acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

356 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
Moslem for whom he could vouch, who owned a packhorse,
knew the roads, and was willing to go anywhere.
Ibrahim brought him to the Consulate to
be interviewed.
" Have you a revolver ? " the Consul presently
asked as a question affecting much. At this inquiry,
ominous to a man familiar with the disarmings,
inquisitions, and courts-martial which followed
the massacre, Mustapha scented trouble. He rolled
a reproachful eye upon Ibrahim, his friend, and yet
appeared to seek instruction in the glance. As I
saw Ibrahim's face it remained impassive and changeless
as a stone, but Mustapha seemed to find in it
all the guidance necessary, for he was reassured, and
replied that he had no weapons. As a commendable
reason for a British Consul to hear in the circumstances,
he explained that he had surrendered his
revolver at the time of the troubles. Probably he
spoke the truth, but he M^as under no obligation to
say that if he wished he could find another inside
the hour. Mustapha was as good a substitute for
Ighsan as I could hope to get, so he began service
with me the next day. His age might have been
forty ; he was shortish but stiffly made ; and as a
singular characteristic, had the habit of gradually
opening his eyes till the iris showed completely surrounded
by white. In this fashion he expressed
surprise while remaining silent. I discovered later
that this curious expression was also a preliminary
to laughter, a point he seldom reached ; but when he
did get so far, his staring immobile aspect suddenly
broke into a look of such contagious humour that all
had to laugh with him. Like so many of his Moslem
fellow-countrymen in Southern Asia Minor, he had
served with the army in the Yemen.
For the ninety or one hundred miles from Adana
to Baghche, the route I was to follow lay close
to the Bagdad Railway line. The Consul wished
to see how the work was progressing, it being one
of his duties to watch and report on these matters.