"Yes, she spoke of you."

"Fred Oakes here is--"

"Is English as they make them, yes, I know! Why the amazing efforts to--"

"I stand abashed, like the leopard with the spots unchangeable!"
said Fred, and grinned most unashamedly.

"They're both English."

"Yes, I see, but why--"

"It's only as good Americans that we three could hope to enter here
alive. They're death on all other sorts of non-Armenians now they've
taken to the woods. We supposed you were here, and of course we
had to come and get you."

She nodded. "Of course. But how did you know?"

"That's a long story. Tell us first why you're here, and why you're
a prisoner."

"I was going to the mission at Marash--to stay a year there and help,
before returning to the States. They warned me in Tarsus that the
trip might be dangerous, but I know how short-handed they are at
Marash, and I wouldn't listen. Besides, they picked the best men
they could find to bring me on the way, and I started. I had a Turkish
permit to travel--a teskere they call it--see, I have it here. It
was perfectly ridiculous to think of my not going."