?" + +"He would throw me over the bridge at Zeitoon--if he could catch +me! Nay! I play no tricks." + +"Good. Then go and hide. Hide within call. Within an hour, or +at most two hours we shall know how the land lies. If all should +be well I will change that writing for another one, and send you +to Kagig in any case. No more words now--go and hide!" + +He put his pipe out with his thumb, and took two strides into a shadow, +and was gone. Then I went back through the gap in the dungeon wall, +and stumbled to the stairs. Apparently not missing me yet, they +had covered up the trap, and I had to hammer on it for admission. +They were not pleased when my head appeared through the hole, and +they realized that I had probably held communication with our men. +I suppose Fred saw by my face that I had accomplished what I went +for, because he let out a laugh like a fox's bark that did nothing +toward lessening the tension. + +On the other hand it was quite clear that during my absence Miss +Vanderman had not been idle. Excepting the two men who had admitted +me, every one was seated--she on the floor among the women, with +her back to the wall, and the rest in a semicircle facing them. +Two of the women had their arms about her, affectionately, but not +without a hint of who controlled the situation. + +"What have you been doing?" Fred demanded, and be laughed at Gloria +Vanderman with an air of triumph. + +"Making preparations," I said, "to take Miss Vanderman to Tarsus." + +I wish I could set down here a chart of the mixed emotions then +expressed on that young lady's face. She did not look at Will, +knowing perhaps that she already had him captive of her bow and spear. +Neither did Will look at us, but sat tracing figures with a forefinger +in the dust between his knees, wondering perhaps how to excuse or +explain, and getting no comfort. + +If my guess was correct, Gloria Vanderman was about equally distracted +between the alternative ignominy of submitting her free will to Armenians +or else to us. Compassion for the women in their predicament weighed +one way--knowledge that our friend Monty was in durance vile contingent +on her actions pulled heavily another Fred was frankly enjoying himself, +which influenced her strongly toward the Armenian side, she being +young and, doubtless the idol of a hundred heart-sick Americans, +contemptuous of forty-year-old bachelors. + +"Of course we shall not let you go!" one of the Armenians assured +her in quite good English, and I began fumbling at the pistol in +my inner pocket, for if Arabaiji was to run to Zeitoon, then the +sooner the better. But it needed only that imputation of helplessness +to tip the beam of Miss Gloria's judgment. + +"You can attend to the sick ones. You can play music for us all. +Doubtless these other two have qualifications." + +I was too busy admiring Gloria to know what effect that announcement +had on Fred and Will. She shook herself free from the women, and +stood up, splendid in the flickering yellow light. There was a sort +of swift move by every one to be ready against contingencies, and +I judged it the right moment to spring my own surprise. + +"When I fire this pistol," I said, producing it, "a man will start +at once for Zeitoon to warn Kagig. He has a note in his pocket written +to Kagig. Judge for yourselves how long it will take Kagig and his +men to reach this place!" + +The nearest man made a very well-judged spring at me and pinned my +elbows from behind. Another man knocked the pistol from my hand. +The women seized Gloria again. But Fred was too quick--drew his +own pistol, and fired at the roof. + +"Twice, Fred!" I shouted, and he fired again. + +"There!" said I. "Do what you like. The messenger has gone!" + +And then Gloria shook herself free a last time, and took command. + +"Is that true?" she demanded. + +I nodded. "The best of our three men was to start on his way the +minute he heard the second shot." + +Then I was sure she was Boadicea reincarnate, whether the old-time +British queen did or did not have blue eyes and brown hair. + +"I will not have brave men brought back here on my account! Kagig +must be a patriot! He needs all his men! I don't blame him for +making a hostage of Lord Montdidier! I would do the same myself!" + +Will had evidently given her a pretty complete synopsis of our +adventure while I was outside talking with Arabaiji. It is always +a mystery to the British that Americans should hold themselves a +race apart and rally to each other as if the rest of the Anglo-Saxon +race were foreigners, but those two had obeyed the racial rule. +They understood each other--swiftly--a bar and a half ahead of +the tune. + +"This old castle is no good!" she went on, not raising her voice +very high, but making it ring with the wholesomeness of youth, and +youth's intolerance of limits. "The Turks could come to this place +and burn it within a day if they chose!" + +"The Turks won't trouble. They'll send their friends the Kurds instead," +Fred assured her. + +"Ah-h-h-gh !" growled the Armenians, but she waved them back to silence. + +"How much food have you? Almost none! How much ammunition?" + +"Ah-h-h-h!" they chorused in a very different tone of voice. + +"D'you mean you've got cartridges here?" Fred demanded. + +"Fifty cases of cartridges for government Mauser rifles!" bragged +the man who was nearest to Will. + +"Gee! Kagig 'ud give his eyes for them!" (Will devoted his eyes +to the more poetic purpose of exchanging flashed encouragement +with Gloria.) + +"Men, women and children--how many of you are there?" + +"Who knows? Who has counted? They keep coming." + +"No, they don't. You've set a guard to keep any more away for fear +the food won't last--I know you have! Well--what does it matter +how many you are? I say let us all go to Zeitoon and help Kagig!" + +"Oh, bravo!" shouted Fred, but it was Will's praise that proved +acceptable and made her smile. + +"Second the motion!" + +I added a word or two by way of make-weight, that did more as a matter +of fact than her young ardor to convince those very skeptical men +and women. No doubt she broke up their determination to sit still, +but it was my words that set them on a course. + +"Kagig will be angry when he comes. He's a ruthless man," said I, +and the Armenians, men as well as women, sought one another's eyes +and nodded. + +"Kagig must be more of a ruthless bird than we guessed!" Will whispered. + +Counting women, there was less than a score of refugees in the room, +and if we had only had them to convince, our work was pretty nearly +done. There was the guard among the trees down-hill that we knew +about still to be converted, or perhaps coerced. But just at the +moment when we felt we held the winning hand, there came a ladder +thrust down through the hole in the corner of the roof, and a man +whom they all greeted as Ephraim began to climb down backward. He +was so loaded with every imaginable kind of weapon that he made more +noise than a tinker's cart. + +Nor was Ephraim the only new arrival. Man after man came down backward +after him, each man cursed richly for treading on his predecessor's +fingers--a seeming endless chain of men that did not cease when the +room was already uncomfortably overcrowded. Some of these men wore +clothes that suggested Russia, but the majority were in rags. The +ladder swayed and creaked under them, and finally, at a word from +Ephraim, the last-comers sat on the upper rungs, bending the frail +thing with their weight into a complaining loop. + +Several of the newcomers had torches, and their acrid smoke turned +the twice-breathed air of the place into evil-tasting fog. + +Three men put their faces close to Ephraim's and proceeded to enlighten +him as to what had passed. He seemed to be recognized as some sort +of chieftain, and carried himself with a commanding air, but so many +men talked at once, and all in Armenian, that we could not pick out +more than a word or two here and there. Even Fred, with his gift +of tongues, could hardly make head or tail of it. + +We three pressed through the swarm and took our stand beside Gloria, +not hesitating to thrust the other women aside. They dragged at their +men-folk to call attention to us, but the argument was too hot to +be missed, and the women clawed and screamed in vain. + +"I believe we could get out!" I shouted in Will's ear. But he shook +his head. At least six men were standing on the trap, and we could +not have driven them off it because there was no other space on the +floor that they could occupy. So I turned to Fred. + +"Couldn't we shake those ruffians off the ladder, and climb up it +and escape?" I shouted. But Fred shook his head, and went on listening, +trying to follow the course of the dispute. + +At last somebody with louder lungs than any other man made Ephraim +understand that it was I who sent the messenger to Zeitoon. Instantly +that solved the problem to his mind. I should be hanged, and that +would be all about it. He gesticulated. The men swarmed down off +the ladder to the already overcrowded floor, and mistaking Will for +me several men started to thrust him forward. A face appeared through +the hole in the roof and its owner was sent running for a rope. +I had not recovered my pistol, and my rifle was slung at my back +where I could not possibly get at it for the crowd. But Fred had +a Colt repeater handy in his hip-pocket and he promptly screwed the +muzzle of it into Ephraim's ear. What he said to him I don't know, +but Ephraim's convictions underwent a change of base and he began +to yell for silence. The men who had seized Will let go of him just +as the rope with a disgusting noose in the end was lowered through +the roof. And then Ossa was imposed on Pelion. + +A new face appeared at the hole. Not that we could see the face. +We could only see the form of a man who shook the bloody stump of +a forearm at us, and shrieked unintelligible things. After thirty +seconds even the men in the far corner were aware of him, and then +there was stony silence while he had his say. He repeated his message +a dozen times, as if he had it by heart exactly, spitting foam out +of his mouth and never ceasing to shake the butchered stump of an +arm. At about the dozenth time he fainted and fell headlong down +the ladder bringing up on the shoulders of the men below. + +"What does he say?" I bellowed in Fred's car. But Fred was forcing +his way closer to Gloria, to tell her. + +"He says the Kurds are coming! He says two regiments of Kurdish +cavalry have been turned loose by the Turks with orders to 'rescue' +Armenians. They are on their way, riding by night for a wonder. +They cut both his hands off, but he got away by shamming dead. + +He says they are cutting off the feet of people and bidding them +walk to Tarsus. They are taking the women and girls for sale. Old +women and very little children they are making what they call sport +with. Have you heard of Kurds? Their ideas of sport are worse than +the Red-man's ever were." + +Every tongue in the room broke loose. In another second every man +was still. They looked toward Ephraim. He who could order a hanging +so glibly should shoulder the new responsibility. + +But Ephraim was not ready with a plan, and could not speak English. +Wild-eyed, he seized the lapel of my coat in trembling fingers, and +with a throat grown suddenly parched, crackled a question at me in +Armenian. I could have understood Volopuk easier. + +"What does he say, Fred?" + +"He wants to know how soon Kagig can be here." + +"Kagig!" Ephraim echoed, clutching at my collar. "Yes, yes, yes! +Kagig! Come--how soon?" + +"We shall be all right," said another man in English over on the +far side of the room. His hoarse voice sounded like a bellow in +the silence. "Kagig will come presently. Kagig will butcher the +Kurds. Kagig will certainly save us." + +"Kagig!" Ephraim insisted. "Come----how soon?" + +But I knew Kagig would not come, that night or at any time, and Ephraim +shook me in frenzied impatience for an answer. + + + + +Chapter Eleven +"That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" + + +"MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM" + +The ancient orders pass. The fetters fall. +All-potent inspiration stirs dead peoples to new birth. +And over bloodied fields a new, clear call +Rings kindlier on deadened ears of earth. +Man--male--usurping--unwise overlord, +Indoctrinated, flattered, by himself betrayed +And all-betraying since with idiot word +He bade his woman bear and be afraid, +Awakes to see delusion of the past +Unmourned along with all injustice die, +Himself by woman wisdom blessed at last +And her unchallenged right the reason why. + + +Now for a moment I became the unwilling vortex of that mob of anxious +men and women--I who by, my own confession knew Kagig, I who had +sent Kagig a message, I who five minutes ago was on the verge of +being hanged in the greasy noose that still swung above the ladder +through the hole in the roof--I who therefore ought to be thoroughly +plastic-minded and obedient to demands. + +The place had become as evil smelling as the Black Hole of Calcutta. +Everybody was sweating, and they shoved and milled murderously in +the effort to get near me and learn, each with his own ears from +my lips, just when Kagig might be expected. Ephraim, their presumptive +leader, got shuffled to the outside of the pack--the only silent +man between the four walls, watchful for new opportunity. + +With my clothing nearly torn off and cars in agony from bellowed +questions, the only remedy I could think of was to yell to Fred to +start up a tune on his concertina; I had seen him change a crowd's +temper many a time in just that way. But even supposing my advice +had been good, he could not get his arms free, and it was Gloria +Vanderman who saved that day. + +Whoever has tried to write down the quality that makes the college +girl, United States or English, what she is has failed, just as whoever +has tried to muzzle or discredit her has failed. She is something +new that has happened to the world, not because of men and women +and the priests and pundits, but in spite of them. Part of the reason +can be given by him who knows history enough, and commands almost +unlimited leisure and page; but that would only be the uninteresting +part that we could easily dispense with. The college girl has happened +to the world, as light did in Genesis 1:3. + +Gloria Vanderman, with her back against the wall, struggled and +contrived to get her foot on Will's bent knee. Another struggle +sent her breast-high above the sea of sweating faces. There was +fitful light enough to see her by, because the man who held a pine +torch was privileged. If there had not been hot sparks scattering +from the thing doubtless they would have closed in on him and crushed +it down, and out, but he had elbow-room, and accordingly Gloria's +face glowed golden in its frame of disordered chestnut hair. One +heard her voice because it was clear, and sweet with reasonableness, +so that it vibrated in an unobstructed orbit. + +"Surely you are not cowards?" she began, and they grew silent, because +that idea called for consideration. + +"Kagig is a patriot. Kagig is fighting for all Armenia. Surely +you are not the men to let brave Kagig be tempted away from his post +of danger at Zeitoon? If I know you men and women you will hasten +to meet Kagig, taking your food, and weapons, and children with you. +You will hurry--hurry--hurry to meet him--to meet him as near Zeitoon +as possible, so as to turn him back to his post of duty!" + +Then Ephraim saw his chance. Some whisperer translated to him and +he owned a voice that was worth gold for political purposes. + +He took up the tale in Armenian, working himself up into a splendid +fervor, and so amplifying the argument that he could almost fairly +claim it as his own before he was half-done. She had introduced +the light, but he exploited it, and he knew his nation--knew the +tricks of speech most likely to spur them into action. + +Within five minutes they were shoving the stones off the trap at +imminent risk of anybody's legs, and the ladder bent groaning under +the weight of twice as many as it ought to bear, as half of them +essayed the short cut over the roof. A blast of sweet air through +the opened trap ejected most of the smoky ten-times-breathed stuff +out with the climbers; and as the room emptied and we wiped the +grimy sweat from our faces I heard Will talking to Gloria Vanderman +in a new tongue--new, that is to say, to the old world. + +"Good goods! Stampeded 'em! They'll vote for you for any office +--your pick! If that guy Ephraim plans buttering the slide we'll +set him on it--watch!" + +"You bet," she answered sentimentally. "I wasn't cheer leader for +nothing. Besides, I delivered the valedictory--say, what are we +waiting here for?" + +"Come on, then!" I urged her. "We'll leave our mule-load behind +in case they've eaten your horse. Come with us to the stables and--" + +But she interrupted me. + +"You men go down and get the horses. Do what you can with the crowd. +I'll get the women into something like order if that's possible, +and we'll all meet wherever there's open ground and moonlight at +the foot of the hill." + +"I'll come with you," Will proposed. "You'll need--" + +"No you won't! The women are easy. They've been taught to obey +orders! It'll take all the wit you three men own between you to +get the men in line! Let's get busy!" + +The men had treated the hanging blankets with the respect the ancient +Jews accorded to the veil of the Holy of Holies. (We learned afterward +that there was an Armenian man of the party who had followed a circus +one summer all across the States, and had brought that sensible +precaution home with him as rule number one for successful management +of mixed assemblies.) Gloria Vanderman made a run for the curtain +and dived behind it. We heard the women welcome her. + +"Let's go!" said Will. + +Will had ever been our ladies' man in all our wanderings, because +women could never resist his unaffected comradeship. Even among +Americans he was rare in his gift of according to women equality +not only of liberty, but of understanding and good sense, and it +went like wine to the heads of some we had met, so that Will was +seldom without a sex-problem on his hands and ours. But Will was +too good a comrade to be surrendered to any woman lightly. + +"Damn that chicken!" murmured Fred by way of praying fervently, pausing +in the breach in the wall to rub his shin. "Feel that bruise, will +you! No young woman ever brought me luck yet!" + +"What are you waiting for?" complained a voice from outer darkness. +"Come on, you rummies!" + +Fred sat down on the protruding stone that had injured his shin, +and detained me with his arm across the opening. + +"Mark my words! In order that that young woman may be educated to +consider Will Yerkes a paragon of unimaginable virtues, we--you and +I--are going to have to do what he calls 'hustle.' We're going to +see speed, and we're going to sweat, trying to catch up. There isn't +a scatterbrained adventure conceivable that we're not going to be +forced into, nor an imaginable peril that we're not going to have +to pull him out of. We're going to be cursed for our trouble, and +ridiculed to make amusement for her majesty. And at the end of it +all we're going to be patronized for a couple of ignorant damned +fools who don't know better than be bachelors. What's worse, we're +going to submit tamely. What is infinitely worse, we're going to +like it! There are times when I doubt the sanity of my whole sex!" + +"Have you guys taken root?" demanded the familiar voice and we heard +Will's returning footsteps. + +"No, America. But I have to sit down when my shin hurts and I'm +seized with the gift of prophecy." + +"Huh! We'll find Miss Vanderman tired of waiting for us with the +women. Since when has a crack on the shin made a baby of you? You +used to be tough enough!" + +"D'you get the idea?" chuckled Fred. "We're coming, Will, we're +coming." + +Perfectly unconsciously Will took the lead, and most outrageously +he drove us. Not that his driving was not shrewd, for his usually +practical and quick mind seemed to take on added brilliancy. And +since we first joined partnership--he and Monty and Fred and I--we +had always been contented to follow the lead of whichever held it +at the moment. But there was new efficiency, and impatience of a +brand-new kind that would not rest until every man and animal had +been rummaged in darkness out of that old ruin, and men, horses, +cows, goats, bags of grain, and fifty cases of cartridges were driven +down through the forest like water forced through a sieve, and were +gathered in the only open space discoverable. + +There we cooled our heels, fearful and full of vague imaginings until +Miss Vanderman should bring the women, not at all encouraged by shouts +in the distance that well might be the exulting of plundering Kurds, +nor by occasional rifle-shots that sounded continually nearer, nor +by the angry crimson glow of burning roofs that lighted half +the horizon. + +We waited an hour, Will objecting whenever either of us proposed +to return and speed Miss Vanderman. + +"Aw, what's the use? D'you suppose she doesn't know we're waiting?" + +At last Fred proposed that Will himself go and investigate. He went +through the form of demurring, but yielded gracefully. + +"The spirit," Fred chuckled, "is weak, and the flesh is willing!" + +Will handed his mule's reins to an Armenian and started alone up-hill +through the pitch-dark forest; and because the world is mixed of +unexpectedness and grim jest in fairly equal proportions, five minutes +after he left us Gloria Vanderman came leading the women by +another path. + +To avoid confusion with our part, and for sake of silence, she had +led them a circuit, and except for the occasional wail of a child +and a little low talking that blended like the hum of insects with +the night, they made very little noise. The rear was brought up +by the strongest women carrying the sick and wounded on litters that +had been improvised in a hurry, and like most things of +the sort were much too heavy. + +"Your mule is ready," said I. But she shook her head. + +"You gentlemen must give your mules up to the sick and wounded. +We well ones can walk." + +I did not know how to answer her, although I knew she was wrong. +The way to organize a marching column is not to level down to the +ability of the weakest, although the pace of the weakest may have +to be the measure of speed. We, who had to protect the column and +shepherd it, would need our mounts; without them we should all be +at the mercy of any enemy, with no corresponding gain to any one +except the litter-bearers. All the same, I did not care to take +issue with that capable young woman then and there. She would have +put me in the wrong and left me speechless and indignant, after the +fashion that is older than poor Shylock's tale. + +But Fred is made of sterner stuff than I, and was never above amusing +himself at the expense of anybody's dignity. + +"Will is the youngest," he answered. "Besides, he's keeping us all +waiting with his love-affairs! He ought to be made to walk!" + +"His love-affairs?" + +"He went into the woods to see a woman," Fred answered imperturbably. +"Let him forfeit his mule. Here he comes. Did you find her, America?" + +Will emerged out of gloom with a grin on his face. + +"Just my luck!" he said simply. "What are we waiting for? I can +hear the Kurds. Let's start." + +At that Gloria got excited. + +"D'you mean you're willing to leave a woman behind alone in that +forest?" she demanded, and Will's jaw dropped. + +Fred nudged my ribs. + +"Come on! We've given 'em a ground for their first quarrel. They'll +never thank us if we wait a week. Mount! Walk--ride!" + +We sent our two Zeitoonli in advance to show the way. True to his +word, Arabaiji had left us, mule and all, and we missed him as we +strove to get the unwieldy column marshaled and moving in line. +We did not see Will and Gloria again that night, except when they +passed between us, walking, arguing--Will explaining--we sitting +on our mules on either side of the track until the last of the swarm +tailed by. Then we brought up the rear together, to drive the stragglers +and look out for pursuit. + +"Not that I know what the devil we'll do if the Kurds get after us!" +said Fred. + +"Let's hope they make for the castle to-night, and waste time plundering +that." + +"Piffle!" he answered. + +"Why?" + +"Because, you ass, if they get to the place and find if empty they'll +deduce, being less than idiots, that we're not far off and that we're +at their mercy in the open! Let's hope to God they funk attacking +in the dark, and wait out of range of the walls until daylight. +In that case we've a chance. Otherwise--I've still got six rifle +cartridges, and four for my pistol. How many have you?" + +"Six of each." + +"Then you owe me one for my pistol." + +I passed it to him. + +"So. Now we're good for exactly twenty-two Kurds between us. If +we're pursued I propose to give those two young lovers a chance by +making every cartridge count from behind cover." + +"They'd hear the shooting and--" + +"Not if we drop far enough behind." + +"They'd hear shooting and Will, at any rate, would ride back." + +"He couldn't! He'd have to look after the girl and the column." + +"All the same--Will's--" + +"I know he is. Very well. I'll arrange it another way. You wait +behind here." + +So I rode along slowly, and he spurred his horse to a trot. But +he did not hold the trot long. I could hear him objurgating, coaxing, +encouraging, explaining, and the shrill voices of women answering, +as he tried at one and the same time to pass the unfortunates in +the dark and to make them see the grim necessity for speed. Soon +I grew as busy as he, bullying litter-bearers and mothers burdened +with crying babies. In times of massacre and war, survivors are +not necessarily those who enjoyed the best of it. Nearly-drowned +men brought to life again would forego the process if the choice +were theirs, and there were nearly twenty women who would have preferred +death to that night's march. But I did not dare load my horse with +babies, since it would likely be needed before dawn for sterner work. + +It was more than an hour before Fred loomed in sight again, standing +beside his horse in wait for me. He, too, had resisted the temptation +to relieve mothers of their living loads (not that they ever expected it). + +"How did you manage?" I asked, for I could tell by his air that the +errand had been successful. + +"I lied to him." + +"Of course. What did you say?" + +"Said if the straggling got bad you and I might fall a long way behind +and fire our pistols, so as to give the impression Kurds are in pursuit. +That would tickle up the rear-end to a run!" + +"And he believed that?" Will knew as well as I Fred's not exactly +subtle way of maneuvering to get the post of greatest danger for himself. + +"He'd have believed anything! He's head-, heart-and heels-over-end +in love with the girl, and she's as bad as he is. They're talking +political economy and international jurisprudence. When I reached +'em they'd just arrived at the conclusion that the United States +can save the world, maybe--maybe not, but nothing else can. I was +decidedly de trop. They're pretty to watch. No, he hasn't kissed +her yet--you could tell that even in the dark. It's my belief he +won't for a long time; America's way with women is beyond belief. +They're telling each other all they know, and like, and dislike, +and believe, and hope. It 'ud take a bullet to divide their destinies. +I delivered my message, and they were so devilish polite you'd think +I was the parson come to marry 'em. They'd forgotten my very existence. +When it dawned on 'em who I was they were so keen to be rid of me +they'd have agreed to anything at all. So it was easy." + +"Good." + +"No, it's bad. Will's a friend of mine. I hate to see him squandered +on a woman. However, I did better than that." + +"How so?" + +As I spoke there loomed out of the darkness just ahead of us eight +men surrounding something on the track, their rifles sticking up +above their shoulders. + +"I've found eight men with rifles all alike that fit the ammunition +in the boxes. It's stolen Turkish government ammunition, by the +way. The rifles come from the same source. The point is that a +man caught with a stolen government rifle and ammunition in his +possession would be tortured. Incidentally the men seem game. +Therefore, if we have to fight a rear-guard action we can reasonably +count on them. Haide!" he called to the eight men, and they picked +up the case of cartridges, and resumed the march just ahead of us. + +Fred lit his pipe contentedly, as he always is contented when he +can make satisfactory arrangements to sacrifice himself unselfishly +and pretend to himself he is a cynic. Whether because the armed +guard of their own people put new courage in them, or because rifles +at their rear made them more afraid, the stragglers gave less trouble +for the next few hours. Perhaps they were growing more used to the +march, and some of them were numb with anxiety, while not so weary +yet that feet would not carry them forward. + +Somewhere in advance a man with a high tenor voice began to sing +a wild folk-song, of the sort that is common to all countries whose +heritage is hope unstrangled. He and others like him with love and +music in their brave hearts sang the tortured column through its +night of agony, keeping alive faint hope that hell must have an end. +Dawn broke sweet and calm. For it makes no matter if a nation writhes +in agony, or man wreaks hate on man, the wind and the sky still whisper +and smile; and the scent of wild flowers is not canceled by the +stench of tired humanity. + +Fred knocked his pipe out and rode to the top of shoulder of rock +beside the track, beckoning to me to follow. We could see our column, +astonishingly long drawn, winding like a line of ants in and out +and over, following the leaders in a dream because there seemed nothing +else to do or dream about. Once I thought I caught sight of Will +on his horse, passing between trees, but I was not sure. Fred turned +his horse about and looked in the direction we had come from. Presently, +be nudged me. + +"That smoke might be the castle we were in last night. See--it's +red underneath. What'll you bet me Kurds don't show up in pursuit +before the day's an hour old?" + +That was nothing to bet about, and that kind of dawn is not the hour +for roseate optimism. + +"If they come," said I, "I hope I don't live to see what they'll +do to the women." + +Fred met my eyes and laughed. + +"That's all right," he said. "You ride on. This rock commands the +track. I'll follow later when pursuit's called off." + +"Ride on yourself!" I answered, and he chuckled as he lighted his +pipe again. + +One of the men had a kerosene can filled with odds and ends of personal +belongings. I turned them out in a hollow of the rock, and sent +him to fill the can with drinking water at a spring. Then Fred and +I chose stations, and Fred went to vast pains lecturing every one +of us on how to keep cover. We had nothing to eat, and therefore +no notion of putting up anything but a short fight. Our best point +was the surprise that unexpected, organized resistance would be likely +to produce on plundering Kurds. + +It was pleasant enough where we lay, and reminded both of us of far +less strenuous days. The little animals that are always curious +to the point of their undoing came out and investigated our tracks +as soon as the noise of the stragglers had ceased. The Armenians +took no notice of the wild life; persecuted people seldom do, having +their own hard case too much in mind; but Fred knew the name of +nearly every bird and animal that showed itself, and even ceased +smoking as his interest increased. + +"Ever go fishing as a boy?" he asked. + +"Didn't I!" + +"Get up before daylight and escape from the house by the back way--" + +"Stealing bread and cheese from the pantry on the way out--" + +"And stopping where the grass was long near the watering place to +dig worms--" + +"And unchain the dog with frantic efforts to keep him from barking--" + +"Yes, but the rascal always would do it--bark and wake everybody! +Lucky if nobody saw you as you slipped through the gate into the fields!" + +"Ah! But then what a time the dog had--it was almost as good fun +as the fishing to watch him scamper. And how hungry he got--and +he ate more than his share of the bread and cheese, so that you'd +have had to go home early because of the aching void if it hadn't +been for the cottage where they gave a fellow milk out of a brown dish." + +"Yumm! Didn't that country milk taste good! Snff--snff--they were +mornings just like this at home when I went fishing. Cool and sweet +and full of scent. Snff--snff !" + +We sat still behind the ledge and let the air and scenery revive +kind memories. The only noise was what our horses made cropping +the grass in a hollow behind us, for the Armenians were well content +to ruminate. Most likely they would have fallen asleep if we had +not been there to keep an eye on them, for prolonged subjection to +too much fear is soporific, so that tortured poor wretches sleep +on the tightened rack. + +I was very nearly asleep myself, having had practically none of it +for two nights in succession, and had taken to watching the horses +to keep my mind busy, when the movement of my horse's ears struck +me as peculiar. Presently he ceased grazing and raised his head. +I thought he was going to whinny, and turned to see Fred squinting +down his rifle at something that was not in the range of my vision. + +"Here they come!" he whispered. + +As he spoke a Kurd stepped out from between the trees, and we could +see that he had tied his horse to a branch in the gloom behind him. +He had the long sleeves reaching nearly to the ground peculiar to +his race, and the unmistakable sheeny nose and cruel lips. From +the rifle that he carried cavalierly over his shoulder hung a woman's +undergarment, with a dark stain on it that looked suspiciously like +blood. My horse whinnied then, and his beast answered. At that +he brought his rifle to the "ready" and nearly jumped out of his skin. + +"I'm judge, jury, witness, prosecutor and executioner!" Fred whispered. +"That man's dose is death, and he dies unshriven!" + +Then he fired, and Fred could not miss at that range if he tried. +The Kurd clapped a hand to his throat and fell backward, and one +of our Armenians ran before we could stop him to seize the tied horse, +and any other plunder. One of the things he brought back with him, +besides the horse and rifle and ammunition belt, was a woman's finger +with the ring not yet removed. He said he found it in the +cartridge pouch. + +In proof that organized defense was the last thing they reckoned +on, nine more Kurds came galloping down the track pell-mell toward +the place where they had heard the solitary rifle-shot, doubtless +supposing their own man had come upon the quarry. We fired too fast, +for the Armenians were not drilled men, but we dropped two horses +and five Kurds, and the remaining four fled, with the riderless animals +stampeding in their wake. + +"What next?"' said I, as Fred wiped out his rifle-barrel. + +"They'll return in greater force. We'd better change ground. D'you +notice how this rock is covered by that other one a quarter of a +mile to the right? Higher ground, too, and the last place they'll +look--come on!" + +The man with the water-can spilled it all, for the sake of his medley +of possessions, and I had to send him all the way back for more. +But we took up our new stand at