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 IUBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DIEGQ

 
 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM
 
 DID I FRIGHTEN YOU?
 
 IN THE SHADOW 
 OF ISLAM 
 
 BY 
 
 DEMETRA VAKA 
 
 (MRS. KENNETH-BROWN) 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 E. POLLAK-OTTENDORFF 
 
 L on Iron 
 
 CONSTABLE & CO. LIMITED 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 1911 
 
 ft 
 
 ft
 
 COPYRIGHT, igil, BY DEMETRA VAKA KENNETH-BROWN 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 URL 
 
 TO ANNA FULLER 
 MY "SISTER" AND SUNSHINE 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 THIS " SHADOW OF ISLAM "
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. MILLICENT GREY . 1 
 
 II. THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 10 
 
 III. A GIANT ASLEEP 20 
 
 IV. THE HOOT OF THE OWL 35 
 
 V. THE CLASH OF NATIONALITIES 45 
 
 VI. THE PASHA OF ALBANIA DISCOVERS A BEAUTY . . 53 
 
 VII. THE CRAFT OF THE PASHA 58 
 
 VIII. MECHMET S REWARD 69 
 
 IX. CAJOLING THE ALBANIAN CHIEFS 74 
 
 X. WHAT THE PASHA THOUGHT OF HIMSELF .... 80 
 
 XI. THE BRIDE OF ALBANIA 83 
 
 XII. TRAJAH SULTANA 86 
 
 XIII. ORKHAN S MOTHER . . . . . . . . .92 
 
 XIV. RIGHO S SISTER 98 
 
 XV. THE STEPSONS OF TURKEY 109 
 
 XVI. SMOKING LAMPS 114 
 
 XVII. A MODERN NAUSIKAA 120 
 
 XVIII. ELPIS ASKS FOR A SIGN 123 
 
 XIX. IN THE LIGHT OF ISLAM 129 
 
 XX. KISMET! 141 
 
 XXI. THE REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR 150 
 
 XXII. BROTHER AND SISTER 154 
 
 XXIII. THE EAST CLAIMS HER SON . 165
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 XXIV. A SULTANA IN LOVE 169 
 
 XXV. ON DANGEROUS GROUND 173 
 
 XXVI. IN DISGUISE 178 
 
 XXVII. MALKHATOUN 183 
 
 XXVIII. THE MESSAGE OF THE CYPRESS TREES . . . 191 
 
 XXIX. THERE is No GOD BUT GOD 202 
 
 XXX. "AND THE STARS BE OUR WITNESS" .... 208 
 
 XXXI. THE ROCKET IN THE SKY 214 
 
 XXXII. BEHIND HASSAN S SHOP 218 
 
 XXXIII. WHERE ELPIS REMAINS SILENT 227 
 
 XXXIV. A HOURI 234 
 
 XXXV. THE GIRL FROM THE EAST AND THE GIRL FROM THE 
 
 WEST 239 
 
 XXXVI. "You ARE A WOMAN AND so AM I" . . . 248 
 
 XXXVII. ORKHAN THE TURK 254 
 
 XXXVHI. FREE 262 
 
 XXXIX. DEFEAT 264 
 
 XL. A COUNTER-MOVE 269 
 
 XLI. THE SEARCH 274 
 
 XLII. A LEAF FROM THE PAST 282 
 
 XLIII. THE CHILDREN OF THE TURKS 293 
 
 XLIV. THE CHILDREN OF THE GREEKS 300 
 
 XLV. THE LAST CHAPTER . . 310
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 DID I FRIGHTEN YOU ? (p. 208) Frontispiece 
 
 I SALUTE MY SULTANA 67 
 
 WHY DID I DO IT ? 152 
 
 COMME LES EAUX BLONDES D uNE CASCADE . . . 242
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 MILLICENT GREY 
 
 THE Bridge of Galata was swarming with people, 
 a stream of them coming from Stamboul, another 
 going thither. It was late in the afternoon, and the 
 setting sun bathed the capital of Sultan Abdul Hamid 
 in warm dazzling colors. 
 
 A girl, tall and straight, with the free and independ 
 ent American bearing, was hastening toward the 
 bridge. As she passed the caracol, the zaptiehs sta 
 tioned there watched her admiringly. One of the sol 
 diers even saluted her, unconsciously. 
 
 Millicent Grey was oblivious of the homage paid 
 her: her clear blue-gray eyes contained no conscious 
 ness of her radiant beauty; her firm lips, though they 
 might have been chiseled by the hand of Praxiteles 
 himself, indicated that vanity and coquetry had small 
 part in her. 
 
 She paid her toll of a penny to one of the white- 
 coated toll-gatherers, and stepped on the bridge. 
 There she hesitated, looking to the right and to the 
 left: on both sides were wooden steps, leading down to 
 floating landings, and at all the landings she saw 
 steamers, bewilderingly alike. A sense of location
 
 2 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 was not one of her strong points, and wrinkle her 
 pretty brows as she might, she could not remember 
 which was the right landing. 
 
 She turned back to the toll-gatherer, who had taken 
 her penny, and pronounced distinctly "Bosphorus!" 
 The Turk smiled at her, still gathering pennies with 
 both hands. It was his busiest hour; but with his eyes 
 and a tilt of his head, he indicated the left side of the 
 bridge. She thanked him and walked on. Yet her per 
 plexity was only a little lessened, for as she now per 
 ceived, there were several boats on that left side. But 
 she was young and fearless, and this seemed almost an 
 adventure. The novelty of it all crowded out her 
 anxiety. 
 
 When she had come down from Therapia in the 
 morning with her uncle, who was attached to the 
 American Embassy, they had hastened from the boat 
 to a cab, and without a backward glance had driven 
 up to Pera. Now a glorious panorama lay before her 
 eyes, and the whole scene had an entirely strange as 
 pect. Being alone, there was nothing to distract her 
 from the sights of this most picturesque of cities. 
 
 Directly in front of her lay Stamboul, besprinkled 
 with minarets, striving to reach Allah s blue throne. 
 Above the city, as above the Golden Horn and the 
 Sea of Marmora, a multitude of sea gulls were flying, 
 executing in the air, with astonishing rapidity, every 
 possible graceful movement.
 
 MILLICENT GREY 
 
 The American girl stood gazing, first at the Mussul 
 man city before her, stretching gracefully into the 
 different seas, and then at the European city behind 
 her, on its seven hills, and dominated by the Tower of 
 Galata, which was built by the Genovese when for a 
 brief period they were masters here. 
 
 At this hour the Golden Horn, in the golden light of 
 the sunset, was justifying its name, and the Sea of 
 Marmora and the Bosphorus, with their vivid delf 
 blue, accentuated the gold of their neighbor. Caiques 
 and swift barges of all sizes and forms were being pro 
 pelled over the waters. It was the best hour of the 
 day to be on the bridge, and the girl stood looking at 
 the enchanting scenery, and at the people in their 
 curious garbs, for each nationality parades its own 
 in Turkey, who were so unconscious of the part 
 they played in the heterogeneous whole. Even Milli- 
 cent, as she watched the others and wondered if they 
 realized how different they were from each other, did 
 not think that she, too, was adding to the heterogene- 
 ousness which fascinated her. Her yellow gold hair, 
 her white linen suit, and her radiant Anglo-Saxon 
 beauty, made her as different from the other women 
 on the bridge as her country was different from 
 Turkey. 
 
 From her contemplation she was roused by some 
 one pulling at her skirt, and looking down she saw 
 a half man, sewed in a leather tray. On his hands he
 
 4 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 wore wooden sandals, for walking; and one of these 
 hands, hard and calloused, he held out to her. In her 
 health and strength the sight was pitiful, and to his 
 wailing plea she opened her purse and gave him all the 
 coppers she had. 
 
 A shrill whistle from the landing below reminded 
 her of her journey, and she ran down the wooden 
 steps. Another whistle and the American girl has 
 tened still faster. She waved her slip of green paper to 
 the man at the gate, and passed through a few 
 seconds too late. 
 
 The boat was in motion. 
 
 "Oh, stop!" she cried. But the strip of water be 
 tween her and the boat only widened. 
 
 The men at the gangway were trying to convey to 
 her, with expressive gestures, that she had lost the 
 boat, which she was quite well aware of already. 
 
 At this instant she noticed that in turning the stern 
 of the steamer was swinging in toward the landing. 
 A few seconds later it almost grazed it; and Millicent, 
 holding her bag tight in one hand, and clutching her 
 short skirt with the other, sprang on the boat, before 
 the men on the landing had guessed her intention. 
 
 From the spectators there rose a cry of admiration. 
 Somewhat flushed and embarrassed, the girl made her 
 way to the first-class upper deck, which was already 
 crowded. Several men rose and offered her their 
 stools. She accepted one near the railing and sat
 
 MILLICENT GREY 
 
 down, trying to make herself as inconspicuous as pos 
 sible. From her bag she took out a fan and plied it to 
 cool her flushed cheeks. The fanning made several 
 stray locks of hair, which had escaped from under her 
 hat, fly up and down. It was not unbecoming. 
 
 The heat of the day began to wane as the breeze 
 came up from the Black Sea. Millicent put away her 
 fan, and gave herself over to enjoying the sail. The 
 Sultan s capital, now bathed in the colors of the after 
 glow and retreating into the distance, offered her a 
 new enchantment; and she forgot those about her, 
 forgot all except her hopes and dreams for this coun 
 try, where the sun was setting in such wondrous 
 colors, yet where the sun of modern civilization never 
 yet had risen. 
 
 Her thoughts flew back to the happenings of the 
 last few months. She could hardly believe that she, 
 Millicent Grey, of Boston, was actually here. Nothing 
 had been further from her expectations, in June, when 
 she had sat in her room at Radcliffe and pondered on 
 what her future life was to be. The examinations were 
 then^over, and only the final festivities of Class Day 
 remained before she should go from this little world 
 beneath the Washington Elm into the great world out 
 side. She knew that she was to have her degree, with 
 frills - "cum laude" was the official term. 
 
 Unlike some of her classmates, she felt little regret 
 at the thought of leaving college. It had always been
 
 6 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 to her, more than to most of her companions, only a 
 period of preparation. The real interest was to what 
 use she should put this long period of schooling. Like 
 all generous youth, Millicent could not bear the 
 thought of frittering away her life without doing any 
 thing for this great world which lay at her feet, dumbly 
 entreating her to stoop and help it to rise. Yet the 
 practical problem, just exactly what to do, could not 
 easily be answered. 
 
 Like many modern girls she did not look upon mat 
 rimony as a career. It might come to her. Poetry and 
 romance told her that it probably would. But as yet 
 her heart was untouched, and it seemed a far-distant 
 realm, this realm of love; and she was too vividly 
 alive to wait for the distantly possible, when the real 
 and actual lay all around her. 
 
 Millicent was an orphan, and rich. Hence the most 
 interesting of all problems, that of making a liveli 
 hood, was removed from her life. Although not lack 
 ing in a wholesome and normal liking for pleasure, 
 that, like matrimony, was to her an incident of life, not 
 a possible object of living. 
 
 Yet none of the openings for her efforts immediately 
 at hand appealed to her. There were already so many 
 well-intentioned workers for all the work to be done. 
 Sometimes she thought there were more workers up 
 lifting humanity than there remained humanity to be 
 uplifted. All seemed so thoroughly charted and
 
 MILLICENT GREY 
 
 mapped, here in America. Millicent longed for some 
 virgin fields to work in, some places where the power 
 she felt welling up within her should find adequate 
 foes to combat. She wished to take up no calling to 
 which she could give only lukewarm enthusiasm. 
 
 At this time there came to her a letter from an aunt 
 whose husband was connected with the Embassy at 
 Constantinople, inviting her to come and pay her a 
 long visit. The suggestion seemed providential. It 
 was a hand beckoning to her from the East, where all 
 was yet unenlightened. Her ideas as to what she would 
 do when she got there were quite hazy; but this 
 troubled her not at all. She felt herself an explorer, 
 and the explorer can never tell what he will find. He 
 searches for a passage to India and discovers America. 
 After she had been there awhile she could tell better 
 what was to be done. There, there were surely the 
 hosts of darkness to combat. There, womanhood was 
 the subject of man s baser side. There, were the Ar 
 menians but others were already interested in the 
 Armenians. She meant to fly higher and charge the 
 very homes of the Turks themselves. 
 
 Her aunt s promise of a good time was not without 
 its allurement, but it was not what chiefly attracted 
 her. It was the opportunity for seeing at first-hand 
 what needed to be done in this bit of darkest Europe. 
 When she thoroughly understood this, she could come 
 home and enlist American Womanhood in the fight
 
 8 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 and what power of heathendom or reaction could 
 withstand the determined charge of American Wo 
 manhood? Certainly Millicent could imagine none. 
 
 Now she had been in Turkey for some weeks. Thus 
 far she had been lost in the sheer intoxication of the 
 new sensations it afforded her. She had never been out 
 of America before, except for a brief vacation trip to 
 England, and she felt as if she could not study this 
 strange new world enough. She began to perceive 
 that the problem of regenerating Turkey was bigger 
 than she had imagined. There were no handles offered 
 the well-meaning to take hold of for pulling it out 
 of the slough. Indeed, Millicent was rather surprised 
 to grasp the fact that it did not seem to wish to be 
 pulled out. The yearning for uplift had not struck 
 Turkey; but she put these practical considerations 
 off. For the present it was enough to observe to 
 see to take in herself. Afterward would be time to 
 give out. 
 
 Meanwhile the steamer she had boarded so cava 
 lierly was proceeding steadily on its course, and Milli 
 cent, recalling herself from her vagrant meditations, 
 began to have an uneasy feeling that it was not going 
 in the right direction. 
 
 When the boat passed the point which divides the 
 Sea of Marmora from the Bosphorus, she looked at 
 the Serai Bournou and at the retreating shores of the 
 river, and felt a moral conviction that the scenery was
 
 MILLICENT GREY 9 
 
 different from that which she had seen in the morning, 
 coming down. 
 
 She had a spasm of fright, as the certainty of her 
 mistake came upon her. She had taken the wrong 
 boat.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 
 
 MILLICENT S momentary fright was succeeded 
 by a rush of elation. It was too interesting and 
 jolly for alarm. After all, she had only to get off at 
 the first landing and take the next steamer back. Her 
 pride did wince, however, as she remembered the dis 
 cussion with her aunt before setting out that morn 
 ing: - 
 
 "No, my dear Millicent, you must not come back 
 alone. Why, child, I have been here a year, and I can 
 hardly turn around by myself. It isn t as if you could 
 speak Turkish, or even Greek and these people 
 don t seem to understand any English." 
 
 Millicent, with the rash self-confidence of American 
 girlhood, had insisted that she was fully capable of 
 taking care of herself, although she had been to town 
 only twice with her uncle, until Mrs. Appleby, who 
 preferred anything to a discussion, had given in. 
 
 The result was now humiliating to the young ad 
 venturer. 
 
 Unlike those that went up the Bosphorus, the boat 
 puffed along for an hour without making a stop. The 
 crowd of many nations did not seem to care for the 
 scenery as she did. To most of them it was a matter
 
 THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 11 
 
 of daily routine, and they were more anxious to land 
 than to gaze about them. The men, by the failing 
 light, were reading the papers. This is the usual occu 
 pation of the male, in going to and from his business, 
 even when he knows that a severe censorship has left 
 little worth reading in the paper. Several of the Turks 
 were playing backgammon, while some European 
 men were talking to the Christian women whom they 
 happened to know. The Turkish women were invisi 
 ble, behind the canvas partition which kept them 
 separate from the rest of the world, even in traveling. 
 
 Millicent was aware that she was stared at too long 
 and too openly. But though she had been only a short 
 time in this land, she had learned not to resent it. 
 From her aunt she had heard that in Turkey staring 
 was only a respectful homage to beauty. In the looks 
 of the men whose eyes were upon her there was some 
 thing impersonal, something akin to the admiration 
 she was bestowing on the landscape. They did not 
 mean to annoy her, any more than she meant to 
 offend the dark-blue Oriental sky, or the gray -blue sea 
 framing the land which enchanted her. They gazed 
 upon her as something beautiful, made by the Creator 
 for the pleasure of mankind. 
 
 There were two men, however, upon whom she 
 made more than a passing impression. The one was 
 an Armenian, short and stout, with large, black, 
 dreamy eyes. He looked at her and caressed his black
 
 IS IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 moustache, and looked at her again in a way that 
 Millicent s brother, had she had one, would have 
 resented. 
 
 The other man was a tall, slender young Osmanli. 
 He was the kind of a Turk who attracts the attention 
 of Europeans, not only for his physical perfection, 
 but also for the light which shines in his eyes, a light 
 both intellectual and spiritual. He was manifestly 
 a dreamer such as the Young Turks Party drew its 
 most devoted followers from at that time. His hair 
 and moustache were blue-black, his eyes dark blue, 
 and his skin olive. He moved proudly among the 
 crowd on the boat, in the Osmanli consciousness 
 of superiority of race. He walked collectedly as a 
 panther. There was something exquisitely delicate 
 about him, which in another man might have been 
 effeminate. 
 
 From his position he could see the American girl 
 without being noticed by her. His look was not per 
 sistent. Through half-closed eyes he gazed at her, 
 then his glance traveled to the horizon, while his ex 
 pression became more dreamy, more remote. He might 
 have been a painter visualizing the picture he meant 
 to paint, or a musician listening to the chords of the 
 symphony he was to compose. 
 
 At length he caught sight of the Armenian, whose 
 languorous eyes were fixed on the face of the girl, 
 and then the dreamer vanished from the face of the
 
 THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 13 
 
 young Turk. The mystic became lost in the fighter. 
 The Mussulman blood, which, when roused, knows no 
 pity, awoke in him. From that moment he did not lose 
 sight of the Armenian. The latter did not chance to meet 
 his glance, or he might have taken warning from it. 
 
 At this time the steamer was approaching the stone 
 pier which projects from the island of Eibeli. 
 
 Millicent rose, like the others, and stood undecided 
 whether to speak to some one here on the boat, or to 
 wait until she was on the pier. She was so engrossed 
 with her own affairs that she did not notice the Arme 
 nian, until, in the crowding around the gangway, she 
 felt a soft, fat hand touching her. 
 
 Brusquely she moved away, and a minute later was 
 down on the quay. There she halted for an instant, 
 forgetful of her predicament, and looked up at the 
 island rising steeply, high into the air, covered with 
 pine trees, among which the summer residences were 
 half hidden. 
 
 From her contemplation she was roused by a voice, 
 soft and drawling : - 
 
 "Vous etes bien belle, mademoiselle." 
 
 It was the Armenian. 
 
 The red mounted to Millicent s cheeks, and her 
 eyes flashed with indignation. Men had stared, but 
 he was the first who had dared address her. 
 
 The Armenian, quite oblivious of her distaste, 
 thrust his face toward hers, and said insinuatingly:
 
 14 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Vous dtes faites pour des caresses." 
 
 The girl began to be frightened. Every one on the 
 pier seemed so intent on his own business, and the 
 Armenian so confident. She stepped away from him. 
 He followed her, and his lips were parted for another 
 sentence, when the Turk, who had been delayed on 
 the gangway, came up. 
 
 Gravely he kicked the Armenian off the pier. It 
 was done with an air of courtesy, as if he were re 
 moving an obstruction from her path. 
 
 Millicent found herself murmuring, "Thank you!" 
 
 The crowd surged onward, hardly deigning a glance 
 at the incident. Only an official hurried up, and asked 
 how the Armenian had happened to fall into the 
 water. 
 
 "Ask him," the Turk replied. Turning to Millicent 
 he said in English: "Is there not something else I can 
 do for you? Are you not in trouble?" 
 
 "Will not the man drown?" she anxiously inquired. 
 
 "He is only an Armenian," he answered indiffer 
 ently, "but he will not drown. Some one will throw 
 him a rope see ! But you are alone. Do you know 
 your way ? Where are your people ? " 
 
 "I I don t know. That is to say, they are at 
 Therapia, and I took the wrong boat. I am a 
 stranger here, so I don t know just what to do but 
 I am so much obliged to you for er 
 
 A smile lit up the rather stern face of the Turk, a
 
 THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 15 
 
 smile which called an answering one from the Ameri 
 can girl. 
 
 " You have come in just the opposite direction from 
 where you wished to go and there is no way for 
 you to get there to-night," he said. 
 
 "Then what am I to do?" 
 
 Millicent had the pleasant trust of American women 
 that every stranger except such creatures as the 
 dripping one, slinking off the end of the pier would 
 be only too eager to help a woman out of a difficulty. 
 
 The boat s whistle sounded, and the Turk turned 
 quickly : 
 
 " Come on the boat again. It is going on to Bou- 
 youk-Ada, and there I can help you." 
 
 They hurried aboard the boat, and only after it was 
 under way did Millicent think aloud : 
 
 "I suppose I could have gone to a hotel on this 
 island." 
 
 The Turk hesitated, and said at last: 
 
 "It is difficult for a young lady who is not known 
 and is alone to find accommodations at a hotel." 
 
 "But you could have told them, could you not?" 
 
 He looked out over the water without replying. 
 
 Millicent grew annoyed at his impassivity. She 
 was not used, in men, to a manner so detached as his. 
 They usually summoned whatever vivacity they pos 
 sessed to try to please her. 
 
 "Why don t you answer me?" she demanded.
 
 16 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 He turned his calm gaze from the waves to her. 
 
 "You said you were a newcomer here?" 
 
 "I have been here only two weeks." 
 
 "I am an Osmanli, and we do not go about with 
 women." , 
 
 The announcement of his nationality came as a 
 shock to Millicent. It gave her a momentary feeling 
 of repulsion to him, but the charm of his personality 
 dispelled this. , 
 
 "You are not English, you are American, are 
 you not?" he continued. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "On the next island I know a compatriot of yours. 
 Mrs. Newbury is hername. She will takecare of you." 
 
 The boat was already approaching the island. They 
 landed on a stone pier longer than the other. 
 
 The Turk helped her down the gangway with a dis 
 tant consideration, and walked along beside her with 
 out speaking. 
 
 On the shore hundreds of people were waiting for 
 their friends, forming a human hedge through which 
 they passed. There were gay dresses of women of all 
 nationalities, except Turkish; and the greetings and 
 exclamations of pleasure, as friends recognized each 
 other in the waning light, were constant. 
 
 Millicent noticed the respectful way in which her 
 escort was saluted, and she began to wonder who he 
 was. Only once did he speak to her during their short
 
 THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 17 
 
 walk, and that was to tell her to go slowly and not to 
 let herself be carried along by the crowd. 
 
 When the throng had dispersed, he took Millicent 
 to one of the open cafes and found her a place at a 
 table somewhat hidden from the public eye. 
 
 "If you will sit here, I will be back in not more than 
 half an hour. There will be a waiter to see that no 
 body annoys you." 
 
 "But why don t you take me to the American lady 
 now?" 
 
 Again the Turk hesitated. "It is true that it is 
 growing dark, but even so I do not think it wise that 
 you should be seen alone with a man." 
 
 "Very well," Millicent answered, curiously touched 
 at his chivalry. 
 
 It was all part of the adventure: the lights and 
 music from the cafe; the polyglot chatter that reached 
 her ears ; and her odd champion striding off in her be 
 half through the deepening dark outside. 
 
 A waiter came up with a glass of sorbet, and took 
 up his stand at a little distance from her. He had none 
 of the waiter s ordinary ingratiating ways. He did not 
 even look at her, but stood silent and rigid. 
 
 "I guess they had better not speak to me," Millicent 
 reflected, watching the unbending figure of her guard 
 ian with a whimsical smile. 
 
 Presently the thought came to her to wonder what 
 would happen if she herself tried to go away from this
 
 18 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 spot. There were now only a few persons left in the 
 cafe, and none near her. Suppose a carriage drove 
 up and she were forced into it. Would any resistance 
 of hers avail, or summon assistance? "They look as 
 if they would take a thing like that quite calmly, * 
 she thought. " I believe I will go over where there are 
 more people." 
 
 She stirred in her seat, and her guardian cast a 
 severe look of reproof at her. 
 
 She did not get up. "I feel just about five years 
 old and forbidden to move from my chair," she 
 thought nervously. 
 
 Below, from the waters of the Marmora, a boat 
 man was singing a mane, lying in his little caique, while 
 far, far away the faint light from the city of Stam- 
 boul shone up into the sky. But Millicent was no 
 longer able to enjoy any of the beauty around her. 
 With every minute that passed her nervous dread 
 increased. 
 
 The instinctive mistrust of Christian for Mussul 
 man came back to her. He had dispelled it, when with 
 her, but the dark and the silent presence of her jailer 
 brought every horrible possibility to her mind. W T hat 
 if the Turk were to return and carry her off where no 
 one again could hear of her? Such things happened, 
 in this uncivilized country. 
 
 The sound of carriage wheels, rapidly driving up, 
 sent a crinkly feeling of horror over all her skin and up
 
 THE TURK AND THE ARMENIAN 19 
 
 among the roots of her hair. At the same moment 
 her jailer turned toward her, as if to be ready to frus 
 trate any attempt at escape. For once in her life she 
 knew what it was to be so frightened that she was in 
 capable either of moving or of crying out. 
 
 The carriage stopped at a little distance, and rapid 
 footsteps came toward the spot where she was sitting.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 
 
 THIS is Mrs. Newbury." It was the Turk speak 
 ing. 
 
 "Why! You are Miss Grey, are you not? * a pretty 
 lady in evening dress exclaimed, as she shook Milli- 
 cent s cold hand. " I thought you might be, from what 
 Orkhan Effendi told me. I have seen you with Mr. 
 Appleby and of course I knew, a long time ago, 
 that our colony was to have such a charming visitor. 
 Mr. Newbury, too, is an attache." 
 
 While the lady was talking, Millicent had time to 
 pull herself together, and to stifle the desire to burst 
 into hysterical laughter, or tears, she did not know 
 which. 
 
 " I m glad you happened to live here, " she managed 
 to say, as her hostess paused for breath. "I had be 
 come pretty frightened, I 11 admit. One certainly can 
 imagine all manner of things occurring here." 
 
 " Some of them occur, too," Mrs. Newbury added 
 gayly. "Have you telegraphed to your uncle?" 
 
 "How stupid of me! I ought to have sent it while 
 I was waiting," Millicent exclaimed. 
 
 "If Miss Grey will let me, I will attend to that," 
 Orkhan Effendi said.
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 21 
 
 "Yes, let him do it, for really I am in a desperate 
 hurry. I have a dinner party at home, but this fero 
 cious young man insisted that I come and fetch you 
 myself. We must hurry back." 
 
 "Oh, I am so sorry." Millicent turned to Orkhan 
 Effendi with a smile rendered very friendly by relief 
 that he was not kidnaping her: "I cannot tell you how 
 grateful I am to you for all you have done for me." 
 
 The Turk bowed low without a word. 
 
 "Good-bye! You know where to telegraph," Mrs. 
 Newbury said when they were at the carriage. "It 
 was good of you to think of me when you needed 
 help." 
 
 "It is not hard to think of you in connection with 
 beautiful things," he answered, and stood watching 
 them drive out of sight, up the steep road leading to 
 the hills. 
 
 Naturally Millicent s adventure was the topic of 
 conversation at the dinner party in which she found 
 herself the odd number. 
 
 Being several sizes taller than her hostess, she per 
 force remained in her street clothes. Yet in her simple 
 white linen suit she made a very charming contrast. 
 
 "I could have asked Orkhan Effendi to balance you," 
 her hostess said, "but he never goes to dinner parties 
 where there are women. I wonder why, for he does 
 sometimes come to our garden parties. He does not 
 seem to object to us there."
 
 22 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "I was quite surprised," said Millicent, "to find 
 a Turk so chivalrous. I thought they were anything 
 but that." 
 
 "This is an idea you have imported from home," 
 Mr. Newbury put in. "We have a lot of established 
 ideas in America on things we know nothing about. 
 After you have been here awhile you will change your 
 opinions of the Turks in a good many respects. They 
 are a queer mixture of bad and good, and we only 
 know the bad side of them at home." 
 
 On the other side of Millicent sat a Greek, with a 
 high forehead and a large mouth. He had been watch 
 ing her with interest, but up to now had taken no 
 part in the conversation. He answered to the name 
 of Righo, which was the middle section of his rather 
 unwieldy full name of Paparighopoulos. Suddenly 
 he asked her : 
 
 "Aside from the service he rendered you, did you 
 like your Turkish champion?" 
 
 Millicent answered him by another question : 
 
 "Do you know him?" 
 
 "Yes, I know him," he answered in a curiously re 
 served tone. Then, as if feeling that she might make 
 a mistaken deduction from his manner, he added: 
 "We were together at Oxford, though he is several 
 years younger than I." 
 
 The conversation at the table had become less gen 
 eral, and the pairs were talking together.
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 23 
 
 "Oh! was he educated at Oxford?" Millicent asked 
 with surprise. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The Greek volunteered no more, and Millicent 
 for a while ate in silence; then she turned again to 
 him : 
 
 "In spite of what Mr. Newbury said, is n t it rather 
 unusual for a Turk to be chivalrous to a woman, and 
 especially to a Christian woman?" 
 
 The Greek closed his eyes for a second, as if to give 
 her speech time to travel to his brain. When he opened 
 them the suspicion of a smile was on his lips. 
 
 "You said that before. What makes you think 
 that Turks are never chivalrous toward women?" 
 
 Millicent again ans\vered him with a question : 
 
 "Are they? I thought that to them women were 
 mere trifles, to play with for a while, to shut up in a 
 box all by themselves, till it becomes time to play with 
 them again." 
 
 Her frank and serious manner charmed the Greek. 
 
 "The Osmanlis are poets, par excellence," he re 
 marked gravely. "Do the poets look upon women as 
 mere trifles?" 
 
 Millicent considered. 
 
 "Who is Orkhan Effendi?" she asked directly. 
 
 "An Unspeakable Turk." 
 
 "He told me that himself." 
 
 "Did he use the same epithet?"
 
 24 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "No, not even the same noun. But apart from Mr. 
 Gladstone s phrase celebre, who is he?" 
 
 "His mother was Zarah Sultana, the youngest sister 
 of the Sultan. She died some years ago. There are 
 those that say she favored her imprisoned brother, the 
 ex-Sultan and therefore she died." 
 
 A bitter smile curled the lips of the Greek, but faded 
 away quickly. 
 
 "Are you a Turk?" Millicent asked suddenly, with 
 misgiving. 
 
 Righo laughed. 
 
 "No, I am a Greek, and consequently a hereditary 
 enemy to the Turk, but " He hesitated, with the 
 instinctive caution natural in Turkey. 
 
 "But" insisted Millicent. 
 
 "I like Orkhan Effendi." 
 
 An Englishman who sat opposite Millicent at this 
 instant attracted her attention by the question : 
 
 "Have you any idea, Miss Grey, who the Armenian 
 chap was that Orkhan Effendi knocked about?" 
 
 "Not the faintest." 
 
 "I wonder if it was a spy. They are everywhere, you 
 know. I wish all of them could be kicked into the Mar 
 mora. But they have got pretty sharp teeth. I hope the 
 beggar won t get back at Orkhan for his ducking." 
 
 Millicent turned quickly to the Greek. 
 
 "Do you think the Armenian could hurt him? He 
 seemed so disdainful of him."
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 25 
 
 "He would be just as disdainful of him if he knew 
 he would bring death upon him to-morrow. It s a 
 great philosophy, that religion of the Turks. They 
 do not worry: they trust in Allah." 
 
 After dinner they went out on the marble terrace 
 for coffee. The Englishman, Sir Mohr MacGreggor, 
 made his way to Millicent s side. He was a round little 
 man, with an ease of manner coming not only from a 
 well-bred ancestry, but also from much knocking 
 about the world. He had been attracted to her at 
 dinner, but had found it difficult to compete with 
 the Greek. 
 
 "I say, you were lucky, Miss Grey," he exclaimed, 
 "to fall into an adventure so soon after your arrival 
 in Turkey. The most romantic adventure most people 
 encounter here is being cheated by a wretched Ar 
 menian in the Bouyouk-Tsharsi." 
 
 "Now that I have begun so well," Millicent replied, 
 "I shall expect to keep right on. I am sure there must 
 really be enough of them, if one only knows how to 
 go about finding them." 
 
 Sir Mohr smoothed his blond moustache. 
 
 "Quite so," he admitted thoughtfully. "I suppose 
 I am a humdrum sort of person myself, but it seems 
 to me you get more pleasure, on the whole, out of 
 simple things, like tennis parties and picnics. Adven 
 tures read well in books, but in real life they are often 
 deucedly uncomfortable."
 
 26 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "But are we in life just for humdrum pleasures?" 
 Millicent exclaimed, almost contemptuously. "I 
 should not care to live, if that were all I had to look 
 forward to." 
 
 The little round Englishman sipped his coffee con 
 templatively for a minute. Then he waved a pudgy 
 hand toward the Sea of Marmora, now lighted up by 
 the rays of the rising moon. 
 
 " Not half bad that, is it? It s a beautiful country; 
 but I suppose if you d set out to try to bring together 
 as heterogeneous and inharmonious a lot of people as 
 possible, you could n t have got a worse mixture than 
 you find here in Turkey." After a minute s musing, 
 he added: "They ve got the only government pos 
 sible for them. The Young Turks talk about a con 
 stitution - 
 
 Millicent, her starry eyes looking out over the dark 
 sea, and thinking her own thoughts about this coun 
 try, was giving no great attention to the remarks of 
 the little Englishman, when they were interrupted by 
 the approach of Righo and an elderly American lady, 
 Mrs. Finlay. Sir Mohr, with a word of excuse, rose and 
 went to Mrs. Newbury at the other end of the terrace. 
 
 "That is rather an extraordinary man," Righo re 
 marked, looking after him. 
 
 "Really! I hadn t discovered it," Millicent re 
 plied. "He told me he found more satisfaction in ten 
 nis parties and picnics than in adventures."
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 27 
 
 Righo laughed, somewhat immoderately, it struck 
 the American girl. 
 
