urious pace. First of all, there was Rasta, whom I had
insulted and who wouldn't forget it in a hurry. He had his crowd of
Turkish riff-raff and was bound to get us sooner or later. Then there
was the maniac in the skin hat. He didn't like Rasta, and I made a
guess that he and his weird friends were of some party hostile to the
Young Turks. But, on the other hand, he didn't like us, and there
would be bad trouble the next time we met him. Finally, there was
Stumm and the German Government. It could only be a matter of hours at
the best before he got the Rustchuk authorities on our trail. It would
be easy to trace us from Chataldja, and once they had us we were
absolutely done. There was a big black _dossier_ against us, which by
no conceivable piece of luck could be upset.

It was very clear to me that, unless we could find sanctuary and shed
all our various pursuers during this day, we should be done in for good
and all. But where on earth were we to find sanctuary? We had neither
of us a word of the language, and there was no way I could see of
taking on new characters. For that we wanted friends and help, and I
could think of none anywhere. Somewhere, to be sure, there was
Blenkiron, but how could we get in touch with him? As for Sandy, I had
pretty well given him up. I always thought his enterprise the craziest
of the lot and bound to fail. He was probably somewhere in Asia Minor,
and a month or two later would get to Constantinople and hear in some
pot-house the yarn of the two wretched Dutchmen who had disappeared so
soon from men's sight.

That rendezvous at Kuprasso's was no good. It would have been all
right if we had got here unsuspected, and could have gone on quietly
frequenting the place till Blenkiron picked us up. But to do that we
wanted leisure and secrecy, and here we were with a pack of hounds at
our heels. The place was horribly dangerous already. If we showed
ourselves there we should be gathered in by Rasta, or by the German
military police, or by the madman in the skin cap. It was a stark
impossibility to hang about on the off-chance of meeting Blenkiron.

I reflected with some bitterness that this was the 17th day of January,
the day of our assignation. I had had high hopes all the way down the
Danube of meeting with Blenkiron--for I knew he would be in time--of
giving him the information I had had the good fortune to collect, of
piecing it together with what he had found ou