last with the horses well hidden +and enough to drink to last the day out, and then had to wait half +an hour before any Kurds came back to the attack. + +They came on the second time with infinite precaution, lurking among +the trees on the outskirts of the clearing and firing several random +shots at our old position in the hope of drawing our fire. Finally, +they emerged from the forest thirty strong and rushed our supposed +hiding-place at full gallop. + +They were not even out of pistol range. Fred used the Mauser rifle +taken from the dead Kurd, and then we both emptied our pistols at +the fools, the Armenians meanwhile keeping up a savage independent +fire so ragged and rapid that it might have been the battle of Waterloo. + +The Kurds never knew whether or not we were another party or the +first one. They never discovered whether our former post was deserted +or not. We never knew how many of them we hit, for after about a +dozen had tumbled out of the saddle the remainder galloped for their +lives. For minutes afterward we heard them crashing and pounding +away in the distance to find their friends. + +Our loot consisted of two wounded prisoners and four good horses, +in addition to rifles and cartridges. We let the dead lie where +they were for a warning to other scoundrels, and we looked on while +our Armenians searched the bodies for anything likely to be of slightest +use. They found almost nothing originally Kurdish, but more Armenian +trinkets than would have stocked a traveling merchant's show-case, +including necklaces and earrings. + +Fred took the two prisoners aside and in Persian, which every Kurd +can understand and speak after a fashion, offered them their choice +between telling the whole truth or being handed over to Armenians. +And as there isn't a bloody rascal in the world but suspects his +intended victims of worse hankerings than his own, they loosed their +tongues and told more than the truth, adding whatever they thought +likely to please Fred. + +"They say there were only about fifty of them in this raiding party +to begin with, and several came to trouble before they met us. Seems +there are Armenians hidden here and there who are able to give an +account of themselves. Ten or twelve elected to stay near the castle +we were in last night. They've burned it, but they have some captured +women and propose to enjoy themselves. Shall we ride back and break +in on the party?" + +He meant what he said, but it was out of the question. "The party +we've just trounced will give the alarm," I objected. "We'd only +ride into a trap. Besides, you've no proof these prisoners are not +lying to you." + +"They say their raiding party is the only one within thirty miles. +They rode ahead of the regiments to get first picking." + +"We're none of us fit for anything but food and sleep," said I, and +Fred had to concede the point. + +Fortunately the food problem was solved for the moment by the Kurds, +who had a sort of cheese with them whose awful taste deprived one +of further appetite. We ate, and tied our two wounded prisoners +on one horse; and as we had nothing to treat their wounds with except +water they finished their trip in exquisite discomfort. Surprise +that we should attend to their wounds at all, added to their despondency +after they had time to consider what it meant. There was only one +burden to their lamentation: + +"What are you going to do with us? We will tell what we know! We +will name names! We are your slaves! We kiss feet! Ask, and we +will answer!" + +They thought they were being kept alive for torture, and we let them +keep on thinking it. Fred tied their horse to his own saddle and +towed them along, singing at the top of his lungs to keep the rest +of us awake; and for all his noise I fell asleep until he reached +for his concertina and, the humor of the situation dawning on him, +commenced a classic of his own composition, causing the morning to +re-echo with irreverence, and making all of us except the prisoners +aware of the fact that life is not to be taken seriously, even in +Armenia. The prisoners intuitively guessed that the song had reference +to ways and means they would rather have forgotten. + +"Ow! My name it is 'orrible 'Enery 'Emms, +And I 'ails from a 'ell of a 'ole! +The things I 'ave thought an' the deeds I 'ave did +Are remarkable lawless an' better kep' hid, +So if Morgan you think of, an' Sharkey an' Kidd, +Forget 'em! To name such beginners as them's +An insult, so shivver my soul! Yow! +In every port o' the whole seven seas +I 'ave two or three wives on the rates, +For I'm free wi' my fancy an' fly wi' my picks, +And I've promised 'em plenty, an' given 'em nix, +But have left ev'ry one in a 'ell of a fix! +'Ooever said Bluebeard was brother to me's +Either jealous or misunderstates! + +"Wow! For awful atrocity, murder an' theft, +For battery, arson and hate, +>From breakin' the Sabbath to coveting cows, +An' false affidavits an' perjurin' vows, +I'm adept at whatever the law disallows, +And the gallowsmen gape at the noose that I left, +For I flit while the bally fools wait!" + +Fred kept us awake all right. Like most of his original songs, that +one had sixty or seventy verses. + + + + +Chapter Twelve +"America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" + + +CUI BONO? + +Did caution keep the gates of Greece, +Ye saints of "safety first!" +Twixt Thessaly and Locris when +Leonidas' thousand men +Died scornful of the proffered peace +Of Xerxes the accurst? +Watch ye have kept, ward ye have kept, +But watch and ward were vain +If love and gratitude have slept +While ye stood guard for gain. + +Or ye, who count the niggard cost +In time and coin and gear +Of succoring the under-dog, +How often have ye seen a hog, +Establishing his glutton boast, +Survive a famine year? +Fast ye have kept, feast ye have made; +Vain were the deeds and doles +If it was fear that ye obeyed +To save your coward souls. + +Ye banish beauty to the stews +For lack of eyes that see, +And stifle joy with deadly rote +As empty as the texts ye quote, +The while forgiveness ye refuse +Lest wrath dishonored be. +Gray are your days, drab are your ways, +Strong are your fashioned bars, +But, ye who ask if service pays - +Who polishes the stars? + + +Spring in Armenia is almost as much like heaven as heaven itself +could be, if it were not for the unspeakable Turk, but his blight +rests on everything. I could have kept awake that morning without +Fred's irreverent music, simply for sake of the scenery, if its freshness +had been untainted. But there hung a sickly, faint pall of smoke +that robbed the green landscape of all liveliness. One breathed +weariness instead of wine. + +We could not possibly have lost the way, because our crawling column +had left a swath behind it of trampled grass and trodden crossing-places +where the track wound and rewound in a game of hide-and-seek with +tinkling streams. But we began to wonder, nevertheless, why we caught +up with nobody. + +It was drawing on to ten in the morning, and I had dozed off for +about the dozenth time, with my horse in pretty much the same condition, +when I heard Will's voice at last, and looked up. He was standing +alone on a ledge overlooking the track, but I could see the ends +of rifles sticking up close by. If we had been an enemy, we should +have stood small chance against him. + +"Where are the rest of you?" I asked, and he laughed! + +"Women, kids and wounded all swore a pitched battle was raging behind +them. Most of them wanted to turn back and lend a hand. I thought +you guys mighty cruel to put all that scare into a crowd in their +condition--but I see--" + +"Guests, America! My country's at peace with Turkey! Where shall +we stow our guests?" + +"There's a village below here." + +He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. But behind him was the apex +of a spur thrust out in midcurve of the mountainside, and one could +not see around that. We had emerged out of the straggling outposts +of the forest high above the plain, and to our right the whole panorama +lay snoozing in haze. The path by which we had turned our backs +on Monty and Kagig went winding away and away below, here and there +an infinitesimal thin line of slightly lighter color, but more often +suggested by the contour of the hills. Our Zeitoonli in their zeal +to return to their leader had been evidently cutting corners. If +the smudge of smoke to the right front overhung Marash, then we were +probably already nearer Zeitoon than when we and Kagig parted company. + +"Come up and see for yourselves," said Will. + +Fred passed the line that held his prisoners in tow to an Armenian, +and we climbed up together on foot. Around the corner of the spur, +within fifty feet of where Will stood, was an almost sheer escarpment, +and at the foot of that, a thousand feet below us, with ramparts +of living rock on all four sides, crouched a little village fondled +in the bosom of the mountains. + +"They've piled down there and made 'emselves at home. The place +was deserted, prob'ly because it 'ud be too easy to roll rocks down +into it. But I can't make 'em listen. Ours is a pretty chesty lot, +with guts, and our taking part with 'em has stiffened their courage. +They claim they're goin' to hold this rats' nest against all the +Turks and Kurds in Asia Minor!" + +"That's where the rest of us are," said Will + +"Where's Miss Vanderman?" + +"Asleep--down in the village. The're all asleep. You guys go down +there and sleep, too. I'll follow, soon as I've posted these men +on watch. That small square hut next the big one in the middle is +ours. She's in the big one with a crowd of women. Now don't make +a fool row and wake her! Tie your horses in the shade where you +see the others standing in line; there's a little corn for them, +and a lot of hay that the owners left behind." + +So we undertook not to wake the lady, and left Will there carefully +choosing places, in which the men fell fast asleep almost the minute +his back was turned. Sleep was in the air that morning--not mere +weariness of mind and limb that a man could overcome, but inexplicable +coma. Whole armies are affected that way on occasion. There was +a man once named Sennacherib. + +"Sleepy hollow!" said Fred, and as he spoke his horse pitched forward, +almost spilling him; the rope that held the prisoners in tow was +all that saved the lot of them from rolling down-hill. Fred dismounted, +and drove the horse in front of him with a slap on the rump, but +the beast was almost too sleepy to make the effort to descend. + +There was no taint of gas or poison fumes. The air tasted fresh +except for the faint smoke, and the birds were all in full song. +Yet we all had to dismount, and to let the prisoners walk, too, because +the horses were too drowsy to be trusted. The path that zigzagged +downward to the village was dangerous enough without added risk, +and the eight Armenian riflemen refused point-blank to lead the way +unless they might drive the animals ahead of them. + +Even so, neither we nor they were properly awake ,when we reached +the village. We tied up the horses in a sort of dream--fed them +from instinct and habit--and made our way to the hut Will had pointed +out like men who walked in sleep. + +Nobody was keeping watch. Nobody noticed our arrival. Men and women +were sleeping in the streets and under the eaves of the little houses. +Nothing seemed awake but the stray dogs nosing at men's feet and +hunting hopelessly among the bundles. + +The little house Will had reserved for our use contained a stool +and a string-cot. On the stool was food--cheese and very dry bread; +and because even in that waking dream we were conscious of hunger, +we ate a little of it. Then we lay down on the floor and fell +asleep--we, and the prisoners, and the eight Armenian riflemen. +Within a quarter of an hour Will followed us into the house, but +we knew nothing about that. Then he, too, fell asleep, and until +two or three hours after dark we were a village of the dead. + +To this day there is no explaining it. Certainly no human watch +or ward saved us from destruction at the hands of roving enemies. +I was awakened at last by a brilliant light, and the effort made +by our two prisoners, still tied together, to crawl across my body. +I threw them off me, and sat up, rubbing my eyes and wondering where +I was. + +In the door stood Kagig, with a lantern in his right hand thrust +forward into the room. His eyes were ablaze with excitement, and +between black beard and mustache his teeth showed in a grin mixed +of scorn and amusement. + +Next I beard Will's voice: "Jimminy!" and Will sat up. Then Fred +gave tongue: + +"That you, Kagig? Where's Monty? Where's Lord Montdidier?" + +Kagig strode into the room, set the lantern on the floor, struck +the remnants of the food from off the little stool, and sat down. +I could see now that he was deathly tired. + +"He is in Zeitoon," he answered. + +Noises from outside began then to assert themselves in demonstration +that the village was awake at last--also that the population had +swollen while we slept. I could hear the restless movement of more +than twice the number of horses we had had with us. + +Kagig began to laugh--a sort of dry cackle that included wonder as +well as rebuke. He threw both hands outward, palms upward, in a +gesture that complemented the motion of shoulders shrugged up to +his ears. + +"All around--high hills! From every side from fifty places rocks +could have been rolled upon you! So--and so you sleep!" + +"I set guards!" Will exploded. + +"Eleven guards I found--all together in one place--fast asleep!" + +He showed his splendid teeth and the palms of his hands again in +actual enjoyment of the situation. For the first time then I saw +there was wet blood on his goat-skin coat. + +"Kagig--you're wounded!" + +He made a gesture of impatience. + +"It is nothing--nothing. My servant has attended to it." + +So Kagig had a servant. I felt glad of that. It meant a rise from +vagabondage to position among his people. + +Of all earthly attainments, the first and most desirable and last +to let go of is an honest servant--unless it be a friend. (But the +difference is not so distinct as it sounds.) + +A huge fear suddenly seized Fred Oakes. + +"You said Monty is in Zeitoon--alive or dead? Quick, man! Answer!" + +"Should I leave Zeitoon," Kagig answered slowly, unless I left a +better man in charge behind me? He is alive in Zeitoon--alive--alive! +He is my brother! He and I love one purpose with a strong love that +shall conquer! You speak to me of Lord what-is-it? Hah! To me +forever he is Monty, my brother--my--" + +"Where's Miss Vanderman?" I interrupted. + +"Here!" she said quietly, and I turned my head to discover her sitting +beside Will in the shadow cast by Kagig's lantern. She must have +entered ahead of Kagig or close behind him, unseen because of his +bulk and the tricky light that he swung in his right hand. + +Kagig went on as if he had not heard me. + +"There is a castle--I think I told you?--perched on a crag in the +forest beside Zeitoon. My men have cut a passage to it through the +trees, for it had stood forgotten for God knows how long. Later +you shall understand. There came Arabaiji, riding a mule to death, +saying you and this lady are in danger of life at the hands of my +nation. I did not believe that, but Monty--he believed it." + +"And I'll wager you found him a hot handful!" laughed Fred. +"Not so hot. Not so hot. But very determined. Later you shall +understand. He and I drove a bargain." + +"Dammit!" Fred rose to his feet. "D'you mean you used our predicament +as a club to drive him with?" + +Kagig laughed dryly. + +"Do you know your friend so little, and think so ill of me? He named +terms, and I agreed to them. I took a hundred mounted men to find +you and bring you to Zeitoon, spreading them out like a fan, to scour +the country. Some fell in with a thing the Turks call a hamidieh +regiment; that is a rabble of Kurds under the command of Tenekelis." + +"What are they?" + +"Tenekelis? The word means 'tin-plate men.' We call them that because +of the tin badges given them to wear in their head-dress. In no +other way do they resemble officers. They are brigands favored by +official recognition, that is all. Their purpose is to pillage +Armenians. While you slept in this village, and your watchmen slept +up above there, that whole rabble of bandits with their tin-plate +officers passed within half a mile, following along the track by +which you came! If you had been awake--and cooking--or singing--or +making any sort of noise they must have heard you! Instead, they +turned down toward the plain a little short distance too soon--and +my men met them--and there was a skirmish--and I rallied my other +men, and attacked them suddenly. We accounted for two of the tin-plate +men, and so many of the thing they call a regiment that the others +took to flight. Jannam! (My soul!) But you are paragons of sleepers!" + +"Do you never sleep?" I asked him. + +"Shall a man keep watch over a nation, and sleep?" he answered. +"Aye--here a little, there a little, I snatch sleep when I can. +My heart burns in me. I shall sleep on my horse on the way back +to Zeitoon, but the burning within will waken me by fits and starts." + +He got up and stood very politely in front of Gloria Vanderman, +removing his cossack kalpak for the first time and holding it with +a peculiar suggestion of humility. + +"You shall be put to no indignity at the hands of my people," he +said. "They are not bad people, but they have suffered, and some +have been made afraid. They would have kept you safe. But now you +shall have twenty men if you wish, and they shall deliver you safely +into Tarsus. If you wish it, I will send one of these gentlemen +with you to keep you in countenance before my men; they are foreigners +to you, and no one could blame you for fearing them. The gentleman +would not wish to go, but I would send him!" + +She shook her head, pretty merrily for a girl in her predicament. + +"I was curious to meet you, Mr. Kagig, but that's nothing to the +attraction that draws me now. I must meet the other man--is it Monty +you all call him--or never know a moment's peace!" + +"You mean you will not go to Tarsus?" + +"Of course I won't!" + +"Of course!" laughed Fred. "Any young woman--" + +"Of course?" Kagig repeated the extravagant gesture of shrugged shoulders +and up-turned palms. "Ah, well. You are American. I will not argue. +What would be the use?" + +He turned his back on us and strode out with that air that not even +the great stage-actors can ever acquire, of becoming suddenly and +utterly oblivious of present company in the consciousness of deeds +that need attention. Generals of command, great captains of industry, +and a few rare statesmen have it; but the statesmen are most rare, +because they are trained to pretend, and therefore unconvincing. +The generals and captains are detested for it by all who have never +humbled themselves to the point where they can think, and be unselfishly +absorbed. Kagig stepped out of one zone of thought into the next, +and shut the door behind him. + +A minute later we heard his voice uplifted in command, and the business +of shepherding those women and children was taken out of our hands +by a man who understood the business. The intoxicating sounds that +armed men make as they evolve formation out of chaos in the darkness +came in through open door and windows, and in another moment Kagig +was back again with a hand on each door-post. + +"You have brought all those cartridges!" + +He thrust out both hands in front of him, and made the knuckles of +every finger crack like castanets. In another second he was gone +again. But we knew we were now forgiven all our sins of omission. + +Somewhere about midnight, with a nearly full moon rising in a golden +dream above the rim of the ravine, we started. And no wheeled vehicle +could have followed by the track we took. It was no mean task for +men on foot, and our burdened animals had to be given time. Whether +or not Kagig slept, as he had said he would, on horse-back, he kept +himself and our prisoners out of sight somewhere in the van; and +this time the rear was brought up by a squadron of ragged irregular +horse that would have made any old campaigner choke with joy to look +at them. + +Drill those men knew very little of--only sufficient to make it possible +to lead them. No two men were dressed alike, and some were not even +armed alike, although stolen Turkish government rifles far predominated. +But they wore unanimously that dare-devil air, not swaggering because +there is no need, that has been the key to most of the sublime surprises +of all war. The commander, whose men sit that way in the saddle +and toss those jokes shoulder over shoulder down the line, dare tackle +forlorn hopes that would seem sheer leap-year lunacy to the martinet +with twenty times their number. + +"Who'd have thought it?" said Fred. "We've all heard the Turk was +a first-class fighting man, but I'd rather command fifty of these, +than any five hundred Turks I ever saw. + +There was no gainsaying that. Whoever had seen armies with an +understanding eye must have agreed. + +"Turks don't hate Armenians for their faults," I answered. "From +what I know of the Turk he likes sin, and prefers it cardinal. If +Armenians were mere degenerates, or murdering ruffians like the Kurds, +the Turk would like them." + +Fred laughed. + +"Then if a Turk liked me, you'd doubt my social fitness?" + +"Sure I would, if he liked you well enough to attract attention. +The fact that the Turk hates Armenians is the best advertisement +Armenians have got." + +We were entering the heart of savage hills that tossed themselves +in ever increasing grandeur up toward the mist-draped crags of Kara +Dagh, following a trail that was mostly watercourse. The simple +savagery of the mountains laid naked to view in the liquid golden +light stirred the Armenians behind us to the depths of thought; +and theirs is a consciousness of warring history; of dominion long +since taken from them, and debauched like pearls by swine; of hope, +eternally upwelling, born of love of their trampled fatherland. +They began to sing, and the weft and woof of their songs were grief +for all those things and a cherished, secret promise that a limit +had been set to their nation's agony. + +In his own way, with his chosen, unchaste instrument Fred is a musician +of parts. He can pick out the spirit of old songs, even when, as +then, he hears them for the first time, and make his concertina interpret +them to wood and wind and sky. Indoors he is a mere accompanist, +and in polite society his muse is dumb. But in the open, given fair +excuse and the opportunity, he can make such music as compels men's +ears and binds their hearts with his in common understanding. + +Because of Fred's concertina, quite without knowing it, those Armenians +opened their hearts to us that night, so that when a day of testing +came they regarded us unconsciously as friends. Taught by the atrocity +of cruel centuries to mistrust even one another, they would surely +have doubted us otherwise, when crisis came. Nobody knows better +than the Turk how to corrupt morality and friendship, and Armenia +is honeycombed with the rust of mutual suspicion. But real music +is magic stuff. No Turk knows any magic. + +At dawn, twisting and zigzagging in among the ribs of rock-bound +hills, we sighted the summit of Beirut Dagh all wreathed in jeweled +mist. Then the only life in sight except ourselves was eagles, +nervously obsessed with goings-on on the horizon. I counted as many +as a dozen at one time, wheeling swiftly, and circling higher for +a wider view, but not one swooped to strike. + +Once, as we turned into a track that they told us led to El Oghlu, +we saw on a hill to our left a small square building, gutted by fire. +Twenty yards away from it, on top of the same round hill, strange +fruit was hanging from a larger oak than any we had seen thereabouts +--fruit that swung unseemly in the tainted wind. + +"Turks!" announced one of Kagig's men, riding up to brag to us. +"That square building is the guard-house for the zaptieh, put there +by the government to keep check on robbers. They are the worst robbers!" + +The man spoke English with the usual mission-school air suggestive +of underdone pie. As a rule they go to school at such great sacrifice, +and then so limited for funds, that they have to get by heart three +times the amount an ordinary, undriven youth can learn in the allotted +time. But by heart they have it. And like the pie they call to +mind, only the surface of their talk is pale. Because their heart +is in the thing, they under-stand. + +"By hanging Turkish police," said Fred, "you only give the Turks +a good excuse for murdering your friends." + +"Come!" said the man of Zeitoon. "See." + +He led the way down a path between young trees to a clearing where +a swift stream gamboled in the sun. Down at the end of it, where +the grass sloped gently upward toward the flanks of a great rock +was a little row of graves with a cross made of sticks at the head +of each--clearly not Turkish graves. + +"Three men--eleven women," our guide said simply. + +"You mean that the Turkish police--" + +"There were fifteen on their way to Zeitoon. One survived, and +reached Zeitoon, and told. Then he died, and we rode down to avenge +them all. The Turks took the three men and beat them on the feet +with sticks until the soles of their feet swelled up and burst. +Then they made them walk on their tortured feet. Then they beat +them to death. Shall I say what they did to the women?" + +"What did you do to the Turks?" said I. + +"Hanged them. We are not animals--we simply, hanged them." + +Somewhere about noon we rode down a gorge into the village of El +Oghlu. It was a miserable place, with a miserable, tiny kahveh in +the midst of it, and Kagig set that alight before our end of the +column came within a quarter of a mile of it. We burned the rest +of the village, for he sent back Ephraim to order no shelter left +for the regiments that would surely come and hunt us down. But the +business took time, and we were farther than ever behind Kagig when +the last wooden roof began to cockle and crack in the heat. + +Will and Gloria were somewhere on in front, and Fred and I began +to put on speed to try to overtake them. But from the time of leaving +the burned village of El Oghlu there began to be a new impediment. + +"We are not taking the shortest way," said Ephraim. "The shortest +way is too narrow--good for one or two men in a hurry, but not for +all of us." + +We were gaining no speed by taking the easier road. There began +to be vultures in evidence, mostly half-gorged, flopping about from +one orgy to the next. And out from among the rocks and bushes there +came fugitive Armenians--famished and wounded men and women, clinging +to our stirrups and begging for a lift on the way to Zeitoon. Zeitoon +was their one hope. They were all headed that way. + +Fred detached a dozen mounted men to linger behind on guard against +pursuit, and the rest of us overloaded our horses with women and +children, giving up all hope of overtaking Gloria and Will, forgetting +that they had come first on the scene. In my mind I imagined them +riding side by side, Will with his easy cowboy seat, and Gloria looking +like a boy except for the chestnut hair. But that imagination went +the way of other vanities. + +There was neither pleasure nor advantage in striding slowly beside +my laboring horse, nor any hope of mounting him again myself. So +I walked ahead and, being now horseless, ceased to be mobbed by +fugitives. At the end of an hour I overtook two horses loaded with +little children; but there was no sign of Gloria and Will, and losing +zest for the pursuit as the sun grew stronger I sat down by the ways-side +on a fallen tree. + +It was then that I heard voices that I recognized. The first was +a woman's. + +"I'm simply crazy to know him." + +A man's, that I could not mistake even amid the roar of a city, answered +her. + +"You've a treat in store. Monty is my idea of a regular he-man." + +"Is he good-looking?" + +"Yes. Stands and looks like a soldier. I've seen a plainsman in +Wyoming who'd have matched him to a T all except the parted hair +and the mustache." + +"I like a mustache on a tall man." + +"It suits Monty. The first idea you get of him is strength--strength +and gentleness; and it grows on you as you know him better. It's +not just muscles, nor yet will-power, but strength that makes your +heart flutter, and you know for a moment how a woman must feel when +a fellow asks her to be his wife. That's Monty." + +I got up and retraced a quarter of a mile, to wait for Fred where +I could not accuse myself of "listening in." + +"Fred," I said, when he overtook me at last and we strode along side +by side, "you were right. America's way with a woman is beyond belief!" + +I told him what I had heard, and he thought a while. + +"How about Maga Jhaere's way, when she and Will and the Vanderman +meet?" he said at last, smiling grimly. + + + + +Chapter Thirteen +"'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib, +obeyed my lord bahadur's orders." + + +"TO-MORROW WE DIE" + +All that is cynical; all that refuses +Trust in an altruist aim; +Every specious plea that excuses +Greed in necessity's name; +Studied indifference; scorn that amuses; +Cleverness, shifting the blame; +Selfishness, pitying trust it abuses-- +Treason and these are the same. +Finally, when the last lees ye shall turn from +(E'en intellectuals flinch in the end!) +Ashes of loneliness then ye shall learn from-- +All that's worth keeping's the faith of a friend. + + +Never to be forgotten is that journey to Zeitoon. We threaded toward +the heart of opal mountains along tracks that nothing on wheels--not +even a wheel-barrow--could have followed. Perpetually on our right +there kept appearing brilliant green patches of young rice, more +full of livid light than flawless emeralds. And, as in all rice +country, there were countless watercourses with frequently impracticable +banks along which fugitives felt their way miserably, too fearful +of pursuit to risk following the bridle track. + +There is a delusion current that fugitives go fast. But it stands +to reason they do not; least of all, unarmed people burdened with +children and odds and ends of hastily snatched household goods. +We found them hiding everywhere to sleep and rest lacerated feet, +and there was not a mile of all that distance that did not add twenty +or thirty stragglers to our column, risen at sight of us out of their +lurking places. We scared at least as many more into deeper hiding, +without blame to them, for there was no reason why they should know +us at a distance from official murderers. Hamidieh regiments, the +militia of that land, wear uniforms of their own choosing, which +is mostly their ordinary clothes and weapons added. + +With snow-crowned Beirut Dagh frowning down over us, and the track +growing every minute less convenient for horse or man, word came +from the rear that the hamidieh were truly on our trail. Then we +had our first real taste of what Armenians could do against drilled +Turks, and even before Fred and I could get in touch with Will and +Gloria we realized that whether or not we took part with them there +was going to be no stampede by the men-folk. + +Nothing would persuade Gloria to go on to Zeitoon and announce our +coming. Kagig came galloping back and found us four met together +by a little horsetail waterfall. He ordered her peremptorily to +hurry and find Monty, but she simply ignored him. In another moment +he was too bent on shepherding the ammunition cases to give her a +further thought. + +Men began to gather around him, and he to issue orders. They had +either to kill him or obey. He struck at them with a rawhide whip, +and spurred his horse savagely at every little clump of men disposed +to air their own views. + +"You see," he laughed, "unanimity is lacking!" Then his manner changed +back to irritation. "In the name of God, effendim, what manner of +sportmen are you? Will not each of you take a dozen men and go and +destroy those cursed Turks?" (They call every man a Turk in that +land who thinks and acts like one, be he Turk, Arab, Kurd or Circassian.) + +It was all opposed to the consul's plan, and lawless by any reckoning. +To attack the troops of a country with which our own governments +were not at war was to put our heads in a noose in all likelihood. +Perhaps if he had called us by any other name than "sportmen" we +might have seen it in that light, and have told him to protect us +according to contract. But he used the right word and we jumped +at the idea, although Gloria, who had no notions about international +diplomacy, was easily first with her hat in the ring. + +"I'll lead some men!" she shouted. "Who'll follow me?" Her voice +rang clear with the virtue won on college playing fields. + +"Nothing to it!" Will insisted promptly. "Here, you, Kagig--I'll +make a bargain with you!" + +"Watch!" Fred whispered. "Will is now going to sell two comrades +in the market for his first love! D'you blame him? But it +won't work!" + +"Send Miss Vanderman to Zeitoon with an escort and we three--" + +"What did I tell you?" Fred chuckled. + +"--will fight for you all you like!" + +But Gloria had a dozen men already swarming to her, with never a +symptom of shame to be captained by a woman; and others were showing +signs of inclination. She turned her back on us, and I saw three +men hustle a fourth, who had both feet in bandages, until he gave +her his rifle and bandolier. She tossed him a laugh by way of +compensation, and be seemed content, although he had parted with +more than the equivalent of a fortune. + +"That girl," said Kagig, from the vantage point of his great horse, +"is like the brave Zeitoonli wives! They fight! They can lead in +a pinch! They are as good as men--better than men, for they think +they know less!" + +Fred swiftly gathered himself a company of his own, the older men +electing to follow his lead. Gloria had the cream of the younger +ones--men who in an earlier age would have gone into battle wearing +a woman's glove or handkerchief--twenty or thirty youths blazing +with the fire of youth. Will went hot-foot after her with most of +the English-speaking contingent from the mission schools. Kagig +had the faithful few who had rallied to him from the first--the fighting +men of Zeitoon proper, including all the tough rear-guard who had +sent the warning and remained faithfully in touch with the enemy +until their chief should come. + +That left for me the men who knew no English, and Ephraim was enough +of a politician to see the advantage to himself of deserting Fred's +standard for mine; for Fred could talk Armenian, and give his own +orders, but I needed an interpreter. I welcomed him at the first +exchange of compliments, but met him eye to eye a second later and +began to doubt. + +"I'm going to hold these men in reserve," I told him, "until I know +where they'll do most good. You know this country? Take high ground, +then, where we can overlook what's going on and get into the fight +to best advantage." + +"But the others will get the credit," he began to object. + +"I'll ask Kagig for another interpreter. Wait here." + +At that he yielded the point and explained my orders to the men, +who began to obey them willingly enough. But he went on talking +to them rapidly as we diverged from the path the others had taken +and ascended a trail that wild goats would have reveled in, along +the right flank of where fighting was likely to take place. I did +not doubt be was establishing notions of his own importance, and +with some success. + +Firing commenced away in front and below us within ten minutes of +the start, but it was an hour before I could command the scene with +field-glasses, and ten minutes after that before I could make out +the positions of our people, although the enemy were soon evident +--a long, irregular, ragged-looking line of cavalry thrusting lances +into every hole that could possibly conceal an Armenian, and an almost +equally irregular line of unmounted men in front of them, firing +not very cautiously nor accurately from under random cover. + +It became pretty evident, after studying the positions for about +fifteen minutes and sweeping every contour of the ground through +glasses, that the enemy had no chance whatever of breaking through +unless they could outflank Kagig's line. I held such impregnable +advantage of height and cover and clear view that the men I had with +me were ample to prevent the turning of our right wing. Our left +flank rested on the brawling Jihun River that wound in and out between +the rice fields and the rocky foot-hills. There lay the weakness +of our position, and more than once I caught sight of Kagig spurring +his horse from cover to cover to place his men. Once I thought I +recognized Fred, too, over near the river-bank; but of Will or of +Gloria I saw nothing. + +It was obvious that if reserves were needed anywhere it would be +over on that left flank by the fordable Jihun. Ephraim saw that, +and proceeded to preach it like gospel to the men before consulting +me. Then, arrogant in the consciousness of majority approval, he +came and advised me. + +"Those--ah--hamidieh not coming this--ah--way. We cross over to--ah +--other side. Then Kagig is being pleased with us. I give orders--yes?" + +He did not propose to wait for my consent, but I detained him with +a hand on his shoulder. It would have taken us two hours to get +into position by the river-bank. + +"Find out how many of the men can ride," I ordered. + +Taken by surprise he called out the inquiry without stopping to discover +my purpose first. It transpired there were seventeen men who had +been accustomed to horseback riding since their youth. That would +leave nine men for another purpose. I separated sheep from goats, +and made over the nine to Ephraim. + +"You and these nine stay here," I ordered, "and hold this flank until +Kagig makes a move." I did not doubt Kagig would fall back on Zeitoon +as soon as he could do that with advantage. Neither did I doubt +Ephraim's ability to spoil my whole plan if be should see fit. Yet +I had to depend on his powers as interpreter. + +There are two ways of relieving a weak wing, and the obvious one +of reenforcing it is not of necessity the best. I could see through +the glasses a bowl of hollow grazing ground in which the dismounted +Kurds had left their horses; and I could count only five men guarding +them. Most of the horses seemed to be tied head to head by the reins, +but some were hobbled and grazing close together. + +"Tell these seventeen men I have chosen that I propose to creep up +to the enemy's horses and steal or else stampede them," I ordered. + +Ephraim hesitated. Glittering eyes betrayed fear to be left out +of an adventure, disgust to see his own advice ignored, and yet that +he was alert to the advantage of being left with a lone command. + +"But we should--ah--cross to the--ah--other side and--ah--help Kagig," +he objected. Perhaps he hoped to build political influence on the +basis of his own account to Kagig afterward of how be had argued +for the saner course. + +"Please explain what I have said--exactly!" + +He continued to hesitate. I could see the Kurdish riflemen responding +to orders from their rear and beginning to concentrate in the direction +of our left wing. Our center, where Gloria and Will were probably +concealed by rocks and foliage, poured a galling fire on them, and +they had to reform, and detach a considerable company to deal with +that; but two-thirds of their number surged toward our left, and +if my plan was to succeed almost the chief element was time. + +"But Kagig will--" + +One of the men had a hide rope, very likely looted from the village +we had burned. I took it from him and tied a running noose in the +end. Then I made the other end fast to the roots of a tree that +had been rain-washed until they projected naked over fifty feet of +sheer rock. + +"Now," I said, "explain what I said, or I'll hang you in sight of +both sides!" + +I wondered whether he would not turn the tables and hang me. I knew +I would not have been willing to lessen Kagig's chances by shooting +any of them if they had decided to take Ephraim's part. But the +politician in the man was uppermost and he did not force the issue. + +"All right, effendi--oh, all right!" he answered, trying to laugh +the matter off. + +"Explain to them, then!" + +I made him do it half a dozen times, for once we were on our way +along the precipitous sides of the hills the only control I should +have would be force of example, aided to some extent by the sort +of primitive signals that pass muster even in a kindergarten. +If they should talk Turkish to me slowly I might understand a little +here and there, but to speak it myself was quite another matter; +and in common with most of their countrymen, though they understood +Turkish perfectly and all that went with it, they would rather eat +dirt than foul their months with the language of the hated conqueror. + +But, once explained, the plan was as obvious as the risk entailed, +and they approved the one as swiftly as they despised the other. +The Kurds below were not oblivious to the risk of reprisals from +the hills, and we spent five minutes picking out the men posted to +keep watch, making careful note of their positions. At the point +where we decided to debouch on to the plain there were two sentries +taking matters fairly easy, and I told off four men to go on ahead +and attend to those as silently as might be. + +Then we started--not close together, for the Kurds would certainly +be looking out for an attack from the hills in force, and would not +be expecting individuals--but one at a time, two Armenians leading, +and the rest of them following me at intervals of more than fifty yards. + +At the moment of starting I gave Ephraim another order, and within +two hours owed my life and that of most of my men to his disobedience. + +"You stay here with your handful, and don't budge except as Kagig +moves his line! Few as you are, you can hold this flank safe if +you stay firm." + +He stayed firm until the last of my seventeen had disappeared around +the corner of the cliff; and five minutes later I caught sight of +him through the glasses, leading his following at top speed downward +along a spur toward the plain. The Kurds on the lookout saw him +too and, concentrating their attention on him, did not notice us +when we dodged at long intervals in full sunlight across the face +of a white rock. + +There was little leading needed; rather, restraining, and no means +of doing it. Instead of keeping the formation in which we started +off, those in the rear began to overtake the men in front and, rather +than disobey the order to keep wide intervals, to extend down the +face of the hill, so that within fifteen minutes we were in wide-spaced +skirmishing order. Then, instead of keeping along the hills, as +I had intended, until we were well to the rear of the Kurdish firing-line, +they turned half-left too soon, and headed in diagonal bee line toward +the horses, those who had begun by leading being last now, and the +last men first. Being shorter-winded than the rest of them and more +tired to begin with, that arrangement soon left me a long way in +the rear, dodging and crawling laboriously and stopping every now +and then to watch the development of the battle. There was little +to see but the flash of rifles; and they explained nothing more +than that the Kurds were forcing their way very close to our center +and left wing. + +Not all the fighting had been done that day under organized leadership. +I stumbled at one place and fell over the dead bodies of a Kurd and +an Armenian, locked in a strangle-hold. That Kurd must have been +bold enough to go pillaging miles in advance of his friends, for +the two had been dead for hours. But the mutual hatred had not died +off their faces, and they lay side by side clutching each other's +throats as if passion had continued after death. + +The sight of Ephraim and his party hurrying across their front toward +Kagig's weak left wing had evidently convinced the Kurds that no +more danger need be expected from their own left. There can have +been no other possible reason why we were unobserved, for the recklessness +of my contingent grew as they advanced closer to the horses, and +from the rear I saw them brain one outpost with a rock and rush in +and knife another with as little regard for concealment as if these +two had been the only Kurds within eagle's view. Yet they were unseen +by the enemy, and five minutes later we all gathered in the shelter +of a semicircle of loose rocks, to regain wind for the final effort. + +"Korkakma!" I panted, using about ten per cent. of my Turkish vocabulary, +and they laughed so loud that I cursed them for a bunch of fools. +But the man nearest me chose to illustrate his feeling for Turks +further by taking the corner of his jacket between thumb and finger +and going through the motions of squeezing off an insect--the last, +most expressive gesture of contempt. + +The horses were within three hundred yards of us. On rising ground +between us and the Kurdish firing-line was a little group of Turkish +officers, and to our right beyond the horses was miscellaneous baggage +under the guard of Kurds, of whom more than half were wounded. I +could see an obviously Greek doctor bandaging a man seated on an +empty ammunition box. + +But our chief danger was from the mounted scoundrels who were so +busy murdering women and children and wounded men half a mile away +to the rear. They had come along working the covert like hunters +of vermin, driving lances into every possible lurking place and no +doubt skewering their own wounded on occasion, for which Armenians +would afterward be blamed. We could hear them chorusing with glee +whenever a lance found a victim, or when a dozen of them gave chase +to some panic-stricken woman in wild flight. Through the glasses +I could see two Turkish officers with them, in addition to their +own nondescript "tin-plate men"; and if officers or men should get +sight of us it was easy to imagine what our fate would be. + +That thought, and knowledge that Gloria Vanderman and Will and Fred +were engaged in an almost equally desperate venture within a mile +of me (evidenced by dozens of wild bullets screaming through the +air) suggested the idea of taking a longer chance than any I had +thought of yet. A moment's consideration brought conviction that +the effort would be worth the risk. Yet I had no way of communicating +with my men! + +I pointed to the Turkish officers clustered together watching the +effort of their firing-line. From where we lay to the horses would +be three hundred yards; from the horses to those officers would +be about two hundred and fifty yards farther at an angle of something +like forty degrees. Counting their orderlies and hangers-on we +outnumbered that party by two to one; and "the fish starts stinking +from the head" as the proverb says. With the head gone, the whole +Kurdish firing-line would begin to be useless. + +I tried my stammering Turkish, but the men were in no mood to be +patient with efforts in that loathly tongue. None of them knew a +word in English. I tried French--Italian--smattering Arabic--but +they only shook their heads, and began to think nervousness was driving +me out of hand. One of them laid a soothing hand on my shoulder, +and repeated what sounded like a prayer. + +To lose the confidence of one's men under such circumstances at that +stage of the game was too much. I grew really rattled, and at random, +as a desperate man will I stammered off what I wanted to say in the +foreign tongue that I knew best, regardless of the fact that Armenians +are not black men, and that there is not even a trace of connection +between their language and anything current in Africa. Zanzibar +and Armenia are as far apart as Australia and Japan, with about as +much culture in common. + +To my amazement a man answered in fluent Kiswahili! He had traded +for skins in some barbarous district near the shore of Victoria Nyanza, +and knew half a dozen Bantu languages. In a minute after that we +had the plan well understood and truly laid; and, what was better, +they had ceased to believe me a victim of nerves--a fact that gave +me back the nerve that had been perilously close to vanishing. + +We paid no more attention to the firing-line, nor to the mounted +Kurds who were drawing the coverts nearer and nearer to us. It was +understood that we were to sacrifice ourselves for our friends, and +do the utmost damage possible before being overwhelmed. We shook +hands solemnly. Two or three men embraced each other. The five +who by common consent were reckoned the best rifle shots lay down +side by side with me among the rocks, and the remainder began crawling +out one by one on their stomachs toward the horses, with instructions +to take wide open order as quickly as possible, with the idea of +making the Kurds believe our numbers were greater than they really were. + +When I judged they were half-way toward the horses we six opened +fire on the Turkish officers. And every single one of us missed! +At the sound of our volley the devoted horse-thieves rose to their +feet and rushed on the horse-guards, forgetting to fire on them from +sheer excitement, and as a matter of fact one of them was shot dead +by a horse-guard before the rest remembered they had deadly weapons +of their own. + +I remedied the first outrageous error to a slight extent by killing +the Turkish colonel's orderly, missing the commander himself by almost +a yard. My five men all missed with their second shots, and then +it was too late to pull off the complete coup we had dared to hope +for. The entire staff took cover, and started a veritable hail of +fire with their repeating pistols, all aimed at us, and aimed as +wildly as our own shots had been. + +Meanwhile the mounted Kurds at the rear had heard the firing and +were coming on full pelt, yelling like red Indians. I could see, +in the moment I snatched for a hurried glance in that direction, +that the purpose of cutting loose and stampeding the horses was being +accomplished; but even that comparatively simple task required time, +and as the Kurds galloped nearer, the horses grew as nervous as the +men who sought to loose them. + +But conjecture and all caution were useless to us six bent on attacking +the colonel and his staff. We crawled out of cover and advanced, +stopping to fire one or two shots and then scrambling closer, giving +away our own paucity of numbers, but increasing the chance of doing +damage with each yard gained. And our recklessness had the additional +advantage of making the staff reckless too. The colonel kept in +close hiding, but the rest of them began dodging from place to place +in an effort to outflank us from both sides, and I saw four of them +bowled over within a minute. Then the remainder lay low again, and +we resumed the offensive. + +The next thing I remember was hearing a wild yell as our party seized +a horse apiece and galloped off in front of the oncoming Kurds--straight +toward Kagig's firing-line. That, and the yelling of the horsemen +in pursuit drew the attention of the riflemen attacking Kagig to +the fact that most of their horses were running loose and that there +was imminent danger to their own rear. I only had time to get a +glimpse of them breaking back, for the Turkish colonel got my range +and sent a bullet ripping down the length of the back of my shooting +jacket. That commenced a duel----he against me--each missing as +disgracefully as if we were both beginners at the game of life or +death, and I at any rate too absorbed to be aware of anything but +my own plight and of oceans of unexplained noise to right and left. +I knew there were galloping horses, and men yelling; but knowledge +that the Turkish military rifle I was using must be wrongly sighted, +and that my enemy had no such disadvantage, excluded every other +thought. + +I had used about half the cartridges in my bandolier when a Kurd's +lance struck me a glancing blow on the back of the head. His horse +collapsed on top of me, as some thundering warrior I did not see +gave the stupendous finishing stroke to rider and beast at once. + +There followed a period of semi-consciousness filled with enormous +clamor, and upheavings, and what might have been earthquakes for +lack of any other reasonable explanation, for I felt myself being +dragged and shaken to and fro. Then, as the weight of the fallen +horse was rolled aside there surged a tide of blissful relief that +carried me over the border of oblivion. + +When I recovered my senses I was astride of Rustum Khan's mare, with +a leather thong around my shoulders and the Rajput's to keep me from +falling. We were proceeding at an easy walk in front of a squadron +of ragged-looking irregulars whom I did not recognize, toward the +center of the position Kagig had held. Kagig's men were no longer +in hiding, but standing about in groups; and presently I caught +sight of Fred and Will and Kagig standing together, but not Gloria +Vanderman. A cough immediately behind us made me turn my head. +The Turkish colonel, who had fought the ridiculously futile duel +with me, was coming along at the mare's tail with his hands tied +behind him and a noose about his neck made fast to one of the +saddle-rings. + +"Much obliged, Rustum Khan!" I said by way of letting him know I +was alive. "How did you get here?" + +"Ha, sahib! Not going to die, then? That is good! I came because +Colonel Lord Montdidier sahib sent me with a squadron of these mountain +horsemen--fine horsemen they are--fit by the breath of Allah to draw +steel at a Rajput's back!" + +"He sent you to find me?" + +"Ha, sahib. To rescue you alive if that were possible." + +"How did he know where I was?" + +"An Armenian by name of Ephraim came and said you had gone over to +the Turks. Certain men he had with him corroborated, but three of +his party kept silence. My lord sahib answered 'I have hunted, and +camped, and fought beside that man--played and starved and feasted +with him. No more than I myself would he go over to Turks. He must +have seen an opportunity to make trouble behind the Turks' backs. +Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib, obeyed +my lord bahadur's orders." + +"Where is Lord Montdidier now?" + +"Who knows, sahib. Wherever the greatest need at the moment is." + +"Tell me what has happened." + +"You did well, sahib. The loosing of the horses and the shooting +behind their backs put fear into the Kurds. They ceased pressing +on our left wing. And I--watching from behind cover on the right +wing--snatched that moment to outflank them, so that they ran pell-mell. +Then I saw the mounted Kurds charging up from the rear, and guessed +at once where you were, sahib. The Kurds were extended, and my men +in close order, so I charged and had all the best of it, arriving +by God's favor in the nick of time for you, sahib. Then I took this +colonel prisoner. Only once in my life have I seen a greater pile +than his of empty cartridge cases beside one man. That was the pile +beside you, sahib! How many men did you kill, and he kill? And +who buried them?" + +"Where is Miss Vanderman?" I asked, turning the subject. + +"God knows! What do I know of women? Only I know this: that there +is a gipsy woman bred by Satan out of sin itself, who will make things +hot for any second filly in this string! Woe and a woman are one!" + +Not caring to listen to the Indian's opinions of the other sex any +more than he would have welcomed mine about the ladies of his own +land, I made out my injuries were worse than was the case, and groaned +a little, and grew silent. + +So we rode without further conversation up to where Fred and Will +were standing with Kagig, and as I tumbled off into Fred's arms I +was greeted with a chorus of welcome that included Gloria's voice. + +"That's what I call using your bean!" she laughed, in the slangy +way she had whenever Will had the chance to corrupt her Boston manners. + +"It feels baked," I said. "I used it to stop a Kurd's lance with. +Hullo! What's the matter with you?" + +"I stopped a bullet with my forearm!" + +She was sitting in a sort of improvised chair between two dwarfed +tree-trunks, and if ever I saw a proud young woman that was she. +She wore the bloody bandage like a prize diploma. + +"And I've seen your friend Monty, and he's better than the accounts +of him!" + +I glanced at Will, alert for a sign of jealousy. + +"Monty is the one best bet!" he said. And his eyes were generous +and level, as a man's who tells the whole truth. + + + + +Chapter Fourteen +"Rajput, I shall hang you if you make more trouble!" + + +"LO, THIS IS THE MAN--" + (Psalm 52) + +Choose, ye forefathers of to-morrow, choose! +These easy ways there be +Uncluttered by the wrongs each other bears, +And warmly we shall walk who can not see +How thin some other fellow's garment wears, +Nor need to notice whose. + +Choose, ye stock-owners in to-morrow, choose! +The road these others tread +Is littered deep with jetsam and the bones +Of their dishonored dead. +What altruism for defeat atones? +Have ye not much to lose? + +Choose, ye inheritors of ages, choose! +What owe ye to the past? +The burly men who Magna Charta wrung +>From tyranny entrenched would stand aghast +To see the ripples from that stone they flung, +They, too, had selfish views. + +Choose, ye investors in the future, choose! +Ye need pick cautious odds; +To-morrow's fruit is seeded down to-day, +And unwise purpose like the unknown gods +Tempts on a wasteful way. +"Ware well what guide ye use! + +We went and bivouacked by the brawling Jihun under a roof of thatch, +whose walls were represented by more or less upright wooden posts +and debris; for Kagig would not permit anything to stand even for +an hour that Turks could come and fortify. None of us believed that +the repulse of that handful of Kurdish plunderers and the capture +of a Turkish colonel would be the end of hostilities--rather the +beginning. + +Kagig, when Gloria asked him what he proposed to do with Rustum Khan's +prisoner, smiled cynically and ordered him searched by two of the +Zeitoonli standing guard. Rustum Khan was standing just out of low +ear-shot absorbed in contemplation of the lie of the country. I +noticed that Fred began to look nervous, but he did not say anything. +Will was too busy fussing with Gloria's wound, making a new bandage +for it and going through the quite unnecessary motions of keeping +up her spirits, to observe any other phenomena. An Armenian woman +named Anna, who had attached herself to Gloria because, she said, +her husband and children had been killed and she might as well serve +as weep, sat watching the two of them with quiet amusement. + +The Turk offered no further objection than a shrug of his fatalist +shoulders and a muttered remark about Ermenie and bandits. Even +when the mountaineers laughed at the chink of stolen money in all +his pockets he did not exhibit a trace of shame. They shook him, +and pawed him, and poured out gold in little heaps on the ground +(out of the magnanimity of his official heart he had doubtless left +all silver coin for his hamidieh to pouch); but Kagig only had eyes +for the papers they pulled out of his inner pocket and tossed away. +He pounced on them. + +"Hah!" he laughed. "There! Did I tell you? These are his orders +--signed by a governor's secretary--countersigned by the governor +himself--to 'set forth with his troops and rescue Armenians in the +Zeitoon district.' Rescue them! Have you seen? Did you observe +his noble rescue work? Here--see the orders for yourselves! Observe +how the Stamboulis propose to prove their innocence after the event!" + +Since they were written in Turkish they were of no conceivable use +to any one but Fred and Rustum Khan. Fred glanced over them, and +shouted to Rustum Khan to come and look. That was a mistake, for +it called the Rajput's attention to what had been happening to his +prisoner. He came striding toward us with his black beard bristling +and eyes blazing with anger. + +"Who searched him?" he demanded. + +"He was searched by my order," Kagig answered in the calm level voice +that in a man of such spirit was prophetic of explosion. + +"Who gave thee leave to order him searched, Armenian?" + +"I left you his money," Kagig answered with biting scorn, pointing +to the little heaps of gold coin on the ground. + +I had no means of knowing what peaks of friction had already been +attained between the two, and it was not likely that I should instantly +choose sides against the man who within the hour had saved my life +at peril of his own. But Will saw matters in another light, and +Fred began humming through his nose. Will left Gloria and walked +straight up to Rustum Khan. He had managed to shave himself with +cold Jihun water and some laundry soap, and his clean jaw suggested +standards set up and sworn to since ever they gave the name of Yankee +to men possessed by certain high ideals. + +"Kagig needs no leave from any one to order prisoners searched!" +he said, shaping each word distinctly. + +Rustum Khan spluttered, and kicked at a heap of coin. + +"Perhaps you have bargained for your share of all loot? I have heard +that in America men--" + +'Rajput!" said Kagig, looking down on him from slightly higher ground, +"I will hang you if you make more trouble!" + +At that I interfered. I was not the only one in Rustum Khan's debt; +it was likely his brilliant effort at the critical moment had saved +our whole fighting line. Besides, I saw the Turk grinning to himself +with satisfaction at the rift in our good will. + +"Suppose we refer this dispute to Monty," I proposed, reasoning that +if it should ever get as far as Monty, tempers would have died away +meanwhile. Not that Monty could not have handled the problem, tempers +and all. + +"I refer no points of honor," growled the Rajput. "I have been +insulted." + +"Rot!" exclaimed Fred, getting to his feet. When his usually neat +beard has not been trimmed for a day or two he looks more truculent +than he really is. "I've been listening. The insolence was on the +other side." + +"Do you deny Kagig's right to question prisoners?" I asked, thinking +I saw a way out of the mess. + +"Can I not question him?" Rustum Khan turned on me with a gesture +that made it clear he held me to no friendship on account of +service rendered. + +He strode toward his prisoner, with heaven knows what notion in his +head, but Fred interposed himself. The likeliest thing at that moment +was a blow by one or the other that would have banished any chance +of a returning reign of reason. Rustum Khan turned his back to the +Turk and thrust out his chest toward Fred as if daring him to strike. +Even the kites seemed to expect bloodshed and circled nearer. + +It was Gloria who cut the Gordian knot. It was her unwounded hand, +not Fred's, that touched the Rangar's breast. + +"Rustum Khan," she said, "I think better of you than to believe you +would take advantage of our ignorance. You're a soldier. We are +only civilians trying to help a tortured nation. We know nothing +of Rajput customs. Won't you go to Lord Montdidier and tell him +about it, and ask him to decide? We'll all obey Monty, you know." + +Rustum Khan looked down at her bandaged wrist, and then into violet +eyes that were not in the least degree afraid of him but only looking +diligently for the honor he so boasted. + +"Who can refuse a beautiful young woman?" he said, beginning to melt. +But he refused to meet her eyes again, or even to acknowledge +our existence. + +"I give you the prisoner!" He made her a motion of arrogant extravagance +with his right hand as if performing the act of transfer. Then he +turned on his heel with a little simultaneous mock salute, and striding +to his bay mare, mounted and rode away. + +Kagig took over the prisoner at once without comment and began to +question him under a tree twenty yards away, paying no attention +to the riflemen who matched one another, laughing, for the plundered +money. We four went back to the shelter of the thatch roof, for the +plan was to remain behind with the company of Zeitoonli whom Kagig +had placed carefully at vantage points, and give stragglers a chance +to save themselves before we resumed the journey to Zeitoon. + +Naturally enough, Rustum Khan and his fiery unreason was the subject +we discussed, and Fred laid law down as to how he should be dealt +with whenever the chance should come to bring him to book. But Rustum +Khan was a bagatelle compared to what was coming, if we had only +known it. While we talked I saw Gregor Jhaere, the attaman of gipsies, +ride down the track on a brown mule and dismount within ten yards +of Kagig. He hobbled his mule, and went and sat close by Kagig and +the Turk, engaging in a three-cornered talk with them. Kagig seemed +to have expected him, for there was no sign of greeting or surprise. + +There was nothing disturbing about Gregor's arrival on the scene; +he was evidently helping Kagig to cross-examine the Turk and check +up facts. Within their limits gipsies are about the best spies +obtainable because of their ability to take advantage of credulity +and their own immeasurable unbelief in protest or appearances. It +was the individual who followed Gregor at a distance, and dismounted +from a gray stallion quite a long way off in order not to draw attention +to herself, who made my blood turn cold. I caught sight of Maga Jhaere +first because the others had their backs toward her. Then the expression +of my face brought Fred to his feet. By that time Magi had vanished +out of view unaware that any one had seen her, creeping like a +pantheress from rock to rock. + +"What's the matter?" Fred demanded, sitting down again, ill-tempered +with himself for being startled. + +"Maga Jhaere!" + +"How exciting!" said Gloria. "I'm crazy to meet her." + +But Will looked less excited and more anxious than I had ever seen +him, and we all three laughed. + +"All right!" he said. "I tell you it's no joke. That woman believes +she's got her hooks in." + +We tried to go on talking naturally, but lapsed into uncomfortable +silence as the minutes dragged by and no Maga put in her appearance. +Fred began humming through his nose again in that ridiculous way +that he thinks seems unconcerned, but that makes his best friends +yearn to smite him hip and thigh. + +"I guess you were mistaken," Will said at last, spreading out his +shoulders with relief at the mere suggestion. But I was facing the +direction of Zeitoon, as he was not, and again the expression of +my face betrayed the facts. + +There were two large stones leaning together, with a small triangular +gap between them, less than thirty feet from where we sat. In that +gap I could see a pair of eyes, and nothing else. They had almost +exactly the expression of a panther's that is stalking, not its quarry, +but its mortal foe. In spite of having seen Maga approaching, I +would have believed them an animal's eyes, only that from experience +I knew an animal's eyes betray fear and anger without reason, whereas +these blazed with the desperate reasoning that holds fear in contempt. +Panthers can hate, be afraid, sweep fear aside with anger, and plan +painstakingly for murderous attack; but it is only behind human +eyes that one may recognize the murder--purpose based on argument. + +"I see her," I said. "I suspect she's got a pistol, and--" + +I had not known until that moment that the short hair was standing +up the back of my head, but I felt it go down with a creepy cold +chill as I spoke. Then once more it rose. Knowing she was seen +and recognized, Maga got to her feet and stood on the larger of the +two stones, looking down on us. Her hands were on her hips, and +I could see no weapon, but her lips moved in voiceless imprecation. + +"Are you Maga Jhaere?" asked Gloria, first of us all to recover some +measure of self-command. + +Maga nodded. She was barefooted, clothed only in bodice and leather +jacket and a rather short ochre-colored skirt that blew in the gaining +wind and showed the outline of her lithe young figure. Her long +black hair billowed and galloped in the wind behind her. + +"I am Maga Jhaere," she said slowly, addressing Gloria. "Who +are you?" + +"My name is Gloria Vanderman." + +"And that man beside you--who is he?" + +Gloria did not answer. Will looked more embarrassed than the devil +caught in daylight, and Fred recovered his mental equilibrium +sufficiently to chuckle. + +"Is he your husband?" + +"No." + +"Then what you want with 'im?" + +No one said a word. Only, Fred made a movement with his hand behind +him that Maga noticed and spurned with a toss of her chin. + +"You coming to Zeitoon?" + +Gloria nodded. Glancing over toward Kagig I saw that he was aware +of Maga and was watching her out of the corner of his eye while he +talked with Gregor and the Turk. They were both getting angry with +the Turk and using gestures suggestive of impending agony by way +of emphasis. The Turk was growing fidgety. + +Maga spread her arms out as if she were embracing all the universe +and called it hers. + +"Then--if you ar-re coming to Zeitoon--you choose first a 'usband. +There are--many 'usbands. Some 'ave lost a wife--some 'ave sick +wife--some not yet never 'ad no wife. Plenty Armenians--also two +other men there--but you let that one--Will--alone! Choose a 'usband +--marry,'im--then you come to Zeitoon! If you come without a 'usband +--I will keel you--do you understand?" + +"Now then, America!" grinned Fred in a stage aside that Maga could +hear as clearly as if it had been intended for her. "Let's see the +eagle scream for liberty!" + +"Eagle scream?" said Maga, almost screaming herself. "What you know +about eagles? You ol' fool! That man Will is thinking you ar-re +'is frien'. You ar-re not 'is frien'! Let 'im come with me, an' +I will show 'im what ar-re eagles--what is freedom--what is knowledge +--what is life! I know. You ol' fool, you not know! You ol' fool, +you marry that woman--then you can bring 'er to Zeitoon an' she is +safe! Otherwise--" + +She reached in the bosom of her blouse and drew out, not the +mother-o'-pearl-plated pistol that I feared, but a knife with an +eighteen-inch blade of glittering steel. Instantly Fred covered +her with his own repeater, but she laughed in his face. + +"You ol' fool, you ar-re afraid to shoot me!" + +If she meant that Fred would feel squeamish about shooting before +she hurled the knife, then she was certainly right. But she knew +better than to make one preliminary motion. And Kagig knew better +than to permit further pleasantries. I saw him whisper to Gregor, +and the gipsy attaman started on hands and knees to creep round behind +her. But Maga's eyes were practised like those of all other wild +creatures in detecting movement behind her as well as in front. +She spat, and gave vent to a final ultimatum. + +"You 'ave 'eard. I said--you let that man Will Yerr-kees alone! +An' don't you dare come to Zeitoon without a 'usband!" + +Then she turned and dodged Gregor, and ran for her gray stallion--mounted +the savage brute with a leap from six feet away, and rode like the +wind toward the gut of the pass that shut off Zeitoon from our view. +A minute later a shell from a