 "Well, he ought to know. He has been confidential 
 agent for two or three governments, and I don t sup 
 pose there is a man in Turkey who has had more ad 
 ventures than he, in spite of his matter-of-fact air. 
 Indeed, I believe he comes out of them alive by treat 
 ing them as mere commonplaces." 
 
 "Oh!" Millicent exclaimed, a good deal mortified 
 that she should have so misjudged him. 
 
 "When you see him in a place, you may be pretty 
 certain that as a compatriot of yours expressed it 
 - there is something doing." 
 
 "Then is his being here a sign that the Young 
 Turks?" 
 
 The Greek shrugged his shoulders, and appealed to 
 Mrs. Finlay. 
 
 "You have seen a good deal of us, and as an out 
 sider can perhaps judge better whether the country is 
 ready for a change." 
 
 Mrs. Finlay was a motherly woman, who had lost 
 her husband and all her children, and was trying to 
 forget her sorrow in helping others. 
 
 "I am very glad, dear, that nothing unpleasant 
 came to you from your adventure," she said to Milli 
 cent, with her kind smile. It was the first direct con 
 versation she had had with the girl. "I have been in 
 Asia Minor for the last two years, and adventures are
 
 28 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 not what I should like to see a young girl have in this 
 country." 
 
 Millicent was interested in her at once. 
 
 " Were you out there helping the Turkish women? " 
 
 "No, dear. They will have none of us, and they do 
 not need us. I was trying to do what little I could 
 for the Armenians. They are a sad lot out there." 
 She turned to the Greek: "I owe you a great deal, 
 Mr. Righo. It is thanks to your letters that the 
 people took me to their hearts and did not mistrust 
 me." 
 
 "I have been through that part of the world several 
 times on pleasure trips." 
 
 Mrs. Finlay adjusted her eyeglasses and looked up 
 at the Greek. 
 
 "They must have been queer pleasure trips," she 
 remarked, without smiling. 
 
 He nodded. "Very," he said briefly. 
 
 "They kill them, my dear Miss Grey they kill 
 them like mosquitoes," said Mrs. Finlay with awe. 
 
 "They kill each other, you mean," Righo corrected. 
 "You were out there when the Turks were doing the 
 killing. Occasionally it is the other way. You see, 
 Miss Grey, we Greeks, and the Armenians, and a 
 dozen other races, are Turkish subjects, but we vow 
 no allegiance to the Turk. In our hearts we are sub 
 jects of other nationalities whom we cherish to the 
 detriment of the one which is governing us. Turkey
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 29 
 
 suffers from excess of nationalities; and whenever 
 any of the nationalities becomes too strong, or too 
 obstreperous " He shrugged his shoulders. "Some 
 day I hope we shall learn to trust and to love the 
 race which governs us." 
 
 Mrs. Finlay again adjusted her glasses, and gazed 
 at the Greek uncomprehendingly. 
 
 "I thought," she said, "that the Greeks hated the 
 Turks." 
 
 "So they do, and that is the pity of it. Supposing 
 America were to begin to decline, and was badly 
 governed, do you think that the different races which 
 have made up America would be justified in hating 
 each other? What we need in Turkey is to love one 
 another, and to be pulling together." 
 
 "I can see the Turk and the Armenian pulling to 
 gether," said Mrs. Finlay. ; Yes, I can see them. 
 They will be like the lion and the lamb, and when the 
 lion is hungry, God pity the lamb." 
 
 "Yes," said the Greek, " and I can see the Bulgarian 
 and the Greek pulling together. They will be like 
 two wildcats tied by their tails. Just the same, pull 
 ing together is what Turkey needs." 
 
 "And will that day ever come?" asked Mrs. Nash, 
 the other lady of the party, joining their group. 
 
 "I doubt it," Mrs. Finlay answered emphatically. 
 
 "I hope so," put in Righo, "since it is our only sal 
 vation."
 
 30 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "I was only a little girl when my father came here 
 from England," Mrs. Nash said. "I have grown up 
 in this country, and the more I understand the situa 
 tion, the more convinced I become that the country 
 is doomed to destruction, because of its internal dis 
 sensions." 
 
 At that moment, from a caique at a distance a voice 
 rose upon the night air. It was a voice young and 
 fresh, singing an old Turkish ballad. 
 
 "Ah! this is beautiful," Mrs. Nash exclaimed. 
 Putting her arm through that of Mrs. Finlay she 
 added: "Come and sit down on a comfortable chair. 
 It will last for some time. You will have this to take 
 with you to America never to forget. We do have 
 some beautiful things in Turkey." 
 
 The two older women, arm in arm, went to a settee, 
 and Millicent and Righo were left to themselves again. 
 
 "Would you like to sit down, too?" he asked. 
 
 She shook her head, her whole attention given to the 
 song, which rose and fell over the water. There was 
 a time when it was gay. Then the tones grew sadder 
 and sadder, and without any warning, it ceased al 
 together. 
 
 The Greek sighed, and unconsciously the American 
 girl did the same. 
 
 "Will it begin again?" she asked. 
 
 "I doubt it," he answered. "A few houses below 
 some imperial ladies are visiting. The singer must be
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 31 
 
 a seraigli. The Turkish people are artists in emotion : 
 they never repeat. She probably was sent out there 
 to sing that one song only." 
 
 Faintly there came to them the sound of oars, and 
 presently they could make out the dim shape of a 
 caique. It passed quite near the terrace, and they saw 
 the white veils of the occupants. 
 
 Righo leaned forward and called : 
 
 "Teshecur ed erim." 
 
 A laughing, musical voice replied: 
 
 "Beshedeil." 
 
 "What did you say?" Millicent asked. 
 
 "We exchanged courtesies." 
 
 For a little time they stood silent; then the Greek, 
 a propos of nothing, said : - 
 
 "What I admire about you American women is that 
 you seem capable of deeds, as I cannot imagine an 
 excitable French or Italian woman." 
 
 "Charlotte Corday and Jeanne of Naples were cap 
 able of deeds," Millicent rejoined. 
 
 Ah ! you know history ! Righo cried . That means 
 you love great, real actions. Perhaps you would even 
 help them on, if you could?" He was looking at her 
 with singular intensity. 
 
 "Have you any for me to perform?" she asked 
 lightly. 
 
 With this Greek, despite their differences of na 
 tionality, environment, and training, she already had
 
 32 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 a feeling of friendliness. They were sympathetic, as 
 the Italians say, and could understand each other 
 without diagrams. 
 
 "Who knows?" Righo replied. "This is a strange 
 land, Miss Grey, and you look as if God meant you 
 for great things." 
 
 At a loss just how to take this, the girl turned her 
 eyes to the distant coast of Turkey. 
 
 "It looks like a giant, lying dead, with his head upon 
 his arm," she said. 
 
 "It is a giant, but he is not dead only asleep. 
 When he awakes, Heaven help us all, unless we are 
 prepared for the awakening." 
 
 There was a thrill in his voice which stirred Milli- 
 cent. 
 
 "You are a Young Turk?" she asked impulsively, 
 raising her eyes to his. 
 
 With his little finger he knocked the ash from the 
 cigarette, and it floated down into the water which 
 laved the wall of the terrace. His next words did 
 not give a categorical reply to her question. 
 
 "When you see a man here in whose eyes lies a 
 dream, do not ask him if he is a Young Turk : be certain 
 of it." 
 
 "But what can we accomplish with dreams?" 
 Millicent asked. 
 
 "You are mistaken, Miss Grey. What is a dream 
 but an aspiration of the soul? Gradually it reaches the
 
 A GIANT ASLEEP 33 
 
 brain; the mind understands and resolves; the body 
 obeys and you have action. Pity those who have 
 no dreams; for their souls are asleep, and they will 
 never accomplish immortal deeds." 
 
 "There have been dreamers who have only dreamed 
 
 and died still dreaming," the girl answered, falling 
 into his mood. 
 
 The Greek shook his head. 
 
 "Again you are mistaken. A beautiful thought 
 never dies, though the man may. When his soul 
 leaves his body, his dream floats in the air till another 
 soul, traveling toward the earth, receives it, and the 
 dream is on earth again. There are dreams and dreams, 
 Miss Grey; there are those which can be understood 
 and put into execution by him who dreams them, and 
 others which must pass through men s minds for cen 
 turies ever developing, ever waiting for the world 
 to advance sufficiently before they may become 
 deeds. Orkhan Effendi s dream my dream is an 
 old one which has been filling the air of this country 
 for years and years. It is an old dream which has ac 
 quired strength and beauty with age. We feel its 
 force now because our brain, analyzing it, understands 
 it. From the understanding to the realization is but 
 
 Forgive me, Miss Grey, why should I bother you 
 with our dream? you who are yourself the per 
 sonification of a beautiful dream, perhaps your 
 mother s."
 
 34 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "I have never known my mother," the girl said. 
 "She died when I \vas born." 
 
 : Yes, there must be dreams that kill, too," he said, 
 in slow rumination. His arms were crossed on his 
 breast, in an attitude which in an American would 
 have had a touch of the melodramatic. In him it 
 seemed quite natural. Millicent thought that he 
 might have been an ancient Greek, about to deliver 
 an immortal oration. "I lost mine, too, \vhen I needed 
 her most." His face hardened as he spoke; then 
 abruptly he changed the subject. "May I bring my 
 sister to see you, Miss Grey? I am fourteen years 
 older than she. When my mother died, I promised 
 to be the child s guardian. It is hard to be mother and 
 father to a girl." 
 
 "Is your father dead?" Millicent asked sympa 
 thetically. 
 
 "My father my father- he repeated. "He is 
 dead and his blood - 
 
 He checked the passionate outburst. Pointing to 
 ward the dim coast of Turkey, he said unsteadily : - 
 
 "It is a giant, Miss Grey, but he is only sleeping."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE HOOT OF THE OWL 
 
 EFFENDI sat at a large table, in 
 tently examining what appeared to be the 
 rough plan of an elaborate country -place. He referred 
 frequently from it to a sheet of paper, closely written 
 over. From time to time he made minute marks on 
 the plan with red, green, and blue pencils. 
 
 The silence of the night was broken by the melan 
 choly hoot of an owl. Orkhan raised his head. The 
 note of the bird of night sounded again, and this time 
 the Turk slipped an automatic pistol into his pocket, 
 turned out the light, and stepped forth on the stone 
 balcony outside his room. It overhung the water, and 
 was supported by huge stone brackets. Noiselessly 
 he lowered a light rope ladder over the balustrade, 
 and crouched down, pistol in hand. 
 
 The moon was under a big cloud, and the sea lay 
 black beneath him. Far across it a few lights indi 
 cated the position of Chartal on the Asiatic coast. 
 Off to the right lay the bare island of Antirovinthos. 
 
 Again the hoot of the owl came over the water. To 
 this third signal the Turk made answer in the same 
 way. 
 
 The sound of muffled oars came faintly to him. A
 
 36 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 rowboat was approaching. It passed directly under 
 the balcony and without stopping continued on its 
 way. The rope ladder, however, stiffened and creaked, 
 as with some weight. A few seconds later the face 
 of Righo showed dimly against the darkness. 
 
 He climbed swiftly over the balustrade, and with 
 out a word began hauling up the ladder. 
 
 "Sh!" he warned, when it lay on the stone floor at 
 their feet. 
 
 The two men stood, every nerve of hearing so 
 strained that the Greek s heartbeats were plainly 
 audible. 
 
 Before the first boat had gone many rods, they could 
 make out the faint sound of another, its oars also 
 muffled, following on the track of the first. It did not 
 bear in quite so close to the shore, and passed on out 
 of hearing. 
 
 Righo chuckled. 
 
 "They will have a long row, to-night, for nothing. 
 My boatmen are going completely around the island, 
 and back to the place they started from." 
 
 The two men stepped into the room. Orkhan Ef- 
 fendi closed the door and pulled a heavy curtain over 
 it, and only then struck a match and lighted the 
 lamp. 
 
 "Os-gheldi," he said, saluting with his fingers to his 
 lips and forehead. 
 
 Nikolas Paparighopoulos threw his black overcoat
 
 THE HOOT OF THE OWL 37 
 
 on a chair, and appeared in evening clothes, as he had 
 left the Newburys . 
 
 "I am very glad to see you," the Turk continued, 
 his long white fingers twining around those of his 
 friend, in the characteristic, affectionate way of the 
 Turks when they like any one. 
 
 Righo glanced down at his own fingers after they 
 were freed, and noticed how the blood had been driven 
 from them by the grip of the Turk. 
 
 "I always wonder afresh at the strength you have, 
 for you don t show it," he rejoined, smiling. "I pre 
 sume the Armenian you kicked off the pier is wonder 
 ing, too." 
 
 "How did you know? Oh, yes. You were at 
 the Newburys dinner, I suppose. But now to busi 
 ness." 
 
 : You have news?" 
 
 Orkhan pointed to a spot on the plan which he had 
 been studying before the hoot of the owl had been 
 heard. 
 
 That, too, is ours already." 
 
 "Already ! You are not of an impatient disposi 
 tion, Orkhan. For a year and a half we have been 
 working to gain this door and you say already." 
 
 "It took ten years to gain the first one," the Turk 
 replied. 
 
 "Because the first Young Turks did not believe 
 in enlisting women in the work. We do, and where
 
 38 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 we fail, they often succeed. I suppose Malkhatoun 
 Hanoum gained us this last door, too." 
 
 Orkhan nodded. 
 
 "Ah! we men," the Greek apostrophized. "Be 
 cause we have a little more strength in our arms we 
 delegate woman to an inferior position, and deny her 
 a share in the conduct of our affairs. But what we 
 have torn from her by brute strength, she is winning 
 back by her intelligence and her self-sacrificing love." 
 
 Orkhan was fingering his pencil impatiently, and 
 the Greek stopped abruptly. He laughed, and put 
 his arm affectionately around the Turk s shoulders. 
 
 "I know you don t agree with me, Orkhan, but you 
 know I am right." 
 
 ; You are right in this, that thanks to the women 
 - and especially to Malkhatoun Hanoum we have 
 made faster progress of late. At the same time, my 
 friend Righo, it is an ugly necessity which forces us to 
 push women on to unholy ground. Women are meant 
 to open the gates of Heaven to us, not to go forth and 
 battle in Hell with us. However - 
 
 With a gesture he dismissed this phase of the sub 
 ject, and drawing his plan before him, continued : - 
 
 This inner door of the imperial apartment on the 
 right, is guarded by Halil Pasha and his men. He is 
 one of us. This, from the outer apartment to Halil 
 Pasha s, is in charge of Takshan Pasha. He is a 
 friend, and will soon be an ally. And the entrance on
 
 THE HOOT OF THE OWL 39 
 
 the same line, leading into the garden, is in the hands 
 of Hourik Bey. He, too, is ours. We may say that the 
 entire right side is won. With our last victory, we are 
 sure of the three detachments on the left. On both 
 sides the Padishah will find himself surrounded by our 
 men in his own palace." 
 
 The listening Greek drank in the words of the Turk, 
 with a gleam of ferocity shining in his eyes. 
 
 "The army every day is becoming more and more 
 surely ours. Not a month passes but we make pro 
 gress with the garrisons of the interior. It will not be 
 long before we can strike, unless there is some unex 
 pected counter-move on the part of the Sultan." 
 
 "It is that I am afraid of," Righo replied gloomily. 
 Twice we have been nearly ready, only to see our 
 plans fall like a house of cards. If he will only delay 
 a few months more, he will find the cruelty and death 
 which he has so often meted out to others dogging his 
 own footsteps." 
 
 "If he will only delay a few months," the Turk re 
 peated, a strange exaltation in his manner, "there will 
 be a revolution such as the world has never witnessed. 
 We will show the Christian nations, which consider 
 themselves alone civilized, how far the followers of 
 the Prophet have surpassed them. There shall be no 
 plunder, no rioting if Allah permits, no bloodshed." 
 
 As if rebuked by the Turk, the Greek was silent for 
 a minute. Then he said :
 
 40 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Orkhan, do you not think we ought to be doing 
 something to be gaining ground in Europe? Shall we 
 not need sympathizers there to help us when the time 
 conies?" 
 
 The Turk laughed scornfully. 
 
 "No! as Bismarck said, Europe always accepts a 
 fait accompli." 
 
 "You are right, Orkhan." 
 
 "Let the revolution once be made and she will 
 applaud us, while in advance she would only hinder 
 anything which might tend to make us the great na 
 tion we once were. When we shall force Abdul Hamid 
 to give us a constitution; when through it we shall 
 attain to freedom of opinion and of speech ; when our 
 natural resources may honestly be exploited, and the 
 public revenues no longer are emptied into the private 
 treasury of the Sultan: then Europe, whether she 
 wishes it or not, will have to believe in us. Freedom 
 and justice are all that are needed to make of us as 
 powerful and great a nation as the young nation of 
 North America." 
 
 "Odd! I, too, had America in my mind," Righo 
 said. "There our movement should find more support 
 than in Europe, because there is no possible rivalry 
 between the two countries. Why not enlist the aid 
 of some American women in our work? To-night I 
 met one who seemed to me most fitted to assist us. 
 She is beautiful as a lily, and men s hearts would
 
 THE HOOT OF THE OWL 41 
 
 melt before her, like snow in the sunshine. She is in 
 telligent as a man, yet as tender and imaginative as 
 a woman, and she has the American woman s self- 
 reliance and lack of fear. The gold of her hair and the 
 gold of her heart would form a capital from which we 
 could draw deeply." 
 
 While the Greek was speaking, Orkhan Effendi had 
 grown rigid with attention. His eyes were fixed on 
 the plain but attractive face of Righo, as he described 
 this latest proselyte he hoped to make. It was a large 
 part of the Greek s work to obtain recruits. With his 
 quick and accurate judgment of character, he seldom 
 made a mistake. 
 
 " Though I only met her to-night," he went on, "I 
 have seen her twice before, and hers is not a face one 
 forgets. Her imagination is already at work. It will 
 not be hard to win her to us." 
 
 With a manner which had in it something forced 
 in its deliberation, Orkhan Effendi rolled himself a 
 cigarette, the first he had smoked. 
 
 "What is her name, Paparighopoulos?" 
 
 "Miss Grey." 
 
 Picking up a blue pencil, the Turk carefully fol 
 lowed with it the outline of a wire clip which held some 
 papers together. He did not speak until this was 
 finished. Then, with the directness of his nation, in 
 affairs of the emotions, he asked : 
 
 "Righo, are you in love with her?"
 
 42 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "In love with her?" the Greek repeated. "I sup 
 pose so, in the way every man is with a beautiful 
 woman. But all that I have had to give to a woman 
 has already been given. Now there is silence, where 
 once there was the music of life. It is only thanks to 
 you, Orkhan, that I have found other interests to make 
 life worth living." 
 
 Moodily the Turk listened, and pondered the words 
 of his friend. 
 
 The latter, with a brisker air, resumed: 
 
 "Miss Grey, I think, has gifts of the highest order. 
 I am sure she could be of use to us. If you were to 
 see her a few times, you could gain her support. You 
 are a man to make women as well as men believe and 
 obey." 
 
 Orkhan Effendi still did not reply. He rose and 
 walked the length of the room several times. His 
 friend almost forgot the matter they were discussing, 
 as he followed the lithe figure of the Turk with his 
 eyes. There shone in them a great love, such as is 
 given to few men to inspire in their fellow creatures. 
 
 At length Orkhan stopped in front of the Greek. 
 
 "Righo, I wish this woman this Miss Grey- 
 to be kept out of our work. Already there are too 
 many women." 
 
 The Greek shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 : You are the leader, Orkhan. It is for you to choose 
 your lieutenants. I only "
 
 THE HOOT OF THE OWL 43 
 
 From without came twice the hoot of an owl; and 
 after an instant s pause, again twice. 
 
 "It is Tzavat," said Orkhan, "back from Salon- 
 ica." 
 
 With the same precautions he had previously em 
 ployed, the Turk went out on the terrace, while the 
 Greek, pistol in hand, waited behind the curtains. 
 
 A man climbed over the balustrade, and then an 
 other, and another. Silently they all went into the 
 room. 
 
 When the curtains were drawn, the relighted lamp 
 revealed three men as different in type as they were 
 in age. 
 
 Tzavat Bey was a handsome young Turk of the 
 same general appearance as Orkhan, but one in whom 
 the physical predominated over the spiritual. 
 
 The second, Halil Bey, a man nearing middle age, 
 was a curious compound of the unscrupulous politi 
 cian and the fanatic. His manner did not have the 
 captivating quality of the two younger Turks, but 
 if he could not win soldiers to a new cause, he knew 
 admirably how to use them after they were won. 
 
 On noticing the presence of the Greek, an unpleasant 
 expression, for the fraction of a second, shot from his 
 eyes; but when he greeted Righo he was courtesy 
 itself. 
 
 The third was a man of sixty, leonine in bearing, 
 and with the fearless glance of an eagle. He stood
 
 44 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 erect, young of heart and great of courage. When he 
 noticed Righo, his face lighted with pleasure. 
 
 "Glad to see you here, Niko." 
 
 " Thank you, Hakir Pasha," said the Greek. 
 "Anything serious?" 
 
 The old man nodded. 
 
 "I mean to understand our programme definitely 
 before I become one of the orchestra." 
 
 Halil Bey had lent a watchful ear to these words. 
 Suavely he put in : 
 
 " At the present hour patriots ought to work for the 
 common good, not to discuss." 
 
 The lionlike old man raised his head and gave Halil 
 Bey a scornful glance from head to foot, and deliber 
 ately turned his back on him. At that moment the 
 dissensions which were later to disrupt the Young 
 Turks Party were born.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CLASH OP NATIONALITIES 
 
 THE five men took their seats around the table, 
 and Tzavat made known to them the success of 
 his mission. 
 
 "I went to all the garrisons to which I was sent, and 
 the officers made it possible for me to speak with the 
 soldiers. They are becoming ours under one condi 
 tion, of course, that the person of the Sultan shall be 
 sacred. I explained our plans to them, and told them 
 what the Constitution means - 
 
 "That is what I should like to know," broke in 
 Hakir Pasha. 
 
 Orkhan and Tzavat turned to the old Albanian in 
 surprise. 
 
 : You ! " cried Orkhan, " but you are the father of 
 the Constitution." 
 
 Hakir Pasha shook his head. 
 
 "No! I thought I understood it; but of late I have 
 wondered whether we, the conquered races of Turkey, 
 do not believe it to mean one thing, while you, the 
 conquerors, know it to mean another." 
 
 "Surely," said Orkhan, "the Constitution of the 
 conquerors and conquered is the same, since there is 
 to be but one fatherland for all."
 
 46 
 
 Hakir Pasha rose and struck the table vehe 
 mently. 
 
 " We are here, five of the leaders of the movement. 
 I wish to explain my position to-night so that it 
 cannot be misunderstood." 
 
 Orkhan touched his fingers to his lips. "Bou-you- 
 roum," he said. 
 
 "I was one of the seven men who, during the reign 
 of Sultan Aziz, dared pronounce the word Constitu 
 tion. Although it is known as Midah Pasha s Con 
 stitution, seven of us drew it up after many delibera 
 tions. I saw it triumphant, for a short period, and 
 then ignominiously killed as well as the other six 
 men who conceived it. I alone was saved because I 
 took refuge among the Albanian Mountains, which 
 are ever too high for Turkish tyranny to submerge." 
 
 The ugly light which once before had come into Halil 
 Bey s eyes was there again the ferocity of the bar 
 barous Turk. He knew it, while he could not sup 
 press it, and he kept his eye-lids half closed and his 
 glance fixed on the table. 
 
 " Forty -five years ago, seven of us came together 
 speaking of rejuvenation and constitution. We are 
 here again with the same words in our mouths, and 
 with more chance of success. But what do you mean 
 by Constitution?" 
 
 He addressed himself directly to Orkhan. 
 
 "I mean," answered the latter gently, "a govern-
 
 THE CLASH OF NATIONALITIES 47 
 
 ment which will have one aim : to ameliorate the con 
 dition of all Turkish subjects; to see that there shall 
 be justice and progress, according to the standard of 
 the world s present civilization." 
 
 "And this government will be composed of what 
 men?" the old Albanian asked. 
 
 "It will be composed of Turkish subjects." 
 
 Hakir Pasha struck one palm against the other. 
 
 "And whom do you call Turkish subjects?" he de 
 manded. 
 
 "All those who call Turkey their fatherland," re 
 plied Orkhan. 
 
 "Exactly," put in Halil Bey, "all those who call 
 Turkey their fatherland." 
 
 "Now we have come to the point," exclaimed the 
 Albanian. "All those who call Turkey their father 
 land, that is to say, the conquerors." 
 
 "But surely," protested Orkhan, "you call Turkey 
 your fatherland." 
 
 "My fatherland is Albania. She has my first de 
 votion, and for her sake I am joining in this work of 
 rejuvenation. Let us understand one another. I and 
 my Albanians will help to fight your battles because we 
 want a better government for Albania; and what we 
 understand by constitution is this:" 
 
 The old man looked at those around the table, but 
 it was to Halil Bey directly that he spoke. 
 
 "When our party succeeds in overthrowing the
 
 48 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 present tyrannical and corrupt government and in 
 establishing the Constitution, there shall be freedom 
 of speech, freedom of conscience, and, above all, as 
 much freedom of growth for the alien races as for the 
 Turks. We want a United States of Turkey. Each 
 state to have its laws, its standing armies, and its 
 racial customs with one head, the Parliament of 
 Turkey, composed of an equal number of represent 
 atives from each. It would naturally be to the ad 
 vantage of the State of the Albanians, of the State of 
 the Armenians, and of that of the Greeks to gather 
 under the banner of Turkey the moment Turkey was 
 threatened from outside. But in time of peace we 
 want our own national life unhindered." 
 
 He crossed his arms on his breast, and turned from 
 one of the leaders to the other deliberately. 
 
 "Am I given such a promise?" 
 
 Halil Bey rose. 
 
 " Hakir Pasha," he said, " you are known as a great 
 man, but you ask what a smaller man might. What you 
 ask would be right if each Albanian were as noble- 
 minded a man as you are; if each Armenian were as 
 brave and as loyal as you are; and if the integrity of 
 every Greek equaled yours ; but you forget that when 
 we succeed, the work of reconstruction and reorgani 
 zation will be even more difficult than the overthrow 
 of the present tyranny. Europe will be glad to see us 
 stand on our feet as a nation only because each great
 
 THE CLASH OF NATIONALITIES 49 
 
 power will be relieved of the fear that some other will 
 absorb us. At the same time Europe will not be eager 
 to see another Turkey arise with the strength it had 
 in the fifteenth century. Europe will do much to 
 hinder our progress beyond a certain point. What 
 all patriots must do is not to ask for a guaranty for 
 the preservation of their own racial customs and racial 
 ideals, but to put aside the lesser for the greater good. 
 For Turkey to be reconstructed there must be no 
 Albanians, no Greeks, no Armenians, but only Otto 
 mans, having but one fatherland Turkey ; recogniz 
 ing but one banner the Crescent." 
 
 His words were the fair words of a patriot, but be 
 hind his now inscrutable countenance lay the designs 
 of the fanatic Turk to brush out all races except his 
 own, all religions other than that of Mahomet. 
 
 Hakir Pasha pushed his chair back from the table 
 and stood in an attitude of defiance. He gave a short 
 laugh derogatory and menacing. 
 
 "Yes," he cried, "that is what every Turk knows 
 the Constitution to stand for. But we of the subject 
 races understand it to mean free growth for us, as 
 well as for you. It was I who started this movement, 
 a few years after the death of the first Constitution. 
 I worked hard for it. I traveled from mountain to 
 mountain, from village to village, from town to town, 
 gaining adherents, gathering strength for the cause. 
 I pretended to be repentant, and let myself be bribed
 
 50 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 by the Sultan, in order to come to Constantinople and 
 work. I gained the Greeks; / gained the Armenians; 
 I obtained the support, the money of both. And now 
 when the one-man idea has become that of a thousand; 
 now that the Turks have been taught by me to think, 
 and to wish for a better government, those same Turks 
 ask me to be a patriot and to let my country be 
 swallowed up by them. By the soul of the man who 
 gave me life, you shall not have me and my Albanians 
 under those conditions." 
 
 Halil Bey rose again, as the other sat down. 
 
 " Don t you see, Hakir Pasha, how dangerous it 
 would be for Turkey to allow Albania to have an army 
 of its own? Every time you fancy that we are not do 
 ing as you wish, you will be declaring war against us, 
 and where will our country be?" 
 
 " We do not need a standing army to fight you every 
 time you break faith with us," the old man replied 
 coldly. " We have always fought you when we pleased ; 
 what we want an army for is that you should never 
 dare to break faith with us. That s all." 
 
 Here Righo interposed. 
 
 " Hakir Pasha, you know that my respect for you 
 is great, but are you not taking for granted that the 
 new government, which will be composed of enlight 
 ened patriots, is going to be less generous and less 
 magnanimous than all the governments which have 
 preceded it? Surely we have been allowed to have our
 
 THE CLASH OF NATIONALITIES 51 
 
 national life since 1453, and why do you suppose that 
 we shall now be deprived of that which has been ours 
 for generations?" 
 
 "What guaranty have you, Niko, that those privi 
 leges will be respected by the new government?" 
 
 "The integrity of character of the men who com 
 pose the movement." 
 
 Again the derogatory laugh of Hakir Pasha rang 
 through the room. 
 
 "My dear boy, you are young, and I am old. I have 
 served the Turks in every capacity from that of a 
 simple soldier to that of a grand vizier. And I know 
 that a Turk will break his word politically where he 
 would never think of it in private life. They call them 
 selves a nation of lions; but they are lions who have 
 been crossed with wolves." 
 
 Orkhan had turned very pale. 
 
 " Hakir Pasha, my friend, what can we gain by 
 insults? I believe what you ask may be given to you." 
 
 Tzavat also nodded assent, but Hakir was not 
 mollified. 
 
 "Those are words of the two of you whom I can 
 believe; but what I want is that it shall be written and 
 signed by all the leaders. Then I shall read it to the 
 Albanians, and as soon as there shall be a constitution, 
 we shall be proclaimed a state within a state: our 
 taxes for ourselves our government for ourselves. 
 Do you hear me, Halil Bey? Albania for the Al-
 
 52 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 banians; but one of the many tributaries which shall 
 add to the greatness of Turkey." 
 
 Halil Bey did not answer. He could not trust his 
 own voice. 
 
 Into the silence which ensued came the faint song of 
 a boatman. All the men listened to it attentively. 
 Gradually it approached, and the words became au 
 dible: - 
 
 " My breast suffers from a wound 
 Which never can be healed." 
 
 "It is my Ali," said Hakir. "It is time for us to 
 go. It will take you two weeks, Orkhan, to see the 
 leaders and to bring me the document." 
 
 As they were rising, Orkhan caught the eye of 
 Halil Bey, and a misgiving seized him. Would it be 
 possible to obtain the signatures to such a document? 
 
 The Albanian put his arm through that of the Greek. 
 
 "Let me give you a lift, too. Come and spend the 
 night with me." 
 
 When the others had gone, Orkhan did not reenter 
 his room. Leaning against the balustrade of the stone 
 balcony, he remained brooding curious thoughts amid 
 the vagrant noises of the night. For although he was 
 considered a pure-bred Turk, of the second branch of 
 the imperial Ottoman family, he had worn concealed 
 - ever since he was a lad of fifteen a girdle, begun 
 by one Albanian woman, and finished by another. 
 And the story of that girdle shall now be told.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE PASHA OF ALBANIA DISCOVERS A BEAUTY 
 
 IT was a calm summer day, a good many years 
 before Millicent Grey came to Turkey. The Al 
 banian Mountains lay tranquil in the warm haze, 
 their wild beauty disturbed by the sound of no bul 
 lets. The last insurrection had been put down. Omar 
 Pasha had returned to Constantinople with his troops, 
 and once more this turbulent principality of the Sultan 
 was in enforced tranquillity. 
 
 So quiet indeed had Albania become that two years 
 previously, when Russia was at war with Turkey, she 
 had not even taken advantage of the occasion to re 
 volt. It seemed as if her hatred for Turkey was asleep. 
 One would not be so bold as to say it was extinct; for 
 according to the Albanian saying, that could never 
 happen, " so long as there existed one Albanian woman 
 to give birth to a son." 
 
 On this calm summer day a small cavalcade was 
 riding through the mountains. The Pasha of Albania, 
 with his retinue, was on a round of friendly visits, 
 exchanging presents with the chiefs, as a mark of the 
 friendship and good-will existing between Turkey and 
 her troublesome subjects. He believed in making 
 these friendly visits from time to time, in order to as-
 
 54 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 certain with his own eyes that there were no signs of 
 a new insurrection. 
 
 The riders held the reins of their mounts loosely, 
 and the horses made their way up the steep hills with 
 lowered heads and quick, deep breathing. They came 
 to a little plateau, and drew rein to rest a minute. Of 
 a sudden the silence was broken by a singing voice, 
 young and melodious, fresh and exultant. It was like 
 some magic added to the enchantment of the scenery. 
 
 When it came to the chorus, several other voices 
 joined in; and the horses pricked forward their ears 
 and quivered, as if they smelled blood. 
 
 "They recognize the song," the Pasha said, smiling. 
 
 The men patted the necks of their mounts and spoke 
 to them soothingly. 
 
 "Wait here," continued the Pasha, "and I will find 
 out who the singers are." 
 
 Instantly several of his followers sprang from the 
 saddles, and the quickest of them held the Pasha s 
 stirrup. 
 
 "I will go alone." 
 
 Although fat, he moved without clumsiness, and 
 advanced cautiously toward the singing voice. Pre 
 sently he espied a group of Albanian girls seated on 
 the banks of a stream, their bare feet in the water, their 
 hands busy embroidering men s clothing. 
 
 The Pasha recognized at a glance that they be 
 longed to the aristocracy of the country, and judged
 
 THE PASHA DISCOVERS A BEAUTY 55 
 
 that they were working on warriors garments; for he 
 knew that according to Albanian traditions the women 
 of the upper classes sew only on the garments of their 
 relatives who carry arms. 
 
