THE SHIPMENT OF HORSES 



uments from the Sultan, which the Governor 

 of Aleppo had mentioned in his telegram, Jack 

 had told him that they were on the ship with 

 another man, so it was for these documents the 

 town was in gala attire, and not for the men 

 who carried them. 



We marched past the soldiers to the entrance 

 of the palace and the Governor stood in the 

 middle of the doorway with outstretched hands 

 to meet us. I may have been dressed queer- 

 ly — I will even admit it; but when I saw the 

 Governor I felt better. He was very short 

 and very wide — what you would call a pon- 

 derous small man, with a white beard, bald 

 head, and straight white hair down the back. 

 He was a man of much importance in the Sul- 

 tan's list of great men, having once been Gov- 

 ernor of Bagdad. We went in and the serv- 

 ants dove here and there with the standard old 

 regulation refreshments of coffee, cigarettes, 

 more coffee and so on, and then in some very 

 beautiful cut-glass tumblers, purple lemonade. 

 We had been used to red thick lemonade, but 

 this was purple. The Governor could not 

 speak English, but his secretary knew a few 

 words. After half an hour's visit, we were 

 driven round in a grand review of the town 



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