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A WET DAY ON THE EOAD 363
of the vicissitudes that had befallen the land. The
ruins beside us among the asphodel were Greek, the
bridge Koman and Arab, Turkish of one branch the
Sultan khan, and of another the village and white
mosque. And the feathery date-palms which gave
an African touch to the river were African in truth,
for they told of the Egyptian Occupation and Ibrahim
Pasha who had brought the tree to these parts.
Then one might recall also that close to this bridge
Tancred and Baldwin had fought, and that from the
ridges of Jebel Nur one could look over Alexander's
battlefield of Issus, only twenty-five or thirty miles
away.
Rain began to fall while we breakfasted the following
morning, and gave every promise of a bad day to
follow. Had I been alone I should not have thought
of leaving our pleasant quarters under these conditions,
having learnt to regard delay by storm as
a time of rest, and never finding such hours pass
slowly. But the Consul had to complete his mission
and return to Adana by a certain day, and so was
for setting out in any weather.
So we packed and started, following a rough
path that took us up the left bank of the Jihun
for several miles, to the railway bridge now being
constructed. Yesterday we had been gay, irresponsible
travellers in a land of sunshine and blue hills,
of spring flowers, and ancient ruins and memories ;
to-day, under the compulsion of official duty, we
scrambled and slid, in heavy rain that wet us to
the skin, along a clayey bank to count the unfinished
spans of a steel bridge.
Mustapha had now been instructed by Ibrahim,
and no longer Avent breathless on foot like a man
driven ; he rode perched on the mound of baggage
upon his horse, and sheltered himself under an umbrella,
and looked, in the blur of rain, as if mounted
on a camel. But the two servants had qualms on
the score of unwarranted advantage, and repeatedly
offered to exchange places with their masters.
Just before we reached the bridge a sluggish stream