Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

CH. XVI.] IVe fall under SiLSpicion. 5
mind ; and I suspect that tlie good man had taken
counsel of his fellow-governor about the course to
be pursued with us ; for on the evening following
that of the Valy's arrival, we received a
polite message
from the latter, begging that we would do him
the favour of calling at the Serai.
Now, if this Valy had happened to be a man of
the old school like Akif Pasha and others whom
one could name, I think it might have fared ill
with us at this conjuncture, for suspicion of us, as
1 have said, was not unreasonable, and the two
Orientals together, taking counsel of each other's
fears, might in the end have plucked up courage to
put a forcible
term to our adventures by sending us
back under escort to Aleppo. We could hardly
have complained had they done so. But, fortunately
for us, the Valy was a man of a very difterent
type from any we had hitherto met in Turkey,
—indeed it would be doing him an injustice to
talk of him as in any way an Oriental ;—and he at
once understood the situation and recognised us for
what we were, mere tourists and sight-seers. His
discrimination saved us.
Kadderly Pasha is a Turk, and a Europeanised
Turk ;
yet he impressed me very favourably. He
speaks excellent French ; and we not only had no
difficulty in explaining our position to him and
satisfying any curiosity he may have had as to our
movements, but we also were able to have a very
interesting conversation with him about the general