The Eye of Zeitoon

  Chapter Fourteen"Rajput, I shall hang you if you make more trouble!"

  "LO, THIS IS THE MAN--" (Psalm 52)

  Choose, ye forefathers of to-morrow, choose!These easy ways there beUncluttered by the wrongs each other bears,And warmly we shall walk who can not seeHow thin some other fellow's garment wears,Nor need to notice whose.

  Choose, ye stock-owners in to-morrow, choose!The road these others treadIs littered deep with jetsam and the bonesOf their dishonored dead.What altruism for defeat atones?Have ye not much to lose?

  Choose, ye inheritors of ages, choose!What owe ye to the past?The burly men who Magna Charta wrungFrom tyranny entrenched would stand aghastTo see the ripples from that stone they flung,They, too, had selfish views.

  Choose, ye investors in the future, choose!Ye need pick cautious odds;To-morrow's fruit is seeded down to-day,And unwise purpose like the unknown godsTempts on a wasteful way."Ware well what guide ye use!

  We went and bivouacked by the brawling Jihun under a roof of thatch,whose walls were represented by more or less upright wooden postsand debris; for Kagig would not permit anything to stand even foran hour that Turks could come and fortify. None of us believed thatthe repulse of that handful of Kurdish plunderers and the captureof a Turkish colonel would be the end of hostilities--rather thebeginning.

  Kagig, when Gloria asked him what he proposed to do with Rustum Khan'sprisoner, smiled cynically and ordered him searched by two of theZeitoonli standing guard. Rustum Khan was standing just out of lowear-shot absorbed in contemplation of the lie of the country. Inoticed that Fred began to look nervous, but he did not say anything.Will was too busy fussing with Gloria's wound, making a new bandagefor it and going through the quite unnecessary motions of keepingup her spirits, to observe any other phenomena. An Armenian womannamed Anna, who had attached herself to Gloria because, she said,her husband and children had been killed and she might as well serveas weep, sat watching the two of them with quiet amusement.

  The Turk offered no further objection than a shrug of his fatalistshoulders and a muttered remark about Ermenie and bandits. Evenwhen the mountaineers laughed at the chink of stolen money in allhis pockets he did not exhibit a trace of shame. They shook him,and pawed him, and poured out gold in little heaps on the ground(out of the magnanimity of his official heart he had doubtless leftall silver coin for his hamidieh to pouch); but Kagig only had eyesfor the papers they pulled out of his inner pocket and tossed away.He pounced on them.

  "Hah!" he laughed. "There! Did I tell you? These are hisorders--signed by a governor's secretary--countersigned by the governorhimself--to 'set forth with his troops and rescue Armenians in theZeitoon district.' Rescue them! Have you seen? Did you observehis noble rescue work? Here--see the orders for yourselves! Observehow the Stamboulis propose to prove their innocence after the event!"

  Since they were written in Turkish they were of no conceivable useto any one but Fred and Rustum Khan. Fred glanced over them, andshouted to Rustum Khan to come and look. That was a mistake, forit called the Rajput's attention to what had been happening to hisprisoner. He came striding toward us with his black beard bristlingand eyes blazing with anger.

  "Who searched him?" he demanded.

  "He was searched by my order," Kagig answered in the calm level voicethat in a man of such spirit was prophetic of explosion.

  "Who gave thee leave to order him searched, Armenian?"

  "I left you his money," Kagig answered with biting scorn, pointingto the little heaps of gold coin on the ground.

  I had no means of knowing what peaks of friction had already beenattained between the two, and it was not likely that I should instantlychoose sides against the man who within the hour had saved my lifeat peril of his own. But Will saw matters in another light, andFred began humming through his nose. Will left Gloria and walkedstraight up to Rustum Khan. He had managed to shave himself withcold Jihun water and some laundry soap, and his clean jaw suggestedstandards set up and sworn to since ever they gave the name of Yankeeto men possessed by certain high ideals.

  "Kagig needs no leave from any one to order prisoners searched!"he said, shaping each word distinctly.

  Rustum Khan spluttered, and kicked at a heap of coin.

  "Perhaps you have bargained for your share of all loot? I have heardthat in America men--"

  'Rajput!" said Kagig, looking down on him from slightly higher ground,"I will hang you if you make more trouble!"

  At that I interfered. I was not the only one in Rustum Khan's debt;it was likely his brilliant effort at the critical moment had savedour whole fighting line. Besides, I saw the Turk grinning to himselfwith satisfaction at the rift in our good will.

  "Suppose we refer this dispute to Monty," I proposed, reasoning thatif it should ever get as far as Monty, tempers would have died awaymeanwhile. Not that Monty could not have handled the problem, tempersand all.

