22 
LAND & WATER 
October 5, 1916 
{Continued from page 20.) 
Others to slip down the road fifty yards beyond the cara- 
vanserai and be ready to climb in as 1 passed. I had to start 
the infernal thing, and there might be shooting. 
I waited by the car till I saw them reach the right distance. 
I could hear %oices from the second floor of the house and 
footsteps moving up and down. I was in a fever of anxiety, 
for any moment a man might come to the window. Then I 
flung myself on the starting handle and worked like a demon. 
The cold made the job difficult, and my heart was in my 
hiouth, for the noise in that quiet place must have woke the 
dead. Then, by the mercy of Heaven, the engines started, 
and I sprang to the driving seat, released the clutch, and 
opened the throttle. The great car shot forward, and I 
seemed to hear behind me shrill voices. A pistol bullet 
bored through my hat, and another buried itself in a cushion. 
In a second I was clear of the place and the rest of t lie party 
were embarking. Blenkiron got on the step and rolled himself 
like a sack of coals into the tonneau. Peter slipped up beside 
me, and Hussin scrambled in from the back over the folds 
of the hood. We had our baggage in our pockets and had 
nothing to carry. 
Bullets dropped round us, but did no harm. Then I heard 
a report at my ear, and out of a corner of my eye saw Peter 
lower his pistol. Presently we were out of range, and, looking 
back, I saw three men gesticulating in the middle of the road. 
" May the devil fly away with this pistol," said Peter 
ruefully. " I never could make good shooting with a little 
gun. Had I had my rifle . . ." 
" Wliat did you shoot for ? " I asked in amazement. 
" We've got the fellows'car, and we don't want to do them 
any harm." 
" It would have saved trouble had I had my rifle," said 
Peter, quietly. " The little man you call Rasta was there, 
and he knew you. I heard him cry your name. He is an 
angry little man, and I observe that on this road there is 
a telegraph." 
CHAPTER XVII. 
Trouble by the Waters of Babylon. 
FROM that moment I date the beginning of my mad- 
ness. Suddenly I forgot all cares and difficulties 
of the present and future and became foolishly 
light-hearted. We were rushing towards the 'great 
battle where men were busy at my proper trade. I realised 
how much I had loathed the lonely days in Germany, and 
still more the dawdling week in Constantinople. Now I 
was clear of it all, and bound for the clash of armies. It 
didn't trouble me that we were on the wrong side of the battle 
line. I had a sort of instinct that the darker and wilder 
things grew the better chance for us. 
" Seems to me," said Blenkiron, bending over me, " that 
this joy-ride is going to come to an untimely end pretty soon. 
Peter's right. That young man will set the telegraph going, 
and we'll be held up at t'e next township." 
" He's got to get to a telegraph ofhce first," I answered. 
" That's where we have the pull on him. He's welcome to 
the screws we left behind, and if he finds an operator before 
the evening I'm the worst kind of Dutchman. I'm going to 
break all tlie lules and bucket this car for what she's worth. 
Don't you see that the nearer we get to Erzerum the safer 
we are ? '\ 
" I don't follow." he said slowly. " At Erzerum I reckon 
they'll be waiting for us witli the handcuffs. Why in thunder 
couldn't tlu'se hairy ragamuffins keep the httle cuss safe ? 
Your record's a bit too precipitous. Major, for the most 
innocent-minded military boss." 
" Do you remember what you said about the Germans 
being open to bluff ? Well, I'm going to put up the steepest 
sort of bluff. Of course they'll stop us. Rasta will do his 
damnedest. But remember that he and his friends are not 
very popular with the Germans, and Madame von Einem is. 
We're her protege's, and the bigger the German swell I get 
before the safer I'll feel. We've got our passports and our 
orders, and he'll be a bold man that will stop us once we get 
into the German zone. Therefore I'm going to hurry as fast 
as God will let me." 
It was a ride that deserved to have an epic written about 
it. The car was good, and I handled her well, though I say 
it who shouldn't. The road in that big central plain was 
fair, and often I knocked fifty miles an hour out of her. We 
passed troops by a circuit over the veld, where we took some 
awful risks, and once we skidded by some transport with our 
•off wheels almost over the lip of a ravine. We went through 
the narrow streets of Siwas like a fire-engine, while I shouted 
out in German that we carried despatches for headquarters. 
We shot out of drizzling rain into brief spells of winter sun- 
shine and then into a snow blizzard which aU but whipp)ed the 
sldn from our faces. And always before us the long road 
unrolled, with somewhere at the end of it two armies 
clinched in a death-gra])ple. 