small-bore cannon screamed overhead, +and burst a hundred yards beyond us on a sheet of rock. + +"Not bad for a ranging shot!" said Fred, suddenly as self-possessed +as if the world never held such a thing as an untamed woman. + +"Observe, you sportmen all!" Kagig exclaimed, getting to his feet. +"The Turkish nobility are proceeding to rescue poor Armenians. Behold, +their charity comes even from the cannon's mouth! It is time to +go now, lest it overtake us! No cannon can come in sight of Zeitoon. +Follow me." + +With his usual sudden oblivion of everything but the main objective +Kagig mounted and rode away, followed by Gregor in charge of the +prisoner, and by a squadron or so of mounted Zeitoonli who attempted +no formation but came cantering as each detachment realized that +their leader was on the move. We found ourselves last, without an +armed man between us and the enemy, although without a doubt there +were still dozens of fugitive poor wretches who had not had the +courage or perhaps the strength to overtake us yet. + +Kagig had had the forethought to leave comparatively fresh mules +for us to ride, and there was not any particular reason for hurry. +Will went ahead, with Gloria and Anna beside him on one mule--Gloria +laughing him out of countenance because of his nervousness on her +account, but he insistent on the danger in case of repeated gun-fire. +Fred rode slowly beside me in the rear, for we still hoped to encourage +a few stray fugitives to come out of their hiding holes and follow +us to safety. + +A second cannon shot, not nearly so well aimed as the first had been, +went screaming over toward our left and landed without bursting among +low bushes. A third and a fourth followed it, and the last one did +explode. That was plainly too much for some one who had dodged into +hiding when the second shot fell; we saw him come rushing out from +cover like a lunatic, unconscious of direction and only intent on +shielding the top of his head with his hands. + +"Is the poor devil hurt?" I said, wondering. But Fred broke into +a roar of laughter; and he is not a heartless man--merely gifted +more than usual with the hunter's eye that recognizes sex and species +of birds and animals at long range. I can see farther than Fred +can, but at recognizing details swiftly I am a blind bat compared +to him. + +"The martyred biped!" he laughed. "Peter Measel by the God +of happenings!" + +We rode over toward him, and Peter it was, running with his eyes +shut. He screamed when we stopped him, and sobbed instead of talking +when we pulled him in between our mules and offered him two stirrup +leathers to hold. He seemed to think that standing between the mules +would protect him from the artillery fire, and as we were not in +any hurry we took advantage of that delusion to let him recover a +modicum of nerve. + +And the moment that began to happen he was the same sweet Peter Measel +with the same assurance of every other body's wickedness and his +own divinity, only with something new in his young life to add poignancy. + +"What were you doing there?" demanded Fred, as we got him to towing +along between us at last. + +"I was looking for her." + +"For whom?" + +"For Maga Jhaere." + +Fred allowed his ribs to shake in silent laughter that annoyed the +mule, and we had to catch Measel all over again because the beast's +crude objections filled the martyred biped full of the desire to run. + +"Somebody must save that girl!" he panted. "And who else can do +it? Who else is there?" + +"There's only you!" Fred agreed, choking down his mirth. + +"I'm glad you agree with me. At least you have that much blessedness, +Mr. Fred. D'you know that girl was willing to be a murderess? Yes! +She tried to murder Rustum Khan. Rustum Khan ought to be hanged, +for he is a villain--a black villain! But she must not have blood +on her hands--no, no!" + +"Why didn't she murder him?" demanded Fred. "Qualms at the last moment?" + +"No. I'm sorry to say no. She has no God-likeness yet. But that +will come. She will repent. I shall see to that. It was I who +prevented her, and she all but murdered me! She would have murdered +me, but Kagig held her wrist; and to punish her he gave an order +that I should preach to her morning, afternoon, and evening--three +times a day. So I had my opportunity. There was a guard of gipsy +women set to see that she obeyed." + +"Continue," said Fred. "What happened?" + +"She broke away, and came down to see the fighting." + +"Why did you follow her? Weren't you afraid?" + +"Oh, Mr. Fred, if you only knew! Yet I felt impelled to find her. +I could not trust her out of sight." + +"Why not? She seems fairly well able to look after herself." + +"Oh, I can not allow wickedness. I must make it to cease! It entered +my head that she intended to find Kagig!" + +"Well? Why not?" + +"Oh, Mr. Fred--tell me! You may know--you perhaps as well as any +one, for you are such an ungodly man! What are her relations with +Kagig? Does he--is he--is there wickedness between them?" + +"Dashed if I know. She's a gipsy. He's a fine half-savage. Why +should it concern you?" + +"Oh, I could not endure it! It would break my heart to believe it!" + +"Then why think about it?" + +"How can I help it? I love her! Oh, I love her, Mr. Fred! I never +loved a woman in all my life before. It would break my heart if +she were to be betrayed into open sin by Kagig! Oh, what shall I +do? What shall I do? I love her! What shall I do?" + +"Do?" said Fred, looking forward in imagination to new worlds of +humor, "why--make love, if you love her! Make hot love and strong!" + +"Will you help me, Mr. Fred?" the biped stammered. "You see, she's +rather wild--a little unconventional--and I've never made love even +to a sempstress. Will you help me?" + +"Certainly!" Fred chuckled. "Certainly. I'll guarantee to marry +her to you if you'll dig up the courage. Have you a ring?" + +Peter Measel produced a near-gold ring with a smirk almost of +recklessness, a plain gold ring whose worn appearance called to mind +the finger taken from a dead Kurd's cartridge pouch. It may be that +Measel bought it, but neither Fred nor I spoke to him again, for +half an hour. + + + + +Chapter Fifteen +"Scenery to burst the heart!" + + +THE REBEL'S HYMN + +The seeds that swell within enwrapping mould, +Gray buds that color faintly in the northing sun, +Deep roots that lengthen after winter's rest, +The flutter of year's youth in April's breast +As young leaves in the warming hour unfold-- +These and my heart are one! + +Go dam the river-course with carted earth; +Or bind with iron bands that riven stone +That century on century has slept +Until into its heart a tendril crept, +And in the quiet majesty of birth +New nature broke into her own! +Or bid the sun stand still! Or fashion wings +To herd the heaven's stars and make them be +Subservient to will and rule and whim! +Or rein the winds, and still the ocean's hymn! +More surely ye shall manage all these things +Than chain the Life in me! + +Great mountains shedding the reluctant snow, +Vision of the finish of the thing begun, +Spirit of the beauty of the torrent's song, +Unconquerable peal of carillon, +And secrets that in conquest overflow-- +These and my heart are one! + + +Yet another night we were destined to spend on the Zeitoon road, +for we had not the heart to leave behind us the stragglers who balked +fainting in the gut of the pass. Some were long past the stage where +anything less than threats could make impression on them, and only +able to go forward in a dull dream at the best. But there were numbers +of both men and women unexpectedly capable of extremes of heroism, +who took the burden of misery upon themselves and exhibited high +spirits based on no evident excuse. Nothing could overwhelm those, +nothing discourage them. + +"To Zeitoon!" somebody shouted, as if that were the very war-cry +of the saints of God. Then in a splendid bass voice he began to +sing a hymn, and some women joined him. So Fred Oakes fell to his +old accustomed task, and played them marching accompaniments on his +concertina until his fingers ached and even he, the enthusiast, loathed +the thing's bray. In one way and another a little of the pall of +misery was lifted. + +Kagig sent us down bread and yoghourt at nightfall, so that those +who had lived thus far did not die of hunger. Women brought the +food on their heads in earthen crocks--splendid, good-looking women +with fearless eyes, who bore the heavy loads as easily as their mountain +men-folk carried rifles. They did not stay to gossip, for we had +no news but the stale old story of murder and plunder; and their +news was short and to the point. + +"Come along to Zeitoon!" was the burden of it, carried with a singsong +laugh. "Zeitoon is ready for anything!" + +Before we had finished eating, each two of them gathered up a poor +wretch from our helpless crowd and strode away into the mountains +with a heavier load than that they brought. + +"Come along to Zeitoon!" they called back to us. But even Fred's +concertina, and the hymns of the handful who were not yet utterly +spent, failed to get them moving before dawn. + +We did not spend the night unguarded, although no armed men lay between +us and the enemy. We could hear the Kurds shouting now and then, +and once, when I climbed a high rock, I caught sight of the glow +of their bivouac fires. Imagination conjured up the shrieks of tortured +victims, for we had all seen enough of late to know what would happen +to any luckless straggler they might have caught and brought to make +sport by the fires. But there was no imagination about the calls +of Kagig's men, posted above us on invisible dark crags and ledges +to guard against surprise. We slept in comfortable consciousness +that a sleepless watch was being kept--until fleas came out of the +ground by battalions, divisions and army corps, making rest impossible. + +But even the flea season was a matter of indifference to the hapless +folk who lay around us, and although we fussed and railed we could +not persuade them to go forward before dawn broke. Then, though, +they struggled to their feet and started without argument. But an +hour after the start we reached the secret of the safety of Zeitoon, +without which not even the valor of its defenders could have withstood +the overwhelming numbers of the Turks for all those scores of years; +and there was new delay. + +The gut of the pass rose toward Zeitoon at a sharp incline--a ramp +of slippery wet clay, half a mile long, reaching across from buttress +to buttress of the impregnable hills. It was more than a ridden +mule could do to keep its feet on the slope, and we had to dismount. +It was almost as much as we ourselves could do to make progress with +the aid of sticks, and we knew at last what Kagig had meant by his +boast that nothing on wheels could approach his mountain home. The +poor wretches who had struggled so far with us simply gave up hope +and sat down, proposing to die there. The martyred biped copied +them, except that they were dry-eyed and he shed tears. "To think +that I should come to this--that I should come to this!" he sobbed. +Yet the fool must have come down by that route, and have gone up +that way once. + +We should have been in a quandary but for the sound of axes ringing +in the mountain forest on our left--a dense dark growth of pine and +other evergreens commencing about a hundred feet above the naked +rock that formed the northerly side of the gorge. Where there were +axes at work there was in all likelihood a road that men could march +along, and our refugees sat down to let us do the prospecting. + +"It would puzzle Napoleon to bring cannon over this approach, and +the Turks don't breed Napoleons nowadays!" Fred shouted cheerily. +"Give me a hundred good men and I'll hold this pass forever! Wait +here while I scout for a way round." + +He tried first along the lower edge of the line of timber, encouraged +by ringing axes, falling trees, and men shouting in the distance. + +"It looks as if there once had been a road here," he shouted down +to us, "but nothing less than fire would clear it now, and everything +is sopping wet. I never saw such a tangle of roots and rocks. A +dog couldn't get thought!" + +Will volunteered to cross to the right-hand side and hunt over there +for a practicable path. Gloria stayed beside me, and I had my first +opportunity to talk with her alone. She was very pale from the effects +of the wound in her wrist, which was painful enough to draw her young +face and make her eyes burn feverishly. Even so, one realized that +as an old woman she would still be beautiful. + +I watched the eagles for a minute or two, wondering what to say to +her, and she did not seem to object to silence, so that I forced +an opening at last as clumsily as Peter Measel might have done it. + +"What is it about Will that makes all women love him?" I asked her. + +"Oh, do they all love him?" + +"Looks like it!" said I. + +She still wore the bandolier they had stripped from the man with +the bandaged feet, although Will had relieved her of the rifle's +weight. To the bottom of the bandolier she had tied the little bag +of odds and ends without which few western women will venture a mile +from home. Opening that she produced a small round mirror about +twice the size of a dollar piece, and offered it to me with a smile +that disarmed the rebuke. + +"Perhaps it's his looks," she suggested. + +I took the mirror and studied what I saw in it. In spite of a cracking +headache due to that and the gaining sun (for I had lost my hat when +the Kurd rode me down with his lance) the episode of Rustum Khan +carrying me back out of death's door on his bay mare had not lingered +in memory. There had been too much else to think about. Now for +the first time I realized how near that lance-point must have come +to finishing the chapter for me. I had washed in the Jihun when +we bivouacked, but had not shaved; later on, my scalp had bled anew, +so that in addition to unruly hair tousled and matted with dry blood +I had a week-old beard to help make me look like a graveyard ghoul. + +"I beg pardon!" I said simply, handing her the mirror back. + +At that she was seized with regret for the unkindness, and utterly +forgot that I had blundered like a bullock into the sacred sanctuary +of her newborn relationship to Will. + +"Oh, I don't know which of you is best!" she said, taking my hand +with her unbandaged one. "You are great unselfish splendid men. +Will has told me all about you! The way you have always stuck to +your friend Monty through thick and thin--and the way you are following +him now to help these tortured people--oh, I know what you are--Will +has told me, and I'm proud--" + +The embarrassment of being told that sort of thing by a young and +very lovely woman, when newly conscious of dirt and blood and +half-inch-long red whiskers, was apparently not sufficient for the +mirth of the exacting gods of those romantic hills. There came +interruption in the form of a too-familiar voice. + +"Oh, that's all right, you two! Make the most of it! Spoon all +you want to! My girl's in the clutches of an outlaw! Kiss her if +you want to--I won't mind!" + +I dropped her hand as if it were hot lead. As a matter of fact I +had hardly been conscious of holding it. + +"Oh, no, don't mind me!" continued the "martyred biped" in a tone +combining sarcasm, envy and impudence. + +"Shall I kill him?" I asked. + +"No! no!" she said. "Don't be violent--don't--" + +Peter Measel, whom we had inevitably utterly forgotten, was sitting +up with his back propped against a stone and his legs stretched straight +in front of him, enjoying the situation with all the curiosity of +his unchastened mind. I hove a lump of clay at him, but missed, +and the effort made my headache worse. + +"If you think you can frighten me into silence you're mistaken!" +he sneered, getting up and crawling behind the rock to protect himself. +But it needed more than a rock to hide him from the fury that took +hold of me and sent me in pursuit in spite of Gloria's remonstrance. + +Viewed as revenge my accomplishment was pitiful, for I had to chase +the poor specimen for several minutes, my headache growing worse +at every stride, and he yelling for mercy like a cur-dog shown the +whip, while the Armenians--women and little children as well as +men--looked on with mild astonishment and Gloria objected volubly. +He took to the clay slope at last in hope that his light weight would +give him the advantage; and there at last I caught him, and clapped +a big gob of clay in his mouth to stop his yelling. + +Even viewed as punishment the achievement did not amount to much. +I kicked him down the clay slope, and he was still blubbering and +picking dirt out of his teeth when Will shouted that he had found +a foot-track. + +"Do you understand why you've been kicked?" I demanded. + +"Yes. You're afraid I'll tell Mr. Yerkes!" + +"Oh, leave him!" said Gloria. "I'm sorry you touched him. Let's go!" + +"It was as much your fault as his, young woman!" snarled the biped, +getting crabwise out of my reach. "You'll all be sorry for this before +I'm through with you!" + +I was sorry already, for I had had experience enough of the world +to know that decency and manners are not taught to that sort of specimen +in any other way than by letting him go the length of his disgraceful +course. Carking self-contempt must be trusted to do the business +for him in the end. Gloria was right in the first instance. I should +have let him alone. + +However, it was not possible to take his threat seriously, and more +than any man I ever met he seemed to possess the knack of falling +out of mind. One could forget him more swiftly than the birds forget +a false alarm. I don't believe any of us thought of him again until +that night in Zeitoon. + +The path Will had discovered was hardly a foot wide in places, and +mules could only work their way along by rubbing hair off their flanks +against the rock wall that rose nearly sheer on the right hand. +>From the point of view of an invading army it was no approach at all, +for one man with a rifle posted on any of the overhanging crags could +have held it against a thousand until relieved. It was a mystery +why Kagig, or some one else, had not left a man at the foot of the +clay slope to tell us about this narrow causeway; but doubtless +Kagig had plenty to think about. + +He and most of his men had gone struggling up the clay slope, as +we could tell by the state of the going. But they were old hands +at it and knew the trick of the stuff. We had all our work cut out +to shepherd our poor stragglers along the track Will found, and even +the view of Zeitoon when we turned round the last bend and saw the +place jeweled in the morning mist did not do much to increase the speed. + +As Kagig had once promised us, it was "scenery to burst the heart!" +Not even the Himalayas have anything more ruggedly beautiful to show, +glistening in mauve and gold and opal, and enormous to the eye because +the summits all look down from over blowing cloud-banks. + +There were moss-grown lower slopes, and waterfalls plunging down +wet ledges from the loins of rain-swept majesty; pine trees looming +blue through a soft gray fog, and winds whispering to them, weeping +to them, moving the mist back and forth again; shadows of clouds +and eagles lower yet, moving silently on sunny slopes. And up above +it all was snow-dazzling, pure white, shading off into the cold blue +of infinity. + +Men clad in goat-skin coats peered down at us from time to time from +crags that looked inaccessible, shouting now and then curt recognition +before leaning again on a modern rifle to resume the ancient vigil +of the mountaineer, which is beyond the understanding of the +plains-man because it includes attention to all the falling water +voices, and the whispering of heights and deeps. + +We came on Zeitoon suddenly, rising out of a gorge that was filled +with ice, or else a raging torrent, for six months of the year. +Over against the place was a mountainside so exactly suggesting painted +scenery that the senses refused to believe it real, until the roar +and thunder of the Jihun tumbling among crags dinned into the ears +that it was merely wonderful, and not untrue. + +The one approach from the southward--that gorge up which we trudged +--was overlooked all along its length by a hundred inaccessible +fastnesses from which it seemed a handful of riflemen could have +disputed that right of way forever. The only other line of access +that we could see was by a wooden bridge flung from crag to crag +three hundred feet high across the Jihun; and the bridge was overlooked +by buildings and rocks from which a hail of lead could have been +made to sweep it at short range. + +Zeitoon itself is a mountain, next neighbor to the Beirut Dagh, not +as high, nor as inaccessible; but high enough, and inaccessible +enough to give further pause to its would-be conquerors. Not in +anything resembling even rows, but in lawless disorder from the base +to the shoulder of the mountain, the stone and wooden houses go piling +skyward, overlooking one another's roofs, and each with an unobstructed +view of endless distances. The picture was made infinitely lovely +by wisps of blown mist, like hair-lines penciled in the violet air. + +Distances were all foreshortened in that atmosphere, and it was +mid-afternoon before we came to a halt at last face to face with +blank wall. The track seemed to have been blocked by half the mountain +sitting down across it. We sat down to rest in the shadow of the +shoulder of an overhanging rock, and after half an hour some one +looked down on us, and whistled shrilly. Kagig with a rifle across +his knees looked down from a height of a hundred and fifty feet, +and laughed like a man who sees the bitter humor of the end of shams. + +"Welcome!" he shouted between his hands. And his voice came echoing +down at us from wall to wall of the gorge. Five minutes later he +sent a man to lead us around by a hidden track that led upward, +sometimes through other houses, and very often over roofs, across +ridiculously tiny yards, and in between walls so closely set together +that a mule could only squeeze through by main force. + +We stabled the mules in a shed the man showed us, and after that +Kagig received us four, and Anna, Gloria's self-constituted maid, +in his own house. It was bare of nearly everything but sheer +necessities, and he made no apology, for he had good taste, and +perfect manners if you allowed for the grim necessity of being curt +and the strain of long responsibility. + +A small bench took the place of a table in the main large room. +There was a fireplace with a wide stone chimney at one end, and some +stools, and also folded skins intended to be sat on, and shiny places +on the wall where men in goat-skin coats had leaned their backs. + +Two or three of the gipsy women were hanging about outside, and one +of the gipsies who had been with him in the room in the khan at Tarsus +appeared to be filling the position of servitor. He brought us yoghourt +in earthenware bowls--extremely cool and good it was; and after +we had done I saw him carry down a huge mess more of it to the house +below us, where many of the stragglers we had brought along were +quartered by Kagig's order. + +"Where's Monty?" Fred demanded as soon as we entered the room. + +"Presently!" Kagig answered--rather irritably I thought. He seemed +to have adopted Monty as his own blood brother, and to resent all +other claims on him. + +The afternoon was short, for the shadow of the surrounding mountains +shut us in. Somebody lighted a fire in the great open chimney-place, +and as we sat around that to revel in the warmth that rests tired +limbs better than sleep itself, Kagig strode out to attend to a million +things--as the expression of his face testified. + +Then in came Maga, through a window, with self-betrayal in manner +and look of having been watching us ever since we entered. She went +up to Will, who was squatted on folded skins by the chimney corner, +and stood beside him, claiming him without a word. Her black hair +hung down to her waist, and her bare feet, not cut or bruised like +most of those that walk the hills unshod, shone golden in the firelight. +I looked about for Peter Measel, expecting a scene, but he had taken +himself off, perhaps in search of her. + +She had eyes for nobody but Gloria, and no smile for any one. Gloria +stared back at her, fascinated. + +"You married?" she asked; and Gloria shook her head. "You 'eard +me, what I said back below there!" + +Gloria nodded. + +"You sing?" + +"Sometimes." + +"You dance?" + +"Oh, yes. I love it." + +"Ah! You shall sing--you shall dance--against me! First you sing +--then I sing. Then you dance--then I dance--to-night--you understan'? +If I sing better as you sing--an' if I dance better as you dance--then +I throw you over Zeitoon bridge, an' no one interfere! But if you +sing better as I sing--an' if you dance better as I dance--then you +shall make a servant of me; for I know you will be too big fool +an' too chicken 'earted to keel me, as I would keel you! You understan'?" + +It rather looked as if an issue would have to be forced there and +then, but at that minute Gregor entered, and drove her out with an +oath and terrific gesture, she not seeming particularly afraid of +him, but willing to wait for the better chance she foresaw was coming. +Gregor made no explanation or apology, but fastened down the leather +window-curtain after her and threw more wood on the fire. + +Then back came Kagig. + +"Where the devil's Monty?" Fred demanded. + +"Come!" was the only answer. And we all got up and followed him +out into the chill night air, and down over three roofs to a long +shed in which lights were burning. All the houses--on every side +of us were ahum with life, and small wonder, for Zeitoon was harboring +the refugees from all the district between there and Tarsus, to say +nothing of fighting men who came in from the hills behind to lend +a hand. But we were bent on seeing Monty at last, and had no patience +for other matters. + +However, it was only the prisoners he had led us out to see, and +nothing more. + +"Look, see!" he said, opening the heavy wooden door of the shed as +an armed sentry made way for him. (Those armed men of Zeitoon did +not salute one another, but preserved a stoic attitude that included +recognition of the other fellow's right to independence, too.) "Look +in there, and see, and tell me--do the Turks treat Armenian prisoners +that way?" + +We entered, and walked down the length of the dim interior, passing +between dozens of prisoners lying comfortably enough on skins and +blankets. As far as one could judge, they had been fed well, and +they did not wear the look of neglect or ill-treatment. At the end, +in a little pen all by himself, was the colonel whom Rustum Khan +had made a present of to Gloria. + +"What's the straw for?" Fred demanded. + +"Ask him!" said Kagig. "He understands! If there should be treachery +the straw will be set alight, and he shall know how pigs feel when +they are roasted alive! Never fear--there will be no treachery!" + +We followed him back to his own house, he urging us to make good +note of the prisoners' condition, and to bear witness before the +world to it afterward. + +"The world does not know the difference between Armenians and Turks!" +he complained again and again. + +Once again we arranged ourselves about his open chimney-place, this +time with Kagig on a foot-stool in the midst of us. Heat, weariness, +and process of digestion were combining to make us drowsily comfortable, +and I, for one, would have fallen asleep where I sat. But at last +the long-awaited happened, and in came Monty striding like a Norman, +dripping with dew, and clean from washing in the icy water of some +mountain torrent. + +"Oh, hello, Didums!" Fred remarked, as if they had parted about an +hour ago. "You long-legged rascal, you look as if you'd been having +the time of your life!" + +"I have!" said Monty. And after a short swift stare at him Fred +looked glum. Those two men understood each other as the clapper +understands the bell. + + + + +Chapter Sixteen +"What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" + + +"IT WAS VERY GOOD" + (Genesis 1:31) + +I saw these shambles in my youth, and said +There is no God! No Pitiful presides +Over such obsequies as these. The end +Alike is darkness whether foe or friend, +Beast, man or flower the event abides. +There is no heaven for the hopeful dead-- +No better haven than forgetful sod +That smothers limbs and mouth and ears and eyes, +And with those, love and permanence and strife +And vanity and laughter that they thought was life, +Making mere compost of the one who dies. +To whose advantage? Nay, there is no God! +But He, whose other name is Pitiful, was pleased +By melting gentleness whose measures broke +The ramps of ignorance and keeps of lust, +Tumbling alike folly and the fool to dust, +To teach me womanhood until there spoke +Still voices inspiration had released, +And I heard truly. All the voices said: +Out of departed yesterday is grown to-day; +Out of to-day to-morrow surely breaks; +Out of corruption the inspired awakes; +Out of existence earth-clouds roll away +And leave all living, for there are no dead! + + +After we had made room for Monty before the fire and some one had +hung his wet jacket up to dry, we volleyed questions at him faster +than he could answer. He sat still and let us finish, with fingers +locked together over his crossed knee and, underneath the inevitable +good humor, a rather puzzled air of wishing above all things to +understand our point of view. Over and over again I have noticed +that trait, although he always tried to cover it under an air of +polite indifference and easy tolerance that was as opaque to a careful +observer as Fred's attempts at cynicism. + +In the end he answered the last question first. + +"My agreement with Kagig?" + +"Yes, tell them!" put in Kagig. "If I should, they would say I lied!" + +"It's nothing to speak of," said Monty offhandedly. "It dawned on +our friend here that I have had experience in some of the arts of +war. I proposed to him that if he would take a force and go to find +you, I would help him to the limit without further condition. +That's all." + +"All, you ass? Didums, I warned you at the time when you let them +make you privy councilor that you couldn't ever feel free again to +kick over traces! Dammit, man, you can be impeached by parliament!" + +"Quite so, Fred. I propose that parliament shall have to do something +at last about this state of affairs." + +"You'll end up in an English jail, and God help you! --social position +gone--milked of your last pound to foot the lawyers' bills--otherwise +they'll hang you!" + +"Let 'em hang me after I'm caught! I've promised. Remember what +Byron did for Greece? I don't suppose his actual fighting amounted +to very much, but he brought the case of Greece to the attention +of the public. Public opinion did the rest, badly, I admit, but +better badly and late than never. I'm in this scrimmage, Fred, until +the last bell rings and they hoist my number." + +"Fine!" exclaimed Gloria, jumping to her feet. "So am I in it to +a finish!" + +Monty smiled at her with understanding and approval. + +"Almost my first duty, Miss Vanderman," he said kindly, "will be +to arrange that you can not possibly come to harm or be prejudiced +by any course the rest of us may decide on." + +"Quite so!" Will agreed with a grin, and Fred began chuckling like +a schoolboy at a show. + +"Nonsense!" she answered hotly. "I've come to harm already--see, +I'm wounded--I've been fighting--I'm already prejudiced as you call +it! If you're an outlaw, so am I!" + +She flourished her bandaged wrist and looked like Joan of Arc about +to summon men to sacrifice. But the argument ready on her lips was +checked suddenly. The night was without wind, yet the outer door +burst open exactly as if a sudden hurricane had struck it, and Maga +entered with a lantern in her hand. She tried to kick the door shut +again, but it closed on Peter Measel who had followed breathlessly, +and she turned and banged his head with the bottom of the lantern +until the glass shattered to pieces. + +"That fool!" she shouted. "Oh, that fool!" Then she let him come +in and close the door, giving him the broken lantern to hold, which +he did very meekly, rubbing the crown of his head with the other +hand; and she stood facing the lot of us with hands on her hips +and a fine air of despising every one of us. But I noticed that +she kept a cautious eye on Kagig, who in return paid very little +attention to her. + +"Fight?" she exclaimed, pointing at Gloria. "What does she know +about fighting? If she can fight,--let her fight me! I stand ready +--I wait for 'er! Give 'er a knife, an' I will fight 'er with my +bare 'ands!" + +Gloria turned pale and Will laid a hand on her shoulder, whispering +something that brought the color back again. + +"Maga!" + +Kagig said that one word in a level voice, but the effect was greater +than if he had pointed a pistol. The fire died from her eyes and +she nodded at him simply. Then her eyes blazed again, although she +looked away from Gloria toward a window. The leather blind was tied +down at the corners by strips of twisted hide. + +She began to jabber in the gipsy tongue--then changed her mind and +spat it out in English for our joint benefit. + +"All right. She is nothing to do with me, that woman, and she shall +come to a rotten end, I know, an' that is enough. But there is some +one listening! Not a woman--not with spunk enough to be a woman! +That dirty horse-pond drinking unshaven black bastard Rustum Khan +is outside listening! You think 'e is busy at the fortifying? Then +I tell you, No, 'e is not! 'E is outside listening!" + +The surprising answer to that assertion was a heavy saber thrust +between the window-frame and blind and descending on the thong. Next +followed Rustum Khan's long boot. Then came the man himself with +dew all over his upbrushed beard, returning the saber to its scabbard +with an accompanying apologetic motion of the head. + +"Aye, I was listening!" He spoke as one unashamed. "Umm Kulsum" +(that was his fancy name for Maga) "spoke truth for once! I came +from the fortifying, where all is finished that can be done to-night. +I have been the rounds. I have inspected everything. I report all +well. On my way hither I saw Umm Kulsum, with that jackal trotting +at her heel--he made a scornful gesture in the direction of Peter +Measel, who winced perceptibly, at which Fred Oakes chuckled and +nudged me--"and I followed Umm Kulsum, to observe what harm she might +intend." + +"Black pig!" remarked Maga, but Rustum Khan merely turned his splendid +back a trifle more toward her. His color, allowing for the black beard, +was hardly darker than hers. + +"Why should I not listen, since my heart is in the matter? Lord +sahib--Colonel sahib bahadur!