AKMET HAFFEZ AND THE MARE 



translation was made to the Arab his eyes grew 

 very expressive and round, and he said in 

 return. "The Anezeh are within ten hours' 

 ride of Aleppo ; I am a member of one of the 

 sub-tribes and have just come from them." 



At this JNIoore and Beard laughed and went 

 off in disgust to look at some silk rugs. I let 

 them go without a word. In a moment I saw 

 another Bedouin, an older man with a grayish 

 beard, but with the same peculiar white teeth, 

 and from him, too, I inquired the whereabouts 

 of the Anezeh. His answer confirmed the 

 story of the first and he added something that 

 brought me back to my normal spirits. He 

 declared that Hashem Bey, the Sheikh of all 

 Sheikhs, was then in Aleppo paying a secret 

 visit to a man named Akmet Haffez, the diplo- 

 matic ruler of the desert. He offered to take 

 us to the house of Akmet Haffez. Jack 

 Thompson's eyes began to sparkle again, and 

 Ameene grew excited. If this were true, it 

 seemed beyond a doubt that we could buy our 

 horses directly from the Anezeh tribe itself. It 

 was no longer a question of going to Deyr. 



We lost no time in getting into a 

 carriage in which we drove through the 

 narrow, dirty streets for a long way, passing 



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