essayed to warm himself, walking past the German with a sort of mincing
gait not calculated to assert his manliness. Hans von Quedlinburg
stretched out a strong arm and hurled him back again into the darkness
at the rear.

"Tchuk-tchuk! Zuruck!" he muttered.

It clearly disconcerted him to have his inferiors in rank assert
themselves. That accounted, no doubt, for the meek self-effacement
of the Turks who had come with him. Peter Measel did not appear
to mind being rebuked. He crossed to the other side of the room,
and proceeded to look the gipsies over with the air of a learned
ethnologist.

"You speak of my errand," said Hans von Quedlinburg, "as if you imagine
I come seeking favors. I am here incidentally to rescue you and
your party from the clutches of an outlaw. The Turkish officials
who are with me have authority to arrest everybody in this place,
yourselves included. Fortunately I am able to modify that. Kagig
--that rascal beside you--is a well-known agitator. He is a criminal.
His arrest and trial have been ordered on the charge, among other
things, of stirring up discontent among the Armenian laborers on
the railway work. These gipsies are all his agents. They are all
under arrest. You yourselves will be escorted to safety at the coast."

"Why should we need an escort to safety?" Monty demanded.

"Were you on the roof?" the German answered. "And is it possible
you did not see the conflagration? An Armenian insurrection has
been nipped in the bud. Several villages are burning. The other