  "I refer no points of honor," growled the Rajput. "I have beeninsulted."

  "Rot!" exclaimed Fred, getting to his feet. When his usually neatbeard has not been trimmed for a day or two he looks more truculentthan he really is. "I've been listening. The insolence was on theother side."

  "Do you deny Kagig's right to question prisoners?" I asked, thinkingI saw a way out of the mess.

  "Can I not question him?" Rustum Khan turned on me with a gesturethat made it clear he held me to no friendship on account ofservice rendered.

  He strode toward his prisoner, with heaven knows what notion in hishead, but Fred interposed himself. The likeliest thing at that momentwas a blow by one or the other that would have banished any chanceof a returning reign of reason. Rustum Khan turned his back to theTurk and thrust out his chest toward Fred as if daring him to strike.Even the kites seemed to expect bloodshed and circled nearer.

  It was Gloria who cut the Gordian knot. It was her unwounded hand,not Fred's, that touched the Rangar's breast.

  "Rustum Khan," she said, "I think better of you than to believe youwould take advantage of our ignorance. You're a soldier. We areonly civilians trying to help a tortured nation. We know nothingof Rajput customs. Won't you go to Lord Montdidier and tell himabout it, and ask him to decide? We'll all obey Monty, you know."

  Rustum Khan looked down at her bandaged wrist, and then into violeteyes that were not in the least degree afraid of him but only lookingdiligently for the honor he so boasted.

  "Who can refuse a beautiful young woman?" he said, beginning to melt.But he refused to meet her eyes again, or even to acknowledgeour existence.

  "I give you the prisoner!" He made her a motion of arrogant extravagancewith his right hand as if performing the act of transfer. Then heturned on his heel with a little simultaneous mock salute, and stridingto his bay mare, mounted and rode away.

  Kagig took over the prisoner at once without comment and began toquestion him under a tree twenty yards away, paying no attentionto the riflemen who matched one another, laughing, for the plunderedmoney. We four went back to the shelter of the thatch roof, for theplan was to remain behind with the company of Zeitoonli whom Kagighad placed carefully at vantage points, and give stragglers a chanceto save themselves before we resumed the journey to Zeitoon.

  Naturally enough, Rustum Khan and his fiery unreason was the subjectwe discussed, and Fred laid law down as to how he should be dealtwith whenever the chance should come to bring him to book. But RustumKhan was a bagatelle compared to what was coming, if we had onlyknown it. While we talked I saw Gregor Jhaere, the attaman of gipsies,ride down the track on a brown mule and dismount within ten yardsof Kagig. He hobbled his mule, and went and sat close by Kagig andthe Turk, engaging in a three-cornered talk with them. Kagig seemedto have expected him, for there was no sign of greeting or surprise.

  There was nothing disturbing about Gregor's arrival on the scene;he was evidently helping Kagig to cross-examine the Turk and checkup facts. Within their limits gipsies are about the best spiesobtaina
ble because of their ability to take advantage of credulityand their own immeasurable unbelief in protest or appearances. Itwas the individual who followed Gregor at a distance, and dismountedfrom a gray stallion quite a long way off in order not to draw attentionto herself, who made my blood turn cold. I caught sight of Maga Jhaerefirst because the others had their backs toward her. Then the expressionof my face brought Fred to his feet. By that time Magi had vanishedout of view unaware that any one had seen her, creeping like apantheress from rock to rock.

  "What's the matter?" Fred demanded, sitting down again, ill-temperedwith himself for being startled.

  "Maga Jhaere!"

  "How exciting!" said Gloria. "I'm crazy to meet her."

  But Will looked less excited and more anxious than I had ever seenhim, and we all three laughed.

  "All right!" he said. "I tell you it's no joke. That woman believesshe's got her hooks in."

  We tried to go on talking naturally, but lapsed into uncomfortablesilence as the minutes dragged by and no Maga put in her appearance.Fred began humming through his nose again in that ridiculous waythat he thinks seems unconcerned, but that makes his best friendsyearn to smite him hip and thigh.

  "I guess you were mistaken," Will said at last, spreading out hisshoulders with relief at the mere suggestion. But I was facing thedirection of Zeitoon, as he was not, and again the expression ofmy face betrayed the facts.

  There were two large stones leaning together, with a small triangulargap between them, less than thirty feet from where we sat. In thatgap I could see a pair of eyes, and nothing else. They had almostexactly the expression of a panther's that is stalking, not its quarry,but its mortal foe. In spite of having seen Maga approaching, Iwould have believed them an animal's eyes, only that from experienceI knew an animal's eyes betray fear and anger without reason, whereasthese blazed with the desperate reasoning that holds fear in contempt.Panthers can hate, be afraid, sweep fear aside with anger, and planpainstakingly for murderous attack; but it is only behind humaneyes that one may recognize the murder--purpose based on argument.

