sin, loping along at my
side, had an easy job to keep up with us. We were about as slow as an
ox-wagon. The brutes were unshod, and with the rough roads I saw that
their feet would very soon go to pieces. We jogged along like a
tinker's caravan, about five miles to the hour, as feckless a party as
ever disgraced a highroad.

The weather was now a drizzle, which increased my depression. Cars
passed us and disappeared in the mist, going at thirty miles an hour to
mock our slowness. None of us spoke, for the futility of the business
clogged our spirits. I bit hard on my lip to curb my restlessness, and
I think I would have sold my soul there and then for anything that
could move fast. I don't know any sorer trial than to be mad for speed
and have to crawl at a snail's pace. I was getting ripe for any kind
of desperate venture.

About midday we descended on a wide plain full of the marks of rich
cultivation. Villages became frequent, and the land was studded with
olive groves and scarred with water furrows. From what I remembered of
the map I judged that we were coming to that champagne country near
Siwas, which is the granary of Turkey, and the home of the true Osmanli
stock.

Then at the turning of the road we came to the caravanserai.

It was a dingy, battered place, with the pink plaster falling in
patches from its walls. There was a courtyard abutting on the road,
and a flat-topped house with a big hole in its side. It was a long way
from any battle-ground, and I guessed that some explosion had wrought
the damage. Behind it, a few hundred yards off, a detachment of
cavalry were encamped beside a stream, with their horses tied up in
long lines of pickets.

And by the roadside, quite alone and deserted, stood a large new
motor-car.

In all the road before and behind there was no man to be seen except
the troops by the stream. The owners, whoever they were, must be
inside the caravanserai.

I have said I was in the mood for some desperate deed, and lo and
behold providence had given me the chance! I coveted that car as I
have never coveted anything on earth. At the moment all my plans had
narrowed down to a feverish passion to get to the battle-field. We had
to find Greenmantle at Erzerum, and once there we should have Hilda von
Einem's protection. It was a time of war, and a front of brass was the
surest safety. But, indeed, I could not figure out any plan worth
speaking of. I saw only one thi