acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

354 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
order to demonstrate that the new Government really
abhorred great crimes done in publicity. As proof* of
strict impartiality for one side Moslems were actually
hanged, as proof for the other side Armenians were
hanged also. But there were some who said that
the Armenian population having been appreciably
reduced, and the real purpose of the massacre thereby
achieved, the execution of a few Moslems was
small sacrifice for so great gain.
On going to the British Consulate the morning
after reaching Adana, I was confronted by the kavass
whom I had passed between Kaisariyeh and Sivas
hurrying northward with his master in a three-horse
araha. I recognised him at once, for no one, I think,
who had ever seen Ibrahim could fail to recognise
him again—not so much by physical appearance as
by the extraordinary alertness which characterised
his look and movements. And now I soon heard
about the northward journey, which had been the
home-going of a consul vacating the Consulateship
at Adana. Ibrahim, it seemed, had come back by
sea, to be taken over by the new consul as a man
altogether too valuable by reputation to be lost. For
in these out-of-the-way places not onl}'^ a consul's
comfort but his knowledge of much that goes on
may depend upon his kavass.
Ibrahim called himself a Persian. His history was
uncertain.—at least to the extent of being a subject
on which he spoke little, and that vaguely—but he
claimed to have been a courier in his time. His age
was about five-and-thirty, his figure spare and of middle
height, he had a bold prominent nose and restless
eye ; at sight you knew that he was instant in action,
quick-witted and resourceful beyond the ordinary.
Tell him to do anything and it was done ; to get
anything and he got it ; to find out anything and he
either had the information already or produced it
when seen again. He knew every one, knew his way
everywhere, and never lost his energy and good
spirits. Now that I saw Ibrahim often I understood