--take back those words before it is +too late! Undo the promise made to this Armenian! What is he to +thee? Set me instead of thee, sahib! What am I? I have no wives, +no lands any longer since the money-lenders closed their clutches +on my eldest son, no hope, nor any fellowship with kings to lose! +But I can fight, as thou knowest! Give me, sahib, to redeem thy +promise, and go thou home to England!" + +"Sit down, Rustum Khan!" + +"But, sahib--" + +"Sit down!" Monty repeated. + +"I will not see thee sacrificed for this tribe of ragged people, +Colonel sahib!" + +Monty rose to his feet slowly. His face was an enigma. The Rajput +stood at attention facing him and they met each other's eyes--East +facing West--in such fashion that manhood seemed to fill the smoky +room. Every one was silent. Even Maga held her breath. Monty strode +toward Rustum Khan; the Rajput was the first to speak. + +"Colonel sahib, I spoke wise words!" + +It seemed to me that Monty looked very keenly at him before he answered. + +"Have you had supper, Rustum Khan? You look to me feverish from +overwork and lack of food." + +"What care I for my belly, sahib, if you break my heart?" the Rajput +answered. "Shall I live to see Turks fling thy carcass to the birds? +I have offered my own body in place of thine. Am I without honor, +that my offer is refused?" + +Monty answered that in the Rajput tongue, and it sounded like the +bass notes of an organ. + +"Brother mine, it is not the custom of my race to send substitutes +to keep such promises. That thou knowest, and none has reason to +know better. If thy memories and honor urge thee to come the way +I take, is there no room for two of us?" + +"Aye, sahib!" said the Rajput huskily. "I said before, I am thy +man. I come. I obey!" + +"Obey, do you?" Monty laid both hands on the Rajput's shoulders, +struck him knee against knee without warning and pressed him down +into a squatting posture. "Then obey when I order you to sit!" + +The Rajput laughed up at him as suddenly sweet-tempered as a child. + +"None other could have done that and not fought me for it!" he said +simply. "None other would have had the strength!" he added. + +Monty ignored the pleasantry and turned to Maga, so surprising that +young woman--that she gasped. + +"Bring him food at once, please!" + +"Me? I? I bring him food? I feed that black--" + +"Yes!" snapped Kagig suddenly. "You, Maga!" + +Maga's and Kagig's eyes met, and again he had his way with her instantly. +Peter Measel, standing over by the door, looked wistful and +sighed noisily. + +"Why should you obey him?" he demanded, but Maga ignored him as she +passed out, and Fred nudged me again. + +"A miracle!" he whispered. "Did you hear the martyred biped suggest +rebellion to her? He'll be offering to fight Kagig next! Guess +what is Kagig's hold over the girl--can you?" + +But a much greater miracle followed. Rather than disobey Monty again; +rather than seem to question his authority, or differ from his judgment +in the least, Rustum Khan forebore presently from sending for his +own stripling servant and actually accepted food from Maga's hands. + +As a Mahammadan, he made in theory no caste distinctions. But as +a Rajput be had fixed Hindu notions without knowing it, and almost +his chief care was lest his food should be defiled by the touch of +outcasts, of whom he reckoned gipsies lowest, vilest and least +cleansible. Nevertheless he accepted curds that had been touched +by gipsy fingers, and ate greedily, in confirmation of Monty's diagnosis; +and after a few minutes he laid his head on a folded goat-skin in +the corner, and fell asleep. + +Then Monty sent a servant to his own quarters for some prized possession +that he mentioned in a whisper behind his hand. None of us suspected +what it might be until the man returned presently with a quart bottle +of Scotch whisky. Kagig himself got mugs down from a shelf three +inches wide, and Monty poured libations. Kagig, standing with legs +apart, drank his share of the strong stuff without waiting; and +that brought out the chief surprise of the evening. + +"Ah-h-h!" he exclaimed, using the back of his hand to wipe mobile +lips. "Not since I drank in Tony's have I tasted that stuff! The +taste makes me homesick for what never was my home, nor ever can be! +Tony's--ah!" + +"What Tony's?" demanded Will, emerging from whispered interludes +with Gloria like a man coming out of a dream. + +"Tony's down near the Battery." + +"What--the Battery, New York--?" + +"Where else? Tony was a friend of mine. Tony lent me money when +I landed in the States without a coin. It was right that I should +take a last drink with Tony before I came away forever." + +Fred reached into the corner for a lump of wood and set it down +suggestively before the fire. Kagig accepted and sat down on it, +stretching his legs out rather wearily. + +"I noticed you've been remembering your English much better than +at first," said Will. "Go on, man, tell us!" + +Kagig cleared his throat and warmed himself while his eyes seemed +to search the flames for stories from a half-forgotten past. + +"Weren't the States good enough for you?" Will suggested, by way +of starting him off. + +"Good enough? Ah!" He made all eight fingers crack like castanets. +"Much too good! How could I live there safe and comfortable--eggs +and bacon--clean shirt--good shoes--an apartment with a bath in it +--easy work--good pay--books to read--kindness--freedom--how could +I accept all that, remembering my people in Armenia?" + +He ran his fingers through his hair, and stared in the fire again +--remembering America perhaps. + +"There was a time when I forgot. All young men forget for a while +if you feed them well enough. The sensation of having money in my +pocket and the right to spend it made me drunk. I forgot Armenia. +I took out what are called first papers. I was very prosperous--very +grateful." + +He lapsed into silence again, holding his head bowed between his +hands. + +"Why didn't you become a citizen?" asked Will. + +"Ah! Many a time I thought of it. I am citizen of no land--of no +land! I am outlaw here--outlaw in the States! I slew a Turk. They +would electrocute me in New York--for slaying the man who--have you +heard me tell what happened to my mother, before my very eyes? Well +--that man came to America, and I slew him!" + +"Why did you leave Armenia in the first place?" asked Gloria, for +he seemed to need pricking along to prevent him from getting off +the track into a maze of silent memory. + +"Why not? I was lucky to get away! That cursed Abdul Hamid had +been rebuked by the powers of Europe for butchering Bulgars, so he +turned on us Armenians in order to prove to himself that he could +do as he pleased in his own house. I tell you, murder and rape in +those days were as common as flies at midsummer! I escaped, and +worked my passage in the stoke-hole of a little merchant steamer +--they were little ships in those days. And when I reached America +without money or friends they let me land because I had been told +by the other sailors to say I was fleeing from religious persecution. +The very first day I found a friend in Tony. I cleaned his windows, +and the bar, and the spittoons; and he lent me money to go where +work would be plentiful. Those were the days when I forgot Armenia." + +He began to forget our existence again, laying his face on his forearms +and staring down at the floor between his feet. + +"What brought it back to memory?" asked Gloria. + +"The Turk brought it back--Fiamil--who bought my mother from four +drunken soldiers, and ill-treated her before my eyes. He came to +the Turkish consulate, not as consul but in some peculiar position; +and by that time I was thriving as head-waiter and part-owner of +a New York restaurant. Thither the fat beast came to eat daily. +And so I met him, and recognized him. He did not know me. + +"Remember, I was young, and prosperous for the first time in all +my life. You must not judge me by too up-right standards. At first +I argued with myself to let him alone. He was nothing to me. I +no longer believed in God. My mother was long dead, and Armenia +no more my country. My money was accumulating in a savings bank. +I was proud of it, and I remember I saw visions of great restaurants +in every city of America, all owned by me! I did not like to take +any step that should prevent that flow of money into the savings bank. + +"But Fiamil inflamed my memory, and I saw him every day. And at +last it dawned on me what his peculiar business in America must be. +He was back at his old games, buying women. He was buying American +young women to be shipped to Turkey, all under the seal of consular +activity. One day, after he had had lunch and I had brought him +cigarettes and coffee, he made a proposal. And although I did not +care very deeply for the women of a free land who were willing to +be sold into Turkish harems, nevertheless, as I said, he inflamed +my memory. A love of Armenia returned to me. I remembered my people, +I remembered my mother's shame, and my own shame. + +"After a little reflection I agreed with Fiamil, and met him that +night in an up-stairs room at a place he frequented for his purposes. +I locked the door, and we had some talk in there, until in the end +he remembered me and all the details of my mother's death. After +that I killed him with a corkscrew and my ten fingers, there being +no other weapon. And I threw his body out of the window into the +gutter, as my mother's body had been thrown, myself escaping from +the building by another way. + +"Not knowing where to hide, I kept going--kept going; and after +two days I fell among sportmen--cow-punchers they called themselves, +who had come to New York with a circus, and the circus had gone broke. +To them I told some of my story, and they befriended me, taking me +West with them to cook their meals; and for a year I traveled in +cow camps. In those days I remembered God as well as Armenia, and +I used to pray by starlight. + +"And Armenia kept calling--calling. Fiamil had wakened in me too +many old memories. But there was the money in the savings bank that +I did not dare to draw for fear the police might learn my address, +yet I had not the heart to leave behind. + +"So I took a sportman into my confidence, and told him about my money, +and why I wanted it. He was not the foreman, but the man who took +the place of foreman when the real foreman was too drunk--the hungriest +man of all, and so oftenest near the cook-fire. When I had told him, +he took me to a township where a lawyer was, and the lawyer drew +up a document, which I signed. + +"Then the sportman--his name was Larry Atkins, I remember--took that +document and went to draw the money on my behalf. And that was the +last I saw of him. Not that he was not sportman--all through. He +told me in a letter afterward that the police arrested him, supposing +him to be me, but that he easily proved he was not me, and so got +away with the money. Enclosed in the package in which the letter +came were his diamond ring and a watch and chain, and he also sent +me an order to deliver to me his horse and saddle. + +"He explained he had tried to double my money by gambling, but had +lost. Therefore he now sent me all he had left, a fair exchange +being no robbery. Oh, he was certainly sportman! + +"So I sold his watch and chain and the horse--but the diamond ring +I kept--behold it!--see, on Maga's hand!--it was a real diamond that +a woman had given him; and with the proceeds I came back to Armenia. +In Armenia I have ever since remained, with the exception of one +or two little journeys in time of war, and one or two little temporary +hidings, and a trip into Persia, and another into Russia to +get ammunition. + +"How have I lived? Mostly by robbery! I rob Turks and all friends +of Turks, and such people as help make it possible for Turks as a +nation to continue to exist! I--we--I and my men--we steal a cartridge +sooner than a piaster--a rifle sooner than a thousand roubles! Outlaws +must live, and weapons are the chief means! I am the brains and +the Eye of Zeitoon, but I have never been chieftain, and am not now. +Observe my house--is it not empty? I tell you, if it had not been +for my new friend Monty there would have been six or seven rival +chieftains in Zeitoon to-night! As it is, they sulk in their houses, +the others, because Monty has rallied all the fighting men to me! +Now that Monty has come I think there will be unity forever in Zeitoon!" + +He turned toward Monty with a gesture of really magnificent approval. +Caesar never declined a crown with greater dignity. + +"You, my brother, have accomplished in a few days what I have failed +to do in years! That is because you are sportman! Just as Larry +Atkins was sportman! He sent me all he had, and could not do more. +I understood him. Why did he do it? Simply sportman--that is all! +Why do you do this? Why do you throw your life into the hot cauldron +of Zeitoon? Because you are sportman! And my people see, and +understand. They understand, as they have never understood me! +I will tell you why they have never understood me. This is why: + +"I have always kept a little in reserve. At one time money in a bank. +At another time money buried. Sometimes a place to run and hide in. +Now and then a plan for my own safety in case a defense should fail. +Never have I given absolutely quite all, burning all my bridges. +Had I been Larry Atkins I would not have gambled with the money of +a man who trusted me; but, having lost the money, I would not have +sent my diamond and the watch and chain! Neither, if the horse and +saddle bad been within my reach would I have sent an order to deliver +those! That is why Zeitoon has never altogether trusted me! Some, +but never all, until to-night! + +"My brother--" + +He stood up, with the motions of a man who is stiff with weariness. + +"I salute you! You have taught me my needed lesson!" + +"I wonder!" whispered Fred to me. "Remember Peter at the fireside? +Methinks friend Kagig doth too much protest! We'll see. Nemesis +comes swiftly as a rule." + +I shoved Fred off his balance, rolled him over, and sat on him, because +cynicism and iconoclasm are twin deities I neither worship nor respect. +But at times Fred Oakes is gifted with uncanny vision. While he +struggled explosively to throw me off, the door began resounding +to steady thumps, and at a sign from Kagig, Maga opened it. + +There strode in nine Armenians, followed closely by one of the gipsies +of Gregor Jhaere's party, who whispered to Maga through lips that +hardly moved, and made signals to Kagig with a secretive hand like +a snake's head. I got off Fred's stomach then, and when he had had +his revenge by emptying hot pipe ashes down my neck he sat close +beside me and translated what followed word for word. It was all +in Armenian, spoken in deadly earnest by hairy men on edge with anxiety +and yet compelled to grudging patience by the presence of strangers +and knowledge of the hour's necessity. + +When the gipsy had finished making signals to Kagig be sat down and +seemed to take no further interest. But a little later I caught +sight of him by the dancing fire-light creeping along the wall, and +presently he lay down with his head very close to Rustum Khan's. +Nothing points more clearly to the clarifying tension of that night +than the fact that Rustum Khan with his notions about gipsies could +compel himself to lie still with a gipsy's head within three inches +of his own, and sham sleep while the gipsy whispered to him. I was +not the only one who observed that marvel, although I did not know +that at the time. + +The nine Armenians who had entered were evidently influential men. +Elders was the word that occurred as best describing them. They +were smelly with rain and smoke and the close-kept sweat beneath +their leather coats--all of them bearded--nearly all big men--and +they strode and stood with the air of being usually heard when they +chose to voice opinion. Kagig stood up to meet them, with his back +toward the fire--legs astraddle, and hands clasped behind him. + +"Ephraim says," began the tallest of the nine, who had entered first +and stood now nearest to Kagig and the firelight, "that you will +yourself be king of Armenia!" + +"Ephraim lies!" said Kagig grimly. "He always does lie. That man +can not tell truth!" + +Two of the others grunted, and nudged the first man, who made an +exclamation of impatience and renewed the attack. + +"But there is the Turk--the colonel whom your Indian friend took +prisoner--he says--" + +"Pah! What Turk tells the truth?" + +"He says that the Indian--what is his name? Rustum Khan--was purposing +to use him as prisoner-of-war, whereas in accordance with a private +agreement made beforehand you were determined to make matters easy +for him. He demands of us better treatment in fulfilment of promise. +He says that the army is coming to take Zeitoon, and to make you +governor in the Sultan's name. He offered us that argument thinking +we are your dupes. He thought to--" + +"Dupes?" snarled Kagig. "How long have ye dealt with Turks, and +how long with me, that ye take a Turk's word against mine?" + +"But the Turk thought we are your friends," put in a harsh-voiced +man from the rear of the delegation. "Otherwise, how should he have +told us such a thing?" + +"If he had thought you were my friends," Kagig answered, "he would +never have dared. If you had been my friends, you would have taken +him and thrown him into Jihun River from the bridge!" + +"Yet he has said this thing," said a man who had not spoken yet. + +"And none has heard you deny it, Kagig!" added the man nearest the door. + +"Then hear me now!" Kagig shouted, on tiptoe with anger. Then he +calmed himself and glanced about the room for a glimpse of eyes +friendly to himself. "Hear me now. Those Turks--truly come to set +a governor over Zeitoon. I forgot that the prisoner might understand +English. I talked with this friend of mine--he made a gesture toward +Monty. "Perhaps that Turk overheard, he is cleverer than he looks. +I had a plan, and I told it to my friend. The Turk was near, I +remember, eating the half of my dinner I gave him." + +"Have you then a plan you never told to us?" the first man asked +suspiciously. + +"One plan? A thousand! Am I wind that I should babble into heedless +ears each thought that comes to me for testing? First it was my +plan to arouse all Armenia, and to overthrow the Turk. Armenia failed +me. Then it was my plan to arouse Zeitoon, and to make a stand here +to such good purpose that all Armenia would rally to us. Bear me +witness whether Zeitoon trusted me or not? How much backing have +I had? Some, yes; but yours? + +"So it was plain that if the Turks sent a great army, Zeitoon could +only hold out for a little while, because unanimity is lacking. +And my spies report to me that a greater army is on the way than +ever yet came to the rape of Armenia. These handful of hamidieh +that ye think are all there is to be faced are but the outflung +skirmishers. It was plain to me that Zeitoon can not last. So I +made a new plan, and kept it secret." + +"Ah-h-h! So that was the way you took us into confidence? Always +secrets behind secrets, Kagig! That is our complaint!" + +"Listen, ye who would rather suspect than give credit!" He used +one word in the Armenian. "It was my plan--my new plan, that seeing +the Turks insist on giving us a governor, and are able to overwhelm +us if we refuse, then I would be that governor!" + +"Ah-h-h! What did we say! Unable to be king, you will be governor!" + +"I talked that over with my new friend, and he did not agree with +me, but I prevailed. Now hear my last word on this matter: I will +not be governor of Zeitoon! I will lead against this army that is +coming. If you men prevent me, or disobey me, or speak against me, +I will hang you--every one! I will accept no reward, no office, +no emolument, no title--nothing! Either I die here, fighting for +Zeitoon, or I leave Zeitoon when the fighting is over, and leave +it as I came to it--penniless! I give now all that I have to give. +I burn my bridges! I take inviolable oath that I will not profit! +And by the God who fed me in the wilderness, I name my price for +that and take my payment in advance! I will be obeyed! Out with +you! Get out of here before I slay you all! Go and tell Zeitoon +who is master here until the fight is lost or won!" + +He seized a great firebrand and charged at them, beating right and +left, and they backed away in front of him, protesting from under +forearms raised to protect their faces. He refused to hear a word +from them, and drove, them back against the door. + +Strange to say, it was Rustum Khan who gave up all further pretense +at sleeping and ran round to fling the door open--Rustum Khan who +took part with Kagig, and helped drive them out into the dark, and +Rustum Khan who stood astraddle in the doorway, growling after them +in Persian--the only language he knew thoroughly that they likely +understood: + +"Bismillah! Ye have heard a man talk! Now show yourselves men, +and obey him, or by the beard of God's prophet there shall be war +within Zeitoon fiercer than that without! Take counsel of your +women-folk! Ye--" (he used no drawing-room word to intimate their +sex)--"are too full of thoughts to think!" + +Then he turned on Kagig, and held out a lean brown hand. Kagig +clasped it, and they met each other's eyes a moment. + +"Am I sportman?" Kagig asked ingenuously. + +"Brother," said Rustum Khan, "next after my colonel sahib I accept +thee as a man fit to fight beside!" + +We were all standing. A free-for-all fight had seemed too likely, +and we had not known whether there were others outside waiting to +reinforce the delegation. Rustum Khan sought Monty's eyes. + +"You have the news, sahib?" + +Kagig laughed sharply, and dismissed the past hour from his mind +with a short sweep of the hand. + +"No. Tell me," said Monty. + +"The gipsy brought it. A whole division of the Turkish regular army +is on the march. Their rear-guard camps to-night a day's march this +side of Tarsus. Dawn will find the main body within sight of us. +Half a brigade has hurried forward to reenforce the men we have just +beaten. Are there any orders?" + +Fred's face fell, and my heart dropped into my boots. A division +is a horde of men to stand against. + +"No," said Monty. "No orders yet." + +"Then I will sleep again," said Rustum Khan, and suited action to +the word, laying his head on the same folded goat-skin he had used +before and breathing deeply within the minute. + +Nobody spoke. Rustum Khan's first deep snore had not yet announced +his comment on the situation, and we all stood waiting for Kagig +to say something. But it was Peter Measel who spoke first. + +"I will pray," he announced. "I saw that gipsy whispering to the +Indian, and I know there is treachery intended! O Lord--O righteous +Lord--forgive these people for their bloody and impudent plans! +Forgive them for plotting to shed blood! Forgive them for arrogance, +for ambition, for taking Thy name in vain, for drinking strong drink, +for swearing, for vanity, and for all their other sins. Forgive +above all the young woman of the party, who is not satisfied with +a wound already but looks forward with unwomanly zest to further +fighting! Forgive them for boasting and--" + +"Throw that fool out!" barked Kagig suddenly. + +"O Lord forgive--" + +Fred was nearest the door, and opened it. Maga laughed aloud. I +was nearest to Peter Measel, so it was I who took him by the neck +and thrust him into outer darkness. Kagig kicked the door shut +after him; but even so we heard him for several minutes grinding +out condemnatory prayers. + +"Now sleep, sportmen all!" said Kagig, blessing us with both hands. +"Sleep against the sport to-morrow!" + + + + +Chapter Seventeen +"I knew what to expect of the women!" + + +"AND DELILAH SAID--" + +Always at fault is the fellow betrayed +(Majorities murder to prove it!) +As Samson discovered, Delilah lies, +The stigma's stuck on by the cynical wise, +And nothing can ever remove it. +We'll cast out Delilah and spit on her dead, +(That revenge is remarkably human), +And pity the victim of underhand tricks +So be that it's moral (the sexes don't mix); +But, oh, think what the cynical wise would have said +If Judas were only a woman! + + +We slept until Monty called us, two hours before dawn, although I +was conscious most of the night of stealthy men and women who stepped +over me to get at Kagig and whisper to him. His marvelous spy system +was working full blast, and he seemed to run no risks by letting +the spies report to any one but himself. Fred, who slept more lightly +than I did, told me afterward that the women principally brought +him particulars of the workings of local politics; the men detailed +news of the oncoming concrete enemy. + +There was breakfast served by Maga in the dark--hot milk, and a +strange mess of eggs and meat. For some reason no one thought of +relighting the fire, and although the ashes glowed we shivered until +the food put warmth in us. + +By the light of the smoky lamp I thought that Monty wore a strangely +divided air, between gloom and exultation. Fred had been wide awake +and talking with him since long before first cock-crow and was obviously +out of sorts, shaking his head at intervals and unwilling more than +to poke at his food with a fork. I crossed the room to sit beside +them, and came in for the tail end of the conversation. + +"I might have known it, Didums, when I let you go on alone. I'll +never forgive myself. I had a premonition and disobeyed it. You +pose as a cast-iron materialist with no more ambition than money +enough to retrieve your damned estates, and all the while you're +the most romantic ass who ever wore out saddle-leather! Found it, +have you? Then God help us all! I know what's coming! You're about +to 'vert back to Crusader days, and try to do damsilly deeds of +chivalry without the war-horse or the suit of mail!" + +"No need for you to join me, Fred. You take charge of the others +and get them away to safety." + +"Take charge of hornets! I'd leave you, of course, like a shot! +But can you see Will Yerkes, for instance, riding off and leaving +you to play Don Quixote? Damn you, Didums, can't you see--?" + +"Destiny, Fred. Manifest destiny." + +"Can't you see crusading is dead as a dead horse?" + +"So am I, old man. I'm no use but to do this very thing. I can serve +these people. If I'm killed, there'll be a howl in the papers. +If I'm taken, there'll be a row in parliament." + +"You don't intend to be taken--I know you!" + +"Honest, Fred, I--" + +"Have I known you all these years to be fooled now? Smelling rats +'ud be subtle to it--I can feel the air bristling! You mean to raise +the Montdidier banner and die under it, last of your race. But you're +not last, you bally ass!" + +"Last in the direct line, Fred." + +"Yes, but there's that rotter Charles ready to inherit! If you're +bent on suicide--" + +"I'm not. You know I'm not." + +"--you might have the decency to kill that miserable cousin first +and bring the line to an end in common honor! He'll survive you, +and as sure as I sit here and swear at you, he'll bring the Montdidier +name into worse disgrace than Judas Iscariot's!" + +"I've no intention of suicide, Fred. I assure you--" + +But Fred waved the argument aside contemptuously, and stood up to +gather our attention. + +"Listen!" He thrust forward his Van Dyke beard that valiantly strove +to hide a chin like a piece of flint. "Monty has found the robbers' +nest that used to belong to his infernal ancestors. I charge any +of you who count yourselves his friends to help me prevent him from +behaving like an idiot!" + +"That'll do, Fred!" said Monty, pressing him back against the wall. +"The fact is," he twisted at his black mustache and eyed us each +for a second in turn, looking as handsome as the devil, "that I have +found what I originally set out to look for. It overlooks Zeitoon, +hidden among trees. I propose to use it. As for quixotism--is +there any one here not willing to fight in the last ditch to help +Kagig and these Armenians?" + +"I'm with you!" laughed Gloria, and she and Will had a scuffle over +near the fireplace. + +"I knew what to expect of the women," said Monty rather bitterly. +"I'm speaking to Fred and the men!" + +"Where's Peter Measel?" I asked. But the others did not see +the connection. + +"Come along," said Monty. "Seems to me we're wasting time," and +he strode out through the window on to the roof of the house below +--usually the shortest way from point to point in Zeitoon. Kagig +followed him, and then Rustum Khan. The stars were no longer shining +in the pale sky overhead, but it was dark where we were because of +the mountains that shut out the dawn. Fred came last, grumbling +and stumbling, too disturbed to look where he was going. + +"Fancy me acting Cassandra at my time of life and none to believe +me!" he muttered. Then, louder: "I warn you all! I know that +fellow Monty. If he comes out of this alive it'll be because we +haul him out by the hair! Won't you listen?" + +Outside the window I remembered the field-glasses I had laid down +in a corner, and returned to get them. In the room were Maga and +the woman Anna, who had appointed herself Gloria Vanderman's maid; +they were apparently about to sweep the floor and tidy the place, +but as I crossed the room an older gipsy woman entered by the door, +and she and Maga promptly drove Anna out through the window after +my party. Then the old woman came close to me, her beady bright +eyes fixed on mine, and went through the suggestive gipsy motions +that invite the crossing of a palm with silver. + +There seemed at first no excuse for listening to her. Every gipsy +will beg, whether there is need or not, and knowledge of their habits +did not make me less short-tempered; besides I had no silver within +reach, nor time to waste. + +"Not now!" I said, pushing her aside. + +But Maga came to her rescue, and clutched my arm. + +"See!" she said, and took a Maria Theresa dollar from some hiding-place +in her skirt. "I give silver for you. So." The old hag pouched +the coin with exactly the same avidity with which she would have +taken it from me. "Now she will make magic. Then I see. Then I +tell you something. You listen!" + +It began to dawn on me that I would better listen after all. Every +human is superstitious, whether or not he admits if to himself; +but the particular fraud of pretending to tell fortunes never did +happen to find the joint in my own armor. It seemed likely these +two women had some plan that included the preliminary deception of +myself, and the sooner I knew something about it the better. So +I sat down on Kagig's stool, to give them a better opinion of their +advantage over me, there being nothing like making the enemy too +confident. Then I held out the palm of my hand for inspection and +tried to look like a man pretending he does not believe in magic. +Whatever Maga thought, the old hag was delighted. She began to croak +an incantation, shuffling first with one foot, then with the other, +and finally with both together in a weird dance that almost shook +her old frame apart. Then she went through a pantomime of +finger-pointing, as if transferring from herself to Maga the gift +of divining about me. + +Presently, standing a little to one side of me, with eyes on the +old hag's and my hand held between her two, Maga began chanting in +English. The fact that her voice was musical and low where the bag's +had been high-pitched and rasping heightened interest, if nothing else. + +"You now four men," she began, with a little pause, and something +like a swallow between each sentence. "You all love one another +ver' much. You all like Kagig. Kagig is liking you. But Turks +are coming presently, and they keel Kagig--keel heem, you understan'? +That man Monty is also keel--keel dead. That man Fred--I not know +--I not see. You I see----you I see two ways. First way, you marry +that woman Gloria--you go away--all well--all good. Second way--you +not marry her. Then you all die--dam' quick--Monty, Fred, Will, +you, Gloria, everybody--an' Zeitoon is all burn' up by bloody Turks!" + +She paused and looked at me sidewise under lowered eyelids. I stared +straight in front of me, as if in the state of self-hypnotism that +is the fortune-teller's happy hunting-ground. + +"You understan'?" + +"Yes," I said. "I think I see. But how shall I marry Miss Gloria? +Suppose she does not want me?" + +"You must! Never mind what she want! Listen! This is only way +to save your frien's and Zeitoon! I am giving men--four--five--six +men. They are seizing Gloria. You go with them. They take you +safe away. Then Zeitoon is also safe, an' your frien's are also safe." + +"Monty, too?" I asked. + +"Yes, then he is also safe." But--I felt her hands tremble slightly +as she said that. + +"Do you mean I should leave him?" I asked. + +"You must! You must!" She almost screamed at me, and shook my hand +between her two palms as if by that means to drive the fact into +my consciousness. The old hag had her eyes fixed on my right temple +as if she would burn a hole there, and between them they were making +a better than amateur effort to control me by suggestion. It seemed +wise to help them deceive themselves. Maga let go my hand gently, +and began passing her ten fingers very softly through my hair, and +there are other men who will bear me witness that there exists sensation +less appealing than when a pretty girt does that. + +"You must!" she said again more quietly. "That is the only way to +save Zeitoon. God is angry." + +"What do you know about God?" I asked unguardedly, knowing well that +whatever their open pretenses, gipsies despise all religion except +diabolism. They study creeds for the sake of plunder, just as hunters +study the habits of the wild. + +"Maybe nothing--maybe much! Peter Measel, he say--" + +She paused, as if in doubt whether she was using the right argument. +And in that moment I recalled what Rustum Khan had once said about +her being no true gipsy. + +"Go on," I urged her. "Peter Measel is an expert. He's a high priest. +He knows it all." + +"Peter Measel is saying, God is ver' angry with Zeitoon and is sending +to destroy such bloody people what plan fighting and rebellion." + +"I'll think it over," I said, moving to get up. But independent +thinking was the last thing that Maga intended to permit me. + +"No, no! No, no, no! You must dee-cide now--at once! There is +no time. Now--now I give you five--six mens--now they seize that +woman Gloria--now you carry 'er away into the mountains--now you +make 'er yours--your own, you understan', so as she is ashamed to +deny it afterward--yes?