acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

258 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
outside to see the weather the snow was melting.
The horse was loaded before the gfuest-house door, the
children were tipped, payment for our night's lodging
having been declined, and then our host brought us a
couple of miles on the road. Better weather promised
before he left. The mountains were still hidden by
masses of compact, low-lying clouds, but these were
slowl}'- revolving and tumbling, breaking up, and piling
together again. Between them now and again appeared
rifts and pockets of blue sky filled with sunlight. By
the time Kavluk Tepe was reached mountain-peaks
emerged grandly on our left—so lofty, and yet so close
at hand, that suddenly discovered above a world of contorted
cloud they seemed strangely o^/erhead. Then a
stab of sunshine fell on a snow -streaked brown hillside
across the valley, and quickly cover^the whole range ;
and with that a fine day began^^v^
A few houses of Kavluk Te^ stood near the road,
and from these the inmates came out to stare as we
passed, assessing us perhaps with eyes that balanced
apparent value against whatever of hardihood lay
in our combination of looks and weapons. One tall
figure in particular I noticed, running hard to get
a closer look at us. He kept under cover, and
thought himself unseen, and when he came slowly
from behind a building next the path displayed all
the indifference imaginable. Judged by his scarcely
turned head and slow, lordly stride, which swung
his belted Circassian cloak like a kilt, one would
have thought that he hardly saw us, yet he had
run like a boy for this nearer inspection. He was
an old man, too, upright and thin, with clean-cut
Circassian features and an eagle glance. His dress
showed him to be a chief; and though he and the
village would disown the robbers, I guessed they
had not taken to the road without his knowledge
and connivance. I gave him the morning greeting,
which seemingly took him by surprise ; but he replied
courteously, and then turned away like one
discovered in curiosity.