But disarming the mere conscript soldiers was not quite so simple,
although Maga managed it. They had less regard for their own skins
than handicapped their officer, and yet more than his contempt for
the female of any human breed.

They refused point-blank to throw their rifles down, bringing a laugh
and a shout of encouragement from the German. But she screwed the
muzzle of her pistol into the lieutenant's ear, and bade him enforce
her orders, the gipsy women applauding with a chorus of "Ohs" and
"Ahs." The lieutenant succumbed to force majeure, and his men, who
were inclined to die rather than take orders from a woman, obeyed
him readily enough. They laid their rifles down carefully, without
a suggestion of resentment.

"So. The women of Zeitoon are good!" said Kagig with a curt nod
of approval, and Maga tossed him a smile fit for the instigation
of another siege of Troy.

The gipsy women picked the rifles up, and Maga went to hunt through
the mule-packs for clothing. Then Kagig turned on us, motioning
with his toe toward Hans von Quedlinburg, who continued to treat
himself extravagantly from our jar of ointment.

"You do not know yet the depths of this man's infamy!" he said.
"The world professes to loathe Turks who rob, sell and murder women
and children. What of a German--a foreigner in Turkey, who instigates
the murder--and the robbery--and the burning--and the butchery--for
his own ends, or for his bloody country's ends? This man is
an instigator!"