--you see?" + +"Where are the men?" I demanded. + +"I fetch them quick!" + +I could see the hilt of her knife, and the bulge of her repeating +pistol, but I could also feel the weight of my own loaded Colt against +my hip. I did not doubt I could escape before her men could arrive +on the scene, but that would have been to leave some secret only +part uncovered. There was obviously more behind this scheme than +met the ear. It is my experience that if we throw fear to the winds, +and are willing to wait in tight places for the necessary inspiration, +then we get it. + +"Very well," I said. "I agree. Bring your men." + +"You wait. I get 'em." + +I nodded, and she said something in the gipsy language to the old +hag, who went out through the door in a hurry. Alone with Maga I +felt less than half as safe as I had been. She proceeded to make +use of every moment in the manner they say makes millionaires. + +"Gloria, she is ver' nice girl!" She made a wonderful gesture of +both hands that limned in empty air the curves of her detested rival. +"You will love her. By-and-by she love you--also ver' much." + +The thought flashed through my head again that I ought to escape +whole while I had the chance; but the answer to that was the certainty +that she would thence-forward be on guard against me without having +given me any real information. I was perfectly convinced there was +a deep plot underlying the foolishness she had proposed. The fact +that she considered me so venial and so gullible was no proof that +the hidden purpose was not dangerous. The mystery was how to seem +to be fooled by her and yet get in touch with my friends. Then +suddenly I recalled that she and the hag had been trying to use +the gipsy's black art. Unless they can trick their victim into a +mental condition in which innate superstition becomes uppermost, +players of that dark game are helpless. + +Yet gipsies are more superstitious than any one else. Hanging to +her neck by a skein of plaited horse-hair was the polished shell +of a minute turtle--smaller than a dollar piece. + +"Give me that," I said, "for luck," and she jumped at the idea. + +"Yes, yes--that is to bring you luck--ver' much luck!" + +She snatched it off and hung it around my neck, pushing the turtle-shell +down under my collar out of sight. + +"That is love-token!" she whispered. "Now she love you immediate'! +Now you 'ave ver' much luck!" + +The last part of her prophecy was true. The luck seemed to change. +That instant the key was given me to escape without making her my +relentless enemy, a voice that I would know among a million began +shouting for me petulantly from somewhere half a dozen roofs away. + +"What in hell's keeping you, man? Here's Monty getting up a tourist +party to his damned ancestral nest and you're delaying the whole shebang! +Good lord alive! Have you fallen in love with a woman, or taken +the belly-ache, or fallen down a well, or gone to sleep again, or +all of them, or what?" + +"Coming, Fred!" I shouted. "Coming!" + +"You'd better!" + +He began playing cat-calls on his concertina--imitation bugle-calls, +and fragments of serenades. For a second Maga looked reckless--then +suspicious--then, as it began to dawn on her from studying my face +that I, too, was afraid of Fred, relieved. + +"Does he know anything?" I asked her. + +"He? That Fred? No! No, no, no! An' you no tell 'im. You 'ear +me? You no tell 'im! You go now--go to 'im, or else 'e is get +suspicious--understan'? My men--they go an' get that woman. When +they finish getting that woman, then I send for you an' you come +quick--understan'?" + +I nodded. + +"Listen! If you tell your frien's--if you tell that Frrred, or those +others--then I not only keel you, but my men put out your eyes first +an' then pull off your toes an' fingers--understan'?" + +I shrugged my shoulders, suggesting an attempt to seem at ease. + +"Besides--I warn you! You tell Kagig anything against me an' Kagig +is at once your enemy!" + +I nodded, and tried to look afraid. Perhaps the speculation that +the last boast started in my mind helped give me a look that +convinced her. + +Fred began calling again. + +"You go!" she ordered imperiously, with a last effort to impress +me with her mental predominance. "Go quickly!" + +I made motions of hand and face as nearly suggestive of underhanded +cunning as I could compass, and climbed out through the window without +further invitation. Seeing me emerge, Fred beckoned from fifty yards +away and turned his back. Morning was just beginning to descend +into the valley, suddenly bright from having finished all the dawn +delays among the crags higher up; but there were deep shadows here +and especially where one roof overhung another. + +Jumping from roof to roof to follow Fred, I was suddenly brought +up short by a figure in shadow that gesticulated wildly without +speaking. It was below me, in a narrow, shallow runway between +two houses, and I had been so impressed by my interview with Maga +that assassination was the first thought ready to mind. I sprang +aside and tried to check myself, missed footing, and fell into the +very runway I had tried to avoid. + +A friend unmistakable, Anna--Gloria's self-constituted maid--ran +out of the darkest shadow and kept me from scrambling to my feet. + +"Wait!" she whispered. "Don't be seen talking to me. Listen!" + +My ankle pained considerably and I was out of breath. I was willing +enough to lie there. + +"Maga has made a plot to betray Zeitoon! She has been talking with +that Turkish colonel who was captured. I don't know what the plot +is, but I listened through a chink in the wall of the prison, and +I heard him promise that she should have Will Yerkes!" + +"What else did you hear?" + +"Nothing else. There was wind whistling, and the straw made a noise." + +At that moment Fred chose to turn his head to see whether I was +following. Not seeing me, he came back over the roofs, shouting +to know what had happened. I got to my feet but, although he hardly +looks the part, he is as active as a boy, and he had scrambled to +a higher roof that commanded a view of my runway before my twisted +ankle would permit me to escape. + +"So that's it, eh? A woman!" + +"Keep an eye on Miss Gloria!" I whispered to Anna, and she ducked +and ran. + +If I had had presence of mind I would have accepted the insinuation, +and turned the joke on Fred. Instead, I denied it hotly like a fool, +and nothing could have fed the fires of his spirit of raillery +more surely. + +"I've unearthed a plot," I began, limping along beside him. + +"No, sir! It was I who unearthed the two of you!" + +"See here, Fred--" + +"Look? I'd be ashamed! No, no--I wasn't looking!" + +"Fred, I'm serious!" + +"Entanglements with women are always serious!" + +"I tell you, that girl Maga--" + +"Two of 'em, eh? Worser and worser! You'll have Will jealous into +the bargain!" + +"Have it your own way, then!" I said, savage with pain (and the reasons +he did not hesitate to assign to my strained ankle were simply +scandalous). "I'll wait until I find a man with honest ears." + +"Try Kagig!" he advised me dryly. + +And Kagig I did try. We came on him at our end of the bridge that +overhung the Jihun River. Our party were waiting on the far side, +and Fred hurried over to join them. Kagig was listening to the reports +of a dozen men, and while I waited to get his ear I could see Fred +telling his great joke to the party. It was easy to see that Gloria +Vanderman did not enjoy the joke; nor did I blame her. I did not +blame her for sending word there and then to Anna that her services +would not be required any more. + +As soon as Kagig saw me he dismissed the other men in various directions +and made to start across the bridge. I called to him to wait, and +walked beside him. + +"I've uncovered a plot, Kagig," I began. "Maga Jhaere has been talking +with the Turkish prisoner." + +"I know it. I sent her to talk with him!" + +"She has bargained with him to betray Zeitoon!" + +For answer to that Kagig turned his head and stared sharply at me +--then went off into peals of diabolic laughter. He had not a word +to offer. He simply utterly, absolutely, unqualifiedly disbelieved +me--or else chose to have it appear so. + + + + +Chapter Eighteen +"Per terram et aquam." + + +AND HE WHO WOULD SAVE HIS LIFE SHALL LOSE IT + +The fed fools beat their brazen gong +For gods' ears dulled by blatant praise, +Awonder why the scented fumes +And surplices at evensong +Avail not as in other days. +Shrunken and mean the spirit fails +Like old snow falling from the crags +And priest and pedagog compete +With nostrums for the age that ails, +But learn not why the spirit lags. +Tuneless and dull the loose lyre thrums +Ill-plucked by fingers strange to skill +That change and change the fever'd chords, +But still no inspiration comes +Though priest and pundit labor still. +Lust-urged the clamoring clans denounce +Whate'er their sires agreed was good, +And swift on faith and fair return +With lies the feud-leaders pounce +Lest Truth deprive them of their food. +Dog eateth dog and none gives thanks; +All crave the fare, but grudge the price +Their nobler forbears proudly paid, +That now for moonstruck madness ranks-- +The only true coin--Sacrifice! + + +The man who is a hero to himself perhaps exists, but the surface +indications are no proof of it. I don't pretend to be satisfied, +and made no pretense at the time of being satisfied with my share +in Maga's treachery. But I claim that it was more than human nature +could have done, to endure the open disapproval of my friends, begun +by Fred's half-earnest jest, and continued by my own indignation; +and at the same time to induce them to take my warning seriously. + +Will avoided me, and walked with Gloria, who made no particular secret +of her disgust. Fred naturally enough kept the joke going, to save +himself from being tripped in his own net. He had probably persuaded +himself by that time that the accusation was true, and therefore +equally probably regretted having made it; for he would have been +the last man in the world to give tongue about an offense that he +really believed a friend of his had committed. + +Monty, who believed from force of habit every single word Fred said, +walked beside me and was good enough to give me fatherly advice. + +"Not the time, you know, to fool with women. I don't pretend, of +course, to any right to judge your private conduct, but--you can +be so awfully useful, you know, and all that kind of thing, when +you're paying strict attention. Women distract a man." + +All, things considered, I might have done worse than decide to say +no more about the plot, but to keep my own eyes wide open. (I was +particularly sore with Gloria, and derived much unwise consolation +from considering stinging remarks I would make to her when the actual +truth should out.) + +Monty began making the best of my, in his eyes, damaged character +by explaining the general dispositions he and Kagig had made for +the defense of Zeitoon. + +"According to my view of it," he said, "this bridge we've just crossed +is the weakest point--or was. I think we can hold that clay ramp +you came up yesterday against all comers. But there's a way round +the back of this mountain that leads to the dismantled fort you see +on this side of the river. That is the fort built by the Turkish +soldiers whom Kagig told us the women of Zeitoon threw one by one +over the bridge." + +He stopped (we had climbed about two hundred feet of a fairly steep +track leading up the flank of Beirut Dagh) and let the others gather +around us. + +"You see, if the enemy can once establish a footing on this hill, +they'll then command the whole of Zeitoon opposite with rifle fire, +even if they don't succeed in bringing artillery round the mountain." + +Between us and Zeitoon there now lay a deep, sheer-sided gash, down +at the bottom of which the Jihun brawled and boiled. I did not envy +any army faced with the task of crossing it, even supposing the bridge +should not be destroyed. But they would not need to cross in order +to make the town untenable. + +"The Zeitoonli are, you might say, superstitious about that bridge," +Monty went on. "They refuse as much as to consider making arrangements +to blow it up in case of need. Another remarkable thing is that +the women claim the bridge defense as their privilege. That doesn't +matter. They look like a crowd of last-ditch fighters, and we're +awfully short of men. But we're almost equally short of ammunition; +and if it ever gets to the point where we're driven in so that we +have to hold that bridge, we shall be doling out cartridges one by +one to the best shots! I have tried to persuade the women to leave +the bridge until there's need of defending it, and to lend us a +hand elsewhere meanwhile; but they've always held the bridge, and +they propose to do the same again. Even Kagig can't shift them, +although the women have been his chief supporters all along." + +Fred interrupted, pointing toward a few acres of level land to our +left, below Zeitoon village but still considerably above the +river level. + +"Is that Rustum Khan?" + +"He it is," said Kagig. "A devil of a man--a wonder of a devil--no +friend of mine, yet I shook hands with him and I salute him! A genius! +A cavalryman born. Our people are not cavalrymen. No place for +horses, this. Yet, as you have seen, there are some of us who can +ride, and that Rustum Khan found many others--refugees from this +and that place. See how he drills them yonder--see! It was the +gift of God that so many horses fell into our hands. Some of the +refugees brought horses along for food. Instead, Rustum Khan took +men's corn away, to feed the hungry horses!" + +"We could never have held the place without Rustum Khan," said Monty. +"As it is we've a chance. The last thing the Turks will expect from +us is mounted tactics. Allowing for plenty of spare horses, we shall +have two full squadrons--one under Rustum Khan, and one I'll lead +myself. From all accounts they're bringing an awful number of men +against us, and we expect them to try to force the clay ramp. In +that case--but come and see." + +He led on up-hill, and after a few minutes the well-worn track +disappeared, giving place to a newly cleared one. Trees had been +cut down roughly, leaving stumps in such irregular profusion that, +though horses could pass between them easily, no wheeled traffic +could have gone that way. The undergrowth and the tree-trunks had +been piled along either side, so that the new path was fenced in. +It was steep and crooked, every section of it commanded by some +other section higher up, with plenty of crags and boulders that +afforded even better cover than the trees. + +"Discovered this the first day I got here," said Monty. "Asked +about bears, and a man offered to show me where a dozen of them lived. +I was curious to see where a 'dozen bears could live in amity together +--didn't believe a word of it. We set out that afternoon, and didn't +reach the top until midnight. Worst climb I ever experienced. Lost +ourselves a hundred times. Next day, however, Kagig agreed to let +me have as many men as could be crowded together to work, and I took +a hundred and twenty. Set them to cutting this trail and another +one. They worked like beavers. But come along and look." + +"How about the bears?" Fred demanded. "Did you get them?" + +"Smelt 'em. Saw one--or saw his shadow, and heard him. Followed +him up-hill by the smell, and so found the castle wall. Haven't +seen a bear since." + +"Hssh!" said Kagig, and sprang up-hill ahead of us to take the lead. +"There are guards above there, and they are true Zeitoonli--they +will shoot dam' quick!" + +They did not shoot, because we all lay in the shadow of a great +rock as soon as we could see a ragged stone wall uplifted against +the purple sky, and Kagig whistled half a dozen times. We plainly +heard the snap of breech-blocks being tested. + +"They are weary of talking fight!" Kagig whispered. + +But the sixth or seventh whistle was answered by a shout, and we +began to climb again. Close to the castle the tree-cutters had been +able to follow the line of the original road fairly closely, and +there were places underfoot that actually seemed to have been paved. +Finally we reached a steep ramp of cemented stone blocks, not one +of which was out of place, and went up that toward an arch--clear, +unmistakable, round Roman that had once been closed by a portcullis +and an oak gate. All of the woodwork had long ago disappeared, but +there was little the matter with the masonry. + +Under the echoing arch we strode into a shadowy courtyard where the +sun had not penetrated long enough to warm the stones. In the midst +of it a great stone keep stood as grim and almost as undecayed as +when Crusaders last defended it. That castle had never been built +by Crusaders; they had found it standing there, and had added to +it, Norman on to Roman. + +The courtyard was littered with weeds that Kagig's men had slashed +down, and here and there a tree had found root room and forced its +way up between the rough-hewn paving stones. Animals had laired +in the place, and had left their smell there together with an air +of wilderness. But now a new-old smell, and new-old sounds were +awakening the past. There were horses again in the stables, whose +roof formed the fighting-platform behind the rampart of the outer wall. + +Monty led the way to the old arched entrance of the keep, and pointed +upward to a spot above the arch where some one had been scraping +and scrubbing away the stains of time. There, clean white now in +the midst of rusty stonework, was a carved device--shield-shaped--two +ships and two wheat-sheaves; and underneath on a scroll the motto +in Latin--Per terram et aquam--By land and sea--in token that the +old Montdidiers held themselves willing to do duty on either element. +The same device and the same motto were on the gold signet ring on +Monty's little finger. + +"What's happening on top of the keep?" demanded Will. + +Fred laughed aloud. We could not see up from inside, for at least +one of the stone floors remained intact. + +"Can't you guess?" demanded Fred. "Didn't I tell you the man has +'verted to Crusader days?" + +But Monty explained. + +"There's an old stone socket up there that used to hold the flag-pole. +Two or three fellows have been kind enough to haul a tree up there, +and they're trimming it to fit." + +"If we were wise we'd hang you to it, Didums, and save you from a +lousy Turkish jail!" + +"Thank you, Fred," Monty answered. "There are capitulations still, +I fancy. No Turk can legally try me, or imprison me a minute. I'm +answerable to the British consul." + +"They're fine, legal-minded sticklers for the rules, the Turks are!" +Fred retorted. + +"But we've a net laid for the Turks!" smiled Monty. + +Fred shook his head. Monty led the way toward stone steps, whose +treads bad been worn into smooth hollows centuries before by the +feet of men in armor. + +Up above on the outer rampart we could see Kagig's sentries outlined +against the sky, protected against the chilly mountain air by +goat-skin outer garments and pointed goat-skin hats. We mounted +the stone stair, holding to a baluster worn smooth by the rub of +countless forgotten hands, as perfect yet as on the day when the +masons pronounced it finished; and emerged on to a wide stone floor +above the stables, guarded by a breast-high parapet pierced by slits +for archers. + +>From below the breathing of the pines came up to us, peculiarly +audible in spite of the Titan roar of Jihun River. Immediately below +us was a ledge of forest-covered rock, and beyond that we could see +sheer down the tree-draped flank of Beirut Dagh to the foaming water. +We leaned our elbows on the parapet, and stared in silence all in +a row, stared at in turn by the more than half-suspicious sentries. + +"How does it feel, old man" asked Will at last, "standing on ramparts +where your ancestors once ruled the roost?" + +"Stranger than perhaps you think," Monty answered, not looking to +right or left, or downward, but away out in front of him toward the +sky-line on top of the opposite hills. + +"I bet I know," said Will. "You hate to see the old order passing. +You'd like the old times back." + +"You're wrong for once, America!" Monty turned his back on the +parapet and the view, and with hands thrust deep down in his pockets +sought for words that could explain a little of his inner man. Fred +had perhaps seen that mood before, but none of the rest of us. +Usually he would talk of anything except his feelings. He felt the +difficulty now, and checked. + +"How so?" demanded Will. + +"I've watched the old order passing. I'm part of it. I'm passing, too." + +Gloria watched him with melting eyes. Fred turned his back and went +through the fruitless rigmarole of trying to appear indifferent, +going to the usual length at last of humming through his nose. + +"That's what I said. You'd like these castle days back again." + +"You're wrong, Will. I pray they never may come back. The place +is an anachronism. So am I!--useless for most modern purposes. +You'd have to tear castle or me so to pieces that we'd be unrecognizable. +The world is going forward, and I'm glad of it. It shall have no +hindrance at my hands." + +"If men were all like you--" began Gloria, but he checked her with +a frown. + +"You can call this castle a robbers' nest, if you like. It's easy +to call names. It stood for the best men knew in those days--protection +of the countryside, such law and order as men understood, and the +open road. It was built primarily to keep the roads safe. There +are lots of things in England and America to-day, Will, that your +descendants (being fools) will sneer at, just as it's the fashion +to-day to sneer at relics of the past like this--and me!" + +"Who's sneering? Not I! Not we!" + +"This castle was built for the sake of the countryside. I've a mind +to see it end as it began--that's all." + +"Aw--what's eating you, Monty?" + +"Shut up croaking, you old raven!" grumbled Fred. + +"Show us the view you promised. This isn't it, for there isn't a +Turk in sight." + +Monty knew better than mistake Fred's surliness for anything but +friendship in distress. Without another word he led the way along +the parapet toward a ragged tower at the southern corner. It had +been built by Normans, evidently added to the earlier Roman wall. + +"Now tell me if the old folk didn't know their business," said Monty. +"Very careful, all! The steps inside are rough. The roof has fallen +in, and the ragged upper edge that's left probably accounts for the +castle remaining undetected from below all these years--looks like +fangs of discolored rock." + +We followed him through the doorless gap in the tower wall, and up +broken stone stairs littered with fragments of the fallen roof, until +we stood at last in a half-circle around the jagged rim, our feet +wedged between rotten masonry, breasts against the saw-edge parapet, +and heads on a level with the eagles. From that dizzy height we +had a full view between the mountains, not only of the immediate +environs of Zeitoon, but of most of the pass--up which we ourselves +had come, and of some of the open land beyond it. + +"D'you see Turks now?" + +Monty pointed, but there was no need. Dense masses of men were +bivouacked beyond the bottom of the wide clay ramp. Through the +glasses I could see artillery and supply wagons. They were coming +to make a thorough job of "rescuing" Zeitoon this time! After a +while I was able to make out the dark irregular line of Kagig's men, +and here and there the lighter color of freshly dug entrenchments. +None of Zeitoon's defenders appeared to be thrown out beyond the +clay ramp, but they evidently flanked it on the side of the pass +that was farthest from us. + +"Now look this way, and you'll understand." + +Monty pointed to our right, and the significance of the voices we +had heard so close to us when Fred was searching for a path around +the clay on the morning of our arrival, was made plain instantly. +Down from the ledge on which the castle stood to a point apparently +within a few yards of the clay ramp there had been cut a winding +swath through the forest, along which four horses abreast could be +ridden, or as many men marched. + +"How did you do all that in time?" demanded Will. "It looks like +one of those contractor's jobs in the States--put through while you +wait and to hell with everything!" + +"It follows the old road," Monty answered. "There was too much +cobble-paving for the trees to take hold, and most of what they had +to cut was small stuff. That accounts, too, for the freedom from +stumps. But, do you get the idea? The trees between the end of +the cutting and the clay ramp are cut almost through--ready to fall, +in fact. I'm afraid of a wind. If it blows, our screen may fall +too soon! But if the Turks try to storm the ramp, we'll draw them +on. Then, hey--presto! Down go the remaining trees, and into the +middle of 'em rides our cavalry!" + +"What's the use of cavalry four abreast?" demanded Fred, in no mood +to be satisfied with anything. + +"Rustum Khan is concentrating all his energy on teaching that one +maneuver," Monty answered. "We come--" + +"Thought it 'ud be 'we!' Your place is at the rear, giving orders!" + +"We come down the track at top speed, and the impetus will carry +us clear across the ramp. Some of the horses'll go down, because +the slope is slippery. But the remainder will front form squadron, +and charge down hill in line. Then watch!" + +"All right," Fred grumbled. "But how about you rear while all that's +going on? The Turk must have worked his way around Beirut Dagh on +former occasions--or how else could he ever have built and held that +dismantled fort? What's to stop him from doing it again?" + +"It's a fifteen-mile fight ahead of him," Monty answered, "with +riflemen posted at every vantage-point all the way--" + +"Who is in charge of the riflemen?" + +Kagig leaned back until he looked in danger of falling, and tapped +his breast significantly three times. + +"I--I have picked the men who will command those riflemen and women!" + +"Well," Fred grumbled, "what are your plans for us?" + +"For the last time, Fred, I want you, old man, to help me to persuade +these others to escape into the hills while there's still a chance, +and I want you to go with them." + +"I also!" exclaimed Kagig. "I also desire that!" + +"Now you've got that off your chest, Didums, suppose you talk sense," +suggested Fred. "What are your plans?" + +Monty recognized the unalterable, and set his face. + +"You first, Miss Vanderman. There's one way in which we can always +use a gentlewoman's services." + +"Mayn't I fight?" she begged, and we all laughed. + +"'Fraid not. No. The women have cleared out several houses for +a hospital. Please go and superintend." + +"Damn!" exclaimed Gloria, Boston fashion, not in the least under +her breath. + +"I am sending word," said Kagig, "that they shall obey you or learn +from me!" + +"The rest of us," Monty went on, "will know better what to do when +we know what the Turk intends, but I expect to send all of you from +time to time to wherever the fighting is thickest. Kagig, of course, +will please himself, and my orders are subject to his approval." + +"I'll go, then," said Gloria. "Good-by!" And she kissed Will on +the mouth in full view of all of us, he blushing furiously, and Kagig +cracking all his finger-joints. + +"Go with her, Will!" urged Monty, as she disappeared down the steps. +"Go and save yourself. You're young. I've notions of my own that +I've inherited, and the world calls me a back number. You go with +Miss Vanderman!" + +I seconded that motion. + +"Go with her, Will! I've warned you she's unsafe alone! Go and +protect her!" + +Will grinned, wholly without malice. + +"Thanks!" he said. "She's a back number, too. So'm I! If I left +Monty in this pinch she'd never look at me, and I'd not ask her to! +Inherited notions about merit and all that kind of thing, don't you +know, by gosh! No, sir! She and I both sat into this game. She +and I both stay! Wish Esau would open the ball, though. I'm tired +of talking." + + + + +Chapter Nineteen +"Such drilling as they have had--such little drilling!" + + +ICH DIEN + +Is honor out of fashion and the men she named +Fit only to be buried and defamed +Who dared hold service was true nobleness +And graced their service in a fitting dress? +Are manners out of date because the scullions scoff +At whosoever shuns the common trough +Liking dry bread better than the garbled stew +Nor praising greed because the style is new? +Let go the ancient orders if so be their ways +Are trespassing on decency these days. +So I go, rather than accept the trampled spoil +Or gamble for what great men earned by toil. +For rather than trade honor for a mob's foul praise +I'll keep full fealty to the ancient ways +And, hoistinq my forebear's banner in the face of hell, +Will die beneath it, knowing I die well! + + +Fifteen minutes after Gloria Vanderman left us I saw a banner go +jerkily mounting up the newly placed flag-pole on the keep. A man +blew a bugle hoarsely by way of a salute. I raised my hat. Monty +raised his. In a moment we were all standing bare-headed, and the +great square piece of cloth caught the wind that whistled between +two crags of Beirut Dagh. + +Fred, our arch-iconoclast, stood uncovered longest. + +"Who the devil made it for you?" he inquired. + +Stitched on the banner in colored cloth were the two wheat-sheaves +and two ships of the Montdidiers, and a scroll stretched its length +across the bottom, with the motto doubtless, although in the wind +one could not read it. + +"The women. Good of 'em, what? Miss Vanderman drew it on paper. +They cut it out, and sat up last night sewing it." + +"I suppose you know that's filibustering, to fly your private banner +on foreign soil?" + +"They may call it what they please," said Monty. "I can't well fly +the flag of England, and Armenia has none yet. Let's go below, Fred, +and see if there's any news." + +"Yes, there is news," said Kagig, leading the way down. "I did not +say it before the lady. It is not good news." + +"That's the only kind that won't keep. Spit it out!" said Will. + +Kagig faced us on the stable roof, and his finger-joints cracked again. + +"It is the worst! They have sent Mahmoud Bey, against us. I would +rather any six other Turks. Mahmoud Bey is not a fool. He is a +young successful man, who looks to this campaign to bolster his ambition. +He is a ruthless brute!" + +"Which Turk isn't?" asked Will. + +"This one is most ruthless. This Mahmoud is the one who in the +massacres of five years ago caused Armenian prisoners to have +horse-shoes nailed to their naked feet, in order, he said, that +they might march without hurt. He will waste no time about +preliminaries!" + +Kagig was entirely right. Mahmoud Bey began the overture that very +instant with artillery fire directed at the hidden defenses flanking +the clay ramp. Next we caught the stuttering chorus of his machine +guns, and the intermittent answer of Kagig's riflemen. + +"Now, effendim, one of you down to the defenses, please! There is +risk my men may use too many cartridges. Talk to them--restrain them. +They might listen to me, but--" His long fingers suggested unhappy +fragments of past history. + +"You, Fred!" said Monty, and Fred hitched his concertina to a more +comfortable angle. + +Fred was the obvious choice. His gift of tongues would enable him +better than any of us to persuade, and if need were, compel. We +had left our rifles leaning by the wall at the castle entrance, and +in his cartridge bag was my oil-can and rag-bag. I asked him for +them, and he threw them to me rather clumsily. Trying to catch +them I twisted for the second time the ankle I had hurt that morning. +Fred mounted and rode out through the echoing entrance without a +backward glance, and I sat down and pulled my boot off, for the agony +was almost unendurable. + +"That settles your task for to-day," laughed Monty. "Help him back +to the top of the tower, Will. Keep me informed of everything you +see. Will--you go with Kagig after you've helped him up there." + +"All right," said Will. "Where's Kagig bound for?" + +"Round behind Beirut Dagh," Kagig announced grimly. "That's our +danger-point. If the Turks force their way round the mountain--" +He shrugged his expressive shoulders. Only he of all of us seemed +to view the situation seriously. I think we others felt a thrill +rather of sport than of danger. + +I might have been inclined to resent the inactivity assigned to me, +only that it gave me a better chance than I had hoped for of watching +for signs of Maga Jhaere's promised treachery. Will helped me up +and made the perch comfortable; then he and Kagig rode away together. +Presently Monty, too, mounted a mule, and rode out under the arch, +and fifteen minutes later fifty men marched in by twos, laughing +and joking, and went to saddling the horses in the semicircular stable +below me. After that all the world seemed to grow still for a while, +except for the eagles, the distant rag-slitting rattle of rifle-fire, +and the occasional bursting of a shell. Most of the shells were +falling on the clay ramp, and seemed to be doing no harm whatever. + +Away in the distance down the pass, out of range of the fire of our +men, but also incapable of harm themselves until they should advance +into the open jaws below the clay ramp, I could see the Turks massing +in that sort of dense formation that the Germans teach. Even through +the glasses it was not possible to guess their numbers, because the +angle of vision was narrow and cut off their flanks to right and +left; but I sent word down to Monty that a frontal attack in force +seemed to be already beginning. + +For an hour after that, while the artillery fire increased but our +rifle-fire seemed to dwindle under Fred's persuasive tongue, I watched +Monty mustering reenforcements in the gorge below the town. He +overcame some of the women's prejudice, for it was a force made up +of men and women that he presently led away. I was rather surprised +to see Rustum Khan, after a talk with Monty, return to his squadron +and remain inactive under cover of the hill; that fire-eater was +the last man one would expect to remain willingly out of action. +However, twenty minutes later, Rustum Khan appeared beside me, breathing +rather hard. He begged the glasses of me, and spent five minutes +studying the firing-line minutely before returning them. + +"The lord sahib has more faith in these undrilled folk than I have!" +he grumbled at last. "Observe: he goes with that bullet-food of +men and women mixed, to hide them in reserve behind the narrow gut +at the head of the ramp. The Turks are fools, as Kagig said, and +their general is also a fool, in spite of Kagig. They propose to +force that ramp. You see that by Frredd sahib's orders the firing +on our side has grown greatly less. That is to draw the Turks on. +See! It has drawn them! They are coming! The lord sahib will send +for Frredd sahib to take command of that reserve, to man the top +of the ramp in case the Turks succeed in climbing too far up it. +Then he himself will gallop back to take charge of my squadron below +there; and I take charge of his squadron up here. He and I are +interchangeable, I having drilled all the men in any case--such +drilling as they have had--such little, little drilling!" + +The Turks began their advance into the jaws of that defile with a +confidence that made my heart turn cold. What did they know? What +were they depending on in addition to their weight of numbers? +Mahmoud Bey had evidently hurried up almost his whole division, and +was driving them forward into our trap as if he knew he could swallow +trap and all. Not even foolish generals act that way. It needs +a madman. Kagig had said nothing about Mahmoud being mad. + +"Listen, Rustum Khan!" I said. "Go with a message to Lord Montdidier. +Tell him the whole Turkish force is in motion and coming on as if +their general knows something for certain that we don't know at all. +Tell him that I suspect treachery at our rear, and have good reason +for it!" + +Rustum Khan eyed me for a minute as if he would read the very middle +of my heart. + +"Can you ride?" he asked. + +"Of course," I answered. "It's only walking that I can't do." + +"Then leave those glasses with me, and go yourself!" + +"Why won't you go?" I asked. + +"Because here are fifty men who would lack a leader in that case." + +The answer was honest enough, yet I had my qualms about leaving the +post Monty had assigned to me. The thought that finally decided +me was that I would have opportunity to gallop past the hospital, +two hundred yards over the bridge on the Zeitoon side, and make sure +that Gloria was safe. + +"Have you seen Maga Jhaere anywhere?" I asked. + +"No," said the Rajput, swearing under his breath at the mere mention +of her name. + +"Then help me down from here. I'll go." + +He muttered to himself, and I think he thought I was off to make +love to the woman; but I was past caring about any one's opinion +on that score. Five minutes later I was trotting a good horse slowly +down the upper, steeper portion of the track toward Zeitoon, swearing +to myself, and dreading the smoother going where I should feel compelled +to gallop whether my ankle hurt or not. As a matter of fact I began +to suspect a broken bone or ligament, for the agonizing pain increased +and made me sit awkwardly on the horse, thus causing