llah declared his worth to be five Turkish pounds, which we must pay
immediately unless we wished our crime to be reported to the
Government.

With as nonchalant an air as I could muster, I offered him a
beshlik--fourpence halfpenny. He thereupon became abusive and
withdrew--in the end, hurriedly, because Rashid approached him in a
hostile manner.

He had not been gone ten minutes when another peasant came, asserting
that the dog was really his, and he had been on the point of regaining
his possession by arbitration of the neighbours when we shot the
animal. He thus considered himself doubly injured--in his expectations
and his property. He came to ask us instantly to pay an English
pound, or he would lay the case before the Turkish governor, with
whom, he could assure us, he had favour.

I offered him the beshlik, and he also stalked off in a rage.

We were still discussing these encounters with Rashid when there
arrived a vastly more imposing personage--no other than the headman of
the village, the correct Sheykh Mustafa, who had heard, he said, of
the infamous attempts which had been made to levy blackmail on us, and
came now in all haste to tell us of the indignation and disgust which
such dishonesty towards foreigners aroused in him. He could assure us
that the dog was really his; and he was glad that we had shot the
creature, since to shoot it gave us pleasure. His one desire was that
we should enjoy ourselves. Since our delight was in the slaughter of
domestic animals, he proposed to bring his mare--of the best blood of
the desert--round for us to shoot.

We felt exceedingly ashamed, and muttered what we could by way of an
apology. But the sheykh would not accept it from us. Gravely smiling,
and stroking his grey beard, he said: 'Nay, do what pleases you. God
knows, your pleasure is a law to us. Nay, speak the word, and almost
(God forgive me!) I would bring my little son for you to shoot. So
unlimited is my regard for men so much above the common rules of this
our county, and who are protected in their every fancy by the Powers
of Europe.'

His flattery dejected us for many days.

CHAPTER XV

TIGERS

The fellahin who came to gossip in the winter evenings round our lamp
and stove assured us there were tigers in the neighbouring mountain.
We, of course, did not accept the statement literally, but our English
friend possessed the killing instinct, and held that any feline
creatures which could