you inside
the vestibule."

"I tell you I will go!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "I do not expect you
to protect me. I will protect myself." But the kavass would not yield so
easily. He was a powerful man, and stood calmly in the doorway. Paul
could not pass him without using violence.

"Effendim," said the man, speaking Turkish, which he knew that Paul
understood, "if I let you go in there, and anything happens to you, my
life is forfeited."

Paul hesitated. The man was in earnest, and they were losing time which
might be precious. It was clear that Alexander might already be in
trouble, and that the kavass was the only person capable of imposing
respect upon the crowd.

"Go," said Paul. "I will wait by the carriage."

The kavass opened the door, and both men went out into the dim entry.
Paul turned to the right and the soldier to the left, towards the heavy
curtain which closed the entrance of the vestibule. The knot of Turks
who had stood there when the Russians had arrived had disappeared, and
the place was silent and deserted, while from behind the curtain faint
echoes of the priest's high voice were audible, and at intervals the
distant thundering roll from the church told that the worshipers were
prostrating themselves in the intervals of the chanting. Paul retired up
the dark way, but paused at the deserted gate, unwilling to go so far as
the carriage, and thus lengthen the time before the kavass could rejoin
him with his brother. He trembled lest Alexander should have given way
to some foolhardy impulse to enter the mosque in defiance of the
ceremony which was then proceeding, but it did not strike him that
anything very serious could have occurred, nor that the kavass would
really have any great difficulty in finding him. Alexander would
probably escape with some rough treatment, which might not be altogether
unprofitable, provided he sustained no serious injury. It was indeed a
rash and foolish thing to go alone and unarmed among a crowd of fanatic
Mohammedans at their devotions; but, after all, civilization had
progressed in Turkey, and the intruder was no longer liable to be torn
in pieces by the mob. He would most likely be forcibly ejected from the
vestibule, and left to repent of his folly in peace.

All these reflections passed through Paul's mind, as he stood waiting in
the shadow of the gate at the back of the mosque; but the time began to
seem unreasonably long, and his doubts presently took th