him to change +his pace at odd intervals and give me more pain yet. However, gallop +I had to, and I reached the bridge going at top speed, only to be +forced to rein in, chattering with agony, by a man on foot who raced +to reach the bridge ahead of me, and made unmistakable signals of +having an important message to deliver. + +He proved to be from Kagig, with orders to say that every man at +his disposal was engaged by a very strong body of Turks who had spent +the night creeping up close to their first objective, and had rushed +it with the bayonet shortly after dawn. + +"Order the women to stand ready by the bridge!" were the last words +(the man had the whole by heart), and then there was a scribbled +note from Will by way of make-weight. + +"This end of the action looks pretty serious to me. We're badly +outnumbered. The men are fighting gamely, but--tell Gloria for God's +sake to look out after herself !" + +I could hear no firing from that direction, for the great bulk of +Beirut Dagh shut it off. + +"How far away is the fighting?" I demanded. + +"Oh, a long way yet." + +I motioned to him to return to Kagig, and sent my horse across the +bridge, catching sight of Gloria outside the hospital directly after +I had crossed it. She waved her hand to me; so, seeing she was +safe for the present, I let the message to her wait and started +down the valley toward Monty as fast as the horse could go. I had +my work cut out to drive him into the din of firing, for it was +evidently his first experience of bursting shells, and even at +half-a-mile distance he reared and plunged, driving me nearly crazy +with pain. I found Monty shepherding the reserves he had brought +down, watching through glasses from over the top of the spur that +formed the left-hand wall of the gut of the pass. + +"I left Rustum Khan in my place," I began, expecting to be damned +at once for absenting without leave. + +"Glad you came," he said, without turning his head. + +I gave him my message, he listening while he watched the pass and +the oncoming enemy. + +"I tried to warn you of treachery this morning!" I said hotly. Pain +and memory did nothing toward keeping down choler. "Where's Peter +Measel? Seen him anywhere? Where's Maga Jhaere? Seen her, either? +Those Turks are coming on into what they must know is a trap, with +the confidence that proves their leaders have special information! +Look at them! They can see this pass is lined, with our riflemen, +yet on they come! They must suspect we've a surprise in store--yet +look at them!" + +They were coming on line after line, although Fred had turned the +ammunition loose, and the rifle-fire of our well-hidden men was +playing havoc. Monty seemed to me to look more puzzled than afraid. +I went on telling him of the message Kagig had sent, and offered him +Will's note, but he did not even look at it. + +"Ah!" he said suddenly. "Now I understand! Yes, it's treachery. +I beg your pardon for my thoughts this morning." + +"Granted," said I, "but what next?" + +"Look!" he said simply. + +There were two sudden developments. What was left of the first +advancing company of Turks halted below the ramp, and with sublime +effrontery, born no doubt of knowledge that we had no artillery, +proceeded to dig themselves a shallow trench. The Zeitoonli were +making splendid shooting, but it was only a question of minutes until +the shelter would be high enough for crouching men. + +The second disturbing factor was that in a long line extending up +the flank of the mountain, roughly parallel to the lower end of the +track that Monty had caused to be cut from the castle, the trees +were coming down as if struck by a cyclone! There must have been +more than a regiment armed with axes, cutting a swath through the +forest to take our secret road in flank! + +That meant two things clearly. Some one had told Mahmoud of our +plan to charge down from the height and surprise him, thus robbing +us of all the benefit of unexpectedness; and, when the charge should +take place, our men would have to ride down four abreast through +ambush. And, if Mahmoud had merely intended placing a few men to +trap our horsemen, he would never have troubled to cut down the +forest. Plainly, he meant to destroy our mounted men at point-blank +range, and then march a large force up the horse-track, so turning +the tables on us. Considering the overwhelming numbers he had at +his disposal, the game to me looked almost over. + +Not so, however, to Monty. He glanced over his shoulder once at +the men and women waiting for his orders, and I saw the women begin +inspiriting their men. Then he turned on me. + +"Now damn your ankle," he said. "Try to forget it! Climb up there +and tell Fred to choose a hundred men and bring them down himself +to oppose the enemy in front if he comes over the top of that ditch. +Then you gallop back and get word to Rustum Khan to bring both squadrons +down here. Tell him to stay by Fred and hold his horses until the +last minute. Then you get all the women you can persuade to follow +you, and man the castle walls! Hurry, now--that's all!" + +There was a man holding my horse. I tied the horse securely to a +tree instead, and told the man to help me climb, little suspecting +what a Samson I had happened on. He laughed, seized me in his arms, +and proceeded to carry me like a baby up the goat-track leading to +the hidden rifle-pits and trenches. I persuaded him to let me get +up on his shoulders, and in that way I had a view of most of what +was happening. + +Monty led his men and women at a run across the top of the ramp +flanked by the full fire of the entrenched company below; and his +action was so unexpected that the Turks fired like beginners. There +were not many bodies lying quiet, nor writhing either when the last +woman had disappeared among the trees on the far side. Those that +did writhe were very swiftly caused to cease by volleys aimed at +them in obedience to officers' orders. It began to look as if Gloria's +hospital would not be over-worked. + +The tables were now turned on the Turks, except in regard to numbers. +In the first place, as soon as Monty's command had penetrated downward +through the trees parallel with the side of the ramp, he had the +entrenched company in flank. It did not seem to me that he left +more than ten or fifteen men to make that trench untenable, but the +Turks were out of it within five minutes and in full retreat under +a hot fire from Fred's men. + +Then Monty pushed on to the far side of the castle road and held +the remaining fringe of trees in such fashion that the Turks could +not guess his exact whereabouts nor what number he had with him. +Cutting down trees in a hurry is one thing, but cutting them down +in face of hidden rifle-fire is most decidedly another, especially +when the axmen have been promised there will be no reprisals. + +The tree-felling suddenly ceased, and there began a close-quarters +battle in the woods, in which numbers had less effect than knowledge +of the ground and bravery. The Turk is a brave enough fighter, but +not to be compared with mountain-Armenians fighting for their home, +and it was easy to judge which held the upper hand. + +I found Fred smoking his pipe and enjoying himself hugely, with half +a dozen runners ready to carry word to whichever section of the +defenses seemed to him to need counsel. He could see what Monty +had done, and was in great spirits in consequence. + +"I've bagged two Turk officers to my own gun," he announced. "Murder +suits me to a T." + +I gave him the message. + +"Piffle!" he answered. "They can never take the ramp by frontal +attack! The right thing to do is hold the flanks, and wither 'em +as they cone!" + +"Monty's orders!" I said, "and I've got to be going." + +"Damn that fellow Didums!" he grumbled. "All right. But it's my +belief he's turning a classy little engagement into a bloody brawl! +Cut along! I'll pick my hundred and climb down there." + +Cutting along was not so easy. My magnificent human mount was hit +by a bullet--a stray one, probably, shot at a hazard at long range. +He fell and threw me head-long; and the agony of that experience +pretty nearly rendered me unconscious. However, he was not hit badly, +and essayed to pick me up again. I refused that, but he held on +to me and, both of us being hurt in the leg on the same side, we +staggered together down the goat-track. + +Down below we found the horse plunging in a frenzy of fear, and +he nearly succeeded in breaking away from both of us, dragging us +out into full view of the enemy, who volleyed us at long range. +Fortunately they made rotten shooting, and one ill-directed hail +of lead screamed on the far side, causing the horse to plunge toward +me. The Armenian took me by the uninjured foot and flung me into +the saddle, and I left up-pass with a parting volley scattering all +around, and both hands locked into the horse's mane. He needed +neither whip nor spur, but went for Zeitoon like the devil with his +tail on fire. + +I suppose one never grows really used to pain, but from use it becomes +endurable. When Anna ran out to stop me by the great rock on which +the lowest Zeitoon houses stand, and seized me by the foot, partly +to show deference, partly in token that she was suppliant, and also +partly because she was utterly distracted, I was able to rein the +horse and listen to her without swearing. + +"She is gone!" she shouted. "Gone, I tell you! Gloria is gone! +Six men, they come and take her! She is resisting, oh, so hard--and +they throw a sack over her--and she is gone, I tell you! She is gone!" + +"Where is Maga?" + +"Gone, too!" + +"In which direction did they take Miss Gloria?" + +"I do not know!" + +I rode on. There were crowds of women near the bridge, all armed +with rifles, and I hurried toward them. + +But they refused to believe that any one in Zeitoon would do such +a thing as kidnap Gloria, and while I waited for Anna to come and +convince them a man forced himself toward me through the crowd. +He was out of breath. One arm was in a bloody bandage, but in the +other hand he held a stained and crumpled letter. + +It proved to be from Will, addressed to all or any of us. + + "Kagig is a wonder!" it ran, "He has put new life into these + men and we've thrashed the Turk soundly. How's Gloria? Kagig + says, 'Can you send us reenforcements?' If so we can follow + up and do some real damage. Send 'em quick! Make Gloria + keep cover! WILL. + + + + +Chapter Twenty +"So few against so many! I see death, and I am not sorry!" + + +THOU LAND OF THE GLAD HAND + +Thou land of the Glad Hand, whose frequent boast +Is of the hordes to whom thou playest host! +Whose liberty is full! whose standard high +Has reached and taken stars from out the sky! +Whose fair-faced women tread the streets unveiled, +Unchallenged, unaffronted, unassailed! +Whose little ones in park and meadow laugh, +Nor know what cost that precious cup they quaff, +Nor pay in stripes and bruises and regret +Ten times each total of a parent's debt! +Thou nation born in freedom--land of kings +Whose laws protect the very feathered things, +Uplifting last and least to high estate +That none be overlooked--and none too great! +Is all thy freedom good for thee alone? +Is earth thy footstool? Are the clouds thy throne? +Shall other peoples reach thy hand to take +That gladdens only thee for thine own sake? + + +To get word to Rustum Khan was simple enough, for he himself came +riding down to get news. The minute he learned what Monty wanted +of him he turned his horse back up-hill at a steady lope, and I began +on the next item in the program. + +Nor was that difficult. The reading aloud of Will's letter, translated +to them by Anna, convinced the women that their beloved bridge was +in no immediate danger, and no less than three hundred of them marched +off to reenforce Kagig's men behind Beirut Dagh. I reckoned that +by the time they reached the scene of action we would have a few +more than three thousand men and women in the field under arms +--against Mahmoud Bey's thirty thousand Turks! + +There remained to scrape together as many as possible to man the +castle walls; and what with wounded, and middle-aged women, and +men whose weapons did not fit the plundered Turkish ammunition, I +had more than a hundred volunteers in no time. The only disturbing +feature about this new command of mine was that it contained more +than a sprinkling of the type of malcontents who had bearded Kagig +in his den the night before. Those looked like thoroughly excellent +fighting men, if only they could have been persuaded to agree to +trust a common leader. + +Not one of them but knew a thousand times more of Zeitoon, and their +people, and the various needs of defense than, for instance, I did. +Yet they clustered about me for lack of confidence in one another, +and shouted after the women who marched away advice to watch lest +Kagig betray them all. Not for nothing had the unspeakable Turk +inculcated theories of misrule all down the centuries! + +I led them up to the castle, they carrying with them food enough +for several days. We passed Rustum Khan coming down with the horsemen, +and I fell behind to have word with him. + +"Which of these men shall I pick to command the rest?" I asked him. +"You've more experience of them." + +"Any that you choose will be pounced on by the rest as wolves devour +a sheep!" the Rajput answered. + +"Should I have them vote on it?" + +"They would elect you," he answered. + +"I've got to be free to look for Miss Gloria. She's kidnapped +--disappeared utterly!" + +Rustum Khan swore under his breath, using a language that I knew +no word of. + +"A woman again, and more trouble!" he said at last grimly. "Let +like cure like then! Choose a woman herdsman!" he grinned. "It +may be she will surprise them into obedience!" + +"I'll take your advice," said I, although I resented his insinuation +that they were a herd--so swiftly does command make partisans. + +"The last thing you may take from me, sahib!" he answered. + +"How so?" + +"So few against so many! I see death and I am not sorry. Only may +I die leading those good mountain-men of mine!" + +It was part and parcel of him to praise those he had drilled and +scorn the others. I shook hands and said nothing. It did not seem +my place to contradict him. + +"Let us hope these people are the gainers by our finish!" he called +over his shoulder, riding on after his command. "They are not at +all bad people--only un-drilled, and a little too used to the ways +of the Turk! Good-by, sahib!" + +Within the castle gate I found a woman, whom they all addressed as +Marie, very busy sorting out the bundles they had thrown against +the wall. She was putting all the food together into a common fund, +and as I entered she shouted to her own nominees among the other +women to get their cooking pots and begin business. + +Still pondering Rustum Khan's advice, in the dark whether or not +be meant it seriously, I chose Marie Chandrian to take command. +She made no bones about it, but accepted with a great shrill laugh +that the rest of them seemed to recognize--and to respect for old +acquaintance' sake. She turned out to have her husband with her--an +enormous, hairy man with a bull's voice who ought to have been in +one or other of the firing-lines but had probably held back in obedience +to his better half. She made him her orderly at once, and it was +not long before every soul in the castle had his or her place to hold. + +Then I mounted once more and rode at top speed down the new road +that Monty was defending, taking another horse this time, not so +good, but much less afraid of the din of battle. + +I found Monty scarcely fifty paces from the track, on the outside +edge of the fringe of trees that the Turks had been unable to cut +down. There were numbers of wounded laid out on the track itself, +with none to carry them away; and the Turks were keeping up a hot +fire from behind the shelter of the felled trees and standing stumps. +The outside range was two hundred yards, and there were several platoons +of the enemy who had crept up to within thirty or forty yards and +could not be dislodged. + +I pulled Monty backward, for he could not hear me, and he and I stood +behind two trees while I told him what I had done, shouting into +his ear. + +"I've got to go and find Gloria!" I said finally, and he frowned, +and nodded. + +"Go first and take a look at the ramp through the trees. Tell me +what's happening." + +So I limped down to the end of the track and made my way cautiously +through the lower fringe of trees that had been cut three-parts through +in readiness for felling in a hurry. Just as I got there the Turks +began a new massed advance up the ramp, as if in direct proof of +Monty's mental alertness. + +The men posted on the opposite flank to where I was opened a terrific +fire that would have made poor Kagig bite his lips in fear for the +waning ammunition. Then Fred came into action with his hundred, +throwing them in line into the open along the top, where they lay +down to squander cartridges--squandering to some purpose, however, +for the Turkish lines checked and reeled. + +But Mahmoud Bey had evidently given orders that this advance should +be pressed home, and the Turks came on, company after company, in +succeeding waves of men. There were some in front with picks and +shovels, making rough steps in the slippery clay; and I groaned, +hating to go and tell Monty that it was only a matter of minutes +before the frontal attack must succeed and the pass be in enemy hands. + +"Here goes Armenia's last chance!" I thought; and I waited to see +the beginning of the end before limping back to Monty. + +And it was well I did wait. I had actually forgotten Rustum Khan +and his two squadrons. Nor would I ever have believed without seeing +it that one lone man could so inspirit and control that number of +aliens whom he had only as much as drilled a time or two. It said +as much for the Zeitoonli as for Rustum Khan. Without the very +ultimate of bravery, good faith, and intelligence on their part he +could never have come near attempting what he did. + +He brought his two squadrons in line together suddenly over the brow +of the ramp, galloped them forward between Fred's extended riflemen, +and charged down-hill, the horses checking as they felt the slippery +clay under foot and then, unable to pull up, careering head-long, +urged by their riders into madder and madder speed, with Rustum Khan +on his beautiful bay mare several lengths in the lead. + +Cavalry usually starts at a walk, then trots, and only gains its +great momentum within a few yards of the enemy. This cavalry started +at top speed, and never lost it until it buried itself into the +advancing Turks as an avalanche bursts into a forest! No human enemy +could ever have withstood that charge. Many of the horses fell in +the first fifty yards, and none of these were able to regain their +feet in time to be of use. Some of the riders were rolled on and +killed. And some were slain by the half-dozen volleys the astonished +Turks found time to greet them with. But more than two-thirds of +Rustum Khan's men, armed with swords of every imaginable shape and +weight, swept voiceless into an enemy that could not get out of their +way; and regiments in the rear that never felt the shock turned +and bolted from the wrath in front of them. + +I climbed out to the edge of the trees, and yelled for Fred, waving +both arms and my hat and a branch. He saw me at last, and brought +his hundred men down the ramp at a run. + +"Join Monty," I shouted, "and help him clear the woods." + +He led his men into the trees like a pack of hounds in full cry, +and I limped after them, arriving breathless in time to see the Turks +in front of Monty in full retreat, fearful because the Rajput's +cavalry had turned their flank. Then Monty and Fred got their men +together and swung them down into the pass to cover Rustum Khan's +retreat when the charge should have spent itself. + +The Rajput had managed to demoralize the Turkish infantry, but Mahmoud's +guns were in the rear, far out of reach. Bursting shells did more +destruction as he shepherded the squadrons back again than bullet, +bayonet and slippery clay combined to do in the actual charge itself. +Monty gave orders to throw down the fringe of trees and let them +through to the castle road, so saving them from the total annihilation +in store if they had essayed to scramble up the slippery ramp. And +then Fred's men joined Monty's contingent, helping them fortify the +new line--deepening and reversing the trench the Turks had dug below +the ramp, and continuing that line along through the remaining edge +of trees that still stood between the enemy and the castle road. + +But by cutting down the fringe at the end of the road to let Rustum +Khan through we had forfeited the last degree of secrecy. If the +Turks could come again and force the gut of the pass, nothing but +the hardest imaginable fighting could prevent them from swinging +round at that point and making use of our handiwork. + +"That castle has become a weakness, not a strength, Colonel sahib!" +said Rustum Khan, striding through the trees to where Monty and Fred +and I were standing. "I have lost seven and thirty splendid men, +and three and forty horses. One more such charge, and--" + +"No, Rustum Khan. Not again," Monty answered. + +"What else?" laughed the Rajput. "That castle divides our forces, +making for weakness. If only--" + +"We must turn it to advantage, then, Rustum Khan!" + +"Ah, sahib! So speaks a soldier! How then?" + +"Mahmoud knows by now that the trees are down," said I. "His watchers +must have seen them fall. Some of the trees are lying outward toward +the ramp." + +"Exactly," said Monty. "His own inclination will lead him to use +our new road, and we must see that he does exactly that. The guns +are making the ramp too hot just now for amusement, but let some +one--you, Fred--run a deep ditch across the top of the ramp; and +if we can hold them until dark we'll have connected ditches dug at +intervals all the way down." + +Looking over the top of the trees I could just see the Montdidier +standard bellying in the wind. + +"I'll bet you Mahmoud can see that, too!" said I, drawing the others' +attention to it. + +"Let's hope so," Monty answered quietly. "Now, Rustum Khan, find +one of those brave horsemen of yours who is willing to be captured +by the enemy and give some false information. I want it well understood +that our only fear is of a night attack!" + +"You say, Colonel sahib, there will be no further use for cavalry?" + +"Not for a charge down that ramp, at any rate!" + +"Then send me! My word will carry conviction. I can say that as +a Moslem I will fight no longer on the side of Christians. They +will accept my information, and then hang me for having led a charge +into their infantry. Send me, sahib!" + +Monty shook his head. Rustum Khan seemed inclined to insist, but +there came astonishing interruption. Kagig appeared, with arms akimbo, +in our midst. + +"Oh, sportmen all!" he laughed. "This day goes well!" + +"Thank God you're here!" said Monty. "Now we can talk." + +"That Will--what is his name?--Will Yerkees is a wonderful fighter!" +said Kagig, snapping his fingers and making the joints crack. + +"He accuses you of that complaint," said I. + +"Me? No. I am only enthusiast. The road behind Beirut Dagh is +rough and narrow. The Turks had hard work, and less reason for +eagerness than we. So we overcame them. They have fallen back to +where they were at dawn, and they are discouraged"--he made his +finger-joints crack again--"discouraged! The women feel very confident. +The men feet exactly as the women do! The Turks are preparing to +bivouac where they lie. They will attack no more to-day--I know them!" + +"Listen, Kagig!" Monty drew us all together with a gesture of both +hands. "These Turks are too many for us, if we give them time. +Our ammunition won't last, for one thing. We must induce Mahmoud +to attack to-night--coax him up this castle road, and catch him in +a trap. It can be done. It must be done!" + +"I know the right man to send to the Turk to tell him things!" Kagig +answered slowly with relish. + +"That is my business!" growled Rustum Khan, but Kagig laughed at him. + +"No Turk would believe a word you say--not one leetle word!" he said, +snapping his fingers. "You are a good fighter. I saw your charge +from the castle tower; it was very good. But I will send an Armenian +on this errand. Go on, Lord Monty; I know the proper man." + +"That's about the long and short of it," said Monty. "If we can +induce Mahmoud to attack to-night, we've a fair chance of hitting +him so hard that he'll withdraw and let us alone. Otherwise--" + +Kagig's finger-joints cracked harder than ever as his quick mind +reviewed the possibilities. + +"Have you any idea what can have happened to Miss Vanderman?" I +asked him. + +"Miss Vanderman? No? What? Tell me!" + +He seemed astonished, and I told him slowly, lest he miss one grain +of the enormity of Maga's crime. But instead of appearing distressed +he shook his bands delightedly and rattled off a very volley of +cracking knuckles. + +"That is the idea! We have Mahmoud caught! I know Mahmoud! I know +him! The man I shall choose shall tell Mahmoud that Gloria Vanderman +--the beautiful American young lady, who is outlawed because of her +fighting on behalf of Armenians--who--who could not possibly be claimed +by the American consul, on account of being outlawed--is in the castle +to-night and can be taken if he only will act quickly! Oh, how his +eyes will glitter! That Mahmoud--he buys women all the time! A +young--beautiful--athletic American girl--Mahmoud will sacrifice +three thousand men to capture her!" + +Monty ground his teeth. Fred turned his back, and filled his pipe. +Rustum Khan brushed his black beard upward with both hands. + +"Suppose you go now and try to find Miss Vanderman," said Monty rather +grimly to me. "If you find her, hide her out of harm's way and +communicate with Will!" + +So Fred helped me on the horse and I rode back to the castle, where +I explained the details of the fighting below to the defenders, and +then rode on down to Zeitoon by the other road. It was wearing along +into the afternoon, and I had no idea which way to take to look for +Gloria; but I did have a notion that Maga Jhaere might be looking +out for me. There was a chance that she might have been in earnest +in persuading me to elope, and that if I rode alone she might show +herself--she or else Gloria's captors. + +Failing signs of Maga Jhaere or her men, I proposed to ride behind +Beirut Dagh in search of Will, and to get his quick Yankee wit employed +on the situation. + +So, instead of crossing the bridge into Zeitoon I guided my horse +around the base of the mountain, riding slowly so as to ease the +pain in my foot and to give plenty of opportunity to any one lying +in wait to waylay me. + +It happened I guessed rightly. The track swung sharp to the left +after a while, and passed up-hill through a gorge between two cliffs +into wilder country than any I had yet seen in Armenia. From the +top of the cliff on the right-hand side a pebble was dropped and +struck the horse--then another--then a third one. I thought it best +to take no notice of that, although the horse made fuss enough. + +The third pebble was followed by a shrill whistle, which I also decided +to ignore, and continued to ride on toward where a clump of scrawny +bushes marked the opening out of a narrow valley. I heard the bushes +rustle as I drew near them, and was not surprised to see Maga emerge, +looking hot, impatient and angry, although not less beautiful on +that account. + +"Fool!" she began on me. "Why you wait so long? Another half-hour +and it is too late altogether! Come now! Leave the horse. Come quick!" + +Wondering what important difference half an hour should make, it +occurred to me that Will was probably impatient long ago at receiving +no news of Gloria. If I judged Will rightly, he would be on his +way to look for her. + +"Come quick!" commanded Maga. + +"I can't climb that cliff," said I. "I've hurt my foot." + +"I help you. Come!" + +She stepped up close beside me to help me down, but that instant +it seemed to me that I heard more than one horse approaching. + +"Quick!" she commanded, for she heard them, too, and held out her +arms to help me. "Quick! I have two men to help you walk!" + +I could have reached my pistol, but so could she have reached hers, +and her hand and eye were quicker than forked lightning. Besides, +to shoot her would have been of doubtful benefit until Gloria's +whereabouts were first ascertained. She put an arm round me to pull +me from the saddle, and that settled it. I fell on her with all +my weight, throwing her backward into the bushes, and kicking the +horse in the ribs with my uninjured foot. The horse took fright +as I intended, and went galloping off in the direction of the +approaching sounds. + +I had not wrestled since I was a boy at school, and then never with +such a spitting puzzle of live wires as Maga proved herself. I had +the advantage of weight, but I had told her of my injured foot, and +she worked like a she-devil to damage it further, fighting at the +same time with left and right wrist alternately to reach pistol +and knife. + +I let go one wrist, snatched the pistol out of her bosom and threw +it far away. But with the free and she reached her knife, and landed +with it into my ribs. The pain of the stab sickened me; but the +knowledge that she had landed fooled her into relaxing her hold in +order to jump clear. So I got hold of both wrists again, and we +rolled over and over among the bushes, she trying like an eel to wriggle +away, and I doing my utmost to crush the strength out of her. We +were interrupted by Will's voice, and by Will's strong arms dragging +us apart. + +"Catch her!" I panted. "Hold her! Don't let her go!" + +"Never fear!" he laughed. + +"Her men have kidnapped Gloria! Tie her hands!" + +Will had two men with him, one of whom was leading my runaway horse. +They gazed open-eyed while Will tied Maga's wrists behind her back. + +"Kagig--what will he say?" one of them objected, but Will laughed. + +"What you do with me?" demanded Maga. + +"Take you to Kagig, of course. Where's Miss Vanderman?" + +Then suddenly Maga's whole appearance changed. The defiance vanished, +leaving her as if by magic supple again, subtle, suppliant, conjuring +back to memory the nights when she had danced and sung. The fire +departed from her eyes and they became wet jewels of humility with +soft love lights glowing in their depths. + +"You do not want that woman!" she said slowly, smiling at Will. +"You give 'er to this fool!" She glanced at my bleeding ribs, as +if the blood were evidence of folly. "You take me, Will Yerkees! +Then I teach you all things--all about people--all about land, and +love, and animals, and water, and the air--I teach you all!" + +She paused a moment, watching his face, judging the effect of words. +He stood waiting with a look of puzzled distress that betrayed regret +for her tied wrists, but accepted the necessity. Perhaps she mistook +the chivalrous distress for tenderness. + +"I 'ave tried to make that man Kagig king! I 'ave tried, and tried! +But 'e is no good! If 'e 'ad obeyed me, I would 'ave made 'im king +of all Armenia! But 'e is as good as dead already, because Mahmoud +the Turk is come to finish 'im--so!" She spat conclusively. "So +now I make you king instead of 'im! You let that Gloria Vanderman +go to this fool, an' I show you 'ow to make all Armenians follow +you an' overthrow the Turks, an' conquer, an' you be king!" + +Will laughed. "Better stick to Kagig! I'm going to take you to him!" + +"You take me to 'im?" + +She flashed again, swift as a snake to illustrate resentment. + +"Yes." + +"Then I tell 'im things about you, an' 'e believe me!" + +"Let's bargain," laughed Will. "Show me Miss Vanderman, alive and +well, and--" + +"Steady the Buffs!" I warned him. "Gloria's not far away. There +were pebbles dropped on my horse. There may be a cave above this +cliff--or something of the sort." + +Will nodded. "--and I won't tell Kagig you made love to me!" +he continued. + +"Poof! Pah! Kagig, 'e know that long ago!" + +Will turned to his two men and bade them tie the horses to a bush. + +"How are the ribs?" he asked me. + +"Nothing serious," said I. + +"Do you think you can watch her if I tie her feet?" + +"She's slippery and strong! Better tie her to a tree as well!" + +So between them Will and the two men trussed her up like a chicken +ready for the market, making her bound ankles fast to the roots of +a bush. Then he led the two men up the cliff-side, and Maga lay +glaring at me as if she hoped hate could set me on fire, while I +made shift to stanch my wound. + +But she changed her tactics almost before Will was out of sight beyond +a boulder, beginning to scream the same words over and over in the +gipsy tongue and struggling to free her feet until I thought the +thongs would either burst or strip the flesh from her. + +The screams were answered by a shout from up above. Then I heard +Will shout, and some one fired a pistol. There came a clatter of +loose stones, and I got to my feet to be ready for action--not that +my hurts would have let me accomplish much. + +A second later I saw three of Gregor Jhaere's gipsies scurrying along +the cliff-side, turning at intervals to fire pistols at some one +in pursuit. So I joined in the fray with my Colt repeater, and +flattered myself I did not do so badly. The first two shots produced +no other effect than to bring the runaways to a halt. The next three +shots brought all three men tumbling head over heels down the +cliff-side, rolling and sliding and scattering the stones. + +One fell near Maga's feet and lay there writhing. The other two +came to a standstill in a hideous heap beside me, and I stooped to +see if I could recognize them. + +What happened after that was almost too quick for the senses to take +in. One of the gipsies came suddenly to life and seized me by the +neck. The other grasped my feet, and as I fell I saw the third man +slash loose Maga's thongs and help her up. + +My two assailants rolled me over on my back, and while one held me +the other aimed blows at my head with the butt of his empty pistol. +Once he hit me, and it felt like an explosion. Twice by a miracle +I dodged the blows, growing weaker, though, and hopeless. He aimed +a fourth blow, taking his time about it and making sure of his aim, +and I waited in the nearest approach to fatalistic calm I ever +experienced. + +In a strange abstraction, in which every movement seemed to be +slowed down into unbelievable leisureliness, I saw the butt of the +pistol begin to approach my eye--near--nearer. Then suddenly I heard +a woman scream, and a shot ring out. + +Instead of the pistol butt the gipsy's brains splashed on my face, +and the man collapsed on top of me. Next I realized that Gloria +Vanderman was wiping my face with a cloth of some kind, holding a +hot pistol in her other hand, while Will was standing laughing over +me, and Maga Jhaere with the other gipsy had disappeared altogether. + +"Did you shoot Maga?" I mumbled. + +"No," Will laughed. "I'd hate to shoot a woman who'd offered to +make me king! She ought to be hung, though, for a horse-thief! +She and that other gipsy got away with the mounts! Never mind--there +are four of us to carry you, if Gloria lends a hand!" + +But I have no notion how they carried me. All I remember is recovering +consciousness that evening in the castle, to discover myself copiously +bandaged, and painfully stiff, but not so much of an invalid after all. