Albert Kinross

“ I went downstairs and had a word with my friend the Austrian cashier and told him he'd better stop it; but when I returned to my room that evening, I found the new trousers and a dozen large flasks of Chianti; and together with these were a string of amber beads the size of pigeons' eggs and a silver cigarette-case, done in the filigree-work of the place, which I had admired in a shop-window. Beside this still-life—for it made rather a picture—was the card of a third dealer in tobacco, a Greek with a sonorous surname and an antique forename—Euripides Papanastasiou, or something similar. ”

“ The shepherds, a nomadic race, neither Greek nor Slav nor Turk, but simply 'shepherds,' roamed with their flocks from Thessaly in Greece to Turkish Macedonia, and Arakli, with its loamy plain, was a favorite winter pasturage. For generations a group of them had paid for and enjoyed grazing rights over the bey's property ”

“ I smoke too much, and these Christian feasts, this New Year of theirs—everybody is drunk and we can get no work done.' The little beast was almost cringing.
"The real object of his search for me, however, was not to exchange views on religion and politics, but to give me my orders for the day.
"'There will be no work here for the rest of this week,' he said; 'and even if these peasants were sober, the frost would keep us idle. To-day we will go over to one of my other properties where the peasants are good Turks. We want more animals for plowing; half of those we have are growing useless. ”

“ He had put up with the one for the sake of the other on occasion. "But a man who's single and not too old can always earn his keep anywhere." He had arrived at this conclusion, and, early in life, had adopted it as a kind of personal motto. It was his scroll, his challenge, and had he possessed a shield and coat of arms, these words would have been blazoned and proclaimed thereon.
"If a man's single and not too old." He repeated the phrase this evening; and then he added as an afterthought: "I'd always taken that for granted till I ran into Saloniki. ”

“ You are!' he cried; and then he sang out something to Yanni. What he said I could not understand; but to me he yelled, 'Get off my horse and give me back the pistol and the carbine you have stolen, and my clothes! You can go to the devil! You dirty swine of an English pauper! I dismiss you; you have had your money!'
"I was on Juanita's back when Yanni raised his carbine, and then I saw what the game was. They wanted to turn me out on foot and half destitute. ”

“ AN HONEST LIVING THE earning of an honest living is a problem which most of us have to face and very often to endure, and my friend Vignolles, who for thirty adventurous years had beat the world in search of knowledge, had eyer been handicapped by this irksome but inescapable necessity. ”

“ What can one expect? I do not ask him to fight or plunder. I want somebody who will ride with me as a kind of servant. It is not very far from here—fifteen kilometers. He would live in my own house, in my own village. There is nothing to fear.'
"'When do you want him?' I asked.
"'To-night—at once. The last man I had was not very lucky. He has heard of it, and he prefers to rot in Saloniki.'
"I translate very literally and baldly; but this Turkish gentleman's French was very literal and bald. As you may have already guessed, he had made me think of Bruce and of my bet ”

“ But here we were, in Saloniki.
"When a singer or a dancer had finished her turn she mingled with the audience, and the really serious business of the evening was before her. She had to persuade these people to spend their money with the place, and on what they spent she made her small commission. She would begin by asking for champagne and compromise on sparkling cider, or even have to content herself with a mug of beer. As we watched these proceedings, some one tapped at the door of our box and a gentleman in a fez entered. ”

“ Vignolles had answered me; for of course, I had shown an interest, a curiosity. "On an Austrian boat," he next pursued, "a very good one, clean and speedy. She was going to Constantinople, and on our way we were looking in at Saloniki. It used to be a fairly busy place before the Greeks got hold of it, shoved on a murderous tariff, and spoilt it. Most of the Balkan trade went through the port and there was very little duty to pay when things came in; so half of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and even Rumania, found an outlet or bought there. ”

“ The villagers themselves awaited us, furtive and afraid; and next the bey came out of his thoughts and began to realize what had happened. He asked questions and got his hangdog answers. The shepherds had avenged themselves, it seemed. A third of Arakli had been set on fire, beginning with the bey's house and its adjacent hovels. All the barns and outbuildings which held his stores, his plows and implements, had gone as well. The shepherds had done their work thoroughly. The animals were mostly saved and staring at us from where they nosed in the enclosure ”