 As they sewed, the oldest of the group, a girl of 
 about sixteen, was teaching the song to the others. 
 
 As the Pasha s glance rested on her he became rigid, 
 enthralled, drinking in each detail of her appearance 
 with the epicurean delight of a connoisseur of female 
 beauty. For some minutes he could not take his eyes 
 from the perfect face with the dark hair clustering 
 about the brows in wavy masses, the eyebrows arched 
 over unfathomable eyes of velvety brown. His glance 
 flickered over the lips, the chin, the shell-like ears, the 
 nape of the neck. He gloated over her as a miner might 
 gloat, who, after years of search, has discovered end 
 less gold. He followed the lines of the throat to the 
 bust; and then took in the whole figure with ever- 
 increasing satisfaction. 
 
 " What fortune ! Oh ! what fortune ! " he murmured. 
 "By the beard of the Prophet, never have I seen a head 
 more nobly carried nor a figure more worthy to 
 bear such a head." 
 
 The girl was dressed in the rich Albanian costume, 
 leaving her throat, sister to the lilies, bare, while the 
 transparent white cambric of her waist accentuated 
 the roundness and freshness of her young bosom. As 
 she sang her martial song, her head moved to and fro,
 
 56 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 as does the baton of a leader. When the chorus came, 
 the other girls dropped their work on their lap, placed 
 their hands on their hearts, and joined in with fervor. 
 
 After the song was at an end, the leader spoke : - 
 
 "Thus will Albanian heroes act again, some day 
 may Allah help them!" 
 
 Cautiously the listening man retraced his steps. 
 Then noisily he came back. He saluted the young 
 girls in military fashion. 
 
 " I am the Pasha of Albania," he explained. " With 
 my retinue I am on my way to Karadji Aga s place. 
 I fear me we have lost our way." 
 
 "Karadji Aga is my father," replied the eldest 
 girl. "If you follow this stream upward, a half -hour s 
 ride will take you to his tents. Hospitality will there 
 be offered to you." 
 
 The Turk saluted and departed. He knew now what 
 he had wished to learn. 
 
 "When he had gone the girl spoke to her companions : 
 
 "Some day we shall be wives and mothers. Let us 
 not forget to teach our sons that the Pasha of Albania 
 must be an Albanian and not a Turk and free and 
 independent as the eagle of the skies." 
 
 The other girls bent forward till their foreheads 
 touched the earth. 
 
 "We shall not forget!" they cried. "But, Trajah, 
 tell us more about Iskander Bey, and of his victories 
 over the Turkish armies."
 
 THE PASHA DISCOVERS A BEAUTY 57 
 
 While Trajah was thrilling her younger sisters and 
 cousins with the glorious past of Albania, the Turk who 
 was now governing her country rode on, lost in thought. 
 For years he had wanted to send to the Palace a girl 
 whose beauty and grace should charm and make 
 grateful the monarch and who might also kindly 
 remember the man who had sent her there. He had 
 spent enormous sums of money buying slaves; he 
 had watched every newborn girl among his subjects, 
 with ever-renewed hope that the paragon he desired 
 might at last have come upon the earth. But so far 
 he had not been able to send a gem sufficiently bright 
 to attract the eye of young Sultan Medjid and make 
 him desire to add her to the imperial diadem. 
 
 He had found her now in this proud young aristo 
 crat. No shadow of doubt was in his mind that the 
 Sultan could not see her without loving her. And to en 
 snare the young Albanian, singing her patriotic songs, 
 and send her to the Palace, had also its humorous side. 
 The old Turk smiled grimly. While his horse was car 
 rying him steadily toward the great chief s dwelling, 
 his fertile brain was scheming in what way it would 
 be possible to abduct the daughter.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CRAFT OF THE PASHA 
 
 THE Pasha of Albania was seated on a bro 
 cade-covered divan, his legs skillfully crossed 
 under him. His fat body was enveloped in a long, 
 costly wrapper. By him was a low table, inlaid with 
 mother-of-pearl, on which stood his narghile of cut- 
 glass, mounted with amber. Although he held the 
 markoutzh in his pudgy hands, he was not smoking. 
 On his face was the look of a man who is anxious over 
 the success of some project on which he has set great 
 hopes. He leaned forward and pulled a velvet rope 
 hanging at his elbow. 
 
 A manservant entered, threw himself on the floor, 
 and in abject servility waited the orders of his master. 
 
 "When Mechmet Effendi comes, bring him in at 
 once," said the Pasha, not even deigning to glance 
 at the groveling figure. 
 
 "He has just arrived, Pasha Effendi," the slave 
 replied meekly. 
 
 "Then, son of an unworthy mother, bring him in!" 
 
 The slave crawled out of the room, and a few minutes 
 later the heavy silk portiere of another door was raised 
 by two slaves, and a young officer entered the room. 
 He saluted his superior with a certain familiarity, and
 
 59 
 
 the Pasha, as a mark of condescension, indicated to 
 him to take his seat at the extreme end of the divan. 
 
 The Pasha put the amber mouthpiece of his nar 
 ghile between his lips and smoked on in silence. 
 
 "You were due here last night," he said finally. 
 
 "Your Excellency cannot expect punctuality where 
 women are concerned. She gave me a great deal of 
 trouble more than I anticipated from such a slip 
 of a girl." 
 
 "When you know more about women, you will 
 learn that, whether they be a slip of a girl or a giant of 
 a woman, they will give trouble. They are meant for 
 trouble. I have had some experience with them." 
 
 The young officer, who knew that the older man s 
 harem contained no less than a hundred women, of 
 all ages and sizes, winked impudently, and the two 
 men broke into laughter. 
 
 The Pasha drew from his pocket a string of amber 
 beads that would have made any woman envious, 
 and began to play with them. 
 
 "Tell me how you managed it," he said. 
 
 "I studied her habits, your Excellency. She was 
 the leader of a group of ten, who wandered about 
 the mountains like wild goats. They not only sang, 
 as you told me, but they carried daggers, and em 
 broidered warriors garments. She was making a 
 belt." 
 
 "I wish you could have taken her with that belt."
 
 60 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "I did, your Excellency." 
 
 Thereupon the Pasha laughed so immoderately that 
 the younger man feared lest it would end in a fit of 
 apoplexy. 
 
 " Go on ! Go on ! " the fat man gurgled, with a wave 
 of his hand. 
 
 "At first I thought I should have made her love 
 me. It would have made matters easy. But one 
 might as well expect an Albanian would sell his rifle 
 as for one of their women to love a Turk. So I had to 
 turn to other means. She was training the other girls 
 to be scouts. Some of the girls took the parts of Turks, 
 and others were the Albanians who had to discover 
 them. She sat on some high elevation and conducted 
 the manoeuvres. She would send the others to far 
 distances, while she sat and embroidered her belt. 
 I posted my men to interfere with the other girls, 
 and I tackled her alone and privately, as you wished. 
 She can t weigh much over a hundred pounds, but, 
 by the beard of my grandfather, your Excellency, she 
 made herself as heavy as lead. I had to tie her hands 
 and feet; then I threw her on my horse and galloped 
 away. Before dawn this morning I brought her to 
 Fatima s." 
 
 He omitted to say that the girl had fought him like 
 a tigress, and that he had brutally struck her again 
 and again before overpowering her, although he had 
 taken great pains not to disfigure her face.
 
 THE CRAFT OF THE PASHA 61 
 
 "You did not tie her hands and feet too tight, so 
 as to leave a mark? "the Pasha inquired anxiously. 
 
 "They will pass in a day or two, your Excellency. 
 I had to tie her." 
 
 For the first time a pang of fear crossed the mind 
 of the young man, at the thought of the marks on the 
 girl s body, which might betray his battle with her. 
 
 " Don t see her for a day or two, your Excellency," 
 he urged. " Wait till she is calmer. Now the tears will 
 be staining her beauty." 
 
 The Pasha of Albania shot a keen glance at the 
 young man. 
 
 "You do not know Albanian women. They cry 
 never ! There is a story of a little girl who fell from 
 her horse, struck her head on a rock, and became un 
 conscious. When she came to herself the pain was so 
 terrible that she cried. At sight of her tears rage seized 
 her father, and he hanged her on the next tree. This 
 is the first tale they tell to every Albanian girl. Al 
 banian women don t cry, Mechmet Effendi." 
 
 He waved his hand in dismissal. The officer rose. 
 
 "Come to-morrow for your reward." 
 
 Alone, the Pasha pulled the velvet rope, and to his 
 slave said : 
 
 "I must see General Shelaledin at once." 
 
 While waiting he smoked furiously. 
 
 On the entrance of the General he assumed an agi 
 tated air.
 
 62 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Bad news!* he cried. "I have received intelli 
 gence this morning that the Albanians are making 
 ready for an uprising. Be prepared to mobilize three 
 battalions. The leaders are the Karadji brothers. 
 The proofs are with me. They must be seized at once. 
 Thus possibly we may head off this movement, and 
 nip a dangerous revolt in the bud. But they must 
 not be taken openly, lest we apply the match to the 
 mine. They must be tricked, or captured secretly." 
 
 Shelaledin Bey saluted and withdrew. 
 
 The Pasha gazed upon his retreating back and 
 chuckled noiselessly. 
 
 "They don t cry, these Albanian women, but they 
 love like faithful dogs. Once her father is in my power, 
 she shall go to the Palace willingly." 
 
 At nightfall, quietly and without an escort, the 
 Pasha proceeded to Fatima s. His dark deeds were 
 done secretly, and the common people of Albania, al 
 though they hated him as a Turk, considered him a 
 just governor. 
 
 He raised the knocker, and let it drop. The sound 
 was different from the ordinary knock, and the door 
 was shortly opened by the mistress of the house 
 herself. 
 
 "Os-gheldi, your Excellency, os-gheldi. May Al 
 lah s blessing be your life s portion." 
 
 The Pasha entered, and the door was closed behind 
 him.
 
 63 
 
 "How is she?" he asked. 
 
 "She has not eaten, your Excellency, but she has 
 let us bathe her and attend to her bruises." 
 
 At the word "bruises" an ugly look passed over the 
 man s face. 
 
 "Take me to her," he ordered. 
 
 Fatima preceded him, carrying a small glass lamp, 
 which shed an uncertain light on the narrow stair 
 case. At the top they came to a large room. Its many 
 windows were not barred, but they looked on a gar 
 den whose high walls bristled with broken glass. 
 Here Trajah lay on a divan, clothed in a white cambric 
 garment. In the dimly lit room there were several 
 women and two eunuchs. Mechmet Effendi had been 
 eloquent about the strength and determination of 
 the girl. 
 
 The Pasha approached, and ordered Fatima to 
 hold the light over Trajah. 
 
 "It is a faint light by which to behold so much 
 beauty," he said suavely. "Bring in candles a 
 hundred of them ! " he cried in Oriental extravagance. 
 
 The soft light of many candles soon filled the room. 
 The Pasha commanded the eunuchs to stand with 
 their faces to the wall, then bade the women open 
 the garment of the girl. A spasm passed over Tra- 
 jah s body; otherwise she lay apathetic, her eyes shut, 
 her lips tightly closed. She knew she was powerless. 
 
 Oblivious of her beauty, the Pasha only looked for
 
 64 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 marks of rough handling on her fair skin. His face 
 grew black with passion at their number. 
 
 "Count the bruises," he roughly commanded one 
 of the women. 
 
 "Upward of thirty, your Excellency," she reported. 
 
 "And this multiplied by ten, how much does it 
 make?" he asked. 
 
 " Three hundred, Pasha Effendi." 
 
 He turned to Fatima. 
 
 "Bring your most precious cloak and put it on her. 
 So long as she remains here, she is the mistress of 
 this house." 
 
 When the girl was clothed in the sumptuous cloak, 
 the Pasha bade all the others be gone. He paced the 
 room for a while with knitted brows. Finally, he came 
 and stood beside the girl, and knowing that the Karadji 
 family traced its lineage far back to the time when 
 Albania had princes and princesses of that name, he 
 said : 
 
 "Princess Trajah, the man who struck you will 
 receive each stroke back ten times over, and to-morrow 
 he shall be hanged on a tree which you can see from 
 your window." 
 
 The girl opened her eyes. 
 
 "What will you do to the man who sent him to 
 steal me from my people? " she asked steadily. 
 
 The shrewd old diplomat did not reply at once. As 
 if moved by deep feeling, he averted his eyes.
 
 THE CRAFT OF THE PASHA 65 
 
 "Before I have finished speaking with you, you 
 may better understand the motives of the man who 
 caused you to be stolen from your people. Princess 
 Trajah," he said slowly, "you are destined by Allah 
 to save Albania." 
 
 The girl raised herself up on her elbow and stared 
 at him. Unwittingly he had fallen upon a belief in 
 which Trajah had herself been raised. Before her 
 birth her mother dreamed that Allah had placed on 
 her lap a little girl. A wondrous dream it was, and 
 rendered the more noteworthy by the fact that the 
 child was born without causing her the slightest 
 physical pain. In Albania such a dream could not be 
 forgotten, as it might have been in other parts of the 
 world; and as Trajah grew up, her unusual beauty 
 and intelligence seemed to prove her destined for 
 some great end. 
 
 With astonishment the Pasha noted the impression 
 his words produced. Raising his hand impressively, 
 he continued: 
 
 "I am going to tell you what no one knows ex 
 cept Allah, and my mother in her grave. I am of 
 Albanian blood, even as you are." 
 
 Doubting, the girl searched his countenance; but 
 the Pasha of Albania could appear very earnest and 
 benevolent when he so wished. 
 
 "Were it known that I was of Albanian blood, I 
 should be looked upon with distrust by the Ottoman
 
 66 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 authorities. My whole aim in life has been to help 
 my country. I kept my secret, and here I am, the 
 Governor of Albania." 
 
 He saw that Trajah began to believe him. 
 
 "I have learned through many years striving how 
 hopeless our task is, unless the Sultan of Turkey can 
 love Albania as we do." 
 
 The Pasha s words were sinking deep into the heart 
 of his hearer. Vehemently passionately he 
 continued : 
 
 "The only way for the Sultan of Turkey to care 
 for Albania as we do is to give him our blood, and 
 that Allah meant you to do." 
 
 His earnest gaze held hers for a moment; then her 
 eyes dropped. 
 
 "Were the Sultan of Turkey an old and decrepit 
 man we might have hesitated to make him the 
 father of our sultan; but the Padishah is a young and 
 handsome man, with virtues of which any woman 
 could be proud. Let me see," he mused. "He came 
 to the throne in 1839, at the age of sixteen. It is now 
 1855, so he is " He stopped to calculate. 
 
 "Thirty-two," said the girl quickly. 
 
 "Mashallah!" he cried. "You a mere woman and 
 can count faster than a man ! Mashallah ! When my 
 eyes first fell on you, I knew that you were the woman 
 destined to save Albania. Then I learned that you 
 were a promised wife, and that you loved your lover.
 
 I SALUTE MY SULTANA
 
 THE CRAFT OF THE PASHA 67 
 
 It seemed as if Allah were against our sacred country, 
 until as I remembered the look in your eyes the 
 hope arose in me that you might be a woman who 
 would place Albania even above your lover. I could 
 not come to you and your father openly; neither could 
 I send you openly to the Palace. They do not trust 
 us Albanians. So I had to resort to strategy to 
 abduct you to bring you here where I could talk 
 with you, hoping that you might understand " 
 
 " I do understand," said Trajah. 
 
 "And do you love Albania more than your liberty, 
 more than your family, more than your lover? Are 
 you ready to sacrifice yourself for your country?" 
 
 The girl clasped both her hands over her heart. 
 
 "I do love Albania more than my liberty, more 
 than my family, more than my lover! I love her 
 next to Allah, and I am ready to live or to die for 
 Albania." 
 
 To hide his triumph, the Pasha fell on his knees, 
 and, taking the girl s hand reverently, brought it to 
 his lips. 
 
 "I salute my Sultana," he murmured. "I salute 
 the mother of Albania s savior." 
 
 He rose. 
 
 "Now we must satisfy your father, without telling 
 him the exact truth; for no one must know our secret." 
 The Pasha knew full well that Karadji Aga would see 
 through his ruse. "Could you let him think that you
 
 68 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 loved another man better, and that you had run 
 away with him?" 
 
 "No," answered the girl. "I always stood for Al 
 bania to my younger sisters and cousins. I could not 
 destroy their faith in me. It would hurt Albania. But 
 I can let my father and mother know that I am called 
 upon to fill the destiny for which Allah marked me. 
 They will understand and trust me." And the girl 
 told him of the belief concerning her which was in her 
 family. 
 
 "Then beg them to lay their arms down, and to 
 wait for your work," he urged. 
 
 "I will," said the girl. "But my father must not 
 see my bruises." 
 
 "No," the Pasha fervently assented. "But will he 
 take your word without seeing you?" 
 
 "He will," the girl said proudly. "I should like to 
 have my nurse go with me, though." 
 
 "You shall have her. Only remember, no one in the 
 Palace must guess who you are; and you must win 
 the heart of our Padishah, and become his Sultana." 
 
 The girl knew the power she had over men. She 
 nodded.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MECHMET S REWARD 
 
 OUT in the street, alone, the Pasha of Albania 
 looked up at the twinkling stars and laughed 
 aloud. He murmured an Oriental proverb: * The 
 clever bird is caught by the beak. Well, well, that 
 was an inspiration. I shan t have to torture her 
 father." This was no especial pleasure to him. He had 
 rather made up his mind to the torture. As the an 
 cient Romans did, he liked his banquet to end with 
 blood. 
 
 In his own apartment he pulled the velvet rope, 
 and to Ali threw this order: 
 
 "Send five men to bring Mechmet here." 
 
 An hour later Mechmet was brought into his pre 
 sence. With a wave of his hand, he sent the escort out 
 of the room. 
 
 The young man no longer wore the debonair and 
 confident look of the morning. The five men sent to 
 bring him to the Pasha at this late hour did not pre 
 sage good, and when the latter said, with a benevolent 
 air, "I have seen the young lady, and I thought it a 
 pity to wait till to-morrow to give you your reward," 
 Mechmet s heart contracted. He had seen that play 
 ful mood before. He hastened to say :
 
 70 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "I have just heard of a girl whose beauty is even 
 greater than that of the one I brought you this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 "What use are they to me if they are brought to 
 my hand bruised like packed raisins? I have no taste 
 for dried fruit." 
 
 Mechmet opened his mouth to utter another false 
 hood. 
 
 The Pasha waved his pudgy hand for silence. 
 
 "Her bruises are upward of thirty. You shall re 
 ceive them back with tenfold interest. No one shall 
 say that the Pasha of Albania is not generous. I might 
 have requited them a hundred fold, but I have pro 
 mised that from her window she shall see you swing 
 from the branch of a tree. There would not be much 
 satisfaction in seeing the hanging of a corpse, would 
 there?" 
 
 In the eyes of Mechmet a glitter of hatred could be 
 seen. His fierce spirit had not been ignorant of the fate 
 that might come to an accomplice of the Pasha s, and 
 often he had told himself that if he were to die, he 
 should not die alone. Of late he had forgotten his 
 earlier forebodings. He had seemed so thoroughly in 
 his master s confidence. Perhaps he had presumed a 
 trifle on this. Yet even now he was prepared only 
 he was not prepared for the prescience of the Pasha. 
 
 The latter s right hand, which had been in his 
 pocket, came forth, armed with an English revolver,
 
 MECHMET S REWARD 71 
 
 and, without taking his eyes from Mechmet, his left 
 sought the velvet rope and pulled it twice. Instantly 
 several velvet portieres were lifted, and the room filled 
 with attendants. 
 
 The Pasha slipped the revolver back into his pocket. 
 With the forefinger of his right hand he pointed to 
 the doomed Mechmet, and with the thumb of his 
 left, downward. He had given that signal of ten enough 
 for the men to know what it meant. 
 
 Mechmet s furious resistance was overpowered. 
 His hands and feet were tied, and he was carried to 
 the underground chamber. The Pasha followed at 
 his leisure. It was a large room with brick walls, now 
 lighted up by torches. There was little in it. A table 
 stood in the middle, and upon it Mechmet was thrown. 
 
 On a high chair by the wall the Pasha took his seat, 
 a smile of pleasant anticipation on his fat features. 
 
 "How many of you are here?" he asked. 
 
 "Twelve." 
 
 "He is to receive three hundred strokes. Appor 
 tion them between you. If any of you," he threw in 
 genially, "is not feeling strong, his place can be taken 
 by others." 
 
 The men laughed at the pleasantry of their master. 
 
 The Pasha drew his amber beads from his pocket, 
 and played with them. His small green eyes were 
 glistening with delight, such as is known only to the 
 Asiatics when they assist at human torture. Thus
 
 72 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 Ali Pasha of Yanina is known never to have laughed 
 except when he was assisting at the refined torture 
 he inflicted on the Greek chiefs who resisted him. 
 History tells us that when after many years of guer 
 rilla warfare he managed to capture Katch Antoni, 
 he sang a song as he had him impaled on a stake, al 
 though his victim was sick with smallpox, which 
 alone had enabled him to effect his capture. In such 
 enjoyment the Pasha of Albania sat on his high chair, 
 and toyed with his beads, while Mechmet was beaten. 
 
 Before many men had relieved each other in the 
 administering of the lash, the door of the chamber 
 was opened, and his faithful orderly entered with a 
 letter. 
 
 "It is important, Pasha Effendi, the woman says, 
 and that you must receive it at once." 
 
 The Pasha took the note and turned it over curiously, 
 ordering operations to stop. He was not going to miss 
 any of its delights. He broke the wax seal, and opened 
 the letter. He gazed at it for some seconds, then 
 asked : 
 
 "Who can read?" 
 
 No one replied. 
 
 "Vermin ! " he apostrophized them. To his orderly : 
 "Go fetch Yusuf." 
 
 Yusuf came. 
 
 "Read!" his master commanded. 
 
 The letter ran thus:
 
 MECHMET S REWARD 73 
 
 I ask of you the favor not to hang the youth. I 
 do not wish our mission to start with a death. 
 
 TRAJAH. 
 
 The Pasha snorted. " Oh, women ! " and the tone iu 
 which he uttered the words expressed the scorn he felt 
 for the sex. "At least she does not ask that he should 
 not be flogged." 
 
 He tore the letter to bits. 
 
 " Go on, boys," he said.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 CAJOLING THE ALBANIAN CHIEFS 
 
 SHELALEDIN BEY had executed his mission 
 with dispatch. He had arrested the unsuspecting 
 chiefs in their beds. When he came to the Pasha to 
 announce that his mission had been fulfilled, the latter 
 scratched his chin in perplexity. 
 
 "Shelaledin Bey," he said gravely, "we have made 
 a mistake. We have been misinformed. But I think 
 I can explain the matter to the chiefs, and send them 
 back contented to their mountains." 
 
 An angry wave of color spread over the face of 
 Shelaledin Bey. He was a Turkish soldier and hated 
 the Albanians. But he was loath to have arrested the 
 chiefs for nothing. 
 
 The Pasha noticed the look. Benignly he went 
 on: 
 
 "You have executed your mission well, however, 
 and to the faithful I always give a reward. Go to 
 the next room and wait. A group of girls will be sent 
 there. Choose the prettiest among them. She shall 
 be yours." 
 
 Shelaledin Bey s face slightly relaxed. A gleam of 
 pleasure came into his eyes. He saluted and turned 
 to go.
 
 CAJOLING THE ALBANIAN CHIEFS 75 
 
 The Pasha let him go as far as the door; then called 
 him back. 
 
 "You may find two that take your fancy, and that 
 it is hard to choose between them." He smiled 
 affably. "Well, you may have them both. And as no 
 one knows better than I what cost women are Wait !" 
 
 He rose, left the room, and came back with a green- 
 and-yellow purse of knitted silk in his pudgy hand. 
 He held it out to Shelaledin Bey. 
 
 "It will help to keep them." 
 
 The purse was not large, but the General knew 
 from the weight that it contained gold. His face en 
 tirely relaxed. After all, what a Turkish soldier loves 
 best, next to exterminating the enemies of the 
 Prophet, is a pretty woman and a full purse. 
 
 He smiled at his superior, and the latter rubbed his 
 hands in satisfaction as his contented soldier left 
 the room. 
 
 To the kalfa who came in answer to his summons 
 he said: 
 
 "Kalfa Hanoum, I have decided to make a present 
 of two wives to Shelaledin Bey. Let him see ten girls 
 to select from." 
 
 "Of what age, your Excellency?" asked the accom 
 plished woman who was the chief trainer of his slaves. 
 
 "Let them be of the batch that you bought five 
 years ago. I want them to be well-mannered and 
 gracious. Five years of your training must have done
 
 76 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 that. I do not wish people to say that the women of 
 my kionak are not proper ladies. What age will they 
 be?" 
 
 "Fourteen and fifteen, your Excellency." 
 
 "Many good-looking ones among them?" 
 
 The kalfa s pride was piqued. She was also the 
 Pasha s chief buyer. 
 
 "I paid thirty pounds a head, your Excellency," 
 she answered with some asperity. 
 
 "Well, well, I did not mean what I said; but let 
 me see them first." 
 
 In a few minutes the room was gay as a garden of 
 flowers, so pretty were the girls, so brightly colored 
 their costumes. They salaamed gracefully to the 
 man who could dispose of them at will. They were 
 bright-eyed and happy-looking, and their faces were 
 lit with smiles. 
 
 He beamed upon them. 
 
 "My children," he said benevolently, "to two of 
 you will fall a happy lot to-day. The brave soldier 
 Shelaledin Bey will make you his wives. I have been 
 a good father to you all." 
 
 "So you have, your Excellency," the girls answered 
 in chorus. 
 
 "Now, go and face your kismet, little ones." 
 
 The girls salaamed, and with giggles trooped out 
 of the room and into the next. After all, this was what 
 they had been brought up to. They knew nothing
 
 CAJOLING THE ALBANIAN CHIEFS 77 
 
 better. Each clung to her chum s arm, inwardly hop 
 ing that she herself would be the chosen one, and 
 after her, her friend. 
 
 Shelaledin, after his choice had alighted on the 
 prettiest of them, diplomatically indicated the two 
 clinging figures. 
 
 "My home will be honored if you both come to 
 dwell under its roof." 
 
 From the rewarding of his general, the Pasha s at 
 tention was turned to the pacification of the enraged 
 Albanian chieftains. A hard task, indeed; but the 
 Pasha of Albania had so many to perform of that type 
 that he was no novice. 
 
 With great ceremony he had the chiefs brought to 
 him. When they reached the threshold of his room 
 he rose to receive them. He saluted them as equals, 
 and greeted them as friends. In his most affable man 
 ner he explained how certain false reports had led 
 him to detain them. Now, he was convinced that his 
 Imperial Master had no more faithful subjects than 
 the brothers Karadji. 
 
 He was lying, his four hearers knew it, and he knew 
 that they knew it; yet the Albanians salaamed and 
 declared : 
 
 "Indeed, we are the Padishah s most devoted sub 
 jects as are all the Albanians." 
 
 It was an even more stupendous lie than his, and
 
 78 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 the Pasha could not let them outdo him without a 
 struggle. 
 
 "Not only are the Albanians, as you say, the most 
 devoted subjects of the Shadow of Allah on Earth, 
 but I have myself heard the Lord of All True Believers 
 say that he loved the Albanians above all his other 
 subjects." 
 
 Not one of the Karadji brothers spoke. They 
 could not hope to cap this climax. They salaamed 
 again, and the Pasha salaamed. 
 
 Then Trajah s father asked: 
 
 "What retribution is to be made to us for this ar 
 rest?" 
 
 The Pasha was prepared to be generous. 
 
 "The Karadji brothers shall be exempt from sheep 
 toll this year." 
 
 "Then there will be more sheep to eat down the 
 grass," observed the youngest brother. 
 
 The Pasha waved a lordly hand. 
 
 "Let this year be free also from the grass tax." 
 
 The Karadji brothers salaamed, and the Pasha sa 
 laamed in his turn, and they united in declaring that 
 there was but one God and Mahomet was his prophet. 
 
 After this utterance the Pasha pulled his velvet 
 rope thrice, and to this signal five attendants re 
 sponded, ceremoniously bringing pipes on brass trays. 
 The tchibouk-tchis, or pipe-men, were the most showy 
 servants of rich Turkish households. Their sole occu-
 
 CAJOLING THE ALBANIAN CHIEFS 79 
 
 pation was the cleaning and polishing of pipes, and 
 inventing ceremonious ways of presenting them to 
 the master and his guests. The tchibouk-tchis of the 
 Pasha of Albania had been chosen with great care for 
 their appearance as well as for their dexterity. They 
 made a startling picture as they slowly advanced in 
 perfect step. Their trousers were a vivid green, their 
 bright red jackets embroidered in silver. Their ex 
 tended right hands supported the brass trays on which 
 were the pipes; their left hands were kept behind their 
 backs. All five came to a stop at the same instant be 
 fore the respective guests. Their left hands simul 
 taneously struck matches, and five flames were pre 
 sented to the five smokers. Then, walking backward, 
 always in step, they retreated to the wall, and waited 
 to present the second pipe. 
 
 The Albanian chiefs and the Pasha smoked in si 
 lence. Each minute the latter expected Trajah s 
 father to refer to his daughter s disappearance and 
 to solicit his host s help in recovering her. The Pasha 
 was rehearsing in his mind the expression of horror 
 his face would assume, the words he would utter, and 
 the furious way in which he would pull the velvet rope 
 and summon his general. He had prepared the atti 
 tude in which he would order several battalions to 
 search the mountains, and the voice in which he would 
 offer a reward of a thousand pounds to the one who 
 should bring tidings of the missing girl.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHAT THE PASHA THOUGHT OF HIMSELF 
 
 THE Pasha prided himself on knowing the Albani 
 ans, yet he overlooked the fact that the Karadjis 
 under no circumstances brought their grievances to 
 the authorities of a government they mistrusted and 
 hugely despised. When a wrong was committed upon 
 a Karadji, the men took to their arms, and went out 
 to right it; and they did not return until this was 
 accomplished, or until blood enough had been shed to 
 cleanse the stain. Now, one pipe after another was 
 finished, and the Pasha of Albania in vain waited for 
 the Karadjis to refer to the girl s disappearance. He was 
 baffled, and irritated that his preparations should be 
 wasted. 
 
 At length the Karadjis intimated that, since they 
 were in town, they would like with the permission 
 of the Pasha to go and make some purchases. 
 Meanwhile he could have the cadi draw up the papers 
 which would free them from the sheep and grass toll 
 for that year. The Pasha invited the chiefs to make 
 use of his official carriages and to return to him for the 
 midday meal. Although the Karadjis despised the 
 authorities, they were not displeased to receive at 
 tentions which made it clear to the public that the
 
 81 
 
 Governor of Albania was anxious to curry favor with 
 them. It proved that he feared them. They accepted 
 both his offers. 
 
 As soon as the chiefs departed, the Pasha sent for 
 the cadi, and, to do him justice, did not draw up the 
 papers so as to leave himself a loophole. However, he 
 had the cadi calculate the amount he was losing, in 
 order that he might extract it from some one else. 
 
 The worthy Pasha permitted himself a quiet half- 
 hour of meditation and repose, when his affairs had 
 progressed thus far. He felt that he had well earned 
 it. Had any one ventured to tell him that he was a 
 bad man, he would have been unmitigated ly sur 
 prised and had he believed the accusation just 
 not a little disturbed. He lived in an age, and in a 
 nation, where certain qualities led to preferment and 
 power. Small wonder that he esteemed them highly, 
 and considered himself a thoroughly worthy man 
 as men went. His dexterity of mind and invention, 
 his agility in using his tongue to extricate himself 
 from dangerous predicaments and to further his 
 schemes, were to him the powers of an able man, and 
 he rejoiced in the exercise of them as a wrestler re 
 joices in the exercise of his strength and skill. Had he, 
 with a niggardly use of his abilities, told the stupid 
 truth, he would have considered that he richly merited 
 the failure which he should expect. 
 
 From his present enterprise he anticipated great
 
 82 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 things. Little as he had seen of Trajah, and under 
 circumstances not calculated to show the brighter, 
 more winning side of her nature, he yet had no fear but 
 that, if she went to the Palace of her own free will, 
 she would attract and enthrall the Sultan. She had 
 all the delicate beauty of a bluebell of her own moun 
 tains; and to it she united charm and mind without 
 which mere beauty soon palls. If she looked upon him 
 as the benefactor of her country, and if the Sultan 
 came to hold him in high esteem for bringing him his 
 favorite wife, to what heights might he not aspire? 
 
 The Pasha felt himself in the full bloom of his 
 powers. It is true that his growing fat bothered him 
 a little. There had been a time, before Fortune marked 
 him as a favorite, when he had been strong and skill 
 ful in body as in mind. But though that time was 
 past, he still felt his mental powers as strong and 
 acute as ever, and he had risen to the plane where 
 mind alone counted. The strong bodies of others could 
 always be hired. 
 
 One move still had to be made before, at the mid 
 day meal, he could give himself up to the enjoyment of 
 his fiery Albanian guests. With the sigh of a fat man 
 at the necessity of motion, he struggled to his feet, 
 and waddled over for another interview with Trajah.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE BRIDE OP ALBANIA 
 
 w 
 
 "ITH the papers of the cadi in their pockets, 
 and comfortably replete with the food of 
 their recent host, the Karadji brothers were riding 
 toward their home that afternoon. In a mountain 
 pass a messenger awaited them, and delivered a letter 
 from Trajah to her father. 
 
 Like all Mahometans, Karadji Aga was supersti 
 tious, and believed in dreams and birth-signs. When 
 he read that Trajah had been called by Allah to fulfill 
 her destiny, a destiny she must for the present 
 keep a secret even from her father, he accepted 
 her word without question. Trajah asked that her 
 nurse be sent to her with the bearer of her letter, and 
 her father only regretted that she was not asking 
 for more slaves and gold. 
 
