The Eye of Zeitoon

mystery con

es the Road sh

oks have voices

f far-off lea

blossomy. Th

y such an one, n

sts that serve h

pleasant league

s they tell; the

ed, the bees' ful

ppy insects a

ue sky to cr

er jewel-th

be a new pa

d beginning n

sing hour delig

every sound

w thoughts too

en, too high f

he quietness o

and all bitt

munication w

ake joyous mome

eavy, and no

an emptied itself behind us in a long string, jingling and clanging with horse and camel bells. But they turned northward to pass through the fa

y. "Snow or rain might postpone mass

us, spattered with little diamond-bursts of tune as the larks skyrocketed to let the wide world know how glad th

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

t the Armenians were less afraid; and when we crossed a swollen ford where a mule caught his forefoot between rocks and was dr

nsport, 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

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 poin

-all Armenians are robbers

derma (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.

!" he urged. "We Turks are

ndered Rustum Khan, "who gave camp-f

ighwaymen to lead you into

the saber that lay o

id. "All my life I have hunted

The tone implied that when the emergency should come we s

re frequent parties of surveyors and engineers in sight. Once we came near enough to talk with the Germ

?" Monty asked, and I did not

laughed and

his own men, sahib! For a while on my journey westward I ha

s and our intentions. He told us his name was Hans v

you can rest comfortably at every stage, i

e came and questioned our Turks very closely; but sinc

nian servants?" he asked us

'em," s

Armenian laborers from the railway works. Not trustwor

matter wit

n't you

ask

shrugged hi

clerk. He worked all day in my tent. A week ago I found him readin

laughed as we rode away, and the German stared after us

omen were holding a gathering in a church large enough to hold three times the number. One of t

hand on Monty's saddle, "the Turks in this v

Tarsus what that

eve their purpose holy! What

laim protection at the Britis

warn us the worst fury of

lls, then!" Mon

ildren! We are watched. The first attempt by a number of us

by twos and threes. You

of myrtle scrub, in which whole armies could have lain in ambush. And above that the clif

ns haven't hidden supplies," said Monty.

aticism, 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, ourselve

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 o

, waiting on them almost as thoughtfully as they fetched and carried for us, but never forgetting to qualify

ians of the places where the Turkish heel had pressed. But for our armed presence and the respect accor

not going to suffer for the sins of mountaineers!" said Fred, as

me 'em if they show it foolishly. Some folk throw tea into harbors-some stick a king's head on a pole-so

sly capable of strenuous self-defense, our Zeitoonli w

est)-that is about the only food of the country on which the Anglo-Saxon thrives. Whatever else is fit to eat the Turks

unted out the coins to pay our bill. "Armenians are without compunction-bad folk! Ay, you have weapons, but so

rode away. "Those others, who sharpened weapons all night long, and spoke of

ext, swinging along with the hillman stride that eats up distance as the ticked-off seconds eat the day. And we rod

nians are dishonest. It was obedience to his prophet, who bade him take advantage of the giaour-quit

mong them. However, we exchanged no wayside gossip, because our Zeitoonli in front av

uits 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 chas

ahveh to-night about beating off a doz

tch, too, and give the k

id Monty. "They'll say w

t be the

We began to meet dogs as big as Newfoundlands, that attacked our unmounted Zeitoonli, refusing to

suggested cheerfully, and

ps from the smock of one of our men. The owner of the dog, seeing its victim was Armenian, rathe

hereabouts than a man's. In half an hour there'd be

ger 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

e wooden monkeys-on-a-stick the fakers used to sell for a penny on the curb in Fleet Str

ntact with us, they did not look so much frightened as convinced. They had made up their

d vowed there were hundreds of Armenians ambushed by the roadside half a mil

undred yards along a gradually sloping track, when our mules became aware of company. We could see nobody, but

ide-show. The noise was answered instantly by a chorus of neighs and brays from an unseen menagerie, whereat the owners of the animals disclosed themselv

em a considerable herd of horses, mostly without halters but headed into a bunch by gipsy children. Somebody

at stallion b

r somebody who owns her heart!" smiled

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 mak

h, and the oldest of the six-a swarthy little man wi

haere," h

ed halting Turkish, and the gipsy replied at once in German. As Monty used to get two-pence or three-pence a day

here and bring you to h

man smiled blankly-much more effectivel

ttoned 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

look, Gregor Jhaere included. As hard as the gray stallion could take her in a bee line towar

otice of him than if he had been a crow on a branch. In a minute she was beside Will, talking

nnounced in English. I

sh he

y asked, and Gregor answer

of the devil. She sha

!* And he a

y (a compliment). ** Gorgio-

lt 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

lame 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

sy women came padding uproad, fostered watchfully by Rustum Khan, who seemed convinced that murder was intended somehow, somewhere.

rop 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 transferre

higher, clean ground near the roadsi

le. To the gipsy and the cossack, and all people mainly dependent on the horse, to be mounted is

unprovoked attack on our unhappy muleteers. Before we could interfere they had thrown each Turk face downwa

hout 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 de

d not have been allowed to proceed with us another mile). Then, as Ibrahim mounted and

ised!) he shouted, with

. "Now I go to make A

o, avoid me! Ya Ali,

ahomet, Go

ali-hatted man-f

of honesty!" said Monty cryptic

on ea

ear they haven't received one piaster of their

l's a Britisher. He'd take their lie

mob of women and shrill children, who obeyed her as if well used to it. Gregor Jhaere and his men stood

hat mob of women and cattle?" asked Mon

air of modesty. The others smirked, but he seemed

ho boasts of thieving in the presence of sah

. 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 cast

onty had not taken his new, restless, fresh

. "Ride ahead and let those keen e

cked his mare a moment, and waiting until Will'

dar,

like a man who

does he mean?"

e'!" said Monty. "Come on

a different code to guide him and also had to convince himself that a quarrel with a man of color was compatible with Yankee dign

her stallion beside Will with an air of owning him. She was likely a safer friend than e

psy baggage, some with saddles, some without, some with grass halters for bridles. In another minute Fred and I were riding surrounded b

e!-Turkish, "Com

trusting themselves on sorry, lame nags between Fred and me as if proximity to us would solve the very riddle of the gipsy race. An

ties than all the Turks between here and Stamboul! She looks to me like Santanita, Cleopatra, Salome, Ca

eauty. Athletic gra

y they all h

horsem

idn't Cleop

t?" said

d, jerking loose the catch

said, glancing at the harridans be

f them, although irreverent, are not without pe

rs prate of

s repeat

guid with

of the joys

for those

deluded d

thing dre

tiptoed to

t hardly h

er Eve

OR

Eve, dear

ations co

r Eve's as

in Eden

ot hell with

he anci

grassy ways

Eve to eas

y soon gr

lips that l

and flick

ack white f

f Sisyphus

should A

OR

Eve, dear d

lations g

venture's

o make sur