not much use as soldiers. The cattle were in more danger than I.
Without difficulty I reached the little cliff which overlooked our glade. The basket was half concealed under a bush. Since I knew where to look for it, I could just distinguish the white cloth.
The two gendarmes I could not see, but I knew exactly where they were—flat on their rumbling bellies under the overhang of the cliff with their carbines trained on the basket.
Their horses were tethered on the pasture, behind a rock. As soon as I found them I saw my opportunity. Good Lord, how right I had been to feel sceptical of my plans for returning to the Jebel
Sinjar!
I inserted a prickly burr under the tail of one of those patient animals. He did not like that at all. You would have said, a charging elephant! One gendarme came up to see what was wrong. He
was so much occupied with the horse that I was able to measure my blow. It was enough to leave him breathing quietly on the ground.
He could not answer enquiries himself and I did not know him well enough to imitate his voice, so I only had time to change into half his uniform when the other gendarme, alarmed at the silence,
advanced to see what had happened. He caught me at a disadvantage. I had his comrade’s breeches round my ankles. I should have shot quickly. But, M. le Consul, I did not wish to become, like
John Douaihy, frightened of myself. I pretended to be demoralised, to beg for mercy. And he, thinking of the boasting he could enjoy if he took Nadim Nassar single-handed, came too close to use his
arms. Since he struck me twice across the face, I was not so gentle with him as with the other.
I left them well tied up with the spare reins and halter, confident that they would not be found till morning. And there! I had a horse to ride, another to lead, two carbines and two pistols as
well as my own rifle. I trotted across the pasture and down the track, past the picket, past my house and through the streets of Ferjeyn. On my head I carried the spare saddle to conceal my face. I
gave the impression of an extremely angry gendarme in a hurry, and answered questions only with muttered curses.
There were neither telephone nor telegraph in Ferjeyn. By riding hard due north across the Duck’s Bill, I reckoned to be over the Turkish frontier before the alarm had gone out. They were
two fresh horses and I did not spare them. In the morning, galloping through Moslem villages where they tried to stop me to hear why I was riding so fast, I may have aroused some suspicion. But
once near the frontier I had no more trouble. It cannot have been an uncommon sight—a silent gendarme in a hurry, leading the horse of his dead comrade.
And then I made a circuit through the Turkish hills—not so easy, M. le Consul, that it can be dismissed in a sentence, but I am conscious that I may have kept you too long from more
important work—and I descended cautiously upon the camp of Merjan.
It is a refuge, that country, and beautiful, but miserably poor. Three rifles, two pistols, their ammunition and two horses was a considerable capital. Merjan decided that he and his brother and
I could live more freely than as timber-cutters and middlemen for smugglers. With a Russian deserter, a Turk and a Persian—of true officer material, but having felt it his duty to assassinate
a political—we formed a band. I should not like you to think that we are criminals on a European scale. In the first place there is practically nothing here worth stealing. But we can go
where we wish without interference, and we are on good terms with the tribes. In return for food, we give them protection from police and bandits. And if they do not wish for protection we make it
desirable. Sometimes, too, we act as escort for smugglers. In fact one does what one can. But it is not a life for a man who loves to be in his own town.
M. le Consul, for myself I have no right to ask more than what I have. I live, and when I die there will
Without difficulty I reached the little cliff which overlooked our glade. The basket was half concealed under a bush. Since I knew where to look for it, I could just distinguish the white cloth.
The two gendarmes I could not see, but I knew exactly where they were—flat on their rumbling bellies under the overhang of the cliff with their carbines trained on the basket.
Their horses were tethered on the pasture, behind a rock. As soon as I found them I saw my opportunity. Good Lord, how right I had been to feel sceptical of my plans for returning to the Jebel
Sinjar!
I inserted a prickly burr under the tail of one of those patient animals. He did not like that at all. You would have said, a charging elephant! One gendarme came up to see what was wrong. He
was so much occupied with the horse that I was able to measure my blow. It was enough to leave him breathing quietly on the ground.
He could not answer enquiries himself and I did not know him well enough to imitate his voice, so I only had time to change into half his uniform when the other gendarme, alarmed at the silence,
advanced to see what had happened. He caught me at a disadvantage. I had his comrade’s breeches round my ankles. I should have shot quickly. But, M. le Consul, I did not wish to become, like
John Douaihy, frightened of myself. I pretended to be demoralised, to beg for mercy. And he, thinking of the boasting he could enjoy if he took Nadim Nassar single-handed, came too close to use his
arms. Since he struck me twice across the face, I was not so gentle with him as with the other.
I left them well tied up with the spare reins and halter, confident that they would not be found till morning. And there! I had a horse to ride, another to lead, two carbines and two pistols as
well as my own rifle. I trotted across the pasture and down the track, past the picket, past my house and through the streets of Ferjeyn. On my head I carried the spare saddle to conceal my face. I
gave the impression of an extremely angry gendarme in a hurry, and answered questions only with muttered curses.
There were neither telephone nor telegraph in Ferjeyn. By riding hard due north across the Duck’s Bill, I reckoned to be over the Turkish frontier before the alarm had gone out. They were
two fresh horses and I did not spare them. In the morning, galloping through Moslem villages where they tried to stop me to hear why I was riding so fast, I may have aroused some suspicion. But
once near the frontier I had no more trouble. It cannot have been an uncommon sight—a silent gendarme in a hurry, leading the horse of his dead comrade.
And then I made a circuit through the Turkish hills—not so easy, M. le Consul, that it can be dismissed in a sentence, but I am conscious that I may have kept you too long from more
important work—and I descended cautiously upon the camp of Merjan.
It is a refuge, that country, and beautiful, but miserably poor. Three rifles, two pistols, their ammunition and two horses was a considerable capital. Merjan decided that he and his brother and
I could live more freely than as timber-cutters and middlemen for smugglers. With a Russian deserter, a Turk and a Persian—of true officer material, but having felt it his duty to assassinate
a political—we formed a band. I should not like you to think that we are criminals on a European scale. In the first place there is practically nothing here worth stealing. But we can go
where we wish without interference, and we are on good terms with the tribes. In return for food, we give them protection from police and bandits. And if they do not wish for protection we make it
desirable. Sometimes, too, we act as escort for smugglers. In fact one does what one can. But it is not a life for a man who loves to be in his own town.
M. le Consul, for myself I have no right to ask more than what I have. I live, and when I die there will
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