 Trajah also wrote a letter, to be given to the man 
 whose bride she was to have been that same year. 
 It was a pathetic little note, written by a girl whose 
 heart was breaking, but who had the courage to live for 
 her country. She told him that she would always 
 love him, but that Albania was demanding this sac 
 rifice from her, and she was doing what she was sure 
 he would have done, had he been asked to give her up
 
 84 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 for his country. And she begged him to marry her 
 younger sister, whose betrothed had been killed in an 
 encounter with the Turks, and whose period of 
 mourning would soon be over. 
 
 Then she wrote: 
 
 "The girdle I was embroidering for you I shall take 
 with me. If I fail in my mission, and if Albania needs 
 your arms, wherever I am I shall finish it, and it will 
 reach you, even if I have to bring it to you myself and 
 if I have to walk the whole distance." 
 
 Her hand trembled as she added what she felt he 
 ought to know something which had come to her 
 own knowledge only a few days ago. 
 
 "Allah has willed that my sister should be pining 
 for you. When this was first revealed to me, I thought 
 Allah was cruel. Now I know that he meant me to 
 leave you, and in his great benevolence he arranged 
 that another woman should make a home for you, 
 and rest your weary head on a breast throbbing with 
 great love for you." 
 
 Trajah s pen remained in the air while she wondered 
 whether the first kiss he would give would be for her 
 or for his bride. 
 
 A pang shot through her at the thought that her 
 sister would make him forget her; but deep in her 
 heart Trajah was a mystic. She extended her slender 
 arms, palms upward, toward Allah, praying that the 
 man she loved, and the sister who loved him, might be
 
 THE BRIDE OF ALBANIA 85 
 
 happy together. She had not read the tragic life of the 
 Greek maiden Iphigenia, but she repeated similar 
 words to hers: - 
 
 " For I am wedded to Albania ! " 
 
 Trajah s bruises healed quickly. She was bathed 
 in milk, and the salve of fresh cucumbers was applied 
 to her. In a fortnight she was entirely well. There 
 was not a flaw in the white alabaster of her skin, not 
 a mark on the velvet of her flesh. Young and exquisite 
 as a May morning rose, she was ready for the sacri 
 fice. With her unfinished belt, her nurse, and a mag 
 nificent retinue provided by the Governor of Albania 
 she left her country and went to the Palace of the 
 Sultan.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 TRAJAH SULTANA 
 
 fTlHERE is nothing lovelier in the world than the 
 JL month of June in Turkey. It is then that the 
 sea and the earth and the sky bedeck themselves in 
 their most radiant colors: then the blue is bluer, the 
 green greener, and the yellow becomes gold. Myriads 
 of fragrant roses blossom everywhere. Here they 
 grow on single stems, there in clusters large as small 
 trees, while again they clamber gracefully over trel 
 lises. Now they hold their heads proudly high; again 
 they bend downward, as if to caress the mortals who 
 pass by them. The delicate, bridal jasmine puts 
 forth clouds of its starlike blossoms, and all the rest 
 of the flower creation comes forth in unison, to offer 
 its color and fragrance to this festival of the earth. 
 
 Birds of colors as brilliant as the flowers, of all 
 sizes, and piping various tunes, flock from all points 
 of the compass to participate in Nature s great sym 
 phony. And the zephyrs, hurrying from the Black 
 Sea and the Marmora, from the Mediterranean and 
 the Dardanelles, have but one trysting-place the 
 Golden Horn. Animated by the freshness and mischief 
 of their youth, they rush about the city of seven hills, 
 self -constituted buglers of the Goddess Demetra.
 
 87 
 
 In the year 1861, the month of June seemed to be 
 trying to excel all its predecessors in loveliness. Na 
 ture was doing her best fora country rapidly advancing 
 toward civilization. Sultan Abdul Medjid had ful 
 filled the promise of his youth. So well had he carried 
 on the reforms of Sultan Mahmoud that, after he had 
 reigned fourteen years, Lord Palmers ton declared in 
 the House of Commons that Turkey had made more 
 progress in the last twenty years than any other 
 country. 
 
 Yet toward the end of this month an unaccount 
 able sense of foreboding came over the people. They 
 walked with muffled tread; they talked in whispers. 
 
 Then suddenly that which had been brooding over 
 the city broke forth into an anguished cry. From one 
 end of the Empire to the other the news traveled, as 
 the lightning darts across the sky, then falls crashing. 
 
 Sultan Abdul Medjid was no more! 
 
 He was dead, and his people mourned him with 
 extreme abandonment of grief. Did they intuitively 
 feel that with him died the hope of Ottoman re 
 generation? Did they by miraculous prescience fore 
 see the resumption of oppression and cruelty, and of 
 their national decline? 
 
 In a magnificent apartment, furnished with all the 
 sumptuousness of the East, the great Sultan was 
 lying, sleeping his last sleep. A young woman kneeled
 
 88 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 by his side, her hand still clasped in the cold hand of 
 the dead. She was softly sobbing with that sorrow 
 which contains more than the loss of a loved one, 
 which contains the abandonment of great hopes. 
 
 That woman was the Albanian Trajah, now Trajah 
 Sultana, the youngest and favorite wife of the dead 
 monarch. Ever since her entrance into the Palace, 
 six years ago, she had reigned supreme. She had 
 come to the Ottoman capital holding in her heart the 
 image of another man. Then, miracles of miracles, a 
 year had not gone by when that image had become 
 blurred and gradually the face of the Sultan took its 
 place. Indeed, Trajah had come to love him with a 
 love that is rarely given to despots. And now, while 
 their love was still young and strong, her imperial hus 
 band, hardly thirty-eight years old, was lying dead. 
 
 During the six years of her wifehood six years 
 in which she had not only possessed the ardent love 
 of her husband, but had shared his dreams and ambi 
 tions for the regeneration of his country the un 
 tamed Albanian girl had learned that to be a good 
 monarch, just and kind, was far more difficult than 
 she had any conception of when she had schemed and 
 plotted against the rule of that monarch in her wild 
 mountains. They had talked together daily, planning 
 for a juster government, not only for her Albania, but 
 for every part of his dominion, unhappy under mis 
 management.
 
 TRAJAH SULTANA 89 
 
 Now he was lying dead, beyond the reach of earthly 
 reforms and hopes. Death had come quickly, cruelly, 
 and the woman remained kneeling, her hand growing 
 cold and stiff in the warmthless hand of the man 
 whose blood a few hours before had throbbed with 
 love for her and for his people. 
 
 No one disturbed her. They would fain leave the 
 dead monarch and his favorite wife alone together 
 as long as might be. She remained thus for a long 
 time. She lived over and over the six years of her 
 wedded life. She saw the Sultan standing by her bed, 
 when she gave him a son, a year after her marriage. 
 He had loved this son better than any of his other 
 sons. "We shall make a good ruler of him when his 
 turn comes," he often said. 
 
 The thought of little Medjid lessened her sorrow. 
 Yes, through him the father s work some day should 
 be carried on; through him the father should live again. 
 She did not think of the daughter recently born to 
 her. A girl counts for so little in the East, even when 
 she is an imperial princess. She loved her tenderly, 
 but it was her son who was her treasure. 1 
 
 As her mind dwelt on him, life became normal 
 again. She rose to her feet. With some effort she dis 
 engaged her hand from that of her husband. Bending 
 over him she spoke, as if he could hear her. 
 
 "Sultan Medjid, my lord and husband, I swear to 
 thee that I shall bring thy son up to be worthy of
 
 90 
 
 thee, and when his time comes to rule over his people, 
 he shall do so as thou wouldst wish him to." 
 
 She kissed the hand she had held in her own; then 
 with head erect, and noble resolve in every movement, 
 she left him, queen regent of his hopes. 
 
 From his apartment she passed into that of her 
 son. Her work for the dead was done: her work for 
 the living lay before her. On a bed, golden of frame, 
 its coverlet of golden threads and embroidered with 
 jewels, her son was lying her son, who was to be 
 a great Ottoman monarch, and good to Albania. 
 
 She approached carefully, not to disturb his sleep. 
 With maternal pride, mingled with reverence for the 
 future sultan, she raised her palms aloft and thanked 
 Allah for this precious gift. Her face was transfigured 
 by the divine love of motherhood. She laid her hand 
 gently on the costly coverlets, which the child in its 
 sleep seemed to have pulled up over its head. A 
 smile of anticipated joy parted her lips as her hand 
 touched him. In her mind s eye she already saw the dis 
 arranged, dark curls, the long black lashes, the mouth 
 crimson and dewy as a morning rose, the cheeks white 
 as a lily, yet tinted with pink. She would draw the 
 coverlets, and he would awake her young aslan. 
 His face would break into smiles at sight of her; his 
 childish arms would extend to her; he would draw her 
 head to his breast, and he would keep it there, while 
 his soft young body would nestle close to her. And
 
 TRAJAH SULTANA 91 
 
 he would lisp fervent words of love, which the man 
 first learns to whisper to his mother. 
 
 Her heart palpitating with love, she pulled the bed 
 clothes from the face of her son. But her hand re 
 mained, holding the golden coverlet. The divine light 
 fled from her face. The smile died a horrible death 
 on her drooping mouth. Her features changed, her 
 eyes were those of one demented. She stared and 
 stared at the motionless face of her son, which was 
 never again to be lit by a smile for his mother. For 
 little Medjid was dead as many an Ottoman prince 
 has died by the death of the bowstring, because he 
 who had just ascended the throne had found him 
 superfluous. 
 
 When the comprehension of what had happened 
 at last penetrated to her brain, Trajah, without a 
 sound, fell to the floor, never to rise again until that 
 day when she should come before her Maker, along 
 with the great martyrs of the earth, bringing to him 
 to judge her woman s heart, broken by the crudest 
 of sorrows.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ORKHAN S MOTHER 
 
 T RAJAH S nurse, as she had given her mistress 
 a mother s love, now gave her a mother s grief. 
 She longed for her old Albanian home; yet she stayed 
 on in the Palace to serve the little orphan Princess 
 Zarah. Among her dead mistress s belongings she 
 found an unfinished belt, such as Albanian women of 
 rank embroider for their warriors. When Princess 
 Zarah was fourteen years old, and in appearance and 
 in spirit resembled her mother, the faithful nurse, 
 feeling her death approaching, confided to her the 
 whole sad story of her mother, and gave into her keep 
 ing the unfinished Albanian belt. 
 
 In the depths of the imperial haremlik, Zarah 
 obscurely grew into womanhood. With no one to 
 love, her Albanian nature worshiped the memory of 
 her mother, and with her, Albania. So forgotten was 
 she by those in power that it seemed as if she were 
 doomed to celibacy; for she had already become nine 
 teen, and no one had taken the interest to arrange a 
 marriage for her. Then one day her half-brother, 
 Sultan Abdul Hamid, wished to bestow a mark of 
 favor upon a rising young statesman. He inquired 
 if there were not an imperial princess suitable in
 
 ORKHAN S MOTHER 93 
 
 age and attraction for marriage. It chanced that 
 Zarah alone, at the instant, filled these requirements. 
 From her seclusion and insignificance, Trajah s 
 daughter was brought forth and bestowed upon a 
 Turk already high in power and wealth. 
 
 It is not often that these imperial princesses are 
 welcome brides ; but Zarah s husband soon worshiped 
 her, and the love which united them, and the pride 
 they had in their little son, Orkhan, born to them a 
 year after their marriage, became famous in the serai. 
 
 At that time Sultan Abdul Hamid was entering upon 
 that disastrous period of his reign when he mistrusted 
 all those around him. He heard of the love which 
 united his young sister and her husband, and, suspi 
 cious of all, he feared even the love of husband and 
 wife. One night he sent for his brother-in-law. What 
 happened no one knows. Princess Zarah and his 
 five-year-old son never saw him again. 
 
 It was then that Trajah s daughter sent for an 
 Albanian teacher and learned the art of their em 
 broidery. With her own flowerlike fingers she finished 
 that warrior s belt which her mother had begun in the 
 mountains of Albania. She girded it on her son when 
 the lad was only thirteen, and made him take a vow to 
 avenge his father and be good to Albania. As if she had 
 only lived to transmit this heritage to her son, the 
 Princess, a few months later, was laid to sleep by the 
 side of her mother.
 
 94 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 A cypress tree grows between the two graves, and 
 the old gravekeeper tells to those who will listen to 
 his tales that a pair of birds from the mountains of 
 Albania come every spring to build their nest on that 
 one tree, and to keep the sleeping company with their 
 plaintive songs. 
 
 And now Orkhan, the son of Princess Zarah, stood, 
 leaning over the balustrade of his balcony, lost in 
 thought. More than an hour ago Hakir Pasha and 
 Halil Bey, the Greek Righo and Tzavat Bey had left 
 him, and during that long hour Orkhan, who wore 
 an Albanian belt, and Orkhan the Turk had been in 
 conflict. 
 
 The stars above twinkled brightly. They could 
 have told a great deal to Orkhan, had they wished, 
 but, like all those who dwell on the heights, they 
 little concerned themselves in the troubles of those 
 beneath them. And below him the patient sea flip- 
 flapped against the walls of his house, while Orkhan 
 remained a prey to his thoughts. 
 
 An undefinable sadness was over him, that sadness 
 which is the heritage of those who belong to the East. 
 His mind traveled from the present to the past, to the 
 two Albanian women who were as brave as they were 
 beautiful, but who were crushed because they were 
 too little and their task too great. And to those 
 women of the past came one of the present, neither
 
 ORKHAN S MOTHER 95 
 
 dark-haired nor brown-eyed, like the women of his 
 family, nor did she speak to him of vows and revenge. 
 Hers was a face crowned with golden hair, her eyes 
 were made for laughter, for life, and for love. 
 
 Orkhan shook his head, frowning at this trend of his 
 thoughts. What had that golden girl of the West to 
 do with him, Orkhan of the Albanian belt, Orkhan the 
 Young Turk? There was work to be done work 
 which he had vowed, and which he wished to perform. 
 He forced his thoughts to come back to the present 
 situation, to Hakir Pasha and the promise he had 
 given him. What would the other leaders say to 
 Hakir s demands? What really was in the minds and 
 in the hearts of most of the leaders? He wondered if 
 the unity of Turkey could be effected as Hakir wished, 
 or if the diverse nationalities which composed Turkey 
 would become a hindrance to her regeneration. 
 
 While his mind pondered on these different phases 
 of the problem, his hand unconsciously rested on the 
 Albanian belt which he always wore concealed beneath 
 his clothes, more as a remembrance of his mother 
 than as a pledge to Albania; for, although his mother 
 had taught him to love Albania, Orkhan was an Otto 
 man, and believed in the supremacy of the Ottoman 
 race. He held his head high because he was an Os- 
 manli and because in his veins was the blood of Oth- 
 man, whose descendants had once been as great rulers 
 as any history could show.
 
 96 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 Orkhan had thrown in his lot with the Young Turks, 
 in the first place, animated by the spirit of revenge 
 bequeathed him by his mother. Gradually, however, 
 this had become a secondary consideration: the love 
 of his country and the desire for its regeneration had 
 grown to be the dominant motive. In overthrowing 
 the tyrannical form of government, the difficulties 
 of the present had, till now, been enough. On this 
 night the demands of to-morrow were thrust before 
 him. Orkhan was a dreamer and an idealist. He had 
 believed that all those who were working in the cause 
 of Young Turkey had, like him, one aim, the making 
 of Turkey into a country just to all her subjects. The 
 counter-currents had been forced upon his notice to 
 night by Hakir Pasha and Halil Bey. There were 
 rancor and hatred in the tones of the one; there was 
 fanatic passion in the tones of the other. He had never 
 doubted till now that Turkey regenerated would mean 
 Albania well governed, Armenians well treated, and 
 Greeks sharing in the government; and all, because 
 they would be contented, forgetting their diverse na 
 tionalities. He who had only looked on the purely 
 ethical side of the situation, was now facing the side 
 of the average man, of the factionist, the small-minded 
 patriot. 
 
 "I shall see the leaders," he murmured. "I shall 
 find out what they think." 
 
 He left the terrace and came back into his room.
 
 ORKHAN S MOTHER 97 
 
 For a time he worked on over his maps and papers. 
 When he put them away and went to bed, and just 
 as sleep was coming to him, all his cares dropped from 
 him. The great problems of his country retreated. 
 Hakir and Halil vanished ; and Orkhan found him 
 self by a garden full of flowers and the music of birds; 
 and she who bade him enter was a girl with golden 
 hair, and her eyes spoke of laughter, of life, and of 
 love.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 RIGHO S SISTER 
 
 MILLICENT sat in the window of her room in her 
 uncle s house, idly regarding the little waves of 
 the Bosphorus ruffling along before a light northern 
 breeze, as if they had not a second to spare on this 
 lovely summer morning. 
 
 "They re in a mighty hurry, "she reflected. Then, 
 after another long survey of them: "Well, they re 
 the only things I ve seen here that are." 
 
 Presently, though nothing in the scene would seem 
 to warrant it, she frowned slightly and murmured: 
 "Anyway, I think it was very rude of him." 
 
 Her thoughts had gone back to the hero of her ad 
 venture of a few days before. She had written him 
 a pretty note of thanks, and her uncle had supple 
 mented thanks with an invitation to luncheon. In 
 faultless English, Orkhan Effendi had replied to the 
 uncle, regretting that he was very busy and would be 
 unable to avail himself of the invitation. To her own 
 note he had made no reply. 
 
 Her frown changed to a W 7 himsical smile. 
 
 "He might at least have embraced the opportunity 
 to enter the bosom of a refined Christian family, even 
 if he did n t care to see me."
 
 RIGHO S SISTER 99 
 
 The hot weather and the conditions of the country 
 had forced Millicent into a sort of apathetic lazi 
 ness. To-day was cooler, and her nature revolted 
 at this idleness so foreign to her. She wished, like 
 the waves, to be doing something ; like them to be 
 hurrying toward some goal. Yet the hard part was 
 where to begin, in this land of latticed windows, 
 closed doors, and high-walled gardens. If Orkhan 
 Effendi had only come to see her, he might have 
 helped her. 
 
 Again she frowned at the thought of him. She was 
 surprised and in a measure displeased by the constant 
 reverting of her thoughts to him. It was true that he 
 was a remarkable man; but that was no reason why 
 she should sit for hours thinking about him and his 
 affairs. She excused herself by saying that his aims 
 were similar to hers. From him she might obtain a 
 truer insight into the conditions here than she could 
 from an outsider, like her uncle, or even from a man 
 like Sir Mohr MacGreggor, with his cynical outlook 
 on life. But what was the use of thinking about 
 Orkhan Effendi, if he would not come near her? 
 
 "Well, I had better write some letters," she said 
 at length with a sigh. "They re piling up." 
 
 She walked over to her desk, which was by another 
 window, looking out on the driveway. Her attention 
 was arrested by a high cart, between whose shafts 
 pranced a nervous Arabian horse, perfectly managed
 
 100 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 by a young girl. Millicent recognized in the man be 
 side the fair whip the Greek, Mr. Righo. 
 
 A few minutes later the maid brought her their 
 cards : M. Nikolas Paparighopoulos, Mile. Elpis Papa- 
 righopoulos. 
 
 " Elpis rather a pretty name! " thought Milli 
 cent. "I hope she s as nice as her brother." 
 
 As she went into the darkened drawing-room, a girl 
 all in white rose quickly and came toward her. Al 
 though so slender as almost to be boyish in figure and 
 unusually tall, Elpis yet startled the eye with her 
 beauty of form. She produced an impression of in 
 tense living. She seemed a flame, burning in pure 
 oxygen, imprisoned in a woman s form. 
 
 All this Millicent did not perceive at once. At first, 
 she was chiefly conscious of Elpis s luminous brown 
 eyes, shining in the semi-obscurity. 
 
 "Miss Grey," she exclaimed, "I just made my 
 brother bring me over this morning, because I be 
 came tired of waiting for him to find time in the after 
 noon." 
 
 "I m so glad you did. I was wondering when he 
 would keep his promise of letting me know you." 
 
 "I have already seen you," Elpis went on, "that 
 time you sprang upon the boat after it was going." 
 
 "I don t believe Elpis will ever quite forgive you for 
 that," Righo put in, as he was shaking hands with 
 Millicent. "She never did that herself, and is wildly
 
 RIGHO S SISTER 101 
 
 jealous. She has lain awake at night ever since, trying 
 to think of some more daring method of boarding a 
 steamer. I fancy she will try to make Caesarino take 
 the leap while she is on his back, and the worst of 
 it is he will do it." 
 
 "Nonsense, Niko," Elpis protested. "But I will 
 confess that I fell in love with you on the spot. And 
 when I heard that this lucky brother of mine had met 
 you well, I have given him no peace till he brought 
 me over to see you." 
 
 While Elpis was speaking, Millicent was taking 
 note of her guest. She had already seen several Greek 
 women, renowned as beauties of this capital, but 
 none of them possessed the undefinable gift of charm 
 in any such degree as did Elpis. Her waving hair she 
 wore loose and low on the neck, held by a gold clasp. 
 Her features were exquisite, as if cut by a master 
 hand; yet one hardly noticed them, so mobile were 
 they, so constantly lighted by the feeling within. 
 
 The hour she spent with her new Greek friends was 
 to Millicent the best she had yet had in Turkey. 
 There was a tomboyishness about Elpis which was 
 delightful, lacking as it did any trace of the vulgarity 
 which frequently goes with it. 
 
 They touched on nothing except the most casual 
 topics, yet Millicent knew that she liked the sister 
 quite as well as she had liked the brother. When they 
 rose to go Elpis said: -
 
 102 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 " We live on the Asiatic side of the river." Without 
 any apparent sequence of thought she added: "You 
 are as nice as you are pretty, and as interesting as you 
 are daring. Will you be friends with me?" 
 
 "I should love to," Millicent cried. 
 
 Elpis kissed her on both cheeks, and shaking her 
 hand vigorously said : 
 
 "Then it is a pact! And now, when are you coming 
 to stay several days with me?" 
 
 Millicent showed her surprise at this rapid progres 
 sion of affairs. 
 
 Righo laughed. 
 
 "Don t be alarmed," he said. "It is quite uncon 
 ventional, I know; but we are respectable, though 
 Elpis does a lot of things that scandalize our people. 
 She is a sort of persona grata." 
 
 "I am very rich, you know," Elpis explained sim 
 ply, "so they overlook my " she laughed "my 
 Americanisms, they call them. The mothers and sis 
 ters of marriageable young men are very kind to me, 
 and," with a sigh, "there are so many marriageable 
 young men." 
 
 Her humorous appreciation of herself as a matri 
 monial catch was irresistible, and Millicent laughed 
 till the tears came into her eyes. 
 
 "I suppose you will have to ask permission of 
 your aunt so I ll give you three days," Elpis went 
 on. "Then I will come over and fetch you in my boat."
 
 RIGHO S SISTER 103 
 
 "You can see, Miss Grey , that I have not succeeded 
 in bringing up my sister conventionally," Righo said. 
 
 Elpis gave a quick boyish laugh. 
 
 "You poor bear of a brother! Do you really take 
 the responsibility of my character on your shoulders, 
 simply because you are my legal guardian?" 
 
 Then her manner changed. Going swiftly to her 
 brother she put her hand on his breast, and said in 
 caressing tones that were a revelation of another 
 side of her nature: "You dear Niko!" 
 
 When the Greeks had gone, Millicent sank into a 
 comfortable chair, and there her aunt found her. 
 
 "I hear you have had visitors," the elder lady said 
 with interest. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Paparighopoulos and his sister were 
 here." 
 
 "How sorry I am to have missed them. I have 
 never met her. They call her dear me, what is it? 
 Oh, yes polyphernos nymphe* the much-bring 
 ing bride. They are very rich, and belong to one of 
 the old Phanariot families. The Phanariots seldom 
 call on any foreigners you must have made a 
 tremendous impression on Mr. Righo. She s very 
 eccentric and athletic, is n t she?" 
 
 "I thought her quite the most charming person I 
 have met in years," Millicent answered. "And she 
 did n t do any athletic stunts for me." 
 
 "I hope she will come again. I should love to meet
 
 104 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 her. One hears such extraordinary tales about her. 
 She keeps a stable on this side of the Bosphorus, as 
 well as on the other, so that she can always drive her 
 own horses. That s why they call her masculine, I 
 suppose." 
 
 "One stable being feminine and two masculine," 
 Millicent laughed. "She has asked me to make her 
 a visit, if you will graciously permit, and has given 
 me three days to reply to her her ultimatum." 
 
 "Really! Is that what she called it? Of course you 
 may go. It is so difficult to get into the houses of 
 those old Phanariots. They must be ridiculously be 
 hind the times, but very interesting, all the same." 
 
 Three days later, Elpis, unchaperoned, and dressed 
 in a simple linen suit, came for Millicent. 
 
 "May I keep her for a week?" she asked of Mrs. 
 Appleby, with charming deference. 
 
 "Indeed you may," the latter replied cordially. 
 
 Elpis had driven up with the same nervous Arabian. 
 
 : This is Altheon," she said, before getting into the 
 trap, in the manner of performing an introduction. 
 
 The horse pawed the ground and thrust forward his 
 nose for a pat from his mistress. 
 
 : You will meet Caesarino on the other side," Elpis 
 continued as they were driving off. " Poor Altheon, he 
 gets so restless and lonely on this side, without seeing 
 me every day. Sometimes for a week he only has Er- 
 togroul to talk to. I believe I will petition the Sultan
 
 RIGHO S SISTER 105 
 
 to let me put in one of your wonderful American tele 
 phones, so that I can talk to him every day in his 
 stall. Don t you think that would make him more 
 contented?" 
 
 She spoke with absolute seriousness, and Milli- 
 cent in the same tone replied : 
 
 "In case the Sultan does not consent to a telephone, 
 you might keep a phonograph in the stall. You could 
 talk long talks into it, and have your groom grind 
 them off to Altheon. He could also soothe him with 
 records of the opera. Is Altheon fond of the opera?" 
 
 Elpis burst out laughing. 
 
 "Ah! you are making fun of me. I don t believe 
 you consider a horse a human being." 
 
 At one of the landings on the Bosphorus, a slim 
 caique, red-awninged, and manned by three rowers 
 in white pembezar and red silk sashes, was awaiting 
 them. 
 
 "I thought you would rather go this way than by 
 steamer," Elpis said. " It is only about an hour s row." 
 
 A caiktshi sprang out and helped Millicent into the 
 boat. 
 
 Elpis turned to take leave of her horse. 
 
 "Good-bye, Altheon dear." She put her cheek 
 next to the horse s. "I shall see you soon again." 
 
 The caique leaped forth upon the little waves of 
 the Bosphorus, and swiftly drew near the other shore. 
 It seemed to the American girl nearer a half than a
 
 106 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 full hour. before they came to the Paparighopoulos 
 landing. 
 
 With a lively sense of curiosity she stepped from 
 the boat, and walked with her hostess up the wooded 
 path to the house. Her vague ideas of Oriental luxury 
 were disappointed when the villa itself came into view. 
 
 It was a spacious but simple wooden structure, 
 painted white, with red awnings at the windows. 
 There were several porches, covered and uncovered, 
 and, although the house suggested comfort, it cer 
 tainly lacked splendor. 
 
 As they reached the steps, Elpis held out her hand 
 to Millicent. 
 
 "Welcome!" she said. "May your stay here bring 
 you happiness. * 
 
 At that instant a black cloud passed over the sun. 
 
 "Wait! Don t move a step!" Elpis cried. 
 
 Taken aback, Millicent stopped abruptly. 
 
 The Greek girl laughed. "It s nothing, only I did 
 not want you to touch the house while it was under a 
 cloud. Now it has gone. May it take all bad fortune 
 with it!" She extended her hand to Millicent again. 
 "Come, and welcome!" 
 
 Hand in hand they mounted the steps, and passed 
 through a large hall up the stairs to the second floor. 
 Elpis conducted her guest to the rooms assigned her. 
 
 "Here is your domain, my American friend. Here 
 you command, and you are obeyed. Au revoir, now."
 
 RIGHO S SISTER 107 
 
 The rooms were furnished in a way that seemed 
 bare to Millicent. There was nothing more than one 
 might find in an American household of moderate 
 means, where the mistress was an uncommonly 
 good housekeeper. The rugs alone came up to her 
 expectations. They were Persian, old and rich. 
 
 A few minutes after her arrival, a maid entered with 
 a tray on which were a jar of preserves, teaspoons, and 
 a glass of water. 
 
 Millicent hesitated, not knowing exactly what she 
 was expected to do. 
 
 "Will mademoiselle not taste?" the maid asked 
 in French. 
 
 Millicent took a spoonful of the preserves, and a 
 delicious aroma like attar of roses pervaded her whole 
 being. 
 
 "I forgot to warn you," said Elpis, entering the 
 room, "of our custom of greeting a guest with sweet 
 meats. Only a few of the old-fashioned families, like 
 ourselves, keep it up now though they still do it 
 in the middle classes." 
 
 "Do tell me where you get those candied rose- 
 leaves," Millicent asked. "I never tasted anything 
 quite so delicious." 
 
 "Come out into the gardens and I will show you." 
 
 Elpis linked her arm in Millicent s, and took her 
 out behind the house. Again the American was sur 
 prised; for if the house was marked by plainness, the
 
 108 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 gardens had all the luxuriousness that any imagina 
 tion could picture. One of them was entirely given 
 over to roses, planted as methodically in rows as an 
 orchard. 
 
 "We call these the roses-of -sweets, and they are 
 raised solely for making that confection," Elpis 
 said. 
 
 Here the scent of the roses was overpowering, and 
 always afterwards the heavy scent of roses recalled 
 to Millicent this Greek household and the events 
 which followed on her visit to it.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE STEPSONS OF TURKEY 
 
 W""HEN Millicent came down for luncheon her 
 host was in the hall, and with him three 
 young Greeks. Righo greeted her by touching her 
 hand with his lips, and then presented his friends, 
 M. Aravantinos, M. Spatharis, and M. Negrepontis. 
 
 Elpis s white-clad figure appeared in the doorway 
 of the dining-room. 
 
 "To luncheon, children!" she called. 
 
 It was a simple meal, simply served. Evidently 
 these men came together not to eat rich food, but to 
 talk with each other while they were eating. Their 
 conversation was of politics politics of the world 
 at large, but chiefly as they affected Greece and 
 Turkey. 
 
 It became evident to the American girl, as she 
 listened to their talk, that these Greeks, born and 
 brought up in Turkey, whose fathers and forefathers 
 had been Turkish subjects, and who had made their 
 fortunes in the land now belonging to the Turks, 
 were living with their faces turned toward the Acro 
 polis. They were disloyal to the banner under which 
 they were born, but loyal to death to that other one 
 which represented the fatherland to them.
 
 110 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 What surprised Millicent above all was the freedom 
 with which they spoke of their hopes. 
 
 "Are you not afraid," she asked, laughing, "that 
 I may be a spy?" 
 
 Her host echoed her laugh, but his was fraught with 
 that pathos which is the attribute of the thinking 
 Greeks who are still subject to Turkey. 
 
 "Miss Grey," he protested, "suffering teaches men, 
 as well as animals, to recognize their friends and their 
 enemies, at once. You could not be an enemy: you 
 come directly from Heaven, to remind us, perhaps, 
 that all our differences are earthly, and that in the 
 world to come we shall all be brothers, with only one 
 flag to love." 
 
 "And that flag will be blue, with a white cross on 
 it," cried Negrepontis, caressing his silky beard. 
 
 "What is the matter with some red stripes and a few 
 stars?" Millicent asked teasingly. 
 
 "That makes a beautiful flag, I grant," admitted 
 the Greek; "but it is the flag of a daughter. The 
 mother must have precedence." 
 
 "And the crimson flag with the white crescent 
 what will you do with it?" Elpis inquired. 
 
 "It is not crimson," Aravantinos replied. "It is 
 blood red. If Hell needs a flag, let it have it." 
 
 Millicent shuddered at the ferocity in his voice, 
 and the face of Orkhan, the Young Turk, came clearly 
 before her. Could he bring about the regeneration of
 
 THE STEPSONS OF TURKEY 111 
 
 his country, when those who ought to be his brothers 
 spoke like this? 
 
 "Turkey is your country your mother, in a way, 
 is she not?" she asked. 
 
 " Our mother - Aravantinos gave the suggestion 
 consideration. "No, Miss Grey, Turkey is not our 
 mother, not our country. It might have been so ; and 
 we might in time have learned to look upon Turkey as 
 our fatherland, if this had been permitted us by the 
 conqueror." 
 
 "But surely the Turks wish you to love Turkey, 
 and to look upon it as your country?" 
 
 Aravantinos shook his head, his eyes sparkling 
 with resentment. 
 
 "No! The Turks have never permitted us to look 
 upon the land, which for hundreds of years belonged 
 to us, in any other light except as their country. They 
 forbid us the privilege of defending her as soldiers, 
 and they refuse us the right of equal citizenship. We 
 are here solely on sufferance." 
 
 "Don t you know, Miss Grey," Righo went on, 
 "that it is essential for a people to have a national 
 ideal. The Turks have denied us the right to love 
 Turkey so we love Greece." 
 
 Spatharis explained the situation a little further. 
 
 "When the Turkish armies returned victorious from 
 war, the Greeks were not allowed to participate in the 
 national rejoicings; and when the armies returned
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 in defeat, if the Greeks dared to show any sympathy, 
 it was bitterly resented. You do not believe that for 
 five hundred years we should have kept our hatred 
 for the Turks so vivid, if they did nothing to keep it 
 alive?" 
 
 "You have, then, no affection for them at all?" 
 Millicent asked, remembering what Righo had told 
 her about Orkhan. 
 
 "Oh yes, we love individuals among them," replied 
 her host, "and we recognize the many superb quali 
 ties of the race; but we have suffered too much at their 
 hands to love them as a whole." 
 
 "Still you work with them for the regeneration of 
 Turkey?" 
 
 "We do so," said Aravantinos in his vehement way, 
 "because we trust that when a constitution shall be 
 granted to the country, Turkey will belong as much 
 to the Greeks as it does to the Turks." 
 
 A peal of laughter from Elpis made them all turn 
 their eyes on her. 
 
