the excesses of the Turk.

Pavlovitch waved a hand towards the sullen mountains of Albania, which
were on our right.

"Dose Swabs don' tink o' nuttin' but killin'. Jess ornary slaughter,
Mister Jim. Now dat Jakovitza [a town to the south] dat don't mean
nuttin but 'blood' in their talk, 'lots o' blood' dat's what it means.
Sure. Dese peoples don' respect nuttin but killin'; an' when you've done
in 'bout fifty other fellers you'r reckoned a almighty tough. If you
wanted to voyage dere, f'r instance, you'd 'ave ter get a promise o'
peace, a 'Besa' they calls it, from one of dese tough fellers, and he
makes 'imself responsible to end any feller wat disturbs you; 'e can
post a babby along o' you and so long as the kiddie's wid yer nobody'll
touch you. Dats so, Mister Jim, you bleeve me. But all de same, dey've
fixed it up so's dis killing business ain't perlite wen deres women
about, so every feller taks 'is wife along 'o 'im so's not to be ended
right away."

Every house by the roadside was a fortress, loopholes only in the ground
floor, windows peering from beneath the eaves and turrets with gunslits
at the second story; here and there were old Turkish blockhouses, solid
and square, showing how the conquerors had feared the conquered.

"One o' dese tough fellers 'e kill more'n hundred fellers. Great chief
'e is. Wen 'e was sixteen 'is fader get condemned ter prison way in
Mitrovitza. Dis young tough 'e walk inter court nex' day, in 'e kill de
judge and two of de officers and 'scape inter de mountains."

Nick himself when he was a comitaj had twice been caught by the Turks.
Once he was shot in thirteen places at once, but was found by some
Christian women and eventually recovered; the second time the Turks beat
him almost to death with fencing staves, and though they thought him
dying put him on an ox cart and sent him to the interior of Turkey.

"I was ravin' mad dat journey," he said. "I don' want ter go ter 'ell if
it's like dat."

They put him in hospital and treated him kindly; but once better they
threw him into a Turkish gaol. He described how the prison was dark as
night, because the poorer prisoners blocked up the windows, stretching
their arms through for doles from the passers-by.

"We was all eaten wi' lice," he went on, "an' if de folks 'adn't sent me
money an' food I'd a starved to def, sure. 'N den dey bribes de governor
'n a soldier, 'n dey lets me 'scape."

He lay a cripple in Montenegro six mon