n the border. Not long afterwards
a Montenegrin doubled into the town with a report that heavy firing
had been taking place at the village of Dinos. Nothing further came of
it, but our countryman went to bed with other ideas of Montenegro.

We awaited Achmet next morning, but at nine he had not arrived, and we
began to wonder, as the hours went by, if his fate had at last
overtaken him. But at noon he turned up, as quiet and self-possessed
as yesterday, and excused himself in the following way. The Albanians
who had expressed such murderous desires upon him yesterday at the
market lived in Dinos, and he had spent the night in emptying his
magazine rifle repeatedly into their village.

"To show these dogs," he concluded, "that they cannot express such
wishes to me with impunity."

His story, which is given shortly here, was taken down from his lips,
but it is impossible to reproduce the man's quaint phraseology. He
spoke in an indifferent way, and detailed all the circumstances in a
most matter-of-fact manner and without the faintest trace of boasting.

He was born in Podgorica, then Turkish, and at fifteen fought in his
first battle, killing three men. At seventeen he had a fight in the
town, and was forced to flee to Scutari, where, shortly afterwards, he
entered the Turkish service as a gendarme. He took unto himself a
wife, but finding her faithless, he laid a trap to catch her and her
lover together, when he killed them both. After this Achmet returned
to Podgorica, where he was at once seized and imprisoned for his
original offence, but he soon broke out and fled to the Albanian
mountains. Here he lived as a robber until things began to get too hot
for him, and he fled to Bosnia. In Bosnia he was the guest of a Serb,
who befriended him, and when a Turk seduced his benefactor's wife, he
killed the Turk to show his gratitude, and again was forced to flee
the country. He next turned up in Antivari, where he was promptly
imprisoned, but he overpowered the warder, took his rifle, and again
escaped.

At this time the town captain of Dulcigno had been murdered, in
revenge for a deadly insult, by a young Kuc, named Jovan, and Achmet
was sent for, on the promise of pardon if he would follow Jovan into
Albania and kill him. This he did, bringing Jovan's head with him as
evidence. For this he received a large reward, and the Prince of
Montenegro, having heard of him and his deeds, sent for him, pardoning
all his previou