acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

DIFFICULTIES OF A VA LI 151
shooting done in the indefinite period which elapses
between the sighting and taking of an offender—the
brief period in which there may be intelligent perception
of an attempt to escape. Such an attempt
places the suspect out of law for the time being
one readily understands that what happens then is
much in the discretion of pursuers.
Such success attended the Vali's methods that
robber}^ was soon recognised as a business attended
by undue risk. Even those who came from the
Kurdish fastnesses fared ill ; they came, and often
failed to return. A few of them perhaps might be
seen languishing in Sivas jail, begging bread through
a grating ; but others had fallen on lonely hillsides to
the rifles of zaptielis. Robbery by the individual, or
in the picturesque manner by an armed band holding
the road for several hours, lost all its old profit
and charm.
Among those affected by the law thus asserting
itself was a Circassian dere-hey, or valley lord, settled
with his clan in the neio^hbourhood of Sivas. He and
his followers had made large profits by robbery,
though he himself never figured in the game, his
part being to direct operations while posing as a man
of loyalty and public spirit. He had relatives in the
Sultan's household, and was regarded as one of the
chief notables in the vilayet.
But now when the profession of robber had come
to such a pass something had to be done by this Bey,
for his income was going or already gone, and as a
Circassian gentleman openings for gaining money
were few. So he interviewed the Vcdi, in private, no
doubt, but the gist of the interview is public property
notwithstanding—a fact I do not offer to explain.
" You are ruining me," the Bey said in effect "
; and
I will not be ruined by you. Do you not know that
my sister is in the Sultan's harem ? I advise care. I
can have you banished. How would you like to be
sent to Bayezid ? "
From this interview resulted a feud whose course
;