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—
THE STOEE AT AK KEUPRU 273
land of romance and promise to Germans ever
since."
How much this great adventure of medieval Germany,
brooded upon and made glamorous during
centuries, had to do with the prosaic scene of railway
construction before me, who could say ? But
as I looked at the grey pine-dotted crags and rocks
rising several thousand feet as sunlit precipices, and
recalled a little of what they had beheld, and saw
the German iron road usurping the ancient highway
of so many memories, I felt that sentiment had at
least indicated the route for German ambition to
follow.
We entered the ancient highroad beside the old
Arab bridge of Ak Keupru—the White Bridge—and
found it a centre of many corrugated-iron huts. One
long shed was a store, like nothing so much as the
store in a gold - mining township. We were two
hungry men when I stepped into this store, feeling
that if it were a hateful excrescence it had also
present advantages. A Greek shopman, cigarette in
mouth, leant carelessly over the counter of rough
boards to receive my order.
" Is there bread ? " I asked, to which he replied,
" There is." I went on to various other articles
cheese, butter, milk, jam, meat—and each question
he answered contentedly with the same affirmative.
" Wine ? " I asked next, and for answer he indicated
a cask beside him. He explained that it was wine
of the country, and drew a sample—a large tumblerful
—and placed it before me. It was a sweet cloudy
wine, light coral-pink in colour ; but a draught so
refreshing I had never known, and shall always
remember gratefully. Next it came out that this
wonderful store sold Pilsener beer, and again, as
a much -deprived man, I thought there never could
be better Pilsener. By this time the shopman saw
a prospect of business in many things, and began
to push his goods. Perceiving my nationality, and
judging me by national reputation, he dropped into
s