  "I see her," I said. "I suspect she's got a pistol, and--"

  I had not known until that moment that the short hair was standingup the back of my head, but I felt it go down with a creepy coldchill as I spoke. Then once more it rose. Knowing she was seenand recognized, Maga got to her feet and stood on the larger of thetwo stones, looking down on us. Her hands were on her hips, andI could see no weapon, but her lips moved in voiceless imprecation.

  "Are you Maga Jhaere?" asked Gloria, first of us all to recover somemeasure of self-command.

  Maga nodded. She was barefooted, clothed only in bodice and leatherjacket and a rather short ochre-colored skirt that blew in the gainingwind and showed the outline of her lithe young figure. Her longblack hair billowed and galloped in the wind behind her.

  "I am Maga Jhaere," she said slowly, addressing Gloria. "Whoare you?"

  "My name is Gloria Vanderman."

  "And that man beside you--who is he?"

  Gloria did not answer. Will looked more embarrassed than the devilcaught in daylight, and Fred recovered his mental equilibriumsufficiently to chuckle.

  "Is he your husband?"

  "No."

  "Then what you want with 'im?"

  No one said a word. Only, Fred made a movement with his hand behindhim that Maga noticed and spurned with a toss of her chin.

  "You coming to Zeitoon?"

  Gloria nodded. Glancing over toward Kagig I saw that he was awareof Maga and was watching her out of the corner of his eye while hetalked with Gregor and the Turk. They were both getting angry withthe Turk and using gestures suggestive of impending agony by wayof emphasis. The Turk was growing fidgety.

  Maga spread her arms out as if she were embracing all the universeand called it hers.

  "Then--if you ar-re coming to Zeitoon--you choose first a 'usband.There are--many 'usbands. Some 'ave lost a wife--some 'ave sickwife--some not yet never 'ad no wife. Plenty Armenians--also twoother men there--but you let that one--Will--alone! Choose a'usband--marry,'im--then you come to Zeitoon! If you come withouta 'usband--I will keel you--do you understand?"

  "Now then, America!" grinned Fred in a stage aside that Maga couldhear as clearly as if it had been intended for her. "Let's see theeagle scream for liberty!"

  "Eagle scream?" said Maga, almost screaming herself. "What you knowabout eagles? You ol' fool! That man Will is thinking you ar-re'is frien'. You ar-re not 'is frien'! Let 'im come with me, an'I will show 'im what ar-re eagles--what is freedom--what isknowledge--what is life! I know. You ol' fool, you not know! Youol' fool, you marry that woman--then you can bring 'er to Zeitoon an'she is safe! Otherwise--"

  She reached in the bosom of her blouse and drew out, not themother-o'-pearl-plated pistol that I feared, but a knife with aneighteen-inch blade of glittering steel. Instantly Fred coveredher with his own repeater, but she laughed in his face.

  "You ol' fool, you ar-re afraid to shoot me!"

  If she meant that Fred would feel squeamish about shooting beforeshe hurled the knife, then she was certainly right. But she knewbetter than to make one preliminary motion. And Kagig knew betterthan to permit further pleasantries. I saw him whisper to Gregor,and the gipsy attaman started on hands and knees to creep round behindher. But Maga's eyes were practised like those of all other wildcreatures in detecting movement behind her as well as in front.She spat, and gave vent to a final ultimatum.

  "You 'ave 'eard. I said--you let that man Will Yerr-kees alone!An' don't you dare come to Zeitoon without a 'usband!"

  Then she turned and dodged Gregor, and ran for her gray stallion--mountedthe savage brute with a leap from six feet away, and rode like thewind toward the gut of the pass that shut off Zeitoon from our view.A minute later a shell from a small-bore cannon screamed overhead,and burst a hundred yards beyond us on a sheet of rock.

  "Not bad for a ranging shot!" said Fred, suddenly as self-possessedas if the world never held such a thing as an untamed woman.

  "Observe, you sportmen all!" Kagig exclaimed, getting to his feet."The Turkish nobility are proceeding to rescue poor Armenians. Behold,their charity comes even from the cannon's mouth! It is time togo now, lest it overtake us! No cannon can come in sight of Zeitoon.Follow me."

  With his usual sudden oblivion of everything but the main objectiveKagig mounted and rode away, followed by Gregor in charge of theprisoner, and by a squadron or so of mounted Zeitoonli who attemptedno formation but came cantering as each detachment realized thattheir leader was on the move. We found ourselves last, without anarmed man between us and the enemy, although without a doubt therewere still dozens of fugitive poor wretches who had not had thecourage or perhaps the strength to overtake us yet.