 "My poor misguided Greeks! When are you going 
 to learn not to trust the Turks. Do you really be 
 lieve that if ever there is a constitution the Young 
 Turks will present you Turkey on a platter? If you 
 were far-seeing, you would work for Turkey s com 
 plete demoralization, rather than for its regeneration. 
 The Turks may have admirable qualities, but they 
 keep them for their homes and their guests they
 
 THE STEPSONS OF TURKEY 113 
 
 never bring them into their national life. As a race 
 they belong to Asia : they have no business in Europe." 
 
 She pushed back her chair and rose to her feet. 
 
 "Let s have coffee on the terrace; and don t talk 
 any more politics. I don t wish you to tire my friend."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 SMOKING LAMPS 
 
 AFTER the men had gone away, Elpis linked her 
 arm in that of Millicent, saying, "Come! Let 
 us go up to the eastern porch, where it is coolest at 
 this time of day." 
 
 There were long chairs for reclining, and when the 
 two were comfortably seated, the Greek girl asked 
 abruptly: - 
 
 "How did you like our guests?" 
 
 "I thought them charming." 
 
 Elpis made a face. "When I ask you a question, 
 please don t put me off with the conventionally 
 proper reply." 
 
 "But don t you think they are, Elpis?" 
 
 "If you mean that they have good manners, and 
 wear their clothes well, yes, I agree with you. But 
 what do you think of them as human beings? They 
 are my suitors, you know. " 
 
 "How can I tell? I have only seen them to-day." 
 
 You must learn to judge quickly. Life is too 
 short." 
 
 "Can you judge a person the first time you see 
 him?" 
 
 "Yes. We Greeks generally do."
 
 SMOKING LAMPS 115 
 
 "And you are never mistaken?" 
 
 "Sometimes. But what does it matter, if oftener 
 we are not? Now I made up my mind about you that 
 day on the boat." 
 
 "Just from an athletic stunt?" 
 
 "Not at all. Athletic stunts are something of a na 
 tional vice with you Americans. While you were ab 
 sorbed in the landscape, I studied you. And I found 
 out a great deal about you some things, perhaps, 
 which even you yourself don t know." 
 
 The American girl laughed. "Really! What are 
 they?" 
 
 "I watched some one else, too: Orkhan Effendi. 
 He was watching you." 
 
 At the unexpected mention of this name, Millicent, 
 to her annoyance, felt her cheeks reddening. 
 
 "He was very good to me that day," she re 
 marked. 
 
 "Yes, I know. My brother told me. Have you 
 seen him since?" 
 
 "No. My uncle wrote and asked him to luncheon, 
 but he declined the invitation." 
 
 "That was very decent of him." 
 
 Millicent turned, surprised, to her hostess. 
 
 "Decent! Why?" 
 
 "Because of all the unhappy things one sees in this 
 country, a love-affair between you two would be the 
 saddest.
 
 116 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "How very Oriental you are, Elpis! Cannot two 
 people see each other without falling in love? I 
 have as many men friends in America as I have 
 girls." 
 
 "Yes in America. American men are wonderful 
 they are unique. If Orkhan came to see you, it 
 would not be for friendship." 
 
 "And why do you take it for granted that if he 
 made love to me, I " 
 
 Elpis did not reply to the unfinished question. 
 
 "You made more than a little impression on Ork 
 han Effendi, that day, and he knew that it was 
 wiser to stay away. Not many men would have 
 had the decency to do so, whether it were wiser 
 or not." 
 
 Millicent would not be put off. Working herself 
 into a bit of temper, she persisted : 
 
 if You have n t told me yet why you look on me as 
 a little woolly lamb, ready to love any one who gives 
 me a pat." 
 
 "I said before that there were many things about 
 you which you yourself did n t know. One of them is 
 that the primitive woman in you if she ever rules 
 will give you trouble. Orkhan Effendi is just the man 
 to awake that primitive woman, and who would 
 defend you against her? " 
 
 "You forget that I am an American girl, and that 
 we are capable of taking care of ourselves. I think
 
 SMOKING LAMPS 117 
 
 we are more intellectual and less physical than other 
 women." 
 
 For a while Elpis seemed absorbed in placing the 
 finger-tips of one hand with precision against the 
 finger-tips of the other. 
 
 Millicent watched her with some irritation. 
 
 "I don t think you believe me." 
 
 Elpis laughed. 
 
 "You are already influenced by the Greek atmos 
 phere. You begin to judge quickly. No, I do not believe 
 you. In every one of us, whether we be Eastern or 
 Western, there is a primitive creature, ready to answer 
 the call of Nature. If you American women do not 
 answer to this call, it is because your men do not 
 make it. They appeal to something higher in you, 
 and so the primitive woman becomes subservient. 
 But I have seen American women here, and when 
 they heard the call, how quickly they answered to it. 
 One, as nice as you, from the very best of your stock, 
 oh ! it was pitiful ! And the Turk in her case was 
 as inferior to Orkhan Effendi as a cart-horse is to 
 a thoroughbred. Ah! my dear Millicent, when the 
 storm rages, it is almost divine in its atrocity. If the 
 primitive woman ever wakes in you, come to me, for 
 you will need mothering." 
 
 In the dark eyes of the Greek girl burned a light, 
 which seemed only to reveal unfathomable depths. 
 But Millicent had become quite composed. The dis-
 
 118 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 cussion had done her good: it had convinced her of 
 her own strength. 
 
 In an instant Elpis s mood changed. She be 
 came again the laughing, slightly cynical girl that the 
 world knew. 
 
 "You know, my dear, if my brother were good 
 enough for you, I should do my best to make you my 
 sister. But he is a burned-out lamp." 
 
 " Why do you call him that? " 
 
 "Because he is. All those who were here to-day 
 are most of the Greeks of their class are, and those 
 who are not burned-out are smoking. They start burn 
 ing their oil foolishly from the time they are very 
 young. In a few years it is all gone. Every beautiful 
 emotion which God has given them to cultivate through 
 life, is forced and wasted in ten years. Then they settle 
 down and marry and make excellent husbands, 
 as excellence is considered in this part of the world. 
 But the girls who marry them are young, with all 
 life s gifts ready to blossom. They bring to their hus 
 bands the treasures of their hearts only to discover 
 that the men have no longer any use for them. That 
 is why we are the race we are to-day. We inherit the 
 Hellenic dreams which have kept our race alive for 
 so many centuries, in spite of conquests; but we do 
 not receive from our fathers strength to turn dreams 
 into action. I shall never marry." 
 
 "But there are other men "
 
 SMOKING LAMPS 119 
 
 "I do not believe in marrying out of my class, as 
 I do not believe in marrying out of my religion. 
 Neither matters but both matter a great deal. It 
 is the way a man worships his God and puts on his 
 gloves that makes him congenial or not to you."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A MODERN NAUSIKAA 
 
 THE perfume of flowers floated up on the light 
 morning breeze, in through the window of 
 Millicent s room, and caressed her in her sleep. The 
 singing of birds fell upon her unhearing ears, and 
 slowly, very slowly, made their way through sleep- 
 bound senses to her consciousness. She half awoke, 
 and in luxurious enjoyment kept herself from waking 
 further to a world which could not be so delicious as 
 this scented and musical borderland. 
 
 But this state of languorous contentment could not 
 last long in its perfect semi-consciousness, and with 
 a sigh of regret, she woke up fully to the sun-bathed 
 morning, and pulled the bell-rope at the head of her 
 bed. 
 
 The French maid appeared with magical prompt 
 ness, and presented her tray of sweets and fresh 
 water. 
 
 "I should like a bath," said Millicent. 
 
 "Mademoiselle Elpis is waiting for you." 
 
 And even as she was speaking, the Greek girl came 
 into the room. 
 
 "And how have we slept?" she inquired. 
 
 " Beautifully ! I should like to sleep it all over again.
 
 A MODERN NAUSIKAA 121 
 
 "And what bathing do you prefer salt, or 
 fresh? The Bosphorus is waiting, and fresh water is in 
 the house." 
 
 "I would rather have a fresh bath," Millicent an 
 swered, wondering a little how the bath would be 
 arranged. She had not seen a bathroom in the house. 
 
 "So would I, in the morning. In the afternoon 
 we can have sea-bathing. Now, come! I have been 
 waiting so that we might bathe together on this first 
 morning of yours in our house." 
 
 Millicent threw on a light wrapper and followed 
 Elpis. At the end of the hall the latter pushed open 
 a door, and motioned to Millicent to enter. 
 
 It was a small marble corridor, where the tempera 
 ture was certainly a hundred. From this they entered 
 a room in which the heat was still more intense. Its 
 walls were of unbroken marble, the light coming 
 through the ceiling of iridescent glass. A low marble 
 platform ran around three sides of the room, and 
 there were faucets over marble basins at intervals. 
 From the ceiling hung three silver candelabra, deco 
 rated with branches of laurel. 
 
 "What a lovely bathroom!" Millicent cried. Then 
 a misgiving seized her. 
 
 But of this the other girl was unaware. She stepped 
 out into the corridor, divested herself of her wraps, 
 and taking out her golden comb, let her dark hair fall 
 about her shoulders. Like a nymph from the forests
 
 of Olympus, she returned to the bathing-room. She 
 went from basin to basin, turning on the hot water. 
 Then taking a silver bowl she dipped up the water and 
 threw it on the marble floor, which slanted impercep 
 tibly. The water splashed and sang, and ran off the 
 platform in rivulets. From a pile of Greek laurel in 
 one corner of the room, Elpis chose a large branch. 
 She broke it into small pieces, and dipped these in 
 the hot water, and the aroma of laurel filled the room. 
 Fascinated, Millicent w r atched her. She was trans 
 ported back thousands of years to the time when 
 Greece led the world, and when her maidens, sur 
 rounded by their attendants, bathed in the Attic 
 streams. Every motion of the Greek girl was grace 
 itself, and her absolute disregard for clothing seemed 
 to the American the most exquisite thing she had ever 
 seen. For the first time in her life she realized that 
 there might be more innocence in nakedness than in 
 clothes. Elpis had not been taught to be ashamed of 
 her beautiful body, as Millicent had not been taught 
 to be ashamed of her face. And Millicent, who had 
 at first clung to her garments with prudish modesty, 
 now, as simply as Elpis, divested herself of them, and 
 entered the room.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 ELPIS ASKS FOR A SIGN 
 
 THEIR bath over, the two girls breakfasted. 
 Millicent went out on the porch, and Elpis to 
 her duties. Rich as she was, she had no housekeeper. 
 She saw to everything herself, from the cook to the 
 gardeners, and to the work of the most insignificant 
 servant in the house. 
 
 Her tasks accomplished, she came to the porch, 
 where Millicent sat reading. She threw herself on a 
 comfortable chair and asked: 
 
 "What is there in Turkey that you wish most to 
 see?" 
 
 "A harem." 
 
 "I did expect more originality of you. Every 
 * tripper who spends three days in Constantinople 
 wants to see a harem. Fortunately there are a few 
 whose occupants are as anxious to be seen as foreigners 
 are to see them. I will take you to one; but I confess 
 again, I am disappointed in you." 
 
 : Your Greek intuition plays you false this time. 
 I do not care to see a modernized harem. I wish to 
 know the real Turkish woman, and to understand her 
 psychology and her needs." 
 
 Elpis s big brown eyes studied Millicent.
 
 124 
 
 "You are my guest, and I should love to give you 
 pleasure; but the real Turkish women shrink from 
 being viewed, and dislike the idea of infidels crossing 
 their thresholds. I do not think mere curiosity excuse 
 to take you to such a harem." 
 
 "My object is not mere curiosity." 
 
 "If you wish to write about them, that is one rea 
 son the more why I should not take you. You will 
 misunderstand and misrepresent them." 
 
 "Elpis, I did not come to Constantinople just for 
 amusement," Millicent said earnestly. "I " she 
 hesitated. 
 
 Elpis curled herself up more comfortably in her 
 chair, and prepared to listen. 
 
 Millicent gave an embarrassed laugh. 
 
 "I don t know just how to say it so that it will not 
 sound stupid and pretentious; but I do not wish to 
 live just for the pleasure I can get out of life. I have 
 no father or mother, no brothers or sisters no obli 
 gations whatever, and like you I am rich. There is 
 no one around me who needs my help, and there is a 
 craving in me to do something for the world." 
 
 "Americans are very altruistic, are they not?" 
 Elpis observed in a ruminating voice. "They want 
 to get out and uplift the whole world. Is it because 
 you have so much yourselves or because you are 
 bored?" 
 
 Millicent frowned. She was not used to such blunt
 
 ELPIS ASKS FOR A SIGN 125 
 
 questions. They did not seem to her quite ladylike; 
 but Elpis being a lady could often dispense with being 
 ladylike. 
 
 "Suppose, now that you have told me a little," the 
 Greek girl continued, "y u tell me more." 
 
 "It is like this," Millicent said vehemently. "I 
 feel that we in America have so much light, so much 
 freedom, that I should like to bring a little of it to 
 those who have none." 
 
 Elpis again surveyed her friend with a tender and 
 whimsical smile. 
 
 " You wish, then, to help the Turkish women?" 
 
 "I do." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because they need it." 
 
 "They haven t asked for it, have they?" Elpis 
 suggested mildly. 
 
 "How can they ask for what they do not know 
 even exists?" 
 
 "And you wish to see a typical Turkish household 
 in order to learn how to set about bringing the light 
 of America to them?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 : You are funny but I like you. It is a great 
 thing to have a dream which embraces humanity. 
 It enlarges one s mind, one s soul. May I ask just 
 what your plans are?" 
 
 "Well er I don t know exactly," Millicent
 
 126 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 stammered. "In America I had no idea how difficult 
 it would be." 
 
 "How do you feel toward the Turks in general?" 
 
 "Of course I think they are a very inferior race." 
 
 "Did Orkhan Effendi strike you as an inferior 
 person?" 
 
 "N-o, but he must be an exception. One cannot 
 judge a race from an exception." 
 
 Elpis pondered for a minute. 
 
 "I don t know that I should call Orkhan Effendi 
 such a great exception. Good-looking, courteous, 
 chivalrous, a dreamer, all these qualities are com 
 monly found among the Turks. But just rouse him, 
 and you will find the barbarian in him as well as in 
 the rest of them. You wish to bring the light of Amer 
 ica to a race which for a thousand years has been con 
 tent to live in its own way." 
 
 "Perhaps that was because they did not know any 
 thing better." 
 
 "H m! Well, there is no harm in your trying. I 
 will take you, in a day or two, to a regular, old- 
 fashioned Turkish household. Meanwhile you might 
 read the history of Turkey, to let the past help you 
 with the future. I will lend you one." 
 
 The Greek girl rose and went over to the American. 
 She threw one arm around her shoulders, and leaning 
 over, kissed her. 
 
 "You see, I judged you rightly on the steamer.
 
 ELPIS ASKS FOR A SIGN 127 
 
 I knew that you were not only a pretty girl. But now 
 you must go upstairs and get ready for luncheon. 
 Niko will probably bring some one with him." 
 
 "More suitors?" 
 
 Elpis smiled. 
 
 "Why don t you tell your brother at once that you 
 have no intention of marrying? " 
 
 "What? Tell my brother that I am going to be an 
 old maid?" Elpis threw her arms heavenward in 
 despair. "It would kill him. In a family like ours, 
 renowned for the beauty of its women to have an 
 old maid ! You don t know how the Greeks feel about 
 such a calamity. They call her a letter without an 
 address/ and unclaimed at the post-office. The 
 average Greek girl would rather marry anybody than 
 remain an old maid." 
 
 Millicent sprang to her feet, laughing. 
 
 "Au revoir, my unclaimed letter. I go to dress." 
 
 Elpis did not go in with her guest. She lingered by 
 the balustrade of the terrace, looking up to where we 
 are told the Supreme Being holds his court. 
 
 "Ah, God," she murmured, "why do you make wo 
 men so frail, and then give them such big dreams? " 
 
 She remained, as if waiting for an answer. Thus had 
 Constantine the Great, Emperor of Constantinople, 
 once in perplexity asked a question of his Maker, 
 and the legend has it that a cross appeared in the 
 heavens, and the words "Under this be victorious."
 
 128 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 Elpis remembered the legend. Unconsciously she 
 joined her hands together, and, with upturned face, 
 waited. So long and intently did she stand gazing into 
 the blue that her eyes smarted; but no sign appeared. 
 Finally the tension of her posture relaxed, and, like 
 another Emperor of Constantinople, Julian the 
 Apostate, she shook her finger at the heavenly dome. 
 No such blasphemy as his passed her lips, however. 
 She only said, half -humorously, half -bitterly : 
 
 "Ah, God, you have always been more generous to 
 men than to women." 
 
 Reluctantly she walked toward the door of the house. 
 As she was about to enter the long French window, 
 she turned and looked up into the sky, as if hoping 
 against hope. But the space above remained serenely 
 blue. No sign appeared to mar its beauty. 
 
 For a long minute she stood waiting. Then she mur 
 mured two lines from her favorite poet, Paraschos: 
 
 " The hosannas of Paradise 
 Drown the cries of the Earth."
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 IN THE LIGHT OP ISLAM 
 
 A RE you ready?" 
 Millicent stood on the threshold of Elpis s 
 room, fastening the last button of her gloves. 
 
 "I shall be in a minute." 
 
 Elpis was putting a thick veil over her hat. Then 
 she opened a drawer and took out a short-barreled re 
 volver. She twirled its cylinder, to make sure it was 
 in working order, and put it into her handbag. 
 
 : You are not going to take that revolver with you?" 
 Millicent asked in surprise. 
 
 " I always do when I go alone to Stamboul. We shall 
 pass through some lonely streets. That is why I asked 
 you to wear a thick veil and a loose cloak. It is just 
 as well to show as little of yourself as possible to the 
 Turks. They have not forgotten the time when any 
 pretty woman was theirs if they could get her. I 
 am ready now." 
 
 The caique was waiting for them at the landing, 
 and the two girls took their places on the cushions in 
 the stern. The boat glided out into the Bosphorus 
 under the rhythmic strokes of the three oarsmen. It 
 was the hour of the day when wise people stayed at 
 home in the cool shade of their houses; but Elpis
 
 130 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 wished to return from Stamboul before nightfall, and 
 the awning over the boat protected them in a measure 
 from the heat of the sun. 
 
 It was too hot to talk, and the wxmdrous shores 
 Asia on one side and Europe on the other slipped 
 past them in silence. 
 
 When they reached the landing at Stamboul, the 
 chief oarsman asked Elpis if he were not to accom 
 pany her to her destination. 
 
 "Not to-day," she answered. "We are two, and we 
 shall be back before sunset." 
 
 The man s attitude showed his disapproval of this, 
 but he did not venture to dispute the point with his 
 mistress. 
 
 A few minutes later, the two girls were lost in a 
 labyrinth of narrow, crooked, ill-paved streets. The 
 houses on either side were of unpainted wood, turned 
 black by time, and every window was protected by a 
 lattice. 
 
 "What curious architecture," Millicent exclaimed. 
 
 "Architecture!" Elpis cried, scant respect in her 
 voice; "I don t see any. They look to me as if they 
 had sprouted like toadstools." 
 
 There was, indeed, a haphazard air about them all, 
 as if the original boxlike houses had thrown out bay 
 windows and covered balconies under the influence of 
 sun and rain, rather than because of man s intention. 
 
 "Yes, they do; but they are fascinating, and so em-
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF ISLAM 131 
 
 blematic of their jumbled-up, retarded moral growth. 
 And the windows ! See how they turn their poor blind 
 eyes to the world and do not wish to see what West 
 ern civilization is accomplishing." 
 
 Elpis smiled, as she often did at Millicent s ideas. 
 
 "They can see more with their poor blind eyes than 
 you might suppose. And let us walk in the middle of 
 the street, not on the sidewalk. You never can tell what 
 may fall on your head. Besides which I always mis 
 trust doors, which can open softly, and as softly close." 
 
 They went on for some two miles without meeting 
 any living thing except a few dogs and two cats. 
 They wound in and out of a web of streets, each pre 
 senting its own aspect, yet all very much alike. Now 
 and then the silence was broken by a laugh, sounding 
 uncanny in the deserted place. 
 
 At length an open space lay before them. 
 
 "This is a typical Turkish square," Elpis said. 
 "Here is the fountain, built by some pious lady, where 
 animals and men may drink, and where the faithful 
 may wash before prayer. If it were sunset, you would 
 find it filled with bathers. Under that huge plantain 
 tree is the coffee-house. Your Turk pays his penny 
 there, sips his coffee, and sits for hours thinking 
 not one thought. And that little white building with 
 the minaret on top is the parish dzami. The Turkish 
 male prays there, and in it, as a boy, he receives the 
 very little education he possesses."
 
 132 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 At this hour, however, the square was utterly de 
 serted, except for the cafedji, stretched across three 
 little stools, asleep, his red handkerchief covering his 
 face. 
 
 From the hot square they plunged into more cool, 
 silent streets. The houses were now larger, and there 
 were gardens attached to them. These could not be 
 seen, being hidden behind high walls bristling with 
 broken glass; but one could divine them gardens be 
 cause fig-trees rose high above the walls, and the 
 scent of flowers filled the air. 
 
 From one of them a song rose into the dead silence. 
 At its conclusion there was hand-clapping, and rippling, 
 melodious laughter. 
 
 "Can that be a girls school?" Millicent asked. 
 
 "What makes you think so?" 
 
 "Because the laughter is so fresh and childish." 
 
 "No, they are Turkish women laughing, and 
 their laughter is childish because the great majority 
 of them are like little children. They have the 
 ideas, the aspirations, and the vanities of child 
 hood." 
 
 They lingered a minute, but nothing further came 
 from the hidden garden. After this bit of life, the 
 sound of their own footsteps became oppressive to 
 Millicent. 
 
 "I certainly hope I shan t lose you, Elpis; for never 
 in the world could I find my way."
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF ISLAM 133 
 
 "I shall take care that you don t lose me; but now 
 we are at my friend s house." 
 
 They stopped before a large door, with two iron 
 knockers. Elpis raised one of these and rapped several 
 times. The door opened, and they entered a vast, 
 cement-floored hall, solely lighted by a window on 
 the stairs, opposite the door. 
 
 Millicent looked about her with lively curiosity. 
 
 "Who let us in? There is no one here," she whis 
 pered. 
 
 The Greek pointed to a slender rope coming through 
 a hole in the ceiling, its end fastened to the latch. 
 
 "They pulled it from upstairs, after they had well 
 examined who we were. Some one is coming now." 
 
 There sounded rapid footsteps on the stairs, and a 
 tall young woman in flowing robes ran down to meet 
 them. Her hair was tied up in a pink veil, and huge 
 earrings dangled from her ears. She salaamed to the 
 floor, and conducted them upstairs to a hall as large 
 as the lower one, but lighted with several latticed win 
 dows reaching to the ceiling. A long settee was under 
 the windows, and, judging from the disarray of pillows 
 and coverlets, the hall had been well peopled before 
 the knock at the door had induced the flight of its 
 occupants. 
 
 "The house must be full of guests, since they are 
 even using this hall," Elpis remarked. 
 
 "But why did they all run away ? "
 
 134 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "It is n t good form for them to meet us before 
 we have had time to wash and fix ourselves up 
 a bit." 
 
 They were conducted to a smaller room, where 
 another slave was waiting to assist them in taking off 
 their wraps, and brought them basins of water and 
 towels. Refreshed, they were taken to an immense 
 room giving on the garden behind, in which were 
 perhaps thirty women. Some were on the settee, 
 some sat cross-legged on rugs, and others were 
 stretched full-length on the floor. 
 
 All rose at the entrance of the two Occidentals, 
 and it was like a field of flowers fluttering to life, 
 so many perfumes were commingled, so brilliantly 
 varied were the colors of their gowns. In spite of its 
 ten windows there was only a subdued light in the 
 room, the blinds all being closed, though the slats 
 were turned. 
 
 Elpis was kissed by several of the women, and then 
 she presented Millicent to them. They clustered about 
 the fair young American with such frank looks of ad 
 miration that Millicent felt the blood rising to her 
 cheeks. 
 
 A flood of unintelligible remarks followed. Elpis 
 translated : 
 
 "They want you to take down your hair, in order 
 that they may see its gold at full length." 
 
 ""For heaven s sake!" Millicent exclaimed. "Is
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF ISLAM 135 
 
 that the way they do?" Then, noticing the quizzical 
 smile on the Greek s lips: "Well, I hope it will stop 
 there." 
 
 "I m not at all sure it will. They are very natural. 
 Are you going to take down your hair?" 
 
 Still Millicent hesitated; but the Turkish women 
 stood around her, expectant as children, and she did 
 as she had been asked. Then every one had to touch 
 the Americana s gold, even the half-dozen children 
 present, some of w T hom wore only a chemise, and some 
 nothing at all. 
 
 Slaves began to bring in an apparently endless 
 supply of sherbets and candy. 
 
 When the Turkish women had fingered her dress and 
 stared their fill, they began to ask questions through 
 Elpis. 
 
 How old was the Americana? 
 
 She was twenty-three. 
 
 How many children did she have? 
 
 Being told that she was not yet married, their faces 
 unreservedly expressed the pity and horror they felt 
 for her. 
 
 Was she not considered pretty in her own country ? 
 Did not any man wish to marry her? 
 
 Elpis took it on herself to say that her friend was 
 considered very pretty in America, but that she had 
 only just finished her studies. 
 
 "Just finished studying and twenty-three years
 
 136 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 old ! " they repeated to one another. Was she, then, 
 very stupid? 
 
 No, but in America it was considered necessary for 
 girls to go to school longer than in Turkey. 
 
 One tall, stately beauty, looking several years 
 older than Millicent, announced: 
 
 "I am only twenty-two; but I have been married 
 seven years and have three children two of them 
 boys," she ended proudly. 
 
 In a rather bewildering fashion the tables were be 
 ing turned on Millicent. She was treated quite as if 
 she were the one to be made to see the error of her 
 ways. With an effort she pulled herself together and 
 resolved to do some questioning in her turn. Perhaps 
 she might implant a seed of divine discontent in this 
 gay and careless household. 
 
 What were their occupations? Were they not bored 
 with doing nothing but lying about and drinking 
 sherbets? 
 
 They opened their large black eyes rendered 
 larger by penciling at these questions. 
 
 Bored! Why should they be bored? They had 
 bathing; and lovely picnics in the cemeteries; and 
 the sunsets to watch every evening; and ever so 
 many visits to exchange. Besides, they spent a great 
 deal of time buying costly fabrics and jewelry and 
 slaves. 
 
 One of the more energetic went from the room,
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF ISLAM 137 
 
 and returned, followed by three girls of thirteen, 
 carrying clothes and jewelry. 
 
 "These," she announced triumphantly, "are some 
 of my recent purchases, these three slaves, and 
 all that they are carrying!" 
 
 But did they not wish to go out into the world 
 to be a part of it to be doing something for 
 it? 
 
 Was she crazy? they asked of Elpis. What did 
 she mean by being a part of the world? They were a 
 part of the world, and did a great deal for it. They were 
 giving men to the world to fight for the glory of Islam. 
 It was the Americana who was doing nothing for the 
 world. Where was the man she should be making 
 happy? Where were the boys she ought to be bring 
 ing up? 
 
 The Greek girl translated, with mischievous enjoy 
 ment of the situation ; and her friend was not entirely 
 sorry when the entrance of singers and dancers put a 
 stop to her efforts toward implanting the seed of dis 
 content in these darkened souls. 
 
 After this entertainment was at an end, and more 
 sherbets had been brought in, the two Christians took 
 their departure. The streets were now less deserted, 
 but Millicent took little interest in their sights. She 
 felt cast down by her experiences of the afternoon. 
 Her thoughts went to Orkhan Effendi. His childhood 
 must have been passed amid such surroundings.
 
 138 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 What would not their effect be on any one s charac 
 ter? 
 
 Elpis presently broke in on her discouraged medi 
 tations. 
 
 "Well, my reformer, where will you begin? There 
 were, as you saw, about thirty women there, and only 
 one of them w r as discontented with her lot." 
 
 "Was that the pretty one I saw you talking with 
 while the dancing was going on?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why did you not let me talk to her? She might 
 have had some sympathy with my hopes." 
 
 "Unfortunately her discontent is not divine it is 
 very human. She is to be married in ten days, and 
 would be radiantly happy except that the foolish 
 creature has happened to fall in love with some man 
 she saw passing under her window. So she thinks of 
 suicide, or of running off to the man whose name 
 she barely knows, and who would very likely be much 
 embarrassed to know what to do with her." 
 
 "You don t seem very sorry for her, Elpis." 
 
 The Greek girl shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 "Love is only one s own little affair. We make as 
 much fuss over it as if the fate of nations depended 
 on it." 
 
 It had grown considerably cooler. From behind 
 their lattices women w r ere talking to each other across 
 the street. The two girls met several men, and once a
 
 IN THE LIGHT OF ISLAM 139 
 
 soldier. Elpis put her hand on Millicent s arm and 
 guided her away from him. "It is just as well not to 
 give him the chance to touch you," she whispered. 
 
 Millicent, who had never moved aside from a sober 
 man in her life, glanced back after him with interest. 
 
 "They have a terrible reputation, have n t they?" 
 
 "And with justice. Although very courteous, even 
 chivalrous to women, it is these same Turkish officers 
 who promise women to their soldiers during war. If 
 you will read the history of Greece, you will find that 
 no mercy was ever shown to women by them. That is 
 why the history of our war for independence is full of 
 stories of women with their little ones jumping off the 
 cliffs into the sea, or blowing up their houses, when 
 the Turkish armies defeated our men." 
 
 It all seemed to Millicent only the more reason why 
 Turkey should be given the chance to rise by the help 
 of Western civilization. Her hopes rebounded from 
 their depression of the early afternoon, and again she 
 talked of the great things that might be effected if 
 only the training of the Turks could be changed. 
 
 Elpis listened to her with friendliness, if not with 
 sympathy. At length she said : 
 
 "I don t wish to throw cold water on your hopes, 
 but remember that the Turks have had a Western 
 influence and have never been touched by it. 
 Every other nation that conquered Greece was in 
 turn conquered by her civilization, her language, her
 
 140 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 literature. The Turks alone have lived side by side 
 with us for over four hundred years without even 
 learning that the Greek civilization is worth studying. 
 You may say that at the time when the Turks con 
 quered us, we were a finished race, and so we were. 
 But it was the Greeks fleeing from Turkey who 
 brought about the European Renaissance. Why have 
 the great majority, who remained among the Turks, 
 been unable to do anything for them? Ah, my dear 
 Millicent, if there is one prophet for us and another 
 for them, it is because we cannot have the same one. 
 The Turks are essentially Asiatic and Asiatics and 
 Europeans have never commingled."
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 KISMET ! 
 
 ELPIS, all in white, stood in the doorway. 
 "This morning I must leave you, my golden 
 lily. I am going out for a walk." 
 
 "Can t I come too?" Millicent asked. 
 
 Elpis shook her head. 
 
 "No, I am going to visit my work-people. You 
 did n t know I was a manufacturer, did you? " 
 
 "What do you manufacture?" 
 
 "A diversity of things as the economists recom 
 mend." 
 
 "And where do you sell them?" 
 
 " Here ! " Elpis pointed to herself. " I am consumer 
 also. It simplifies matters." 
 
 Seeing Millicent s puzzled expression, she ex 
 plained: - 
 
 "I try to find out what each of my poor people 
 can do best. It is quite a task; so many of them only 
 seem able to do worst; but between them they 
 manage to clothe me from head to foot even 
 these!" She thrust forth a dainty silk-stockinged 
 foot. 
 
 "Why, you are a philanthropist, after all," Milli 
 cent cried, with sudden joy at finding this trait in her
 
 142 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 friend, whose cynical light-heartedness had been 
 something of a trial to her. 
 
 "Oh, dear, no! You are a philanthropist: you wish 
 to elevate the whole world. I have no such Atlas 
 aspirations. I only manage to indulge my passion for 
 hand-made things, while helping a few poor people." 
 
 "Elpis, you must take me with you. I consider the 
 Arts and Crafts movement one of the most hopeful 
 signs of the times. I should so much like to know how 
 you do it in this country." 
 
 The Greek girl only laughed, with a mocking 
 cadence in her voice. 
 
 "Arts and Crafts," she repeated innocently, 
 "what are they? Tell me about them sometime. But 
 now I must go, and you cannot come with me. My 
 poor might feel that they were being exhibited, and 
 they might n t like it. I have to be as careful of their 
 feelings as I am of their health. That keeps me pretty 
 busy sometimes; but I don t mind it. It keeps my 
 nursing in practice." 
 
 "In practice for what?" 
 
 "For the time when Greece shall need the services 
 of every woman, as well as of every man, against the 
 Turks," Elpis replied, a vibrant note of passion in her 
 voice. :< You must amuse yourself as best you can. 
 You may find this history of Turkey interesting." 
 
 Elpis went into the hall and took a large leghorn 
 hat from the rack. She tied it on with a long red veil.
 
 KISMET 143 
 
 A white parasol completed the pleasing picture she 
 presented as she sauntered away from the house, with 
 a wave of her hand to Millicent. 
 
 Left alone, the American girl picked up the history, 
 and idly turned over the leaves. A sentence attracted 
 her attention, and she began to read. She knew as 
 little of Turkish history as most Americans. Gradu 
 ally she became interested, then absorbed. The life of 
 an unknown race was revealed to her, a race strong 
 with the strength of primitive people, generous and 
 cruel, with the generosity and cruelty of youth. 
 
 So utterly lost was she to her surroundings that she 
 did not hear the approach of a man, who came and 
 stood in the doorway and stared at her as if he could 
 never gaze his fill. When at length she chanced to 
 glance up, her eyes dilated with fear, before she broke 
 into a little nervous laugh. 
 
 "Oh! is it you, Orkhan Effendi? I was so lost in 
 this history of your race that I thought it was the 
 apparition of your own ancestor, Othman, who stood 
 before me." 
 
 The Turk did not reply. He only continued to look 
 down upon her with fixed concentration. His silence 
 and his steady regard made her nervous. 
 
