acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

136 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
as one would care to meet. Some carried bundles,
some merely sticks, many were ragged, others in
clean white. A fellow in the leading ranks bore a
home - made flag showing the red crescent on a
white ground, and behind him straggled eighty or
a hundred men. They were going the wrong way
for the Yemen, and by so much—a vast deal—were
the less dangerous ; they were, indeed, on a closer
sight, in good humour, somewhat pleased, I thought,
at meeting a foreigner. As they approached I photographed
them, and then hastened to salute their
flag in a manner of respectful friendliness prompted
somewhat by discretion. They took both actions
as at least well - intentioned, and the flag - bearer
waved his flag in friendly acknowledgment, and
this meeting on a lonely mountain -top passed off
well enough.
With the recruits out of sight I went down the
pass, wondering now what Yeni Khan would show.
Should I witness one of those massacres which have
made Asia Minor notorious ? If so, what ought to
be my course ? I had heard of solitary Englishmen
interposing with success in such affairs, but had
never met one of that experience. I wondered how
they went to work, by what subtle power they
influenced a Moslem mob. Not with blazing indignation,
I supposed ; that sort of thing would surely
destroy all chance of success ;
just as well one
might take part in the fighting. One should, I
imagined, come in with apparent indifference—the
more apparent the better — and with that as his
outward attitude, and the help of his country's
prestige, be guided by circumstances and do what
was possible. Yet it seemed probable that the disturbance,
if any, was already over. I had heard of
it now for two days. Besides, it was strange that
my countryman at Chiftlik had not referred to it
this morning.
After I reached the foot of the pass Yeni Khan
soon came into sight, a little white town sleeping