64 Bedouin Tribes of the Etiphrates. [ru. xix. 



voice that Wilfrid, gun in hand, asked them who 

 they were and what they wanted. " Yarash, 

 yavash,'^ was the answer f ' Gently, gently "). " We 

 are soldiers from the Beg and we have a message 

 for yon." " AVhat Beg ? the ]\Iudir ? " " No, no, 

 the Beg, the C^onsnl Beg. He arrived last night 

 at Arak, and has sent us on with a letter." Mr. S. 

 Avas indeed come, and the joy in camp may be 

 imagined, Hanna in his usual floods of tears em- 

 bracing Ferhan, and informing all the world that 

 he had never been able to believe that the Consul 

 Avas really dead. We, too, were relieved from a 

 great anxiety, only, as AVilfrid remarked, it was a 

 little like winning the odd trick after a desperate 

 fight, and then finding four by honours in one's 

 partner's hand. ^Ir. S., it appears, had not left 

 Aleppo till eight days ago, and then had travelled 

 day and night on the chance of catching us up, and 

 had at last Ijroken down within fifteen miles of us 

 at Arak. There we at once decided to go as fast as 

 our mares w^ould carry us, and, much to the dis- 

 appointment of our followers, who were already 

 calculating on another day's rest, we ordered the 

 tents to be struck, and a march back to Arak at 

 the first streak of dawn. 



It was still nearly dark when we mounted, but 

 we would not wait lonij^er than for the rise of the 

 morning star, and started at a gallop as soon as we 

 had it for a guide. The zaptiehs on their tired 

 horses made a show of accompanying us, declaring 



