MY QUEST OF THE ARAB HORSE 



eating grapes, and our signs, more strenuous 

 from hunger, made them understand that we 

 wanted some. They gave and we tried to 

 pay, but the chief of the party let us know 

 that we were welcome without price. He 

 then took us to where there were more grapes. 

 Finally we found a native who could talk three 

 or four words of English, and for these words 

 we made his old age peaceful and prosperous 

 by reason of the currency we heaped upon him. 

 He soon began, with this capital at his back, to 

 order men here and there, and through our sign 

 language and the word "Haleb" ( Alepj)o) , he 

 understood where we wanted to go. We could 

 see, however, because we were such easy marks, 

 that he hated to understand. But about seven 

 o'clock he kept saying the word "Post," 

 "Post," and at last we gathered that at nine 

 o'clock that evening the post coach on the way 

 to Aleppo, would stop at the Khan and that 

 he would, with our money, approach the big 

 Khowa j a ( the conductor who carries the mail ) 

 and with more money we might bribe the great 

 Turkish official to let us ride in the coach. 

 Moore and I were skeptical about this, but cu- 

 riously enough at nine o'clock along came the 

 stage coach. The horses, four abreast, were 



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