allow a shot to be fired. If the sheik could
be taken by a coup de main, and
conveyed to head-quarters, so much the better.
But the pasha intimated that he would be
all the more pleased if the sheik could be
induced to come in voluntarily, and sue
for pardon: which, although the Superintendent
was not at liberty to tell the delinquent
so, would be granted after a time.

Sheik Hassein was by no means a pleasant
man to visit. He lived, as he knew
very well, with a halter round his neck;
and though in seeking him out in his
capacity as a Turkish official, the
Superintendent was forbidden to use arms
except in self-defence, the sheik's actions
were by no means under the same
restrictions. There was one thing in the
Superintendent's favour—he had known
the sheik before the civil war broke out.
Moreover—also before the war broke out—
he had helped the sheik to recover from a
Greek shopkeeper in Beyrout a pair of
very valuable bracelets belonging to his
wife, which he had pledged for a small
sum, and which the Greek refused to
restore. So far, then, matters were favourable.
Still, the sheik had shed so much
blood during the massacres, that life was
no object to him; and that he was of a
hasty temper, and quick with his pistols,
was well known all over the mountain.
On the whole, therefore, the expedition
visit was not so agreeable in prospect as
a visit to an English country-house might
have been.

Of course the object of the mission was
to be a profound secret, but in the East the
very walls have ears. The village near
which the sheik would probably be found
was about two easy marches from the
castle of Btedeen, where the pasha's
headquarters were; but the police diverged
greatly, in order not to appear to be in
search of Sheik Hassein. By private
information, they knew that the sheik came
to his own house every night, that he
supped and stayed until daybreak with his
family, and that before sunrise he departed
again for his hiding-place, the exact whereabout
of which nobody save those in his
confidence knew.

The first night after leaving Btedeen the
Superintendent slept at the silk factory of
a gentleman who was always glad to see
visitors. His followers, ten horsemen, were
picketed in the village, and he gave orders
that they were to be ready next morning
about three A.M., as he intended to start
for Beyrout at that hour.

At three o'clock the party were in the
saddle, and for a couple of hours pushed
on at as brisk a pace as was possible over
the dreadful roads of Lebanon. When within
a mile of the sheik's village the Superintendent
made the men dismount, and muffle
the feet of their horses to prevent noise. A
little time was lost, but when the men were
told that they were going "to ask Sheik
Hassein for hospitality," they sprang into
their saddles, and would have galloped
forward. This, however, the Superintendent
prevented, telling them that all he wanted
them to do was, to surround the sheik's
house in silence, and to allow no one to
escape, whilst he himself went in and made
him prisoner. "Above all things, you are
not to fire a shot, or use a sword; there must
be no bloodshed; such are his excellency's
orders." Of course, the men made the
usual answer: "Your lordship shall be
obeyed." "Your highness's wishes are our
orders," and so forth. But, all the time,
there was not one of them who would
not, if he had a chance, have murdered the
sheik in cold blood, so intense was the
hatred they all bore him.

By the time the house was surrounded
it was almost daylight. Superintendent
dismounted, knocked at the door, and
presently here and there a woman's
head was put forth, to see who was there
at that untimely hour. Superintendent
called out that it was the English bey (or
colonel, which was the relative rank he
bore in the Turkish service), who had
come to see his friend Sheik Hassein, and
was the bearer of a message from his
excellency the pasha; also that the sheik
ought not to think of running away, for
the house was surrounded by horsemen;
that if he would only come forth,
Superintendent pledged his word he should not
be bound or disarmed: two proceedings of
which the mountaineers have a great horror
as being disgraceful.

Presently the door was open, and
Superintendent was told he might come in, but
that the sheik was not there. His wife
and children came wailing and crying,
asserting most solemnly that they had not
seen him for weeks, and that they believed
him to be in the Houran. This
Superintendent not only felt certain was  false,
but positively knew to be false. On the
floor in the bedroom there was a pile of
mattresses one upon another, after the
usual fashion of a Turkish bed. From
this, it was evident that some person had
only just risen. No one but the master of