e of the
Sultan and all the Powers of Europe! Desist, or every one of you shall
surely hang!'

Such words aroused the people's curiosity. The firing ceased while we
rode in between them and their object; and Suleyman assured the
villagers politely that I was the right hand and peculiar agent of the
English Consul-General, with absolutely boundless power to hang and
massacre.

Upon the other hand, we all three argued with Sheykh Yusuf that he
should leave the place at once and lay his case before the Governor.

'We will go with him,' said Suleyman to me, 'in order that your Honour
may be made acquainted with the Governor--a person whom you ought to
know. His property will not be damaged in his absence, for they fear
the law. The heat of war is one thing, and cold-blooded malice is
another. It is the sight and sound of him that irritates them and so
drives them to excess.'

At length we got the Sheykh on horseback and upon the road; but he was
far from grateful, wishing always to go back and fight. We could not
get a civil word from him on the long ride, and just before we reached
the town where lived the Governor he managed to escape.

Rashid flung up his hands when we first noticed his defection. 'No
wonder that he is unpopular,' he cried disgustedly. 'To flee from us,
his benefactors, after we have come so far out of our way through
kindness upon his account. It is abominable. Who, under Allah, could
feel love for such a man?'

CHAPTER XXII

THE CAIMMACAM

Though the reason of our coming, the Sheykh Yusuf, had deserted us, we
rode into the town and spent the night there, finding lodgings at a
khan upon the outskirts of the place, of which the yard was shaded by
a fine old carob tree. While we were having breakfast the next morning
in a kind of gallery which looked into the branches of that tree, and
through them and a ruined archway to the road, crowded just then with
peasants in grey clothing coming in to market, Suleyman proposed that
he and I should go and call upon the Caimmacam, the local Governor. I
had spent a wretched night. The place was noisy and malodorous. My one
desire was to be gone as soon as possible, and so I answered:

'I will call on no one. My only wish to see him was upon account of
that old rogue who ran away from us.'

'The man was certainly ungrateful--curse his father!' said Rashid.

'The man is to be pitied, being ignorant,' said Suleyman. 'His one
idea was to defend his