thmetic. Sandy and I were impressed--it's no good denying
it: horribly impressed--but we were too interested to be scared, and we
weren't a bit fascinated. We hated her too much for that. But she
fairly struck Blenkiron dumb. He said himself it was just like a
rattlesnake and a bird.

I made him talk about her, for if he sat and brooded he would get
worse. It was a strange thing that this man, the most imperturbable
and, I think, about the most courageous I have ever met, should be
paralysed by a slim woman. There was no doubt about it. The thought of
her made the future to him as black as a thunder cloud. It took the
power out of his joints, and if she was going to be much around, it
looked as if Blenkiron might be counted out.

I suggested that he was in love with her, but this he vehemently denied.

'No, Sir; I haven't got no sort of affection for the lady. My trouble
is that she puts me out of countenance, and I can't fit her in as an
antagonist. I guess we Americans haven't got the right poise for
dealing with that kind of female. We've exalted our womenfolk into
little tin gods, and at the same time left them out of the real
business of life. Consequently, when we strike one playing the biggest
kind of man's game we can't place her. We aren't used to regarding
them as anything except angels and children. I wish I had had you
boys' upbringing.'

Angora was like my notion of some place such as Amiens in the retreat
from Mons. It was one mass of troops and transport--the neck of the
bottle, for more arrived every hour, and the only outlet was the single
eastern road. The town was pandemonium into which distracted German
officers were trying to introduce some order. They didn't worry much
about us, for the heart of Anatolia wasn't a likely hunting-ground for
suspicious characters. We took our passport to the commandant, who
visaed them readily, and told us he'd do his best to get us transport.
We spent the night in a sort of hotel, where all four crowded into one
little bedroom, and next morning I had my work cut out getting a
motor-car. It took four hours, and the use of every great name in the
Turkish Empire, to raise a dingy sort of Studebaker, and another two to
get the petrol and spare tyres. As for a chauffeur, love or money
couldn't find him, and I was compelled to drive the thing myself.

We left just after midday and swung out into bare bleak downs patched
with scrubby woodlands. There