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MUSTAPHA GOES OFF 371
a vain idea again. With a sudden shout Mustapha
slipped from his horse and ran oft' in an extremity
of haste by the way we had come. With his wide
loose breeches and bent body, he made a strange,
black, circular figure for a second or two against the
white road, and then was lost in gloom. Only after
he had disappeared did I recognise that he had cried
*'Shapka!" (the hat!), and discover that my straw
hat, which had hung among the baggage all day,
was no longer in its place.
" What does your man mean by going off* in this
fashion ? " demanded the Consul, speaking like one
with a grievance.
I explained what had happened.
" What do you propose to do ? " he asked.
I proposed to wait.
" Now," exclaimed the Consul, groaning, " I shall
become rigid with cramp. It will be necessary to
carry me into Osmanieh."
Little wonder he found the day's journey severe.
It would have tried the hardest ;
yet he had lightheartedly
kept on, in the circumstances a wholly
incredible great official to his kavass and Mustapha,
and adding, for them, a strange new body of evidence
as to what a British Consul might do ; for he showed
no sign of fatigue. His cramp ceased while we
waited, and the risk of having to be carried into
Osmanieh after all seemed to have gone ; but ten
minutes passed, twenty, thirty, and there was no sign
of Mustapha.
"This is absolutely the last straw!" said the
Consul, as his cramp returned again. But then a
far-off* comforting voice cried out of the darkness,
"Where is the English Consul?" It came from a
man sent back by Ibrahim to conduct us to the
khan, and the Consul's rigid limbs recovered at the
sound.
" There are no limits to Ibrahim's common-sense,"
he remarked, as he went off" with the guide. I waited
another half-hour, then the same messenger returned