iring hope
that I might bluff it out, for I was in different clothes and had
shaved my beard. But you cannot spend ten minutes in a death-grapple
without your adversary getting to know you.

He went very pale, then recollected himself and twisted his features
into the old grin.

'So,' he said, 'the little Dutchmen! We meet after many days.'

It was no good lying or saying anything. I shut my teeth and waited.

'And you, Herr Blenkiron? I never liked the look of you. You babbled
too much, like all your damned Americans.'

'I guess your personal dislikes haven't got anything to do with the
matter,' said Blenkiron, calmly. 'If you're the boss here, I'll thank
you to cast your eye over these passports, for we can't stand waiting
for ever.'

This fairly angered him. 'I'll teach you manners,' he cried, and took
a step forward to reach for Blenkiron's shoulder--the game he had twice
played with me.

Blenkiron never took his hands from his coat pockets. 'Keep your
distance,' he drawled in a new voice. 'I've got you covered, and I'll
make a hole in your bullet head if you lay a hand on me.'

With an effort Stumm recovered himself. He rang a bell and fell to
smiling. An orderly appeared to whom he spoke in Turkish, and
presently a file of soldiers entered the room.

'I'm going to have you disarmed, gentlemen,' he said. 'We can conduct
our conversation more pleasantly without pistols.'

It was idle to resist. We surrendered our arms, Peter almost in tears
with vexation. Stumm swung his legs over a chair, rested his chin on
the back and looked at me.

'Your game is up, you know,' he said. 'These fools of Turkish police
said the Dutchmen were dead, but I had the happier inspiration. I
believed the good God had spared them for me. When I got Rasta's
telegram I was certain, for your doings reminded me of a little trick
you once played me on the Schwandorf road. But I didn't think to find
this plump old partridge,' and he smiled at Blenkiron. 'Two eminent
American engineers and their servant bound for Mesopotamia on business
of high Government importance! It was a good lie; but if I had been in
Constantinople it would have had a short life. Rasta and his friends
are no concern of mine. You can trick them as you please. But you have
attempted to win the confidence of a certain lady, and her interests
are mine. Likewise you have offended me, and I do not forgive. By
God,' he cried, his voice growing sh