 "I am sorry you could not accept my uncle s in 
 vitation to luncheon." She spoke to be saying some 
 thing. 
 
 Then for half a minute no word was uttered. In
 
 144 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 the gaze of the Turk there was a mesmeric force. She 
 could not take her eyes from his. She felt that she 
 must break the spell that he was casting over her. 
 
 Her anger was roused. After all, he was only a man. 
 What was there in a man to be afraid of? 
 
 With a little stamp of the foot, she demanded : 
 
 "Why do you look at me like that? Why do you 
 not speak?" 
 
 The Turk slowly waved his hand, his eyes never 
 leaving hers, and said, as if compelled rather than 
 wishing to utter the words: - 
 
 "When I first met you on the steamer, I looked 
 upon you only as a perfect work of Allah. I allowed 
 my soul to drink at the fountain of your beauty to 
 gaze upon you as if you had been a star, or some 
 heavenly vision. It was enough. I longed for nothing 
 more. Then Fate decreed that we should speak. I 
 touched your hand. You became for me a woman. 
 Kismet!" 
 
 He stopped, and Millicent found herself silent be 
 fore this strange declaration silent, but with an 
 unexpected emotion surging through her veins. She 
 cast down her eyes; and presently he went on: 
 
 "Even then I opposed my will against that of 
 Allah. I did not mean to see you again; I did not 
 wish the love of a woman to come into my life. Yet I 
 was no more the man I had been. I was no longer free. 
 The image of your face was imprinted on my soul. I
 
 KISMET 145 
 
 could not forget you. Awake or asleep, I had to think 
 of you and the thought of you set my blood on fire. 
 To-day I felt that I must come to this house. I did 
 not know that you were here I had not been here 
 for a very long time but I was drawn by an irresist 
 ible force." 
 
 His eyes caressed her as he spoke, and Millicent 
 thrilled with an emotion as intoxicating as it was 
 foreign to her. Yet she tried not to look at him ; tried 
 to summon her maidenly pride to her aid ; but his eyes 
 held hers, and seemed to draw her to him. Only by a 
 superhuman effort did she keep herself from going to 
 him. 
 
 "Now I know that a man s fate is written on his 
 forehead, and that to attempt to evade kismet is the 
 act of a madman trying to force back the current of a 
 river. What we ourselves will matters nothing. And 
 when your eyes meet mine, Paradise opens before me." 
 
 He smiled, and held out his arms to her. 
 
 Was this Millicent Grey who was enfolded in them ; 
 who gave herself to this mysterious force with never 
 an effort at escape? He bent his head, and pressed 
 his lips on hers. She closed her eyes, the exquisiteness 
 of the moment the only feeling her being had room 
 for. 
 
 And then, in the midst of her surrender, she heard 
 
 as distinctly as if the Greek girl had been present 
 
 the voice of Elpis saying :
 
 146 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Beware of Millicent when she awakes." 
 
 She tore herself from Orkhan s arms, trembling, 
 ashamed. Was she really Millicent Grey, and that 
 man a Turk? 
 
 He smiled at her rebellion, and made a movement 
 as if to take her again in his arms. 
 
 "No!" she cried. 
 
 "But I love you, Millicent. I want you for mine." 
 
 "No! No!" she cried again. "I don t know how 
 I--I- 
 
 " Millicent, I love you ! " he repeated, as if that were 
 all-sufficient. "And you have told me in more con 
 vincing language than words that you love me, too. 
 What does it matter how far apart we started, if now 
 at last we have come together?" 
 
 At her gesture of dissent, he continued in wonder 
 ing tones : - 
 
 "Ah! do you not know it? Did you not hear your 
 heart call for mine, as I held you in my arms? Did 
 you not learn from my embrace that you belonged to 
 me? Did not every atom of existence in you cry out 
 for the life I can give you?" 
 
 She put forth her hand to stop his speaking. 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi, do not say any more. Can you 
 not see the gulf which separates us?" 
 
 You mean that you and I belong to different 
 races, and have different beliefs?" 
 
 "Yes! Yes! Everything!"
 
 KISMET 147 
 
 "But those are external things that do not matter. 
 And the wife becomes what her husband is. His life is 
 hers. What is anything else compared to the love we 
 have for each other? You will be my wife, and you 
 will be happy." 
 
 It was not his argument, it was his intense person 
 ality, his charm, his appeal to what was primitive 
 and human in her which set her blood on fire. She 
 was conscious that every atom of her being, except 
 only her mind and reasoning power, called her to this 
 man -- Turk though he was. 
 
 With a last desperate endeavor, she faced him, and 
 in a voice that was almost steady said : - 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi, you will never understand. We 
 belong to different worlds. Our men look upon women 
 differently from the way you do. The women of 
 America are not degraded as the women of Turkey 
 
 "Degraded!" he broke in, surprise and pain in his 
 voice. "How can my love degrade you? Love is the 
 only divine gift Allah has given to mortals in this ex 
 istence. Do you not feel our love to be the tenderest 
 and sweetest thing you have ever known?" 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi," the girl implored, almost yield 
 ing again to his love, "I want you to go away 
 please do!" 
 
 "I will go, my beloved; but you will wish me back 
 again. You will wish me to return and never to leave 
 you. And when you send for me, I will come, because
 
 148 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 your command, now, is the one I obey. Before you 
 all must wait even the work of my life. I love you, 
 Millicent, I love you!" 
 
 His voice, his eyes spoke to her of a human passion 
 with an appeal that even her reason could not under 
 stand. 
 
 She only had strength to point to the door, and to 
 stammer: 
 
 "I I shall never send for you." 
 
 He made her a low temena, his fingers touching the 
 ground, the knee, the heart, and his lips. 
 
 "Wherever I am, and at whatever hour you send 
 for me, I shall obey, my sultana." 
 
 His certainty that she would send for him roused a 
 certain combative strength in her. She drew herself 
 up, and became again a woman of her own race, with 
 strong mentality and senses now subservient a 
 woman whose existence he hardly imagined, he the 
 man of earthly love. 
 
 Yet something of it he felt; and she appeared to him 
 taller, straighter, and more queenly a woman in 
 finitely to be desired. Although what she stood for 
 was a closed book to Orkhan, vaguely he felt that 
 there was that in her which was strongly resisting 
 him, a force greater than the difference of race and 
 religion. He could not guess that it was the force of 
 ideals born from that new race and religion. The 
 woman who now stood before him puzzled and baffled
 
 KISMET 149 
 
 him; yet he knew there was in her the other woman 
 who loved him and who would answer to his call. 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi, will you go?" 
 
 He saluted, as gracefully as before. 
 
 "I go, since you ask me. And I shall come when 
 you send for me. I am now yours." 
 
 He left her with dignity. He went away, not as a 
 man who has been requested to do so, but as a ruler of 
 whom a favor has been sought, and who graciously 
 confers it.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR 
 
 AS soon as Orkhan Effendi had gone, Millicent 
 ran up to her room and shut the door. She tried 
 to lock it, but the key was missing. She dared not 
 trust herself before the eyes of even a chance servant. 
 She had lost her poise: her mental equilibrium was 
 completely upset. To think that she, Millicent 
 Grey, of Boston, should have permitted herself to be 
 swept off her feet by this handsome Turk should 
 have let him hold her in his arms should even yet 
 thrill to the uttermost fibre of her being by the re 
 membrance of his caresses. She could not understand 
 herself. 
 
 Could it be true, as Elpis had said, that there 
 existed in every person a primitive being, with primi 
 tive demands, and that when it awakened it was 
 stronger than the cultivated being which ordinarily 
 ruled according to the code of civilization and mor 
 ality? 
 
 Millicent shuddered at the power of the primitive 
 being within herself; and the feeling which angered 
 and humiliated her the most was the certitude that 
 for the moment she had been absolutely happy in the 
 arms of that man. Even in her present revulsion, the
 
 recollection of it had almost the power to cause her to 
 forget all else. 
 
 Millicent was more than an average girl. She was 
 one of those women who are the glory of America, and 
 give glimpses and hopes of a yet higher womanhood 
 to come. She faced herself now as if she were two 
 distinct persons: she herself, and this other one who 
 had just come to life, and sought for domination. 
 The civilized Millicent was the judge; this other was 
 the culprit, strong and rebellious. 
 
 "What is it that you want?" she demanded of her 
 other self; and the unabashed answer was such as to 
 make the judge blush. For the rebel wished the love 
 of a man, alien to her faith and to the ideals of her 
 country. 
 
 She shuddered. Yes, Elpis was right; there was a 
 primitive being in her who answered to the primitive 
 call. But then she rallied her forces. Elpis could not 
 know the faith in themselves which American women 
 have attained through their education and their posi 
 tion in their own country. 
 
 With a determined gesture Millicent pushed back 
 her golden hair. She had been forced to acknowledge 
 the primitive being in herself; but she only acknow 
 ledged it in order to fight it and to vanquish it. She 
 filled her bowl with cold water, and bathed her hands 
 and her face. After this she felt cleaner, stronger. 
 To-morrow her visit to the Paparighopoulos would
 
 152 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 come to an end. Back at her uncle s there was little 
 chance that she would meet Orkhan; and that she 
 did not wish to see him again she was certain at this 
 instant. 
 
 Just then she heard Elpis calling her name, a note 
 of gladness in her voice. 
 
 She did not make a reply. 
 
 Her name sounded again, in the hall outside her 
 door. 
 
 Millicent sprang up, glanced desperately at the 
 keyless lock, and then, before she realized at all what 
 she was going to do, she ran to her closet and hid her 
 self in it. Elpis came into the room, and called her 
 name; but Millicent cowered low in the darkness, and 
 pulled the gowns in front of her, the better to conceal 
 herself. She heard Elpis go, and, still calling her, pass 
 downstairs out into the garden. 
 
 Then only did Millicent come from her hiding- 
 place, a cloud of shame reddening her brow. She 
 stood before the mirror, and looked straight into her 
 own eye. 
 
 "Why did I hide?" she demanded. "Why did I do 
 it?" 
 
 She began to study her own reflection with growing 
 interest: the golden hair, the lines of cheek and throat, 
 the superb figure, and then especially the mouth, 
 which curved and lived. She shook her head at the 
 whole lovely reflection. It was this soulless creature of
 
 WHY DID I DO IT?
 
 THE REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR 153 
 
 flesh and blood who had been born this day, and 
 threatened to rule supreme. 
 
 The gray eyes alone remained true. They frowned. 
 
 : You may think you will rule," they said, "but 
 you will find that your reign is short."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER 
 
 I HAVE bad news for you," Elpis cried, her eyes 
 sparkling. "I have been hunting for you every 
 where to tell you." 
 
 "Bad news? You don t look as if it were bad news." 
 
 "For me it is n t. Your aunt is down with scarlet 
 fever, and you are to stay with me six weeks longer." 
 
 "Oh! but I must go back to them at once and see 
 what I can do." 
 
 "Not at all. They don t want you. Two sisters 
 from the French Hospital are already there, and your 
 uncle asked Niko if you could stay with us a little 
 while longer until he made arrangements for you else 
 where. Of course Niko told him that I would never 
 let you go. So, my beloved, you are to be here six 
 weeks longer six whole weeks think of that!" 
 
 Slowly the color heightened in Millicent s cheeks. 
 
 "I am glad I am to be here," she murmured, sud 
 denly shy, because all of her gladness was not for the 
 pleasure of being with Elpis. 
 
 The news deranged all her plans, set all her good 
 resolutions at naught. Fate had stretched forth a 
 careless finger and brushed aside the conscientious 
 plan of a maiden as if it were a cobweb. Millicent felt
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER 155 
 
 a subdued elation at this cavalier upsetting of her 
 resolutions. It was not her fault. She had meant to 
 go home to-morrow and never to see Orkhan again. 
 Now the responsibility was taken from her shoulders, 
 and she was almost content that it was so. With Fate 
 to aid and abet one, the best of us are capable of 
 pretty nearly anything. 
 
 After she was in bed that night, when Elpis came 
 to kiss her good-night, Millicent remarked, quite 
 casually: 
 
 "I forgot to tell you that Orkhan Effendi was here 
 this morning." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 Elpis waited for more; but nothing more came. 
 She went away presently, and Millicent hid her 
 burning face in her pillow. "Forgot" to tell that 
 Orkhan had been there, when she had been thinking 
 of nothing else all day. 
 
 In her own room Elpis sat for a long time by the 
 window, her eyes on the cold comfort of the stars. 
 Poor little Millicent, whom she would so gladly help 
 if she would only let her, and if any one could help 
 her. She felt years older than the American college 
 girl, and yearned over her with a love like that of a 
 mother for her helpless offspring. 
 
 Elpis was a very womanly woman beneath the 
 crust of cynical brilliance she showed the world. Fate 
 had not been altogether kind in showering her with
 
 156 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 such a diversity of gifts. With a less active mentality 
 she would have married early, adored her husband, 
 and worshiped her babies. She would have made a 
 happy home for the former; and upon her children she 
 would have lavished an affection which would have 
 continued for them on earth the celestial home whence 
 the poets tell us they come. But to this loving nature 
 had been added a mind which nullified it. Had she 
 been less richly dowered on the one side or on the 
 other, she would have been a happier woman. 
 
 After the stars had twinkled down upon her for a 
 long time, she sighed : 
 
 "I wish I had taken her with me to-day." 
 
 Another long silence. 
 
 "But she, a Puritan so different from us women 
 of the South. How could she have been touched so 
 quickly, even by him? She forgot to tell me he had 
 been here! Poor darling!" 
 
 Elpis did not voice any more of her thoughts. 
 Perhaps they were too difficult to utter. She remained 
 waiting by the window till the small hours of the 
 night. At last she heard her brother s footsteps. She 
 waited for him to go to his room, then lighted a candle 
 and went to him. 
 
 Softly she opened the door of his sitting-room. 
 Niko Paparighopoulos was seated by his student lamp 
 reading a letter. Elpis stood still, watching him. She 
 knew that he was not a handsome man, but she felt
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER 157 
 
 his charm, and understood the attraction he had for 
 other women. There was something very lovable 
 about him, and his sister had a great, almost motherly 
 affection for him. But deep down in her heart so 
 deep that she rarely looked into its depth she 
 despised him. She knew that he had spent the best 
 years of his manhood as his friends had spent theirs, 
 and she, with her dreams for the deliverance of the 
 Greater Greece from the bondage of Turkey, loathed 
 this waste of human energy. She believed that were 
 the lives of the best Greeks cleaner, the race she wor 
 shiped would still be one to reckon with. 
 
 She walked into his room, now, her loose evening 
 attire showing her lithe figure off to its best advan 
 tage. 
 
 Her brother rose, and smiled at her approach. Like 
 all Greeks he had a great admiration for physical 
 perfection. 
 
 "How good-looking you are, Elpis. But how did 
 you happen to be up so late?" 
 
 The girl kissed him affectionately; then took the 
 chair he offered her. 
 
 "I have been waiting for you," she said. 
 
 "Anything serious?" 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi has been here to-day." 
 
 "Indeed! Did he leave a message for me?" 
 
 "No. Niko, I came to tell you that I do not wish 
 him to come here again."
 
 158 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 The Greek s face became livid. 
 
 "Has he dared "he cried in a voice full of pas 
 sion. 
 
 "No, Niko dear," Elpis interrupted calmly. "I 
 know your right to defend the women of your family. 
 But if a Turk dared and I had not encouraged him 
 to dare I should not wait for you to hear of it. I 
 believe in speedy action. But it is not for me; it is for 
 Millicent." 
 
 Since his own sister was not involved, the Greek 
 became again the reasonable man of the world, with 
 an abruptness of change which would have been comi 
 cal had there been any one present to appreciate it. 
 
 "Do you mean that they are beginning to care for 
 one another? I do not see why they should not. 
 Orkhan is my friend, and a first-rate chap." 
 
 "I do not wish him to come here again." 
 
 "But do try to be reasonable. She is not a Greek 
 woman, she is an American and American women 
 marry anybody. And what a perfect pair they would 
 make, she the daughter of the sun, he the son of the 
 night." 
 
 "Please dismiss your poetical imagery for a prac 
 tical point of view," said Elpis dryly. "I do not wish 
 Millicent to see Orkhan Effendi, and I do not care 
 what methods I employ, so long as I keep them sepa 
 rate. You know perfectly well that the love of a Turk 
 can never bring happiness to a Christian woman."
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER 159 
 
 Paparighopoulos had loved many women, he might 
 almost be said to love all women. But he wished them 
 to be mere physical women, doting on the love of man. 
 In spite of certain advanced views he sometimes ad 
 vocated, he was essentially Oriental in his attitude 
 toward them. He could utilize their cleverness, as he 
 had done in the Young Turks movement; but clever 
 women he respected and did not love. Clever women 
 were creatures of the Devil, made for the discomfort 
 of men; beautiful women were made for their happi 
 ness. Rather grudgingly he accepted the help of 
 clever women with gratitude the love of the charm 
 ing ones. 
 
 As Elpis, deep down in her heart, despised her 
 brother, so he, in the secret precincts of his being, 
 mistrusted his sister. He could not blink the fact that 
 she was clever. Since she had come of age, and had 
 assumed the administration of her own fortune, there 
 had been some encounters between brother and sister, 
 from which the man had come out worsted. He feared 
 her and men should never fear women. He was very 
 anxious for her to marry, not only because marriage 
 was the only proper career for women, but because 
 he wished to see some other man encounter her brain. 
 Her brain! What right had she to a man s brain? It 
 disconcerted him. 
 
 Still, as she sat before him in a reclining-chair, he 
 was enchanted by her, nor did he know in the least
 
 160 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 that what he loved in her was the mind and soul 
 which lighted the face. 
 
 "I wish, my little sister," he said very tenderly, 
 "that you were talking to me about your own love- 
 affairs, not another s. Surely, Elpis, it is time that 
 you should choose." 
 
 "Never mind about me, Niko. I want you to help 
 me with Millicent. I wish you would be very atten 
 tive and nice to her." 
 
 "And what if she should fall in love with me?" he 
 asked, smiling. 
 
 "I wish she would. I could cure her easily from 
 that." 
 
 "You are not very complimentary. But supposing 
 that I should fall in love with her?" 
 
 "You mean that you might wish to marry her? 
 Well, it will do you a lot of good to want to marry 
 her, though you would find that to be Miss Grey s 
 husband would not be an easy task. She will make a 
 strenuous wife." 
 
 He waved a hand. "When a woman loves, it is so 
 easy to tame her." 
 
 Elpis regarded her brother with a mocking light in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "When such women as you have loved perhaps. 
 But Millicent is different from those you have known. 
 Ah, Niko dear, how far behind the times some of you 
 men are! And now will you do what I ask?"
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER 161 
 
 "I most certainly will not." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "First, because it would be preposterous to forbid 
 my house to my friend; and secondly, because I 
 tacitly told Orkhan that I would not interfere." 
 
 "Ah!" cried Elpis, "so you have already settled 
 between yourselves who is going to have her 
 Achilles and Agamemnon; only this time there is 
 more harmony among the leaders. But, my brother, 
 the time has gone by when women are apportioned out 
 in this manner; and I shall at least see that Millicent 
 is not sacrificed." 
 
 "Why do you call it a sacrifice of her? I should 
 rather say he were the one sacrificed, since a woman 
 would come between him and his work." 
 
 The Greek girl had grown pale. 
 
 "Brother, I do not wish Orkhan to come into 
 Millicent s life." 
 
 One of Niko Paparighopoulos s unspoken ideas 
 about women was that they were incapable of sincere 
 affection for one another. Perceiving that his sister 
 was really in earnest, he searched about for another 
 reason than the one she gave him. His mind lighted 
 on the most obvious. Could Elpis have persistently 
 refused to marry because she was herself in love with 
 Orkhan? The thought struck him very hard. 
 
 He grasped his sister s arm so tightly that it hurt 
 her, and cried :
 
 162 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "What? Can it be that you, my sister, and the 
 daughter of the Paparighopoulos, are so contemptible 
 as to care for a Turk? Ah! but I could kill you!" 
 
 Elpis, in furious anger, wrenched herself free. She 
 was as tall as he, and now appeared taller, as she 
 faced him, apparently calm, in such a white heat was 
 she. 
 
 "And who has given you the right to kill me, 
 please, for loving whomsoever I choose? Have I 
 killed you because you wasted your manhood in your 
 light loves?" 
 
 Righo was trembling with anger at her defiance, but 
 his instinctive good-breeding enabled him to master 
 himself. 
 
 "A man s life is not like a woman s," he managed 
 to say. 
 
 "That is what men say; but I do not see why I have 
 not the right to kill you for such acts as you would not 
 condone in me. We are both guardians of the honor of 
 the same name. Who gave you the right to punish me 
 for my wrongdoings? Who made you master over me? 
 There was a time when men, because they were 
 stronger, fought for the honor of their women, but 
 that time has passed. Civilization now protects the 
 women. There is no difference in our codes to-day, 
 and the sooner you come to that understanding, the 
 better it will be for the man as well as for the woman." 
 
 While speaking, her tone had changed. Her anger
 
 BROTHER AND SISTER 163 
 
 had subsided as quickly as it had arisen. She finished 
 almost as if he were a little boy, and she his guardian. 
 Putting her hand on his shoulder now she added very 
 gently: 
 
 "Ah! my dear brother, had your energy been 
 turned in the right direction, what a Greek you would 
 have made." 
 
 She drew his reluctant head toward her and kissed 
 him. 
 
 "Why should we quarrel, Niko? There is no cause, 
 dear. You know that I am as good a Greek as you. 
 But Orkhan, apart from his nationality, is a very 
 charming man, and he may attract Millicent, the 
 woman, though he could never satisfy her mind, her 
 aspirations. Her life is precious, so is his. He has 
 dreams, and so has she. Let us, then, keep them 
 apart for their mutual good." 
 
 Niko considered his sister s words for some time. 
 
 "I cannot say that the matter strikes me exactly 
 as it does you, Elpis. In the first place, there is not the 
 same bloody past between Americans and Turks that 
 there is between Greeks and Turks. Then, Orkhan is 
 not of the old Turks: he is of the new order which 
 seeks to advance his nation in civilization, just as the 
 Americans wish to advance theirs. Are we not rather 
 insulting Miss Grey s intelligence by presupposing her 
 incapable of choosing a suitable man for her husband? 
 And moreover, if she is incapable, should we not be
 
 164 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 doing the very thing to drive her to him, by trying to 
 prevent her seeing him?" 
 
 Righo, though still angry, was to outward appear 
 ance quite calm and dispassionate; and his sister, 
 after her recent outbreak, was more gentle and amen 
 able than usual. Though in her heart unconvinced, 
 she admitted the force of her brother s reasoning. 
 She hung her head dejectedly. 
 
 "Perhaps you are right, brother," she said. " Good 
 night"; and slowly she went from the room. 
 
 He looked after her. 
 
 "What curious creatures women are when they 
 think," he murmured, "and how crookedly they do it. 
 Hinder Orkhan ! On the contrary, I should like him to 
 marry her and the sooner the better. A woman is 
 a mystery to a man so long as he is not married to 
 her." 
 
 And with this philosophical reflection he went back 
 to his letter.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE EAST CLAIMS HER SON 
 
 WHEN Orkhan went away from Millicent he 
 was not quite so unruffled as he seemed. He 
 walked more rapidly than was his custom, his stride 
 unconsciously adjusting itself to the progression of his 
 thoughts. For the first time a woman had really come 
 into his life. Till now his work had been preeminent. 
 The desire for Millicent made him again in spite of 
 his education and his enlightened aspirations a Turk. 
 
 To a Turk the present alone exists : by his religion 
 he is forbidden to think of the morrow. In a measure 
 he regretted that Millicent had come thus unexpect 
 edly into his life, to complicate it. But what was the 
 use of wasting regrets over the inevitable? With one 
 shrug of the shoulders he shook off his Occidental 
 education: his soul belonged to the East. Being a 
 Turk, he implicitly believed in his superiority, both as 
 a male and as an Osmanli ; and the mere fact that he 
 wanted a woman was reason sufficient that she should 
 become his. 
 
 In the olden times when a Turk saw a woman and 
 desired her, he fought her legal masters and thus 
 obtained her. Later, he bought her; and he still pur 
 chases her, although new the price he pays is called
 
 her dowry. The feelings through which the men of 
 other nationalities arrive at marriage are unknown to 
 the Turks. Social considerations do not exist among 
 them. A man may marry whom he chooses, and the 
 mere fact of his marrying her elevates her to the state 
 of a free woman, if she be a slave, or to the rank of a 
 great lady, if she be lowly, and he of high standing. 
 
 Now that Orkhan loved Millicent, all other con 
 siderations for the moment became secondary. He 
 still felt a tinge of resentment towards her that she 
 should have set his pulses to beating for her at this 
 inopportune hour; but his desire for her was over 
 powering, and the thrill it caused him more than offset 
 his resentment. That she eventually would become 
 his, he did not even question. All that mattered was 
 that he loved her, that he wanted her. This was the 
 supreme fact. With the instinct that belongs to the 
 Turkish man, more, perhaps, than to the man of any 
 other nation, he divined that she cared for him. That 
 she would learn to love him supremely, once she were 
 his, he did not doubt for an instant. He smiled in 
 contentment. His stride became slower and slower. 
 Near by was a grove of trees. He turned into it, and 
 sat down; and, Turk-like, abandoned himself to the 
 contemplation of his coming happiness. 
 
 It did not once disturb the pleasant tenor of his 
 thoughts that she was an American with different 
 ideas from his own, and that she had in a measure
 
 THE EAST CLAIMS HER SON 167 
 
 repulsed him. It was right that the woman should at 
 first be shy of the man s caresses. It was a part of the 
 game of love. She should hide, and he should seek. 
 Women had been created for men, they were neces 
 sary to his pleasure, and in order that he might be 
 come the father of men. And a woman s happiness 
 comes to her when she is loved by a man and per 
 mitted by Allah to bring sons into the world. 
 
 In a dreamy, ruminative way Orkhan mapped out 
 his life and that of Millicent. He meant to make her 
 very happy, to give her all that a woman needed. In 
 his love for her he was already planning the beautiful 
 house, the vast, flower-filled garden which should be 
 hers, and which, besides his love, would be all that she 
 would need. Once or twice certain obstacles lying 
 between him and his marriage with Millicent claimed 
 his attention, but with Oriental fatalism Orkhan 
 brushed these aside, and gave himself up to the happi 
 ness of the moment. 
 
 After an hour s pleasant meditation, he rose and 
 walked slowly down to where his boat was waiting for 
 him. He stepped into it, and ordered his men to row 
 him to his home. But now, lying in the bottom of his 
 boat, he left the agreeable pictures that he had pre 
 viously conjured up. He turned over a page of the 
 book of life, and faced the difficulties before him. 
 These were not Millicent s nationality, her religion, 
 or what different ideas from his she might hold con-
 
 168 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 cerning the conduct of life. Neither had they even a 
 suspicion of the timid lover s fears lest his love be 
 rejected. No, the only thing which troubled him was 
 that, as he valued his life and Millicent s, he could not 
 dream of marrying her openly or even of letting 
 his love for her be known.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 A SULTANA IN LOVE 
 
 IN the olden times, Orkhan, being the son of a 
 sister of the Sultan, would have been killed at his 
 birth, in order that no male of a collateral branch 
 should exist to have pretensions to the throne. Even 
 Turkey has made some progress during the nineteenth 
 century. Although each new Sultan still has the 
 privilege of diminishing the number of his heirs, if he 
 deem this safer, especially if they are the sons of 
 capable mothers, yet many of the women who have 
 the ill-luck to be born imperial princesses are per 
 mitted to see their sons grow up. 
 
 In his boyhood and early youth Orkhan had shown 
 a scholarly aptitude. As the house of Othman had 
 once been distinguished for its poets and writers, no 
 less than for its statesmen and warriors, it pleased the 
 Sultan to have one of his nephews bring glory to his 
 line with his pen, and he received favorably the sug 
 gestion of Orkhan s English tutor that he send him to 
 Oxford. When, four years later, spies reported that 
 Orkhan had become interested in the Young Turks 
 movement, he sent for him. The young man s instant 
 obedience lessened the Sultan s suspicions. Before he 
 made up his mind what to do with Orkhan, his favor-
 
 170 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 ite daughter, Leila Sultana, chanced to see Orkhan, 
 and fell in love with him. 
 
 Orkhan, who had all his plans laid for instant flight, 
 found himself showered with honors, and was in 
 formed that he was to become Leila s husband. The 
 thought of uniting his blood with that of his father s 
 murderer was not pleasing; and besides he had no 
 taste for becoming a virtual prisoner in the Palace 
 the fate of men who marry imperial princesses ; yet he 
 received the announcement with becoming expres 
 sions of gratitude. He declared, however, that he had 
 made a vow to his mother not to marry before he was 
 thirty-five. Not even the Sultan would think of forc 
 ing him to disregard a vow made to a dead mother; 
 and the young man felt a hope that Princess Leila 
 would not care to spend the best years of her youth in 
 celibacy. 
 
 In the latter respect Orkhan was disappointed. 
 Princess Leila chose to wait. Until he fell in love 
 with Millicent, this seemed, on the whole, a fortunate 
 circumstance. For in spite of Orkhan s continued in 
 terest in the Young Turks movement, only one spy 
 ever breathed a word against him to the Sultan. That 
 spy died within three hours, and thereafter Orkhan 
 bore a charmed life, for even spies must live. But 
 Orkhan soon discovered himself to be under another 
 surveillance even more rigid than that of the Sultan. 
 Princess Leila believed in his vow to his dead mother,
 
 A SULTANA IN LOVE 171 
 
 and intended that he should keep it rigidly. A 
 trusted kelardzi was put at the head of his household, 
 and his every movement, as a man, was reported to 
 his affianced. His actions as a Young Turk or con 
 spirator did not interest her. Brought up in an at 
 mosphere where conspiracy and plots were the ordi 
 nary vexations of living, she looked upon them as 
 necessary evils, and not dangerous. 
 
 As his men were now rowing him toward his kiosk, 
 he was wondering how he could outwit the Princess. 
 To defy her openly was impossible: it would mean 
 certain death for Millicent, and probably for himself. 
 He could not even think of the possibility of two 
 wives, since the husband of an imperial princess was 
 condemned to monogamy. 
 
 Now that he loved Millicent, his first thought, 
 Turk-like, was to hide her from the world, to keep her 
 for himself, to enjoy her in secrecy, as a miser gloats 
 over his treasure. The thought that Righo should see 
 her every day, should speak to her face to face, and 
 touch her hand in the immodest way of the Chris 
 tians, maddened him, and roused in his heart a bitter 
 feeling of antagonism toward a man whom up to this 
 time he had liked. 
 
 "I need the help of a woman," he murmured. "She 
 must be sympathetic and intelligent, and of my own 
 race." He thought of his old nurse, but dismissed her 
 as too ignorant. The image of his cousin Malkhatoun
 
 172 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 came to him. She was the one to help him. She be 
 longed to the Young Turks Party, she hated Sultan 
 Abdul Hamid, the Usurper, who had thrown into 
 prison the father of her father, the rightful sultan, 
 she would help him to trick Leila Sultana. He could 
 not see her openly; but he had managed to talk with 
 her several times, and could do so again. In the Pal 
 ace he had found the vigilance of his affianced to be 
 relaxed. There he was supposed only to be in the 
 selamlik, the men s quarters, or to pay pious visits to 
 his old nurse, his milk-mother. It was in the kiosk of 
 this milk-mother that had been arranged the meetings 
 with Malkhatoun. Through his nurse s devotion he 
 had been able to penetrate into the haremlik of the ex- 
 sultan and to gain the cooperation of his cousin. 
 
 Having decided on the course he would pursue, 
 Orkhan ordered his boatmen to proceed to the Im 
 perial Palace.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 ON DANGEROUS GROUND 
 
 THE Palace is a city within a city. There dwell 
 thousands of men and women, women who are 
 wives, ex-wives, kalfas, nurses, ex-nurses, or merely 
 beautiful girls who may become wives. There are also 
 a multitude of slaves with neither high recollections 
 nor high aims. Here live in semi-imprisonment all 
 those who may some day be called upon to become 
 Allah s Great Shadow. Meanwhile they are mere 
 human shadows, living in the enervating atmosphere 
 of odalisques. Every movement of these princes is 
 watched, every word of theirs reported and inter 
 preted. Some of them, it is said, acquire the habit of 
 never speaking. This does not mean that intrigues are 
 not going on daily and hourly. The constant espion 
 age seems to render its subjects, in the end, reckless, 
 and ready for all sorts of harebrained plots. Amid the 
 slaves, not infrequently, some gorgeous girl, just 
 bought and brought into the Palace, is the secret em 
 issary of some personage of hir 1 - rank, holding in her 
 pink palm the lives of half a score of the great. 
 
 Mahometan fatalism assists this condition greatly. 
 With one s fate already written down in the sacred 
 books, why not embark in dangerous enterprises?
 
 174 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 Only that will befall which will befall. Thus, within 
 the precincts of the Palace many a plot is hatched, and 
 many a life is lost; and all these things which happen 
 are only the prelude to the eternal bliss which will 
 come to all true believers in paradise. 
 
 Orkhan found his nurse in her small kiosk which 
 she shared with a miradju, now too old either to invent 
 or satisfactorily to repeat the tales with which she 
 once delighted the ears of sultanas. Her vogue was 
 over, and she only told her stories to such palaces as 
 were not sufficiently in favor to expect better miradjus. 
 Orkhan s nurse, having given her milk to one who had 
 the blood of Othman in his veins, was entitled to good 
 treatment as long as she lived, even though her foster- 
 child should chance to be executed as a rebel. A mo 
 ther comes first among the Turks, a nurse second, 
 children third, and a mere wife fourth. 
 
