might have happened that Halil Pelivan, who went before the Sultan with
a drawn broadsword, might have recognised him, and certainly nobody
would have taken particular trouble to inquire why the Janissary had
split in two the head of this or that pedlar who happened to come in his
way.




CHAPTER II.

GÜL-BEJÁZE--THE WHITE ROSE.


The booth of Halil Patrona, the pedlar, stood in the bazaar. He sold
tobacco, chibooks, and pipe-stems, but his business was not particularly
lucrative. He did not keep opium, although that was beginning to be one
of the principal articles of luxury in the Turkish Empire. From the very
look of him one could see that he did not sell the drug. For Halil had
determined that he would never have any of this soul-benumbing stuff in
his shop, and whenever Halil made any resolution he generally kept it.
Oftentimes, sitting in the circle of his neighbours, he would fall to
discoursing on the subject, and would tell them that it was Satan who
had sent this opium stuff to play havoc among the true believers. It
was, he would insist, the offscouring of the _Jinns_, and yet Mussulmans
did not scruple to put the filth into their mouths and chew and inhale
it! Hence the ruin that was coming upon them and their posterity and the
whole Moslem race. His neighbours let him talk on without contradiction,
but they took good care to sell as much opium themselves as possible,
because it brought in by far the largest profits. Surely, they argued