DISCOVERY 



325 



Government, directing me to take Mr. Hogarth's place 

 at Jerablus,' and I handed him these two documents 

 also. 



" He looked at them ; tlien, ' WTiat language are these 

 in ? ' he asked. 



" ' English,' said I. 



" ' Ah,' he replied, ' I do not understand English.' 



" ' Well, that is simple enough,' I retorted. ' You 

 have a French-speaking interpreter here ; call him in 

 and I will translate the documents into French, and he 

 can put them into Turkish.' 



" ' I should not trust such a translation,' said the 

 Kaimniakam ; ' and until the British Museum issues 

 this order in Turkish I shall pay no attention to it.' 

 * « * * * 



" In vain I pointed out that this was absurd ; the 

 Governor refused to listen to reason in any form, and 

 matters seemed to have reached a deadlock. So I 

 shifted the ground again, and abandoned argument for 

 insistence. I told him that I had been sent to do a 

 certain piece of work, that my papers were in order, 

 and that I could not agree to any delay ; I had already 

 engaged my workmen, and I wished to start opera- 

 tions the following morning. 



" ' It is impossible,' said the Kaimmakam, and 

 ostentatiously turned over some papers on his desk 

 to show that the interview was at an end. 



" ' Bui I shall start to-morrow,' I urged. 



" ' I have forbidden it,' said the Kaimmakam, ' and 

 I shall give further orders to the soldiers to stop you.' 



" ' You have only ten men at Jerablus,' I replied, 

 ' and I have a hundred and twenty who want to work ; 

 I shall start to-morrow.' 



" ' If necessary I shall send more from here,' he 

 retorted, ' but it will not be necessary.' 



" I was getting annoyed by now. ' If you send all 

 you've got,' I told him, ' I shall still outnumber you, 

 and my men are just as well armed. I only hope that 

 you will come at the head of your soldiers, and I shall 

 have great pleasure in shooting you first ; for I shall 

 certainly start to-morrow.' 



" ' This is nonsense,' said he. ' You would not dare 

 to shoot at the soldiers; and you shall nol do any work.' 

 ***** 



" The position was a difRcult one. I felt that the 

 whole future of our diggings depended upon this inter- 

 view, and that it was worth risking a lot to get success. 

 If I gave in now, a fresh permit would certainly not 

 be forthcoming that season, and we should have lost 

 all caste with the natives ; really, to use force was, of 

 course, out of the question — but would a Turk be sure 

 of that ? I looked once more at the Kaimmakam, 

 who, with a cold shoulder turned towards us, was 

 again fidgeting with his papers, and I made up my mind 



that he was not a man who would call a bluff. Taking 

 my revolver out of its holster, I got up and, walking to 

 the side of his chair, put the muzzle against his left 

 ear. ' On the contrary',' I said, ' I shall shoot you 

 here and now unless you give me permission to start 

 work to-morrow.' The Turk absolutely collapsed. 

 He leant back in his chair, his hands flat on the desk 

 before him, and tried to turn his head towards me, 

 while his lips twisted into a wintry smile. ' Certainly,' 

 he said. ' I see no reason why you should not start 

 to-morrow. ' 



" ' Will you write the order to the onbashi ? ' 



" ' But with the greatest pleasure ; and I will send 

 it down by a special messenger to-night.' 



" ' No, you won't,' I said. ' You'll write it here 

 and now, and I'll take it down myself.' 



"The revolver was still touching his head, and he 

 felt it was useless to try any further trick, so pulling 

 a piece of paper towards him, he wTOte something in 

 Turkish and handed it to me. ' That is what you 

 want,' said he. ' Perhaps,' I replied, ' but I am not 

 certain of the translation. Please send for the inter- 

 preter, who will put it into French for me.' I sat 

 down then, still keeping the gun handy, and the 

 interpreter duly came and the order was found to be 

 correct. The Kaimmakam 's manner had completely 

 changed. He pressed cigarettes on us, sent for coffee, 

 and was full of amiable small-talk, but we soon tired 

 of his forced civility, and cut short our visit on the 

 plea of the long cross-country ride before us. Indeed, 

 it was dark before our weary steeds drew near to the 

 Kala'at, and we saw the glimmering outlines of the 

 lighted tents surrounded by a crowd of anxious work- 

 men. Then Haj Wahid spurred his horse on ahead, 

 and long before he reached the camp, crack ! crack ! 

 his revolver firing in the air announced the news of 

 our success. In a moment there was pandemonium : 

 a hundred men were blazing away all the cartridges 

 they had, and we rode in through a lane of dancing 

 Arabs, shouting and shooting in honour of the victory, 

 which Haj Wahid's trumpet voice was declaiming with 

 more than Oriental imagery. It w-as a good beginning 

 for our work, but if I went to bed that night tired out, 

 it was less by my fifty miles' ride than by the strain 

 of the few minutes in which I had staked so much on 



a guess." 



***** 



We are sorry that reviews of several important books, 

 and also one of the articles promised last month, have 

 had to be held over to the next issue owing to lack of 

 space. In Books of the Month in the October number 

 a book by Professor Conway was in error referred to as 

 published. The price mentioned there is considerably 

 higher than the price at which it will be sold when 

 it appears. 