 Nurse Saaded s kiosk consisted of two apartments, 
 where she and the old miradju trained up a bevy of 
 young slaves. It was Orkhan s duty to come from 
 time to time and kiss the hand of the woman whose 
 milk, as the Turks believe, flowed in his veins. She had 
 enlisted in the Young Turks movement without in the 
 least understanding it. She only knew that her boy, 
 her Orkhan, wished her to do certain things ; and she 
 would have done them had they cost her her life. She 
 was devoted to her foster-child. Was he not a male? 
 Was he not of the imperial blood? Was he not tall
 
 ON DANGEROUS GROUND 175 
 
 and straight and handsome? There had never been 
 a hero, in his nurse s eyes, so great as her Orkhan. 
 
 At sight of him she clapped her hands with joy. She 
 prostrated herself before him. She embraced his feet, 
 and rising, took him in her old arms and petted him 
 and kissed him and scolded him, as if he were still a 
 baby. 
 
 "It is a long time since I have seen my young lion," 
 she complained. "Even our Padishah kisses his 
 nurse s hand oftener than my boy does mine." 
 
 Orkhan stretched himself out on a hard sofa, his 
 head in his nurse s lap, in order that she might fondle 
 him to her heart s content. When slaves brought in 
 coffee and sweetmeats, he ate and drank, and praised 
 them extravagantly. Nowhere else could he obtain 
 such good things as he did here, he avowed. 
 
 "You can t say as much for the slaves who brought 
 them in," Nurse Saaded complained. "I am only per 
 mitted to have plain ones to train for menial work. 
 Leila Sultana sees to it that no young beauties are 
 apportioned to this household." 
 
 In the whining voice common in Oriental women of 
 her class she spent a quarter of an hour complaining 
 of Leila Sultana s behavior and of the cruel condi 
 tions under which her Orkhan had to live. The sup 
 posed vow to the dead mother, and the heartless sur 
 veillance of the promised wife, denied to her young 
 lion that which, to a woman of her thinking, it was
 
 176 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 only right that he should have, and this deprivation 
 rendered him even dearer to her. 
 
 Presently her whining died away. She leaned to 
 ward him and put her lips close to his ear. 
 
 "But I know how to outwit the Princess," she whis 
 pered. " Oh, my lion, I have tucked away, somewhere, 
 a young slave, wondrous as a houri, and all for you, 
 my boy, all for you!" 
 
 Orkhan laughed and patted her affectionately on 
 the back. 
 
 "That s very kind of you, but I am too busy for 
 houris, just now. There are too many things for me 
 to do." 
 
 Nurse Saaded began to cry. "They were making 
 her boy an ascetic, a Christian monk, and Allah did 
 not like it. Why had he given him such glorious man 
 hood, if he were to waste it? Where were his sons? 
 They were all still unborn. Was that right toward 
 Allah?" 
 
 "There! there! milk-mother, don t cry any more. 
 Soon my sons will be born, and you can rule over them 
 as you ruled over me; but I am in trouble, and I want 
 your help." 
 
 She stopped crying at once, her big black eyes fas 
 tened on his face. 
 
 "I must see my cousin Malkhatoun," Orkhan whis 
 pered in her ear. 
 
 The old woman s face showed her fright.
 
 ON DANGEROUS GROUND 177 
 
 "At this hour? Is my lion growing mad?" 
 
 Orkhan drew her to him and kissed her. "I must, 
 nurse. I came to you because I knew you could man 
 age it." 
 
 She still feebly tried to dissuade him, but he only in 
 sisted the more. Finally Saaded gave in. After all, 
 only that could happen which was already foretold. 
 Besides it pleased her tremendously to outwit Princess 
 Leila, who would only give her ugly slave girls to train. 
 Her life had been growing monotonous of late : these 
 adventures added piquancy. 
 
 She rose and went into the other room to consult 
 with the old miradju. They put their heads together, 
 and discussed various plans, which they rejected. 
 Finally they hit upon one which pleased them both, 
 whereupon they fell into each other s arms and em 
 braced. 
 
 Nurse Saaded returned to Orkhan with the air of a 
 conqueror, and in whispers told him her plan.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 IN DISGUISE 
 
 UNDER ordinary circumstances it would have 
 been quite possible for Orkhan to have an occa 
 sional interview with his cousin Malkhatoun; but 
 during the suspicious reign of Abdul Hamid all intima 
 cies between cousins were frowned upon. When the 
 blood of Othman met the blood of Othman he feared 
 plotting and Malkhatoun was younger and fairer 
 than Leila Sultana. The mistrust and disfavor in 
 which the household of the deposed sultan was held, 
 though they rendered intercourse with its members 
 difficult, prepared them for the propaganda of the 
 Young Turks Party ; and they became ardent workers 
 in the movement which planned the downfall of the 
 Usurper. 
 
 It is true that the palace of the former sultan was 
 filled with spies; but many of these were eventually 
 won over to the side of this household so filled with un- 
 happiness and romance. Malkhatoun, with her beauty 
 and grace, gained the hearts of not a few who were set 
 to spy upon her family. And those who still remained 
 faithful to Abdul Hamid were outwitted by those 
 faithful to Murad s household. 
 
 It took several hours to perfect the plans for the in-
 
 IN DISGUISE 179 
 
 terview Orkhan desired. An Oriental, he did not fret 
 at the delay. He ate his dinner, drank several cups of 
 coffee, and then stretched himself out on a divan and 
 gave himself to sleep, while waiting. 
 
 Under pretext of inquiring about his health, Prin 
 cess Leila sent two old slaves to Saaded s kiosk. The 
 old nurse and the miradju were dismayed at their com 
 ing. Presently their cunning minds saw a way of turn 
 ing this to their advantage. Softly they opened the 
 door of the room in which Orkhan was taking his nap 
 and let the slaves peep in. The latter wished to go near 
 him., Nurse Saaded vehemently opposed this, and 
 threw her arms around the waist of one of the slaves ; 
 but the other, with a triumphant leer, slipped by her 
 and approached the couch where Orkhan lay. She 
 stopped, dismayed. This was no deception: this was 
 assuredly Orkhan Effendi, and as he stirred in his 
 sleep,, the slave hastily crept out of the room. 
 
 The miradju closed the door, and then turned 
 fiercely on the old slave: 
 
 "Do you take our master to be a dancing-girl to 
 be gap^d at by every ill-begotten one who desires 
 to?" 
 
 "Do not be angry with us. Leila Sultana wishes to 
 know how the health of her affianced is," replied the 
 slave apologetically. "She had heard rumors that he 
 was not so well." 
 
 "And we would have been beaten," the other added
 
 180 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 hastily, "had we come back without having seen with 
 our own eyes that he was well." 
 
 The old plotters pretended to be mollified, and in 
 vited the slaves to spend the afternoon with them, and 
 see the young slaves they were training. The two 
 crones accepted with a smirk of satisfaction. Their 
 orders were not to leave the house until they saw Ork- 
 han go away, and they were not a little pleased to have 
 their hostesses play into their hands. 
 
 When all were seated, partaking of refreshments, 
 and pleasantly talking palace scandal, a eunuch ar 
 rived from ex-Sultan Murad s household, begging the 
 miradju to go there and amuse a little boy who had 
 been taken ill with the measles. 
 
 "Yes, when little boys have measles they send for 
 me," the old dame grumbled; "but when there are 
 many guests and much merrymaking they do not wish 
 to hear me any more. I have guests of my own. I can 
 not go." 
 
 The eunuch looked downcast. 
 
 "He is a very nice little boy and he asked especially 
 for you," he urged. " He said : I want to hear Miriam 
 Hanoum tell about the White Bear - and he is all 
 speckled from the measles." 
 
 "It is bad luck to refuse a favor to a sick child," 
 Nurse Saaded put in. 
 
 The miradju rose protestingly. 
 
 "At my age a person should not have her comfort
 
 IN DISGUISE 181 
 
 disturbed by every speckled child and it was such a 
 pleasant conversation we were having. But you will 
 come again, sometime, and tell me the rest of that 
 story. If the child were not sick " 
 
 Still mumbling and grumbling, she left the room. 
 Outside, it ceased, and her old eyes sparkled with ex 
 citement. She hurried to her own room, gathered up 
 her best outer garments and several strips of white 
 cloth, and went to where Orkhan was still "deceiving 
 the dead." With her hand outstretched to waken him, 
 she stopped, leaning over the couch. He was, indeed, 
 good to look at, she thought. The women he would 
 love would be fortunate ones. She sighed, thinking of 
 her own young days. With the edge of her indoor veil 
 she wiped the moisture from her eyes. Women are 
 young in this world only once, and Allah was good to 
 make such men as Orkhan. 
 
 Leaning down she kissed him softly on the forehead. 
 
 "Wake up, young aslan /"she whispered. 
 
 Orkhan stretched himself, and slowly opened his 
 eyes. 
 
 The old woman smiled at him. 
 
 "Wake up, Bey Effendi. All is ready!" 
 
 Orkhan sprang to his feet. 
 
 "Do not make any noise," she warned. "Two spies 
 from the Princess are here. They have seen you and 
 are content. Now is the time to take you to Princess 
 Malkhatoun."
 
 182 
 
 She kneeled down and took his shoes off. She 
 wrapped the strips of white cloth about his legs till 
 they were as fat and bulky as her own. Then she 
 dressed him in voluminous petticoats, put on the 
 outer yashmak, and finally enveloped his head in 
 yards and yards of yellow gauze. Secretly she con 
 gratulated herself on her vanity, which made her al 
 ways thus conceal from sight the ravages of time. 
 
 "It is fortunate I was tall when I stood up straight. 
 But you must bend well over and not forget. Now, 
 take this stick and imitate my walk. So ! Only slower. 
 It is the young who have plenty of time who walk fast. 
 Ah! that is better." 
 
 When Orkhan s performance satisfied his critical 
 teacher, she kissed him, and gave him her blessing. 
 
 "If it is preordained that we should be discovered, 
 who can help that?" she ended with a sigh. 
 
 Orkhan tottered forth into the sunshine, beside the 
 eunuch, while Leila Sultana s spies were sipping sher 
 bets with Nurse Saaded. 
 
 In his place on the divan lay the old miradju, his 
 coat on, his fez pulled down over her face and the 
 coverlet drawn up to her chin, tranquilly waiting to 
 learn what Allah had ordained should happen to her 
 next.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 MALKHATOUN 
 
 IN one of the group of gilded palaces forming the 
 imperial residence, lived the family of Sultan Mu 
 rad, the unfortunate prince who was deposed shortly 
 after his accession to the throne, and who was re 
 tained in solitary confinement as insane until he died. 
 
 Sultan Abdul Hamid had always watched this house 
 hold with suspicious eyes. So long as Sultan Murad 
 lived, who might easily become sane again, were 
 there a successful revolution in his behalf, it was a 
 menace to his reign. Afterwards, its members living 
 quietly, united by their misfortunes, it caused him 
 little uneasiness, and he began to view it more len 
 iently, and even at times made its members unex 
 pected gifts of extra money. 
 
 Among the daughters and granddaughters of Murad 
 were several renowned for their loveliness. Pearl 
 among them all was Malkhatoun, who was now sitting 
 alone in her room, her guitar by her side, and nu 
 merous books in French and English scattered over the 
 velvet carpet which covered her divan. But she was 
 not playing or reading. She was sitting on the divan, 
 looking out through the gilded lattices into the garden 
 which surrounded her prison, and dreaming of the
 
 184 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 Might-be and the May-not, of the paradise, or the sad, 
 monotonous years before her, as youth will always 
 dream. During the last two years there had been 
 times when she had been very happy, aiding her for 
 mer playfellow Orkhan in his work for the Young 
 Turks Orkhan, who never noticed that she had 
 grown to be a woman. And in a year she was destined 
 to become the bride of another cousin. She glanced 
 down at her slender hands. Among the many rings on 
 them was one whose yellow stone borrowed its color 
 from a liquid it contained. It was only a drop, but 
 that drop could save Malkhatoun from a hateful 
 fate. 
 
 She twirled the ring around on her finger. "You 
 precious one," she murmured, "how dear you are 
 to me!" 
 
 Her glance fell on a bent figure and two slaves com 
 ing toward her palace. At first she did not even feel 
 idle curiosity concerning them. Then she leaned for 
 ward, her breath came fast, and the color flickered 
 over her cheeks. 
 
 "Is it Yes, it is he! Oh ! how risky in broad day 
 light. How well disguised he is. Allah guard him! 
 Allah be with him!" 
 
 She did not take her eyes from him until he passed 
 out of sight around the corner of the house. Then she 
 rose, went into an inner room, and stood before her 
 mirror. It told her once more that there was no flaw
 
 MALKHATOUN 185 
 
 in her beauty, but there was only momentary pleasure 
 in this. A shadow came over her face. 
 
 " Malkhatoun, thou mayest be a treasure of a wo 
 man, as thy name declares; but he desires no such 
 treasure as thou art." 
 
 The face in the mirror frowned at her as she spoke; 
 nevertheless she went to a closet, took out a dark red 
 cloak, embroidered with gold thread, and threw it 
 about her slender figure. It concealed, yet suggested 
 her lines, and covered her bare arms and the bare Cir 
 cassian throat. Her small head, crowned with blue- 
 black masses of wavy hair, rose above her slender neck 
 like a flower on its stem. 
 
 Malkhatoun surveyed her head with a slight disap 
 proval. She opened a casket, took out a long chain of 
 emeralds, and twined it among her tresses over her 
 forehead. The color of the stones accentuated the deep 
 reflections of her dark eyes and enhanced her beauty. 
 For a few seconds she stood enchanted with her own 
 loveliness. Then, remembering, she tore the emeralds 
 from her head roughly. 
 
 "Thy beauty is nothing to him!" 
 
 She tossed the chain on a table, and in its place 
 threw a sombre lace veil over her hair, and then waited. 
 
 In a few minutes a young slave of her own age, and 
 who had drunk the same milk as she, becoming thus 
 her milk-sister, came cautiously into the room. 
 
 " Malkhatoun, my sister," she whispered, "you must
 
 186 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 come to your work cabinet. He is there waiting for 
 you. The whole line is on guard, and he will be safe so 
 long as he is in this house." 
 
 Although Malkhatoun had seen him coming and had 
 been making ready for him, now she trembled like a 
 leaf in the wind. 
 
 "Go say I I am coming; but first bring 
 bring me a glass of water." 
 
 Alone she tried to stop the beating of her heart. "Do, 
 foolish heart, stop beating so hard. He may hear thee 
 and then he might guess and never come again ! " 
 She walked up and down the room. "Foolish little 
 heart, thou dost not wish to betray thy secret and be 
 scorned? For even he may be cruel where he does not 
 love." 
 
 Her milk-sister brought her the glass of water; and 
 then quietly and composedly Malkhatoun went into 
 her work cabinet. 
 
 She salaamed to the floor, and he salaamed low. She 
 repeated the salutation, and so did he. 
 
 "Be seated, my cousin," she said. "I am very happy 
 to see you here. But, my cousin, in broad daylight, 
 ought you to risk your life thus?" 
 
 "I had to see you, Malkhatoun, to-day. I had great 
 need of you." 
 
 "You command, my cousin, and I obey." 
 
 " To-day I am not come to you for the movement. 
 I come to see you on a personal matter."
 
 MALKHATOUN 187 
 
 Under her cloak the girl s fingers were intertwined. 
 
 "I am always ready to serve you." 
 
 Orkhan came to the point at once. 
 
 "Malkhatoun, you are perhaps too secluded and too 
 young yet to know that there is a time when a man s 
 heart speaks a name, and his whole being hears no 
 thing else." 
 
 Malkhatoun s head drooped. A pallor overspread 
 her face. She could hear her heart beating, and it 
 seemed as if it would suffocate her. 
 
 "Malkhatoun, my heart has spoken. I love a wo 
 man." 
 
 He drew nearer to her, and for a brief instant a mad 
 hope rushed through the girl s heart. 
 
 "The girl I love is an American. You know that I 
 cannot marry her openly without endangering her 
 life, but marry her I must." 
 
 Gasping, the girl battled against her emotions. They 
 were like gigantic waves engulfing her. But Orkhan 
 saw nothing of this. He went on talking as only a 
 lover does, when he speaks of her he has just begun to 
 love. 
 
 The unconsciousness of his cruelty alone saved 
 Malkhatoun. Her head averted she listened to him, 
 and when he ceased she said, naturally and quietly: 
 
 "What is it you wish of me, my cousin?" 
 
 "I have come to you because I feel that you will 
 help me. Tell me what I must do to get her."
 
 188 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 In her own anguish, his coming to her for help was 
 some comfort. She thought awhile. 
 
 "Can she not wait till the movement is successful? 
 Then you can marry her openly." 
 
 "It is I who do not wish to wait. I love her I 
 want her to be mine at once. You do not know what 
 love is, Malkhatoun, or you would not ask/* 
 
 The girl smiled. He did not know the greater love 
 which could wait and serve. But he had come to her 
 for help and she must give it to him. She was sur 
 prised how rapidly and clearly she could think. 
 
 "It is risky but it can be done. I can buy her as 
 a slave and bring her here. I will make a home for your 
 wife and guard her for you. Of course you could not 
 see her as often as you would like; but she would be 
 yours." 
 
 Orkhan kneeled and kissed the hem of the girl s 
 gown. 
 
 "I knew you would help me, Malkhatoun. How 
 soon can you make the arrangements? What is your 
 idea of the way you will buy her?" 
 
 "In a few days Miriam Kalfa is going to the Bulga 
 rian frontier, where a number of Bulgarian, Montene 
 grin, and Servian girls will be brought to her for selec 
 tion. She is to buy a considerable number, both for the 
 Palace and for some of our houses. The Sultan gave 
 me a sum of money ten days ago. I shall ask permis 
 sion to buy a slave. That slave could be she."
 
 MALKHATOUN 189 
 
 "But she could not pass for any of the women of 
 the Balkans. Her golden hair and blue eyes are Anglo- 
 Saxon. She walks with the gait of a free nation. One 
 could not imagine her a slave, any more than one 
 could imagine the dazzling snow-capped peak of a 
 mountain subject to the yoke of the husbandman. 
 She is a woman different from our women. Her bear 
 ing is nobler, she " and again Orkhan lost himself 
 in the remembrance of her whom he loved. Malkha- 
 toun shaded her face with her hand to hide from Ork 
 han her agony. But she felt that hep hand trembled, 
 and by a superhuman effort she mastered herself and 
 met his eyes. 
 
 " You must let me have time to think, cousin. You 
 may leave me now, for every minute that you stay 
 here is dangerous for you. When I arrive at a plan I 
 will let you know. And pray be careful of your move 
 ments. Remember that much depends on you." 
 
 "I have a talisman which keeps me safe," Orkhan 
 said, laughing. 
 
 "And what is that?" 
 
 "Princess Leila s love for me." 
 
 Malkhatoun shook her head. 
 
 "Don t count on that, Orkhan. If she ever discov 
 ers your love for another woman, woe to you and to 
 her. A love like Leila s is fiercest brother to hatred, 
 and she will be unmerciful when she hates. And now, 
 pray go, cousin, and let me think."
 
 190 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 When Orkhan was gone, Malkhatoun fell face down 
 ward on the couch. The effort she had made to dis 
 guise her feelings in his presence had exhausted her. 
 She wept like a child, but even in her misery she was 
 saying to herself: 
 
 " He came to me to ask me to give him his happi 
 ness. And I shall give it to him; yes, I shall give 
 it to him." 
 
 She brought the ring with the yellow stone fervently 
 to her lips. 
 
 "And after I have done for him all that I can, then 
 you, little drop, will come to give me rest from sor 
 row."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE MESSAGE OP THE CYPRESS TREES 
 
 THE red disk of the sun had just disappeared be 
 hind the hills of the Bosphorus, leaving the 
 world bathed in an afterglow of yellow light. As if his 
 departure liberated the breezes, they came rushing 
 in from the surrounding seas, and Constantinople 
 breathed again. One could almost hear her sigh. The 
 blanket of heat which had enveloped her all day long 
 was lifted, and the children of the inland winds, travel 
 ing over hill and meadow, were caressing and soothing 
 her scorched brow. 
 
 "They are coming!" cried Elpis; "the winds are 
 coming! Don t you feel them, dear? There is life 
 again in the air." 
 
 The two girls had been lying on long canvas chairs 
 under a venerable oak tree. Millicent raised herself 
 from her reclining posture to a sitting one, and ex 
 tended her arms toward the river to feel the coming 
 coolness better. 
 
 "It has been a horrible day, Elpis. It has taken all 
 my strength and vitality." 
 
 A softness had come over the American girl in the 
 last few days. In her eyes there was that pathetic look 
 one sometimes sees in dogs, as if at the dumbness
 
 192 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 which will not let them put their love into words. She 
 was a changed Millicent : her self-confidence was gone, 
 and when one loses self-confidence, the earth on which 
 one has stood with such assurance loses its solidity. 
 
 In her gentler state she was more lovable. When 
 Elpis spoke to her she gave to her voice all the ten 
 derness she felt, as if afraid of hurting her by the 
 slightest hard sound. 
 
 Elpis leaned over and put her hand caressingly on 
 Millicent s arm. 
 
 "Yes, dear, it has been very hot, and it is only the 
 fifth day. For two months there will be oppressive 
 heat in the daytime, coolness after sunset. I believe 
 that in July and August Vulcan transfers his forges 
 and his cyclops from the regions below, not to Mount 
 Etna, but here on the hills around Constantinople. I 
 can feel the heat of his furnaces and hear the noise of 
 his anvils. Still the gods of Olympus are good to give 
 us cool nights." 
 
 "I understand now," Millicent moaned, "why peo 
 ple become enervated here. The heat consumes their 
 energy and burns up their ambition." 
 
 "Perhaps. Even the Turks are no longer the war 
 like race they once were. It only took a few genera 
 tions here for the sultans no longer to lead their troops 
 in battle; and the askirs came back from war de 
 feated." 
 
 Elpis of ten led the conversation around to the Turks
 
 MESSAGE OF THE CYPRESS TREES 193 
 
 hoping that Millicent might speak. But the Amer 
 ican girl never spoke. She kept her secret to herself; 
 and if it gnawed at her heart, and gave the pathetic 
 look to her eyes, she at least thought that no one 
 knew of it. 
 
 The winds now were bolder. The air had become 
 cleared, vivified. 
 
 Millicent rose from her chair. 
 
 " I think I shall go for a walk. I don t believe in giv 
 ing in to the climate." 
 
 "Would you like me to go with you?" 
 
 "No. I am a poor companion to-day. Perhaps it 
 would do me good to walk alone." 
 
 "Yes, I think it would. Only take a wrap with you. 
 You know there is treachery in these cooling winds." 
 
 "No, I don t want anything." 
 
 "Then put a scarf over your head. It is not proper 
 here to go bareheaded." 
 
 Elpis jumped up and went into the house, and re 
 turned with a black scarf embroidered with silver 
 stars. Affectionately she arranged it over Millicent s 
 hair, and fastened it on top with a half-moon of 
 gold. 
 
 "What an adorable picture you make, Millicent, 
 all in white, and now that black over your hair. You 
 look like Diana not the Diana who asked for celi 
 bacy, but Diana, who perhaps in her tramps in the 
 woods met a mortal and loved him."
 
 194 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Only Diana never did, you know," Millicent re 
 plied lightly, yet averting her face. 
 
 " Well, good-bye," Elpis said, giving the other a pat. 
 "Don t stay out too long." 
 
 As soon as her friend was lost to sight, the Greek 
 girl clapped her hands. When she had gone in for the 
 scarf, she had given an order, and now a man re 
 sponded instantly to the signal. He was tall and sol 
 dierly. He held his Albanian cap in his hand, but his 
 attitude was not that of a servant, but of an officer 
 toward his queen. 
 
 Elpis pointed in the direction Millicent had gone. 
 
 "That way, Mitro, and as you are to see that no 
 thing happens to her, she is not to know that you fol 
 low her." 
 
 The man gave a military salute, and without a word 
 obeyed. 
 
 Elpis stood watching his catlike tread, which is char 
 acteristic of the Albanians, be they Greeks or Turks. 
 They walk as if they are climbing the hills of their 
 brave country to engage in guerrilla warfare. 
 
 "There is a man!" murmured Elpis. "He is brave 
 and uncivilized I wonder how many Turks he has 
 killed, without being in the least troubled by their 
 ghosts. If half the Greeks were like him, we should be 
 masters here to-day." 
 
 With her hands behind her back she paced up and 
 down, her thoughts again on Millicent.
 
 MESSAGE OF THE CYPRESS TREES 195 
 
 "Be brave, child !" she whispered ; "be brave! Don t 
 let the son of Aphrodite become your tyrant. How 
 hard the fight comes to those Puritans I suppose 
 because all their suppressed generations of ancestors 
 rise within them in rebellion. My poor Millicent! 
 Will she come out of it unharmed?" 
 
 She leaned down and plucked a rose from its stem, 
 and pulling off its petals, one by one, asked: "Will 
 she? Will she not?" 
 
 Through a thick hedge of little pines a young Greek 
 appeared. 
 
 "Will who, Miss Elpis?" he asked, an acute note of 
 jealousy in his musical voice. 
 
 "Oh! is it you, Euripides? Welcome, my friend," 
 and Elpis held out her rose-scented hand to him. 
 
 Dropping on one knee, he bent his uncovered head 
 and kissed her hand. 
 
 "About whom were you asking?" he repeated again 
 jealously. 
 
 " If you were a more careful eavesdropper you would 
 have heard me say, Will she? Will she not? 
 
 Euripides Stellos made a slight grimace, even while 
 perceptible relief showed in his eloquent black eyes. 
 
 "A woman! You are always thinking about 
 women." 
 
 Elpis clapped her hands, and to the old butler who 
 appeared she said : 
 
 "Bring us some masticha, some bread, olives, and
 
 196 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 dried fish. And, Euripides, let s pull the chairs out in 
 the open." 
 
 Even before the butler reappeared, Elpis s old nurse 
 came out and covered her with a bournous. She took 
 her seat at some little distance from the girl she had 
 nursed. She could not hear the conversation, but she 
 could keep an eye on her darling. Calypso, like Mitro, 
 was primitive. 
 
 "Why do you always think of women?" the young 
 man demanded. 
 
 "I find them more interesting, for one thing." 
 
 "And for another?" 
 
 "More capable of aspirations." 
 
 " More capable of aspirations ! And have I not been 
 aspiring ever since you grew to be a woman?" 
 
 There was no mistaking the force of his feeling. 
 
 She felt sorry for him, yet a whimsical smile came to 
 her lips. 
 
 " I mean * aspiration to help humanity not to get 
 something for one s self." 
 
 "But when one begins to aspire, one first aspires for 
 one s self, and then for others. When you fill my heart 
 and my soul and my mind, how can I think of human 
 ity ? Surely if one s home were on fire, one could not 
 think of his neighbor s house. Elpis, I love you you 
 know I have loved you for the last five years. I have 
 waited, dreamed, hoped that some day you would be 
 mine. Will you never learn to love me, Elpis?"
 
 MESSAGE OF THE CYPRESS TREES 197 
 
 The girl stretched her hand over the back of her 
 chair and plucked a rose from a bush. She brought it 
 to her face and inhaled its perfume, slowly, deliber 
 ately. 
 
 The young man watched her, worship in his eyes; 
 but his attitude was that of a falconer. 
 
 "I like you, Euripides, but I do not wish to marry 
 
 you." 
 
 "But why? why? why?" cried the young man. "I 
 am of your class; I am young; and Niko approves of 
 me." 
 
 " And you are a good boy rich and handsome." 
 
 "Well, my money does not count. You have much 
 yourself." 
 
 "Yes, it does; for no one could accuse you of marry 
 ing me for my money." 
 
 There was mockery in her voice. 
 
 "Elpis! Could any one, who knows you, think of 
 anything else except you yourself? I love you!" he 
 cried again, as if the constant repetition of his plea 
 would at last reach her heart. 
 
 But she only shook her head. She knew that there 
 were many girls, less fortunate than herself, who had 
 to marry, in order to live. And she felt thankful for her 
 riches, which made it possible for her to choose whether 
 to accept a suitor or not. 
 
 From the tray which the butler brought her she took 
 a small decanter, and pouring a little of its contents
 
 198 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 into a glass, she filled it up with water and presented 
 it to her guest. She prepared another glassful for her 
 self, and held it up to the light and watched its opales 
 cent colors. The butler placed his tray on a stool and 
 went away. 
 
 The girl touched the masticha with her lips, and in 
 haled its aromatic flavor. 
 
 "What an infantile drink!" she said. "It is indeed 
 the emblem of our race." 
 
 "You do not call our race infantile, Elpis?" the 
 young man protested. 
 
 "Not infantile in the sense of being on the threshold 
 of life, because that contains a future, and is rich in 
 promise. But infantile of the second kind, which has 
 no other hope but the grave and oblivion. My dear 
 Euripides, there was a time when the Greek youths 
 did not pine away for love. They accomplished deeds 
 which made their fatherland immortal. In this way 
 they won the love of the maidens." 
 
 "Those were other times," said he rather feebly. 
 
 "And what has changed the times? "Elpis cried pas 
 sionately. "Surely there are as great deeds to-day 
 waiting to be done as those accomplished by former 
 youths. It is the men who have changed, not the 
 times. Listen, the air is filled with the call for our 
 youths. Listen!" 
 
 Elpis leaned forward, her forefinger raised, her lips 
 parted, her head half turned, like some young priest-
 
 MESSAGE OF THE CYPRESS TREES 199 
 
 ess who hears the call of the gods. And breathless un 
 der her spell, Euripides also strained his ears for the 
 call. 
 
 But the only sound that came to him was the sough 
 ing of the wind. 
 
 "It is the cypress trees," he said. "The wind is blow 
 ing through them." 
 
 In a rapt voice, like that of the ancient vestals of the 
 Oracles, she replied : 
 
 "It is the cypress trees, Euripides, but they are de 
 livering a message. Listen! Don t you hear? The 
 souls of the great dead Greeks are speaking. Listen! 
 Don t you hear? Rise, slave Greeks, rise! they 
 say." 
 
 A pallor overspread the features of Euripides Stel- 
 los. A heaving sigh raised his chest. Voices mute till 
 then whispered half-forgotten patriotic songs. Some 
 thing immortal stirred within his self-indulgent soul. 
 For the moment he, too, was a hero. 
 
 "What can we do? What must we do? We are but 
 a downtrodden race." 
 
 " We are that because we deserve it. We have intel 
 ligence enough, patriotism enough: what we lack is 
 will, courage, and clean living on the part of our men. 
 Let us wake up, Euripides. Let us throw off the Mus 
 sulman yoke. We have worn it too long. We were con 
 quered by others before; but they passed off the face 
 of the earth and we still live. Race after race has
 
 200 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 vanished and we remain because those who first 
 gave us life intermarried with the gods." 
 
 " Yes and once we did succeed against the 
 Turks," he put in eagerly, "succeeded with small 
 irregular bands, against an army stronger than it is 
 now." 
 
 "But what have we done since we wrenched back 
 that small part of our old empire? Better never have 
 succeeded than have shown the world how little 
 worthy of freedom we were. What have we done in 
 that free Greece in the almost hundred years of its 
 freedom? Look at our government! Look at our 
 army! Think of the war of 1897. What a disgrace it 
 was!" 
 
 "But surely, Elpis, you know that we were be 
 trayed. The King made war because the Greeks forced 
 him to; but secretly he was keeping his promise to the 
 Powers that there should be no fighting. The army 
 marched out, but the only order his son commanding 
 it ever gave was, Retreat! always Retreat! 
 
 "And if the head of our army was the son of the son 
 of a Danish king, were not the officers Greeks? Why 
 did they not kill their dishonorable prince and fight 
 fight till they had won, or were dead? After that 
 war, we might have cried, All is lost except the 
 army! " 
 
 The young man hung his head. 
 
 Elpis continued: "There are millions of Greeks liv-
 
 MESSAGE OF THE CYPRESS TREES 201 
 
 ing to-day, who are proud to call themselves Hellenes. 
 What are they doing for Hellas? Either they misspend 
 their youth, or they devote it solely to moneymaking. 
 Ah! yes, we are always rich, wherever we are. We 
 used to intermarry with the gods of Olympus. Now 
 the only god whose blood flows in our veins is that of 
 Mammon." 
 
 " Hullo, Elpis ! Hullo, Euripides ! " cried Niko Papa- 
 righopoulos, coming toward them. 
 
 He became conscious of something unusual in the 
 atmosphere, and looked affectionately at the young 
 man, who was his favorite suitor for the hand of his 
 sister. Had it come at last, he thought to himself? 
 Had the citadel fallen? Aloud he said: 
 
 "Sis, you look like a priestess of the Temple of Love. 
 Are you about to unbolt its doors?" 
 
 "I am only a mortal standing outside that temple s 
 door. It is a force from within which must open it." 
 
 "What were you talking about?" 
 
 " We were only listening to the words of the cypress 
 trees." 
 
 "And they were saying?" 
 
 " I think they have become mundane and frivolous, 
 brother, those ancient cypresses. And they were sing 
 ing the song of our old cynical bard: * Enjoy! Enjoy 
 life, while there is time; for time flies fast. "
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD 
 
 MILLICENT walked away rapidly from the 
 Paparighopoulos grounds. Her mind was 
 filled with fear. Fate had taken a hand in the game 
 and was forcing her to stay here where she might 
 again meet the man she most dreaded meeting. Yet 
 this was not the fear which oppressed her : it was terror 
 at the rejoicing in her own heart that she was forced 
 to stay. 
 
 The days had grown hotter and longer. In the cool 
 of the evening her hosts took her to see everything 
 that was interesting in Constantinople. They told 
 her bits of its history when it had been Byzantium, 
 or the Eastern Empire, and of the outrages it had suf 
 fered under the short rapacious sway of the Crusaders 
 and again after it had fallen under the Turkish yoke. 
 
 Millicent gave her attention, and tried to give her 
 interest. She tried to appear the mentally alert girl 
 she had always been ; but inwardly she was possessed 
 by a strange passion, which made her every day more 
 fearful of herself. 
 