  Kagig had had the forethought to leave comparatively fresh mulesfor us to ride, and there was not any particular reason for hurry.Will went ahead, with Gloria and Anna beside him on one mule--Glorialaughing him out of countenance because of his nervousness on heraccount, but he insistent on the danger in case of repeated gun-fire.Fred rode slowly beside me in the rear, for we still hoped to encouragea few stray fugitives to come out of their hiding holes and followus to safety.

  A second cannon shot, not nearly so well aimed as the first had been,went screaming over toward our left and landed without bursting amonglow bushes. A third and a fourth followed it, and the last one didexplode. That was plainly too much for some one who had dodged intohiding when the second shot fell; we saw him come rushing out fromcover like a lunatic, unconscious of direction and only intent onshielding the top of his head with his hands.

  "Is the poor devil hurt?" I said, wondering. But Fred broke intoa roar of laughter; and he is not a heartless man--merely giftedmore than usual with the hunter's eye that recognizes sex and speciesof birds and animals at long range. I can see farther than Fredcan, but at recognizing details swiftly I am a blind bat comparedto him.

 
"The martyred biped!" he laughed. "Peter Measel by the Godof happenings!"

  We rode over toward him, and Peter it was, running with his eyesshut. He screamed when we stopped him, and sobbed instead of talkingwhen we pulled him in between our mules and offered him two stirrupleathers to hold. He seemed to think that standing between the muleswould protect him from the artillery fire, and as we were not inany hurry we took advantage of that delusion to let him recover amodicum of nerve.

  And the moment that began to happen he was the same sweet Peter Measelwith the same assurance of every other body's wickedness and hisown divinity, only with something new in his young life to add poignancy.

  "What were you doing there?" demanded Fred, as we got him to towingalong between us at last.

  "I was looking for her."

  "For whom?"

  "For Maga Jhaere."

  Fred allowed his ribs to shake in silent laughter that annoyed themule, and we had to catch Measel all over again because the beast'scrude objections filled the martyred biped full of the desire to run.

  "Somebody must save that girl!" he panted. "And who else can doit? Who else is there?"

  "There's only you!" Fred agreed, choking down his mirth.

  "I'm glad you agree with me. At least you have that much blessedness,Mr. Fred. D'you know that girl was willing to be a murderess? Yes!She tried to murder Rustum Khan. Rustum Khan ought to be hanged,for he is a villain--a black villain! But she must not have bloodon her hands--no, no!"

  "Why didn't she murder him?" demanded Fred. "Qualms at the last moment?"

  "No. I'm sorry to say no. She has no God-likeness yet. But thatwill come. She will repent. I shall see to that. It was I whoprevented her, and she all but murdered me! She would have murderedme, but Kagig held her wrist; and to punish her he gave an orderthat I should preach to her morning, afternoon, and evening--threetimes a day. So I had my opportunity. There was a guard of gipsywomen set to see that she obeyed."

  "Continue," said Fred. "What happened?"

  "She broke away, and came down to see the fighting."

  "Why did you follow her? Weren't you afraid?"

  "Oh, Mr. Fred, if you only knew! Yet I felt impelled to find her.I could not trust her out of sight."

  "Why not? She seems fairly well able to look after herself."

  "Oh, I can not allow wickedness. I must make it to cease! It enteredmy head that she intended to find Kagig!"

  "Well? Why not?"

  "Oh, Mr. Fred--tell me! You may know--you perhaps as well as anyone, for you are such an ungodly man! What are her relations withKagig? Does he--is he--is there wickedness between them?"

  "Dashed if I know. She's a gipsy. He's a fine half-savage. Whyshould it concern you?"

  "Oh, I could not endure it! It would break my heart to believe it!"

  "Then why think about it?"

  "How can I help it? I love her! Oh, I love her, Mr. Fred! I neverloved a woman in all my life before. It would break my heart ifshe were to be betrayed into open sin by Kagig! Oh, what shall Ido? What shall I do? I love her! What shall I do?"

  "Do?" said Fred, looking forward in imagination to new worlds ofhumor, "why--make love, if you love her! Make hot love and strong!"

  "Will you help me, Mr. Fred?" the biped stammered. "You see, she'srather wild--a little unconventional--and I've never made love evento a sempstress. Will you help me?"

  "Certainly!" Fred chuckled. "Certainly. I'll guarantee to marryher to you if you'll dig up the courage. Have you a ring?"

  Peter Measel produced a near-gold ring with a smirk almost ofrecklessness, a plain gold ring whose worn appearance called to mindthe finger taken from a dead Kurd's cartridge pouch. It may be thatMeasel bought it, but neither Fred nor I spoke to him again, forhalf an hour.