“ The inhabitants were just as bad, all shriveled by malaria and out to make money by selling and re-selling and tre-selling, or buying and re-buying and tre-buying. At least, that's what most of them looked like. A parasitic breed! There wasn't a factory chimney in the place, and of all the stuff they bought and sold, nobody had made any or hewn any or grown any or done more than buy or sell it We both concluded that Saloniki lived on its wits or by lending money; and that the Turk took a commission on it all and regarded everybody else as a heathen and fair game. ”

“ I made a note of it under a street lamp; it was a village called Arakli.
"'In half an hour I shall call for you,' he said and left me; and there I stood with my bet already as good as won. I don't think I thought very much further. In a week I would come back, and Bruce would have to acknowledge that I had been right; that a man, single and not too old—but I think you've heard that tale before; or, you would have, had you been listening."
I waited, and Vignolles rose from his chair and mixed himself another drink ”

“ At intervals we ran into a post of the gendarmerie, and the first night we slept on the floor of a horrible Greek inn, but the second night we were clean and comfortable in the guest-room of the Turkish Tillage for which the bey had been making.
"I enjoyed those two days, and when we started out again, I felt that my bet was properly won and the good Bruce discomfited. That morning we set off early, and we rode with hardly a break, reaching Langaza Plain and the fields that led to Arakli well before sunset. The bey had a bad head ”

“ He had contracted to deliver an immense quantity by the following autumn; and now every man in his village and every ox and ass and mule and horse he could lay hands on had started to plow up the estate. The shepherds hovered on the outskirts of this activity, vowing to prevent what they considered an outrage on their rights. But so far they had only threatened and fired a few shots into the village after nightfall. Should they attempt anything more serious, it was my business and Yanni's business to cope with them. ”

“ At five o'clock it was pitch-dark, with the dogs all loose and furious in the enclosure; but in the hovels it was New Year's Eve, and every pot was a-boiling and full of pig, and next day there would be feasting and a holiday.
"I sat in the dark, and the rats ran round, and that confounded bey never came near me; till I began to feel like shooting him myself, instead of leaving it to the shepherds. He was Kef-ing, I suppose; which means making your mind a dead blank and 'getting into touch with the infinite.' So the highbrow people explain it ”

“ And then: "I packed and I tipped the hotel servants," he pursued, "and when I came to the office and asked for my bill, 'It's all right; that is paid until to-morrow morning,' said the cashier, 'Mr. Bruce has paid for both.'
"I complimented him upon his honesty, which made him laugh. He was an Austrian, with a knowledge of other places. And next I said 'I'll be back in a few days; if Mr. Bruce inquires, you may tell him I have gone into the country.'
"'To buy tobacco?' he asked. 'I could recommend you a very good firm here—in the town itself,' he added. ”

“ The newcomer was a Turk, apparently, for under his fez he had an authoritative Moslem face, weakened rather than strengthened by what an optimist might call our 'Western culture.' The worst sides of it would lie open to him in any of our big cities, to be toyed with and flung aside. ”

“ You can bury it in a hole in the ground, for one never knows what may happen. In half an hour the horses will be ready,' And with that he left me and I went back to the house and changed into my 'uniform'; and then as a precaution, I actually did divide my money into halves and the one I put into my pocket and the other I stuffed into the middle of my straw mattress. There wasn't much, anyway; but whatever happened I was pretty sure of getting back to Saloniki. It was curious now how that deadly hole was fast becoming a paradise. Compared with Arakli it was one. ”

“ And here's the twenty Turkish pounds I've lost to you, in case things haven't panned out exactly right.'
"It was decent of him to think of that, but Americans of the right sort are about the most decent thing on earth. And, on reflection, it occurred to me that I might need the money. Anyhow, as soon as I felt like it, I sent for my Austrian friend behind the pay-desk.
"'I want a European overcoat,' I said, 'a suit of pajamas, a pair of trousers, a tooth-brush, a leather bag, a comb and hair-brushes, and a few more things. I want them to-day. ”