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-one +"Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!" + + +FRAGMENT + +Oh, fear and hate shall have their spate +(For both of the twain are one) +And lust and greed devour the seed +That else had growth begun. +Fiercely the flow of death shall go +And short the good man's shrift! +All hell's awake full toll to take, +And passions hour is swift. + +But there be cracks in evil's tracks +Where seed shall safe abide, +And living rocks shall breast the shocks +Of overflowing tide. +Castle and wall and keep shall fall, +Prophet and plan shall fail, +And they shall thank nor wit nor rank +Who in the end prevail. + + +Looking back after this lapse of time there seems little difference +between the disordered dreams of unconsciousness and the actual +waking turmoil of that night. At first as I came slowly to my senses +there seemed only a sea of voices all about me, and a constant thumping, +as of falling weights. + +There were great pine torches set in the rusty old rings on the wall, +and by their fitful light I saw that I lay on a cot in the castle keep. +Monty, Fred, Will, Kagig and Rustum Khan were conversing at a table. +Gloria sat on an up-ended pine log near me. A dozen Armenians, +including the "elders" who had disagreed with Kagig, stood arguing +rather noisily near the door. + +"What is the thumping?" I asked, and Gloria hurried to the cot-side. +But I managed to sit up, and after she had given me a drink I found +that my foot was still the most injured part of me. It was swollen +unbelievably, whereas my bandaged head felt little the worse for +wear, and the knife-wound did not hurt much. + +"They're bringing in wood," she answered. + +"Why all that quantity?" + +The thumping was continuous, not unlike the noise good stevedores +make when loading against time. + +"To burn the castle!" + +At that moment Rustum Khan left the table, and seeing me sitting +up strode over. + +"Good-by, sahib!" he said, reaching out for my hand. + +"The lord sahib has given me a post of honor and I go to hold it. +Those who survive this night shall have brave memories!" + +I got to my feet to shake hands with him, and I think he appreciated +the courtesy, for his stern eyes softened for a moment. He saluted +Gloria rather perfunctorily as became his attitude toward women, +and strode away to a point half-way between the door and Monty. +There he turned, facing the table. + +"Lord sahib bahadur!" he said sonorously. + +Monty got up and stood facing him. + +"Salaam!" + +"Salaam, Rustum Khan!" Monty answered, returning the salute, and +the others got to their feet in a hurry, and stood at attention. + +Then the Rajput faced about and went striding through the doorless +opening into the black night--the last I was destined to see of +him alive. + +"May we all prove as faithful and brave as that man!" said Monty, +sitting down again, and Kagig cracked his knuckles. + +Gloria and I went over and sat at the table, and seeing me in a state +to understand things Monty gave me a precis of the situation. + +"We're making a great beacon of this castle," he said. "Three hundred +men and women are piling in the felled logs and trees and down-wood +--everything that will burn. We shall need light on the scene. +Rustum Khan has gone to hold the clay ramp and make sure the Turks +turn up this castle road. Fred is to hold the corner; we've fortified +the Zeitoon side of the road, and Fred and his men are to make sure +the Turks don't spread out through the trees. Kagig, Will and I, +with twenty-five very carefully picked men for each of us, wait for +the Turks at the bottom of the road and put up a feint of resistance. +Our business will be to make it look as little like a trap and as +much like a desperate defense as possible. We hope to make it seem +we're caught napping and fighting in the last ditch." + +"Last ditch is true enough!" Fred commented cheerfully. Fred was +obviously in his best humor, faced by a situation that needed no +cynicism to discolor it--full of fight and perfectly contented. + +"Practically all of the rest of the men and women who are not watching +the enemy on the other side of Beirut Dagh," Monty went on, "are +hidden, or will be hidden in the timber on either side of the road. +We're hoping to God they'll have sense enough to keep silent until +the beacon is lighted. You're to light the beacon, since you're +recovering so finely--you and Miss Vanderman." + +"Yes, but when?" said I. + +"When the bugles blow. We've got six bugles--" + +"Only two of them are cornets and one's a trombone," Fred put in. + +"And when they all sound together, then set the castle alight and +kill any one you see who isn't an Armenian!" + +"Or us!" said Fred. "You're asked not to kill one of us!" + +"As a matter of fact," said Monty, "I rather expect to be near you +by that time, because we don't want to give the signal until as many +Turks as possible are caught in the road like rats. At the signal +we dose the road at both ends; Rustum Khan and Fred from the bottom +end, and we at the top." + +"Most of the murder," Fred explained cheerfully, "will be done by +the women hidden in the trees on either flank. As long as they don't +shoot across the road and kill one another it'll be a picnic!" + +"How do you know the Turks will walk into the trap?" I asked. + +"Ten 'traitors,' " said Monty, "have let themselves get caught at +intervals since noon. One of Kagig's spies has got across to us +with news that Mahmoud means to finish the hash of Zeitoon to-night. +His men have been promised all the loot and all the women." + +"Except one!" Fred added with a glance at Gloria. + +"Two! Except two!" remarked Kagig with a glance at the door. We +looked, and held our breath. + +Maga Jhaere stood there, with a hand on the masonry on each side! + +"You fool, Kagig, what you fill this castle full of wood for?" +she demanded. + +Kagig beckoned to her. + +"To burn little traitoresses!" he answered tenderly. "Come here!" + +She walked over to him, and he put his arm around her waist, looking +up from his seat into her face as if studying it almost for the +first time. She began running her fingers through his hair. + +"Is she not beautiful?" he asked us naively. Then, not waiting for +an answer: "She is my wife, effendim. You would not have me be +revengeful--not toward my wife, I think?" + +"Your wife? Why didn't you tell us that before?" + +Gloria seemed the most surprised, as well as the most amused, although +we were all astonished. + +"Not tell you before? Oh--do you remember Abraham--in the Bible--yes? +She has been my best spy now and then. As Kagig's wife what good +would she be?" Yet, had I not married her, I should have lost the +services of most of my best spies--Gregor Jhaere for one. He is +not her father, no. They call her their queen. She is daughter +of another gipsy and of an Armenian lady of very good family. She +has always hoped to see me a monarch!" + +He laughed, and cracked his finger-joints. + +"To make of me a monarch, and to reign beside me! Ha-ha-ha! I did +those gipsies a favor by marrying her, for she was something of a +problem to them, no gipsy being good enough in her eyes, and no busne +(Gentile) caring for the honor until I saw and fell in love! Oh, +yes, I fell in love! I, Kagig, the old adventurer, I fell in love!" + +He drew her down and kissed her as tenderly as if she were a little +child; then rose to his feet. + +"You forgive her, effendim?" he asked. "You forgive her for my sake?" + +None answered him. Perhaps he asked too much. + +"Never mind me, then, effendim. Not for my sake, but for the good +work she has so often done, and for the work she shall do--you +forgive her?" + +We all looked toward Gloria. It was her prerogative. Gloria took +Maga's left hand in her right. + +"I don't blame you," she said, "for coveting Will. I've coveted +him myself! But you needn't have let your men handle me so roughly!" + +"No?" said Maga blandly. "Then why did you 'urt two of them so badly +that they run away? Did not you shoot that other one? So--I give +'im to you. I give you that Will Yerkees--" + +"Thanks!" put in Will, but Maga ignored the interruption. + +"--not because you are cleverer than me--or more beautiful. You +are uglee! You can not dance, and as for fighting, I could keel +you with one 'and! But because I like Kagig better after all!" + +At that Kagig suddenly dismissed all such trivialities as treachery +and matrimony from his mind with one of his Napoleonic gestures. + +"It is time, effendim, to be moving!" He led the way out without +another word, I limping along last and the Armenian "elders" +following me. + +It was pitchy dark in the castle courtyard, and without the light +from numerous kerosene lanterns it would not have been possible to +find the way between the heaped-up logs. There was only a crooked, +very narrow passage left between the keep and the outer gate, and +they had long ago left off using the gate for the lumber, but were +hoisting it over the wall with ropes. One improvised derrick squealed +in the darkness, and the logs came in by twos and tens and dozens. +No sooner were we out of the keep than women came and tossed in logs +through the door and windows, until presently that building, too, +contained fuel enough to decompose the stone. And over the whole +of it, here, there and everywhere, men were pouring cans and cans +of kerosene, while other men were setting dry tinder in +strategic places. + +There was no moon that night. Or if there was a moon, then the +dark clouds hid it. No doubt Mahmoud thought he had a night after +his own heart for the purpose of overwhelming our little force; +for how should he know that we were ready for the massed battalions +forming to storm the gorge again. At a little after eight o'clock +Mahmoud resumed the offensive with his artillery, and a messenger +that Monty sent down to watch returned and reported the shells all +bursting wild, with Rustum Khan's men taking careful cover in the +ditches they had zigzagged down the whole face of the ramp. + +An hour later the Turk's infantry was reported moving, and shortly +before ten o'clock we heard the opening rattle of Rustum Khan's +stinging defense. There was intended to be no deception about that +part of our arrangements; nor was there. The oncoming enemy was +met with a hail of destruction that checked and withered his ranks, +and made the succeeding companies only too willing to turn at the +castle road instead of struggling straight forward. + +Nor was the turn accomplished without further loss; for our Zeitoonli, +still entrenched on the flank of the pass, loosed a murderous storm +of lead through the dark that swept every inch of the open castle +road, and the turn became a shambles. + +But Mahmoud had reckoned the cost and decided to pay it. Company +after company poured up the gorge in the rear of the front ones, +and turned with a roar up the road, butchered and bewildered, but +ever adding to the total that gained shelter beyond the first turn +in the road. + +Those, however, had to deal at once with Monty, Will and Kagig, who +opened on them guerrilla warfare from behind trees--never opposing +them sufficiently to check them altogether, but leading them steadily +forward into the two-mile trap. From where I stood on the top of +the castle wall I could judge pretty accurately how the fight went; +and I marveled at the skill of our men that they should retire up +the road so slowly, and make such a perfect impression of desperate +defense. Gloria refused from the first to remain inactive beside +me, but went through the trees down the line of the road, crossing +at intervals from side to side, urging and begging our ambushed +people to be patient and reserve their fire until the chorus of bugles +should blow. + +About eleven o'clock a breathless messenger came to say that the +Turks had renewed the attack on the other side of Beirut Dagh; but +I did not even send him on to Kagig. If the attack was a feint, +as was probable, intended to distract us from the main battle, then +there were men enough there to deal with it. If, on the other hand, +Mahmoud had divided forces and sent a formidable number around the +mountain, then our only chance was nevertheless to concentrate on +our great effort, and defeat the nearest first. There was not the +slightest wisdom in sending down a message likely to distract Monty +or Will or Kagig from their immediate task. + +The women kept piling in the pine trees, until I thought the very +weight of lumber might defeat our purpose by delaying the blaze too +long. But Kagig had requisitioned every drop of kerosene in Zeitoon, +and the stuff was splashed on with the recklessness that comes of +throwing parsimony to the winds. Then I grew afraid lest they should +fire the stuff too soon, or lest some stray spark from a man's pipe +or an overturned lantern should do the work. Every imaginable fear +presented itself, because, having no active part in the fighting, +I had nothing to distract me from self-criticism. It became almost +a foregone conclusion after a while that the night's work was destined +to be spoiled entirely by some oversight or stupidity of mine. + +The battle down in the valley dinned and screamed like the end of +the world, although the Turks could not use their artillery for +fear of slaughtering their own men. I could hear Fred hotly engaged, +holding the corner of the turn where the Turks were seeking in vain +to widen it. Probably the Turks supposed he was put there with a +hundred men to defend the road, instead of to drive their thinned +battalions up it. + +In the end it was an accident that set the bugles blowing, and probably +that accident saved our fortunes. Monty shouted to a man to run +and ask for news of the fighting below. Mistaking the words in the +din, the messenger ran to the rock in the clearing on which the +musicians waited, and a minute later the first bars of the Marseillaise +rang clearly through the trees. + +The almost instant answer was a volley from each side of the road +that sounded like the explosion of the whole world. And the Turks +hardly half into the trap yet! Monty and Will and Kagig brought +their men back up the road at the double, as the only way to escape +the fire of our ambushed friends. I was two minutes fumbling with +matches in the wind before I could light the kindling set ready in +the entrance arch; and it was about three minutes more before the +first long flame shot skyward and the beacon we had set began to +do its appointed work. + +Then, though, that castle proved to be a very Vesuvius, for the +draught poured in through the doorless arch and hurried the hot +flames skyward to be mushroomed roaring against the belly of black +clouds. None of us knew then where Mahmoud was, nor that he had +given the order that minute to his trapped battalions to halt, face +the trees on either side, and advance in either direction in order +to widen their front. + +The firing of the castle, for some mad reason of the sort that mothers +every catastrophe, caused them to disobey that order and, instead, +to charge forward at the double. In a moment the new fury (for it +was not panic, nor yet exactly the reverse) communicated itself all +along the road, and the regiments at the rear, in spite of the murderous +fire from our ambush, yelled and milled to drive the men in front +more swiftly. + +Then Fred saw the castle flames, and led his men forward to plug +up the lower end of the road. Next Rustum Khan saw it, and advanced +three hundred down the ramp to hold the ditch at the bottom and prevent +reserves from coming to the rescue. + +It was then, so he told us afterward, that Fred realized who was +the person in authority who had sought to change the line of battle +at the critical moment. Mahmoud himself, surrounded by his staff, +had ridden forward to see what the true nature of the difficulty +might be, and had got caught in the trap when Fred closed it and +Rustum Khan cut off the flow of men! + +Fred did his best by rapid fire to put an end to Mahmoud, staff and +all. But the light from the castle did not reach down in among the +trees, and when he told the nearest men who the target was that only +made the shooting wilder. Nor was Mahmoud a man without decision. +Realizing that he was trapped, at any rate from behind, he galloped +forward with his staff, scattering bewildered men to right and left +of him, to find out whether the trap could not be forced from the +upper end, knowing that there were plenty of men on the road already +to account for any possible total we could bring against them, if +only they could be led forward and deployed. + +So it came about that Mahmoud on a splendid war-horse, and five of +his mounted staff, arrived at the head of the oncoming column; and +Kagig saw them in a moment when the flare from the castle roared +like a rocket hundreds of feet high and scattered all the shadows +on that section of the road. Kagig passed the word along, but it +was Monty who devised the instant plan, and one of Will's men who +came running to find me. + +So I forgot pain and disability in the excitement of having a part +to play. Gloria had found her way back to the castle, and it was +she who rallied all the men and women who had worked at piling fuel, +and brought them to where I lay. Then I begged her to get back +somewhere and hide, but she laughed at me. + +Our business was to burry down the road and plug it against Mahmoud +and his men, while Kagig got behind him by sheer hand-to-hand fighting, +and Monty and Will approached him from the flanks. We had to be +cautious about shooting, because of Kagig, for one thing, but for +another, Will had sent the message, "Don't kill Mahmoud." And that, +of course, was obvious. Mahmoud alive would be worth a thousand +to us of any Mahmoud dead. + +Gloria ran down the road beside me, and Will caught sight of her +in the dancing light. I heard him shout something in United States +English about women and hell-fire and burned fingers, but beyond +that it was not polite, and was intended for me as much as for Gloria, +I did not get the gist of it. Then the battle closed up around us, +and we all fought hand to hand--women harder than the men--to close +in on Mahmoud and drag him from his horse. + +Three times in the fitful dark and even more deceptive dancing light +we almost had him. But the first time he fought free, and his +war-horse kicked a clear way for him for a few yards through the +scrimmage. Then Kagig closed in on him from the rear. But three +of the staff engaged Kagig alone, and twenty or thirty of Mahmoud's +infantry drove Kagig's men back on the still advancing column. Kagig +went down, fighting and shouting like a Berserker, and Monty let +Mahmoud go to run to Kagig's rescue. + +Monty did not go alone, for his men leapt after him like hounds. +But he fought his way in the lead with a clubbed rifle, and stood +over Kagig's body working the weapon like a flail. That was all +I saw of that encounter, for Mahmoud decided to attempt escape by +the upper way again, and it was I who captured him. I landed on +him through the darkness with my clenched fist under the low hung +angle of his jaw and, seizing his leg, threw him out of the saddle. +There Gloria helped me sit on him; and the greater part of what +we had to do was to keep the women from tearing him to pieces. + +At last Gloria and I, with a dozen of them, took Mahmoud up-hill +and made him sit down in full firelight with his back against a +rock. He had nothing to say for himself, but stared at Gloria with +eyes that explained the whole philosophy of all the Turks; and she, +for sake of the decency that was her birthright, went and stood on +the far side of the rock and kept the bulge of it between them. + +Then I sent for Kagig, and Monty, and Will; And after they had seen +to the barricading of the upper end of the road with fallen trees +and a fairly wide ditch, Kagig and Will came, followed by half a +dozen of the elders, who had been lending a stout hand during that +part of the night's work. Kagig was out of breath, but apparently +not hurt much. + +They came so slowly that I wondered. Gloria, who could see much +farther through the dark than I, gave a little scream and ran forward. +I saw then by a sudden burst of flame from the castle that they were +carrying something heavy, and I guessed what it was although my heart +rebelled against belief; but I did not dare leave Mahmoud, who +seemed inclined to take advantage of the first stray opportunity. +I stuck my pistol into his ear and dared him to move hand or foot. + +Gloria came back in tears, and took Mahmoud's cape and my jacket, +and spread them on the ground. On these they laid Monty very tenderly, +Kagig looking on with cracking finger-joints that I could hear quite +plainly in spite of the awful rage of battle that thundered and +crashed and screamed among the woods. It was as one sometimes hears +the ticking of a watch beneath the pillow in a nightmare. + +Monty was alive, but in spite of what Gloria could do the dark blood +was welling out from a sword gash on his right side, and we had not +a surgeon within miles of us. From somewhere out of the darkness +Maga appeared, bringing water, her face all black with the filth +of fighting among trees, and her eyes on fire. + +Monty seemed to be listening to the noise of battle--Kagig to think +of nothing but his loss. He pointed at Mahmoud, who was eying Monty +curiously. + +"See the prisoner!" he said. "Ha! I would give a hundred of him +a hundred times for Monty, my brother!" + +Monty turned his head to see Mahmoud, and appeared partly satisfied. + +"You hold the key," he said painfully. "Mahmoud will make terms. +But it will take time to stop the fighting. You must send down +reserves to Fred and Rustum Khan--that is where the strain is--you +must see that surely--the enemy from below will be trying to come +forward, and those in the trap to return. Fred and Rustum Khan are +bearing all the brunt. Relieve them!" + +It did not look good to me that Will should leave Gloria again; +and Kagig must surely stay there to do the bargaining. So I took +Monty's hand to bid him good-by, and limped off through the dark +to try to find men who would come with me to the shambles below. +It wag Kagig and Will together who overtook me, picked me off my +feet, and dragged me back, and Will went down alone, with a wave +of the hand to Gloria, and a laugh that might have made the devil +think he liked it. + +Then began the conference, I holding a mere watching brief with a +pistol reasonably close to Mahmoud's ear. And for a time, while +Monty lived, the elders supported Kagig and insisted on the full +concession of his demands. But Monty, with his head on Gloria's +lap, died midway of the proceedings; and after that the elders' +suspicion of Kagig reawoke, so that Mahmoud took courage and grew +more obstinate. Kagig called them aside repeatedly to make them +listen to his views. + +"You fools!" he swore at them, cracking his knuckles and twisting +at his beard alternately. "Do you not realize that Mahmoud is +ambitious! Do you not understand that he must yield all, if you +insist! Otherwise we hang him here to a tree in sight of the burning +castle and his own men! No ambitious rascal is ever willing to +be hanged! Insist! Insist!" + +"Ah, Kagig!" one of them answered. "Speak for yourself. You would +not like to be hanged perhaps! But we must concede him something, +or how shall he satisfy ambition? He must be able to go back with +something to his credit in order to satisfy the politicians." + +"Oh, my people! Oh, my people!" grumbled Kagig. "Can you never see?" + +But they went back to Mahmoud with a fresh proposal, milder than +the first; and eventually, after yielding point by point, until +Kagig begged them kindly to blow his brains out and bury him with +Monty, they reached a basis on which Mahmoud was willing to capitulate +--or to oblige them, as he expressed it. + +He won his main point: Zeitoon was to accept a Turkish governor. +They won theirs, that the governor was to bring no troops with him, +but to be contented with a body-guard of Zeitoonli. For the rest: +Mahmoud was to go free, taking his wounded with him, but surrendering +all the uninjured Turkish soldiers in the trap as hostages for the +release of all Armenian prisoners taken anywhere between Tarsus and +Zeitoon. It was agreed there were to be no subsequent reprisals +by either side, and that hostages were not to be released until after +Mahmoud's army corps should have returned to whence it came. + +Kagig wrote the terms in Turkish by the light of the holocaust in +Monty's ancestral keep, and Mahmoud signed the paper in the presence +of ten witnesses. But whether he, or his brother Turks, have kept, +for instance, the last clause of the agreement, history can answer. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-two +"God go with you to the States, effendim!" + + +ARMENIA + +First of the Christian nations; the first of us all to feel +The fire of infidel hatred, the weight of the pagan heel; +Faithfullest down the ages tending the light that burned, +Tortured and trodden therefore, spat on and slain and spurned; +Branded for others' vices, robbed of your rightful fame, +Clinging to Truth in a truthless land in the name of the ancient Name; +Generous, courteous, gentle, patient under the yoke, +Decent (hemmed in a harem land ye were ever a one-wife folk); +Royal and brave and ancient--haply an hour has struck +When the new fad-fangled peoples shall weary of raking muck, +And turning from coward counsels and loathing the parish lies, +In shame and sackcloth offer up the only sacrifice. +Then thou who hast been neglected, who hast called o'er a world in vain +To the deaf deceitful traders' ears in tune to the voice of gain, +Thou Cinderella nation, starved that our appetites might live, +When we come with a hand outstretched at last--accept it, and forgive! + + +The fighting lasted nearly until dawn, because of the difficulty +of conveying Mahmoud's orders to the Turks, and Kagig's orders to +our own tree-hidden firing-line. But a little before sunrise the +last shot was fired, at about the time when most of the castle walls +fell in and a huge shower of golden sparks shot upward to the paling +sky. The cease fire left all Zeitoon's defenders with scarcely a +thousand rounds of rifle ammunition between them; but Mahmoud did +not know that. + +An hour after dawn Fred joined us. He had the news of Monty's death +already, and said nothing, but pointed to something that his own +men bore along on a litter of branches. A minute or two later they +laid Rustum Khan's corpse beside Monty's, and we threw one blanket +over both of them. + +I don't remember that Fred spoke one word. He and Monty had been +closer friends than any brothers I ever knew. No doubt the awful +strain of the fighting at the corner of the woods had left Fred numb +to some extent; but he and Monty had never been demonstrative in +their affection, and, as they had lived in almost silent understanding +of each other, hidden very often for the benefit of strangers by +keen mutual criticism, so they parted, Fred not caring to make public +what he thought, or knew, or felt. + +Kagig, not being in favor with the elders, vanished, Maga following +with food for him in a leather bag, and we saw neither of them again +until noon that day, by which time we ourselves had slept a little +and eaten ravenously. Then he came to us where we still sat by the +great rock with Mahmoud under guard (for nobody would trust him to +fulfil his agreement until all his troops had retired from the district, +leaving behind them such ammunition and supplies as they had carried +to the gorge below the ramp). + +We had laid both bodies under the one blanket in the shade, and +Kagig pointed to them. + +"I have found the place--the proper place, effendim!" he said simply. +"Maga has made it fit." + +Not knowing what he meant by that last remark, we invited some big +Armenians to come with us to carry our honored dead, and followed +Kagig one by one up a goat track (or a bear track, perhaps it was) +that wound past the crumbled and blackened castle wall and followed +the line of the mountain. Here and there we could see that Kagig +had cleared it a little on his way back, and several times it was +obvious that there had been a prepared, frequented track in +ancient days. + +"It took time to find," said Kagig, glancing back, "but I thought +there must be such a place near such a castle." + +Presently we emerged on a level ledge of rock, from a square hole +in the midst of which a great slab had been levered away with the +aid of a pole that lay beside it. All around the opening Maga had +spread masses of wild flowers, and either she or Kagig had spread +out on the rock the great banner with its ships and wheat-sheaves +that the women had made by night in Monty's honor. + +We could read the motto plainly now--Per terram et aquam--By land +and sea; and Kagig pointed to some marks on the stone slab. Moss +had grown in them and lichens, but he or else Maga had scraped them +clean; and there on the stone lay the same legend graven bold and +deep, as clear now as when the last crusader of the family was buried +there, lord knew how many centuries before. + +The tomb was an enormous place--part cave, and partly hewn--twenty +feet by twenty by as many feet deep at the most conservative guess; +and on four ledges, one on each side, not in their armor, but in +the rags of their robes of honor, lay the bones of four earlier +Montdidiers--all big men, broad-shouldered and long of shin and thigh. + +We did not need to go down into the tomb and break the peace of +centuries. Under the very center of the opening was a raised table +of hewn rock, part of the cavern floor, about eight feet by eight +that seemed to have been left there ready for the next man, or next +two men when their time should come. + +Down on to that we lowered Monty's body carefully with leather ropes, +and then Rustum Khan's beside him, Rustum Khan receiving Christian +burial, as neither he nor his proud ancestors would have preferred. +But his line was as old as Monty's, and he died in the same cause +and the selfsame battle, so we chose to do his body honor; and if +the prayers that Fred remembered, and the other cheerfuller prayers +that Gloria knew, were an offense to the Rajput's lingering ghost, +we hoped he might forgive us because of friendship, and esteem, and +the homage we did to his valor in burying his body there. + +We covered Monty's body with the banner the women had made, and +Rustum Khan's with flowers, for lack of a better shroud; then +levered and shoved the great slab back until it rested snugly in +the grooves the old masons had once cut so accurately as to preserve +the bones beneath. + +Then, when Gloria had said the last prayer: + +"What next, Kagig?" Will demanded. + +Kagig was going to answer, but thought better of it and strode away +in the lead, we following. He did not stop until we reached the +open and the smoking ruins of the castle walls. When he stopped: + +"Has any one seen Peter Measel?" I asked. + +"Forget him!" growled Will. + +"Why?" demanded Maga. "Will you bury him in that same hole with +them two?" + +"Has any one seen him?" I asked again, uncertain why I asked, but +curious and insistent. + +"Sure!" said Maga. "Yes. Me I seen 'im. I keel 'im--so--with a +knife--las' night! You not believe?" + +Whether we believed or not, the news surprised us, and we waited +in silence for an explanation. + +"You not believe? Why not? That dog! 'E make of me a dam-fool! +'E tell me about God. 'E say God is angry with Zeitoon, an' Kagig +is as good as a dead man, an' I shall take advantage. 'E 'ope 'e +marry me. I 'ope if Kagig die I marry Will Yerkees, but I agree +with Measel, making pretend, an' 'e run away to talk 'is fool secrets +with the Turks. Then I make my own arrangements! But Mahmoud is +not succeeding, and I like Kagig better after all. An' then last +night in the darkness Peter Measel he is coming on a 'orse with +Mahmoud because Mahmoud is not trusting him out of sight. An' I +see him, an' 'e see me, an' 'e call me, an' I go to 'im through all +the fighting, an' 'e get off the 'orse an' reach out 'is arms to me, +an' I keel 'im with my knife--so! An' now you know all about it!" + +"What next?" Will demanded dryly. + +"Next?" said Kagig. "You effendim make your escape! The Turks will +surely seek to be revenged on you. I will show you a way across the +mountains into Persia." + +"And you?" I asked. + +"Into hiding!" he answered grimly. "Maga--little Maga, she shall +come with me, and teach me more about the earth and sky and wind +and water! Perhaps at last some day she shall make me--no, never +a king, but a sportman." + +"Come with us," said Will. "Come to the States." + +"No, no, effendi. I know my people. They are good folk. They +mistrust me now, and if I were to stay among them where they could +see me and accuse me, and where the Turks could make a peg of me +on which to hang mistrust, I should be a source of weakness to them. +Nevertheless, I am ever the Eye of Zeitoon! I shall go into hiding, +and watch! There will come an hour again--infallibly--when the +Turks will seek to blot out the last vestige of Armenia. If I hide +faithfully, and watch well, by that time I shall be a legend among +my people, and when I appear again in their desperation they will +trust me." + +Will met Gloria's eyes in silence for a moment. + +"I've a mind to stay with you, Kagig, and lend a hand," he said at last. + +"Nay, nay, effendi!" + +"We can attach ourselves to some mission station, and be lots of use," +Gloria agreed. + +"Use?" said Kagig, cracking his fingers. "The missions have done +good work, but you can be of much more use--you two. You have each +other. Go back to the blessed land you come from, and be happy together. +But pay the price of happiness! You have seen. Go back and tell!" + +"Tell about Armenian atrocities?" said Will. "Why, man alive, the +papers are full of them at regular intervals!" + +Kagig made a gesture of impatience. + +"Aye! All about what the Turks have done to us, and how much about +us ourselves? America believes that when a Turk merely frowns the +Armenian lies down and holds his belly ready for the knife! Who +would care to help such miserable-minded men and women? But you +have seen otherwise. You know the truth. You have seen that Armenia +is undermined by mutual suspicion cunningly implanted by the Turk. +You have also seen how we rally around one man or a handful whom +we know we dare trust!" + +"True enough!" said Will. "I've wondered at it." + +"Then go and tell America," Kagig almost snarled with blazing eyes, +"to come and help us! To give us a handful of armed men to rally round! +Tell them we are men and women, not calves for the shambles! Tell +them to reach us out but one finger of one hand for half a dozen +years, and watch us grow into a nation! Preach it from the house-tops! +Teach it! Tell it to the sportmen of America that all we need is +a handful to rally round, and we will all be sportmen too! Go and +tell them--tell them!" + +"You bet we will!" said Gloria. + +"Then go!" said Kagig. "Go by way of Persia, lest the Turks find +ways of stopping up your mouths. Monty has died to help us. I +live that I may help. You go and tell the sportmen all. Tell them +we show good sport in Zeitoon--in Armenia! God go with you +all, effendim!" + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE EYE OF ZEITOON *** + +This file should be named zeito10.txt or zeito10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, zeito11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, zeito10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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