That night we looked for no lodging. We ate a sort of 
meal in the car with tlie hood up, and felt our way on in the 
darkness, for the headlights were in perfect order. Then 
turned off the road for four hours' sleep, and I had a go at 
the map. Before dawn we started again, and came over a 
pass into the vale of a big river. The winter dawn showed 
its gleaming stretches, ice-bound among the sprinkled mea- 
dows. I called to Blenkiron : 
" I believe that river is the Euphrates," I said. 
" So," he said, acutely interested. " Then that's the 
waters of Babjdon. Great snakes, that I should have lived 
to see the fields where King Nebuchadnezzar grazed ! Du 
you know the name of that big hill. Major ? " 
" Ararat, as like as not," I cried, and he believed me. 
We were among the hills now, great rocky black slopes, 
and, seen through side glens, a hinterland of snowy peaks. 
I remember I kept looking for the castrol I had seen in my 
dream. The thing had never left off haunting me, and I was 
pretty clear now that it did not belong to my South African 
memories. I am not a superstitious man, but the way that 
little kranz clung to my mind made me think it was a warning 
sent by Providence. I was pretty certain that when I clapped 
eyes on it I would be in for bad trouble. 
All morning we travelled up that broad vale, and just 
before noon it spread out wider, the road dipped to the 
water's edge, and I saw before me the white roofs of a town. 
The snow was deep now, and lay down to the riverside, but 
the sky had cleared, and against a space of blue heaven some 
peaks to the south rose glittering like jewels. The arches of a 
bridge, spanning two forks of the stream, showed in front, 
and as I slowed down at the bend a sentry's challenge rang 
out from a block-house. We had reached the fortress of 
Erzingjan, the headquarters of a Turkish corps and the gate 
of Armenia. 
I showed the man our passports, but he did not salute 
and let us move on. He called another fellow from the guard 
house, who motioned us to keep pace with him as he stumped 
down a side lane. At the other end was a big barracks with 
sentries outside. The man spoke to us in Turkish, which 
Hussin interpreted. There was somebody in that barracks 
who wanted badly to see us. 
" By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept," 
quoted Blenkiron softly. " I fear. Major, we'll soon be 
remembering Zion." 
I tried to persuade myself that this was merely the red 
tape of a frontier fortress, but I had an instinct that diffi- 
culties were in store for us. If Rasta had started wiring I was 
prepared to put up the brazenest bluff, for we were still 
eighty miles from Erzerum, and at all costs we were going to 
be landed there before night. 
A fussy staff-officer met us at the door. At the sight of 
us he cried to a friend to come and look. 
" Here are the birds safe. A fat man and two lean ones 
and a savage who looks like a Kurd. Call the guard and 
march them off. There's no doubt about their identity." 
" Pardon me, sir," I said, " but we have no time to spare 
and we'd like to be in Erzerum before the dark. I would 
beg you to get through any formalities as soon as possible. 
This man," and I pointed to the sentry, " has our passports." 
" Compose yourself," he said impudently ; " you're not 
going on just yet, and when you do it won't be in a stolen car." 
He took the passports and fingered them casually. Then 
something he saw there made him cock his eyebrows. 
" Where did you steal these ? " he asked, but with less 
assurance in his tone. 
I spoke very gently. " You seem to be the victim of a 
mistake, sir. These are our papers. We are under orders 
to report ourselves at Erzerum witliout an hour's delay. 
Whoever hinders us will have to answer to General von Liman. 
We will be obliged if you will conduct us at once to the 
Governor." 
" You can't see General Posselt," he said ; " this is my 
business. I have a wire from Siwas that four men stole a 
car belonging to one of Enver Damads staff. It describes 
you all and says that two of you are notorious spies wanted 
by the Imperial Government. What have you to say to 
that ? " 
" Only that it is rubbish. My good sir, you have seen our 
passes. Our errand is not to be cried on the housetop, but 
five minutes with General Posselt will make things clear 
You will be exceedingly sorry for it if you delay us another 
minute." 
He was impressed in spite of himself, and after pulling 
his moustache turned on- his heel and left us. Presently he 
came back and said very grufily that the Governor would see 
us. We followed him along a corridor into a big room look- 
ing out on the river, where an oldish fellow sat in an arm-chair 
by a stove, writing letters with a fountain pen. 
(Continued on page 2|.) 