 To Elpis, Millicent never spoke of Orkhan, and the 
 Greek girl, obeying the unexpressed wish of her 
 guest, did not mention him, although she often led
 
 THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD 203 
 
 the conversation to subjects that would have made it 
 natural to speak of him. She hoped that Millicent 
 would confide in her, and receive the comfort which 
 comes from giving utterance to our troubles ; but Mil 
 licent never spoke. To herself she fiercely declared 
 that she would be the conqueror of herself, no matter 
 how severe the battle might be. Yet as time passed, 
 she did not grow more confident. Indeed, she found 
 herself incapable of thinking of anything except Ork- 
 han. At times she even gave herself up willingly to 
 the intoxicating memory of the few moments when 
 nothing had mattered except the fact that she loved 
 him. She grew thinner and paler, and did not carry 
 her head with its former independent bearing. She 
 became humbler from her repeated failures to be mis 
 tress of herself and of her thoughts. After each defeat 
 she gathered her forces together with dogged cour 
 age, only to suffer defeat, again and again. 
 
 Environment, atmospheric and social, had much to 
 do with this. In Turkey the climate in summer for 
 bids wholesome exercise, and the ruling race looks 
 upon love as the one great element in life. This atti 
 tude seems to be in the very air. The Greek women 
 whom she met at the Paparighopoulos villa, and those 
 she met outside with Elpis, seemed to have but one 
 thought love. Poor Millicent was never permitted 
 to forget this great force for a single day. Had she 
 been in her own country, where men and women live
 
 204 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 a less sensuous, a more intellectual and out-of-door 
 life, and where even the greatest heat is not so devoid 
 of a bracing quality, she would probably have found 
 her struggle less tragic, more commonplace and hu 
 man. Now, in her overwrought condition, she thought 
 too much about her heart and the primeval demands 
 of life. 
 
 Orkhan Effendi had not come to the house since 
 the fateful day when he had kissed her and set her 
 heart on fire. Yet every step she heard filled her with 
 apprehension, lest it should be his and each time 
 that it was not, cold disappointment took the place of 
 apprehension. Sometimes she told herself that she 
 wished to see him, to prove to herself that she would 
 be strong in his presence. Again she entertained no 
 doubts but that she was in love with Orkhan the 
 Turk. But how much was that love to rule her life? 
 
 "When you will send for me I will come," he had 
 said, certain that she would send for him. Now, as she 
 walked up the picturesque hills of the Bosphorus, 
 she flushed with indignation at the supposition that 
 she, Millicent Grey, should send for him to come. His 
 arrogant assumption filled her with rage. 
 
 She made an effort to change the current of her 
 thoughts, to think of the things about her. She forced 
 her attention to the wild flowers growing by the road 
 side. She stooped and picked a kind of bluebell, and 
 another of an exquisite pale green, fashioned as
 
 THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD 205 
 
 delicately as if Nature were producing only this one 
 masterpiece, and not bringing out millions of them. 
 The freshness of the evening wind, the exercise, the 
 peace which reigned over the woods, and the touch of 
 flowers took away in a measure the fierceness of Milli- 
 cent s mood. A sense of happiness stole over her, and 
 she viewed her love for Orkhan with more tolerance. 
 Was it really so horrid as she made it out? He was a 
 Turk, it is true, but every one said he was a fine man, 
 and he loved her as much as she loved him. 
 
 She abandoned herself again to the memory of 
 those few minutes in which she had been a mere wo 
 man, answering the call of her man. How utterly she 
 had loved him during those few minutes ! What if she 
 were to seek more of that happiness? W T hat if she 
 were to become for all her life a mere woman, loving 
 her man? What if she were to acknowledge herself 
 conquered and marry Orkhan? The thought thrilled 
 her: to be his wife; to live by his side year after year; 
 she and he comrades at work and at play! The wo 
 man, now reigning, regarded the union as even high- 
 minded. Would it not be the best thing for the work 
 for which she had come here? By becoming the wife 
 of Orkhan the Turk, she could come close to Turkish 
 women, learn to understand them, and bring to them 
 the aspirations she wished to bring. 
 
 In spite of the steep walking, she went faster, yet 
 she could not walk fast enough to keep up with the
 
 206 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 flying thoughts of her brain. At the summit she 
 stopped and leaned against a tree, facing but not seeing 
 the wonderful panorama of hills and water and city 
 before her. The long twilight had spread its wings 
 over the banks of the Bosphorus. The hills were tinted 
 with the yellow, green, and pink of the afterglow. The 
 minarets, slim and graceful, and ever aspiring to be 
 the first at the feet of Allah, were beckoning to the girl. 
 She breathed deeply, and gradually a peace descended 
 upon her, and she ceased from her troubled thoughts. 
 
 On the top of a minaret a muezzin appeared to call 
 the faithful to prayer. His voice carried sweet and 
 melodious across the housetops and reached up even 
 to Millicent. She listened. She knew what he was 
 saying; for Elpis had explained the words to her: 
 "There is no other god but God"; and a pang shot 
 through the girl s heart. Of late she had learned to 
 pray not the prayers one says as a matter of course, 
 remnant habit of childhood, but the prayers which the 
 soul makes for itself in its need. 
 
 The young muezzin continued chanting "There is 
 no god but God," but his words brought no comfort to 
 Millicent. "One God!" she thought, "there must be 
 millions of gods. Each of us has a god in him, which is 
 his highest ideal; and this god clashes with all the 
 other gods." 
 
 While she thought of gods and of men, the yellow 
 light little by little was succeeded by a soft gray,
 
 THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD 207 
 
 which hung over the landscape like a light mist, mes 
 senger of the approach of night. 
 
 Reluctantly Millicent started down. Already she 
 had stayed longer than she ought. Halfway down the 
 hill was a grove of young cypress trees. When she 
 reached it, the caprice took her to go through it, al 
 though Elpis had cautioned her against these groves, 
 so innocent in appearance, yet so dangerous after 
 nightfall. Millicent was in no mood for caution. She 
 plunged straight into the grove. The slender summits 
 of the cypresses at once shut her off from outside 
 view. It was darker here, and a foreboding came over 
 her. Her pride would not let her turn back, but she 
 walked on as fast as she could through the thick trees. 
 
 Presently she thought she heard footsteps. She 
 hurried on, anxious to reach a clearing which she 
 knew to be not far away. She was sure now that some 
 one w r as following her. At this instant her scarf caught 
 on one of the trees.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 "AND THE STARS BE OUR WITNESS" 
 
 SHE had to stop to disentangle herself, and heard 
 her pursuer forcing his way through the cypresses 
 only a few yards away. Facing around, she waited. 
 Whoever it was she preferred meeting him to the 
 terrors of the unknown. 
 
 An instant later she made out, through the dusk, 
 the figure of Orkhan Effendi. A mad joy at sight of 
 him was her first feeling even stronger than the 
 feeling of relief. Then she turned and ran off as fast 
 as she could. 
 
 His voice called after her: "Do not be afraid, Milli- 
 cent. It is I, Orkhan." 
 
 She stopped, ashamed of herself, and glad that he 
 had mistaken her fright. As he approached, all other 
 feelings died out of her except simple happiness at 
 being near him. 
 
 "Did I frighten you?" he asked. 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "You know," he said, in the tone of a grown person 
 speaking to a child, "you ought not to come into this 
 grove by yourself. It is not safe." 
 
 She did not reply. She was half leaning against a 
 cypress, and trembling like a frightened child.
 
 AND THE STARS BE OUR WITNESS 209 
 
 He held out his arms to her. She did not move. He 
 waited an instant; then, dropping his arms, took one 
 of her hands in his, and began to tell her what his love 
 for her meant to him. His words, mingling with the 
 aroma of the cypresses, seemed to penetrate her very 
 soul. Her hand was lying unresisting in his, and the 
 intoxication of surrender was upon her. His very 
 gentleness added to his power. His not attempting to 
 kiss her, or to take her in his arms, made her grateful 
 to him; for she was fully conscious of how little she 
 could resist him. He led her out of the grove, to the 
 bank of the river, flowing far below them. There he 
 turned and took one of her hands in each of his. 
 
 "Millicent," he said, "I take you to be mine, and 
 the stars above and the river below are our witnesses. 
 Henceforth you belong to me and to me alone." 
 
 The tone of the man-master grated on the mood of 
 surrender in which she had been. She pushed him 
 gently from her. 
 
 "You say that I love you, and it is true that there is 
 one side of me which longs for nothing except to be 
 yours, but " 
 
 " But that is the true womanly side ! " he exclaimed, 
 interrupting her; and in spite of the tense emotion 
 which held them both, Millicent could not help smil 
 ing at the absolute conviction in his voice. 
 
 "And the other side of me," she asked, perhaps 
 with the hope that he would succeed in convincing
 
 210 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 her, "the persistent, unwomanly side, which bids 
 me not to mate with a man of another faith and other 
 ideals than mine?" 
 
 "But the woman always gives up all to follow the 
 man she loves," he cried eagerly. 
 
 Yes, if she follows her instincts blindly. Oh, Ork- 
 han, I cannot do that." 
 
 Her scruples seemed very little things to the Turk. 
 With a wave of his hand he brushed them aw r ay. 
 
 "Queen of my hours, why waste time in profitless 
 discussion, like a musty lawyer in a court? Allah gives 
 us this chance to be happy. Let us marry and think 
 no more of the petty differences between us." 
 
 "Oh! cannot I make you understand?" she wailed. 
 "A part of me loves you; but another part refuses 
 to accept this physical attraction as enough un 
 less there shall be other, more lasting sympathies 
 to draw us together." Earnestly she looked into his 
 eyes. "Do you believe this love of ours would last 
 long?" 
 
 "Everything endures so long as Allah ordains," he 
 answered solemnly. 
 
 His fatalism struck the wrong note in her. How 
 easily fatalism could excuse anything which might 
 come after. She glanced down at the dark Bosphorus 
 below them. In some ways it was as if they stood on 
 opposite sides of this, instead of on the same. 
 
 "To understand the gulf which lies between us,"
 
 AND THE STARS BE OUR WITNESS 211 
 
 she went on, "I must tell you that my object in com 
 ing to your country was to help your women to free 
 themselves from the bondage in which you Turkish 
 men keep them." 
 
 " We do not keep them in bondage," he cried. "We 
 only cherish them and guard them from all eyes ex 
 cept our own. They are our most precious possessions. 
 We go to them like a lover, leaving the cares of the 
 world behind, and seeking paradise at their side. We 
 surround them with the best the world can give, and 
 deny ourselves so that they may have more. It is not 
 bondage, but a sanctuary we have created for them. 
 Ah, my beloved, sultana of my soul, what is there more 
 in the world than the love of a man and a woman ! Do 
 you not feel the love you have for me to be the strong 
 est thing in you?" 
 
 Very slowly the girl nodded. 
 
 The man went on with triumphant eagerness: 
 
 "In your country you have learned to think wrongly 
 of us and our customs. They have taught you that 
 there are other things in life besides love. But there is 
 nothing! Love alone glorifies the world. Put all else 
 aside, and come to me, my bride. Be one of our wo 
 men and you shall know whether there is other happi 
 ness than loving and being loved." 
 
 He had again enthralled her, and when he held 
 out his arms and drew her to him, she again forgot 
 all except that they loved one another. She felt
 
 212 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 that the battle was over, that he had won. Yes, she 
 would marry him, and live for him and for him 
 alone. 
 
 "And now, let me hear you say that you will be my 
 wife as soon as I can make a home for you," he urged, 
 as if divining her thoughts. 
 
 Although she had just said this to herself, she could 
 not say it to him. The struggle was not entirely over, 
 as she had thought had hoped it was. 
 
 Very gently she drew away from him. 
 
 "Will you take me now to Elpis?" 
 
 "Tell me once that you love me. * 
 
 "Not yet," she pleaded. "Be generous, and take 
 me to Elpis now." 
 
 "I shall never be anything except generous to you, 
 Millicent," he replied. 
 
 A short distance from the Paparighopoulos villa he 
 left her. She found Elpis walking up and down out 
 side the house, with her nurse. 
 
 The Greek girl rushed up to her. 
 
 "Oh! my dear one, how you have frightened me." 
 
 She threw her arms around Millicent, but Millicent 
 drew back from her. 
 
 "Wait till I speak with you, Elpis. But now I 
 must hurry. Have I time to dress for dinner?" 
 
 Elpis scanned her face anxiously. 
 
 "Yes, just time. Shall I come up with you?" 
 
 "No; please to wait till after dinner."
 
 AND THE STARS BE OUR WITNESS 213 
 
 She ran upstairs. The other watched her till she 
 was out of sight, then turned to her nurse : 
 
 "Tell Mitro to come to me as soon as he gets back. 
 I shall be in the little den." 
 
 A few minutes later, Mitro strode into the den, his 
 Albanian hat in his hand, and saluted. Without wait 
 ing for his mistress to speak, he asked savagely : 
 
 "Am I to allow her to be spoken to?" 
 
 Elpis considered for a moment; then with a shrug 
 dismissed her scruples. 
 
 "Who spoke to her?" 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi. He took her in his arms and 
 she let him. He kissed her she a Christian woman, 
 and he a Turk!" 
 
 Mitro made the sign of the cross three times over 
 his breast; but the light which burned in his eyes was 
 lighted at the forge of the Devil, not at the altar of 
 God. 
 
 "Am I to let him, Miss Elpis, or am I to kill 
 him? " and as he spoke he put his hand to his Albanian 
 girdle. 
 
 Elpis examined the pattern of the Persian rug for a 
 few seconds; then raising her luminous brown eyes, 
 answered slowly : 
 
 "N-o-o, not yet."
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE ROCKET IN THE SKY 
 
 IT was late that night before the guests whom 
 Righo had brought out with him went away. 
 Millicent went to her room, where she might drop 
 the conventional personality which had been talking, 
 and laughing, and discussing all the evening, and 
 become the human being, to think and to suffer. 
 
 Elpis was not long in coming to her. She found 
 Millicent sitting by the window, fully dressed. 
 
 "Not yet in bed?" she exclaimed. 
 
 "No; I was waiting for you." 
 
 The Greek girl came over and put her arm about her. 
 
 "What is it, dearest?" she asked. 
 
 "Elpis, if you found that you were in love with a 
 Turk, would you marry him?" 
 
 Elpis showed no surprise at the abrupt question. 
 
 "I am a Greek, dear. There is a wide river which 
 divides the Greeks from the Turks." 
 
 "A river can be crossed." 
 
 "Yes, an ordinary river; but that which flows be 
 tween the Greeks and their Ottoman conquerors is a 
 river of blood. Too many dead men, too many out 
 raged women, too many slaughtered children lie at 
 the bottom of that river. Were we ever to attempt to
 
 THE ROCKET IN THE SKY 215 
 
 cross it, it would rise up and engulf us. No, the Greeks 
 and the Turks may live side by side, but intermarry 
 willingly never!" 
 
 A silence fell upon the two girls. Elpis took Mini- 
 cent s hand and kissed it. 
 
 At that moment a rocket shot up into the heavens. 
 At its zenith it burst into a mass of light, then sank 
 downward with ever-lessening brilliancy, till it was 
 lost again in the dark. 
 
 "How glorious it was and now it is gone," said 
 Elpis softly. "It was like a great human emotion." 
 
 Rocket after rocket illumined the night. The girls 
 watched them without speaking, till the last was gone. 
 Then Millicent said bravely : 
 
 "Elpis, I do not understand what has come over 
 me. I am no longer the same person I was when I left 
 my country." 
 
 "Is it Orkhan?" Elpis asked. 
 
 The other nodded. 
 
 "Are you going to marry him, Millicent dear?" 
 
 Millicent shuddered. 
 
 "I do not know. I do not want to not now. He 
 says I am and with him I am powerless." 
 
 Elpis had been furtively watching Millicent all the 
 evening. She did not wish her to marry Orkhan; yet 
 she feared lest any opposition would only give force to 
 what she wished to kill. She was not without Greek 
 diplomacy, and her language became Ulyssean.
 
 216 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "There are only two things for which we strive, 
 Millicent: happiness, and our ideals. The one is real, 
 the other we know can never be realized. If you are 
 happy in your love for Orkhan, why not take it? 
 Happiness is too precious to throw away, and you 
 are not a Greek girl : your race mixes without repug 
 nance with all white races and Orkhan is a glorious 
 specimen of the Turk." 
 
 "Would you marry Orkhan yourself, if you were 
 not a Greek, and were in love with him?" 
 
 "I can never feel except as a Greek. If the love you 
 have for Orkhan lifts you above everything else 
 take it. It may be worth even the sacrifice of ideals." 
 
 "But it does not lift me above everything else. I 
 am not even sure it is the best in me which loves him. 
 Why do you not advise me?" 
 
 "Millicent dear, you must decide for yourself. Do 
 not decide too quickly. There may be a long battle. 
 When it is over, the battle-field will be strewn with 
 dead, dead whose names will be Ideals or Senses." 
 
 The girls looked disconsolately out into the night, 
 now lighted by the waning moon, just rising above the 
 horizon. It was a slender moon, but not as it had been 
 when a jaunty crescent. Time seemed to have worn it 
 away. 
 
 "That moon looks as if it also had been through a 
 battle, and had come out pretty well battered," Milli 
 cent said.
 
 THE ROCKET IN THE SKY 217 
 
 Both girls laughed, and the laugh somehow helped 
 Millicent. 
 
 "What if I were to go away to-morrow from Con 
 stantinople?" she suggested. 
 
 "A good plan for a coward but you are no cow 
 ard. If you go away while the battle wages, you may 
 carry with you an incurable regret. Better stay and 
 fight it out. If it is too strong for you, marry Orkhan 
 and be a good wife to him. But fight out your battle 
 fairly and squarely; only when it is finished, be mag 
 nanimous to the victor and bury the vanquished. 
 Now I am going to put you to bed, and remember, 
 whatever happens, you will always have a little mother 
 in me." 
 
 After Elpis had tucked Millicent in her bed, as if 
 she were a little child, she went into her own room 
 and stood before the ikonostas, peopled with the ikons 
 which had belonged to many generations of her family. 
 
 She remained erect, as the Greeks do when praying. 
 She was quite aware that she was still half -pagan, yet 
 in her need she always went and stood before these 
 images of the saints and prayed to her Christian God. 
 Her prayer was long to-night, but it was not for 
 herself or her people. She prayed for this other girl 
 who had come into her life; and when she had finished, 
 her heart felt lighter, as it must when one intrusts 
 one s troubles to the great incomprehensible force 
 which rules the universe.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 BEHIND HASSAN S SHOP 
 
 IN one of the niches of the labyrinthian markets of 
 Stamboul was a shop. Its owner, a Turk, was 
 forever sitting cross-legged on his mat, smoking his 
 tchibouk and playing with his string of amber beads. 
 He looked the embodiment of contentment. His shop 
 was filled with antiques real, not shams. He was 
 affable to his clients, and asked them three times the 
 worth of each article. Then he spent pleasant hours 
 wrestling over the price with them. When at last he 
 parted with one of his antiques, he would hold it to 
 his heart, would look at it, and sigh. 
 
 "Take it," he would say to the customer, "and re 
 member that I, Hassan the generous, gave it to you. 
 You did not buy it no, you did not buy it!" 
 
 It was a little shop, just big enough for Hassan and 
 his antiques, with room for not more than three clients 
 at a time. He preferred only one. Then he could con 
 centrate himself on the glittering contest between 
 mind and mind. The walls of the shop were covered 
 with precious rugs, of colors as soft and delicate as a 
 maiden s caresses. Small cases contained jewels, such 
 as monarchs were wont to give to their favorites. 
 
 Hassan did not often travel to buy his goods. His
 
 BEHIND HASSAN S SHOP 219 
 
 sources were mostly women. Frequently two veiled 
 hanoums, on whose pallid faces traces of superb beauty 
 were discernible, would come to Hassan. From their 
 bosoms they would produce cases containing jewels 
 as brilliant as their own eyes once had been. Hassan 
 would take the cases and become lost in meditation. 
 He knew the value of stones. He also knew the value 
 of hesitation. He invariably offered one third the 
 value of the stones, and paid in cash. It was more than 
 any other jeweler in Stamboul would do, and Hassan 
 prospered. 
 
 His little shop had an inner shop, where ostensibly 
 he stored some of his wares; and there Hassan, the 
 affable and apparently contented old Turk, was dis 
 contented. In consequence he had become a Young 
 Turk, and the real use to which the inner shop was 
 put was as a meeting-place for the leaders of the move 
 ment. From that inner shop they could pass into an 
 other shop on another street. The other shop was a 
 creamery, where one could buy a plate of the most de 
 licious malebi for five cents. It was kept by a brother 
 of Hassan s, just as fat, and just as contented as he. 
 
 Few people knew that the creamery man and the 
 man of the antiques knew each other. They were 
 never seen speaking together. Born in the interior of 
 Turkey, they had gone their different ways in child 
 hood, and only five years before this had chanced to 
 recognize their brotherhood from two rings which they
 
 220 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 wore. At that time the brother was looking for a shop, 
 and Hassan was searching for a faithful one to take 
 this other shop. When he became assured of his 
 brother s fidelity, he lent him the money to start the 
 creamery, and initiated him into the Young Turks 
 movement. The arrangement had worked admirably. 
 One of the leaders of the Young Turks could go to 
 Hassan, and another could enter the creamery, and 
 without suspicion they could meet in Hassan s inner 
 shop. 
 
 It was about noon, the hour when the markets are 
 brimming with life. Orkhan was going from shop to 
 shop in search of emeralds; for occasionally he did 
 send presents to his fiancee, as custom demanded. 
 He ended up at Hassan s. Two other clients were 
 wrestling over a price. The antiquary motioned Ork 
 han to a seat, and placed before him the case of emer 
 alds Orkhan asked for. W T hen the other clients de 
 parted, and this time Hassan did not wrestle so 
 long as usual with them, Orkhan rose, raised a rug 
 on the rear wall, and disappeared behind it. 
 
 Four other Turks were already waiting for him. 
 Orkhan sat down on a mat by them. 
 
 "I am here, to-day," he said, after the salutations, 
 "because I promised Hakir Pasha to ask you your 
 intentions in regard to Albania"; and he went on to 
 deliver the message of the old Albanian.
 
 BEHIND HASSAN S SHOP 221 
 
 The leaders received his words in silence. The oldest 
 among them, whom they called Tselebi, "the lord," 
 after a few seconds pause, said mildly : 
 
 "This is certain: just now we need Hakir Pasha s 
 cooperation. We cannot afford to lose him." 
 
 Tselebi Effendi folded his hands across a comfort 
 ably broad expanse of waistcoat, and closed his eyes, 
 as if he had fully answered Orkhan. 
 
 The latter was not satisfied. 
 
 "Can we accept his help unless we agree to his de 
 mands?" he asked. 
 
 The old man opened his eyes in surprise. He took 
 off his fez and ran his be jeweled fingers through his 
 hair. 
 
 "Dear Orkhan Effendi," he said mildly, "there is a 
 proverb which says, You have to bow to the Devil, if 
 you wish to cross his bridge." 
 
 "But may not his plan of a United States of Tur 
 key be feasible?" persisted Orkhan. "May it not 
 even be the best way of reconciling the divers nation 
 alities, and turning them into a single nation?" 
 
 Tselebi Effendi raised his hands toward the ceiling. 
 
 " May Allah be with us ! But you do not mean that 
 to reconstruct our country, you would really give 
 equal rights to the people who have become our sub 
 jects because we are brave and they are cowards? 
 You might as well say at once that a Christian is as 
 good as you are."
 
 222 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 As Orkhan stirred on his mat, he felt the Albanian 
 girdle his mother had given him. Albania had always 
 entered into his dreams; and although this was little 
 more than sentimentality, sentimentality may be a 
 strong force in a man s life. 
 
 "I thought that was what we were working for," he 
 said, "that Mussulmans and Christians should have 
 one fatherland, and be equals before the law." 
 
 "That is it exactly," assented the old Turk. "But 
 it must be the Mussulman who apportions justice to 
 the Christians. We mean to do our best by these peo 
 ple who are our subjects. We mean to give them their 
 rights only we shall have to decide what are their 
 rights." 
 
 At this juncture Halil Bey entered the meeting. 
 
 "We are just discussing the problem of our Chris 
 tian subjects," said Tselebi Effendi to him. "What a 
 pity it is that there is a problem. If the Conqueror 
 had only taken every Christian woman and given her 
 to a faithful soldier, what a lot of trouble it would 
 have saved us now." 
 
 "What the Conqueror omitted to do we may still 
 accomplish," Halil Bey answered. "We may not be 
 able to do it in the same way; but there are other 
 ways." 
 
 "And Europe?" asked Orkhan. 
 
 "If we are successful, we need not trouble about 
 Europe," Halil Bey replied. "They may even go so
 
 BEHIND HASSAN S SHOP 
 
 far as to give us their help in quieting internal dissen 
 sions. Don t forget that it was European warships 
 which bombarded Crete for us a few years ago." 
 
 Several of the Turks laughed; but Tselebi Effendi, 
 seeing that Orkhan was still unconvinced, went on to 
 explain patiently : 
 
 "I am afraid, Orkhan Effendi, that you do not yet 
 see matters entirely as we do. But just suppose that 
 we hold an election, as under the Constitution we 
 shall have to do, and suppose that the Christians 
 outvote us. Would you let them make laws for us ? " 
 
 "Does the lion obey the crowing of three or 
 thirty cocks?" asked Halil Bey scornfully. 
 
 Orkhan was becoming won over to the view held by 
 the majority. In spite of the trace of Albanian blood 
 in him, he was essentially an Ottoman, with the fierce 
 pride in his race, and implicit belief in its superiority. 
 
 "What, then, shall I tell Hakir Pasha?" he asked. 
 
 "You need not see him yourself. We will give him an 
 answer that will suit him. Much good will it do him 
 afterwards. We shall do the same with the Cretan 
 Stavropoulos. He guarantees to raise fifty thousand 
 pounds under the condition that Crete shall be an 
 nexed to Greece as soon as the Constitution is pro 
 claimed. Give them Crete!" Tselebi Effendi snorted. 
 "But we need the money to help mobilize the army." 
 
 "When will Stavropoulos pay the money?" asked 
 one of the others. " Don t trust the Greeks,you know."
 
 224 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "It is being raised now among them. We are pro 
 mised it in less than a month." 
 
 "How much have the Armenians given so far?" 
 
 "Only half a million, but another half is promised." 
 
 "And what is it they are asking?" inquired the 
 youngest of the leaders. 
 
 Halil Bey laughed till the tears came into his eyes. 
 
 "An Armenian kingdom and an Armenian king," 
 he gasped through his merriment. "As if they were 
 good for anything except to cheat in business." 
 
 "We need have no scruples in accepting the money 
 of the Greeks and the Armenians," said Tselebi 
 Effendi. "They get it out of our pockets, and we 
 might as well get back as much of it as we can." 
 
 Orkhan Effendi was the first to leave the meeting. 
 He went out into the little creamery shop, sat down 
 beside a water-carrier, and ate a plate of malebi. 
 
 "Bad times," said the carrier, saluting. 
 
 "Very bad," agreed Orkhan. "But I hear that Al 
 lah is planning to send a blessing to our country 
 shortly, and that the army is to be the instrument of 
 Allah." 
 
 "You don t say so!" exclaimed the water-carrier. 
 "How did you come by such news?" 
 
 "The news is traveling fast through the Prophet s 
 land. Good times are coming to our country." 
 
 "Inshallah! Inshallah!" said the water-carrier.
 
 BEHIND HASSAN S SHOP 225 
 
 Orkhan finished his malebi, and scanned the face of 
 the man. He rose, paid his pennies, and then, leaning 
 over, said in an undertone : 
 
 "When the army comes, Allah wishes every faith 
 ful Turk to be with it" ; and before the water-carrier 
 could ask more, he was out of the shop. 
 
 Orkhan walked leisurely through the crowded 
 streets of the market, wondering what Tselebi Effendi 
 would tell Hakir Pasha, and how he would take it. 
 At the foot of the Bridge of Galata he stopped and 
 looked at the wonderful scene about him. "Allah has 
 been very generous to mankind," he thought. "We 
 ought really to love one another as brothers, no mat 
 ter what race we may happen to be." He thought of 
 Millicent, and took it as a sign of his tolerance that he 
 loved a Christian woman so dearly. He leaned upon 
 the railing of the bridge, feasting his eyes on the loveli 
 ness before him, and a wondrous sense of peace came 
 upon him. 
 
 From the other end of the bridge a man was ap 
 proaching. He was a fat and stocky Armenian the 
 one who had annoyed Millicent. He did not notice 
 the Turk until he was almost upon him. He stopped, 
 hate and fear distorting his features. 
 
 As if feeling his presence, Orkhan turned slowly 
 around, and the Armenian scuttled away like a fright 
 ened rabbit. 
 
 Orkhan watched him disappear, a frown slowly
 
 226 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 gathering on his face. "No, I could not love the Ar 
 menians as brothers," he thought. 
 
 For a long time after the Armenian had gone, the 
 Turk remained where he was, seemingly absorbed in 
 the scenery, in reality thinking over what the leaders 
 had said, and the problems which Turkey, under a 
 constitution, would have to face. 
 
 At length he gave a vigorous shake of his head, as if 
 throwing off the remnants of the sentimental ideas he 
 once had entertained. 
 
 "No, the Turks must predominate. So must the 
 Turkish religion and the Turkish language." 
 
 With resolute strides he walked down to the bridge, 
 and boarded the steamer for his home. 
 
 That night he took from his waist the Albanian belt 
 his mother had girded on. him. He did not hesitate, 
 neither did he stop to think long of the women who 
 had embroidered it. From a cupboard he brought a 
 can of kerosene, saturated the belt, and set it on fire. 
 
 When there remained only a charred fragment, he 
 exclaimed : 
 
 : Yes, the Turks and the Turks alone must rule 
 here."
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 WHERE ELPIS REMAINS SILENT 
 
 MARRIAGE is the greatest thing in the lives of 
 men and women only when it brings out the 
 best in them helps them to realize, in a measure, 
 their ideals. When it is the mere wild passion of 
 man and woman, it is only suited to times of wild- 
 ness and passion. If the man must ride forth to 
 battle every day, and his mate always fears lest he 
 will not return, then this love may last till he is 
 killed. 
 
 Under civilized conditions, a civilized love is neces 
 sary to endure, and that must be a love of the brain 
 and soul, as well as of the heart. The primeval love is 
 for primeval conditions. 
 
 These were the thoughts of Elpis, as she sat in her 
 room, thinking hard if there might not be some way 
 in which she could help Millicent in this struggle of 
 hers on which her whole future life depended. Elpis 
 did not believe with her brother that her friend could 
 be happy with a Turk, no matter how much he might 
 fascinate her temporarily. There were too great dif 
 ferences in all their views about life, and the things 
 which made life worth while. Millicent was not of the 
 primeval cast of mind and feeling, and Elpis knew that
 
 228 
 
 she could not be happy immured in the walls of a 
 harem. From what she had read of Americans, Elpis 
 judged that both the man and the woman entered 
 so largely into each other s lives that there must be 
 even more than with Europeans a broad basis of 
 mutual sympathy and common aspiration in a union, 
 to make for lasting happiness. 
 
 Once Elpis had liked Orkhan Effendi. Now she 
 hated him with the intense hatred of the Greeks,which 
 is patroparathaton. 
 
 "I may have to have recourse to Mitro s belt after 
 all," she mused. "But perhaps if she were to see more 
 of him a great deal of him; if he were to become 
 more commonplace to her, a sort of everyday man in 
 stead of the romantic figure he now appears, she might 
 feel this fundamental difference between them, and be 
 repelled by it." 
 
 At any rate, it was the only thing Elpis could think 
 of, and she sent at once for Mitro. 
 
 "Mitro, I want you to go to Orkhan Effendi s. If 
 he is out, wait until he returns, and ask him to come 
 here this afternoon, or this evening." 
 
 Mitro did not move. His attitude was all respect, 
 but having seen Elpis grow up he assumed the right to 
 protect and defend her. If her brother was lax, all the 
 more reason that he, Mitro, should be stern. 
 
 : You may go now," Elpis said. 
 
 Mitro twisted his Albanian cap in his hands, but
 
 WHERE ELPIS REMAINS SILENT 
 
 still made no move. Raising his eyes to those of the 
 girl, he said: 
 
 "Miss Elpis, a Turk who crosses a Greek s thresh 
 old brings dishonor to the house." 
 
 "It is a great necessity which forces me to send 
 for him. If I need your help otherwise, I will ask 
 for it." 
 
 "I would rather kill him anyhow," the Albanian 
 said fiercely, "than carry him a message of this kind." 
 
 "If you do not wish to take the message, I can send 
 Thenasy with it." 
 
 "Thenasy is a good soul, but he is only a servant. 
 It must never be repeated that the daughter of the 
 Paparighopoulos sent such a message to a Turk." 
 
 "That is why I wanted you to take it; and that is 
 also why I send it by word of mouth." 
 
 "I go. But will he have to come here often?" 
 
 "Several times, I think." 
 
 The Albanian turned away. There was that air of 
 decision to his back, however, which caused Elpis to 
 call him to her. 
 
 "Mitro, no accident must happen to Orkhan 
 Effendi just now." 
 
 The Albanian Greek did not reply. 
 
 "Mitro! I have my plans, and I don t want them 
 upset. Will you swear to me obedience?" 
 
 He pondered for a minute; then unburdened his 
 mind.
 
 230 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Mistress, he has cast a spell over the girl. The 
 only way to break it is to kill him." 
 
 Knowing the hold superstition had on people like 
 Mitro, Elpis answered : 
 
 "He has cast a spell over her, and it is of the kind 
 that if he dies, she will never recover from it. That is 
 why I want you to let him alone. We will cure her 
 of it, you and I." 
 
 Mitro smiled now, content that she shared his 
 views and confident both in her powers and in his 
 own. 
 
 "She is so pretty, Miss Elpis, and so good and gra 
 cious. When she first came here, she held her head 
 as erect as a new tombstone. Now she droops like a 
 thirsty plant." 
 
 "You and I will help her to carry her head proudly 
 again and that day will be a gala one for us." 
 
 She held out her hand to him. He did not presume 
 to touch it. Instead, he stooped and kissed the hem of 
 her dress. 
 
 At sunset Elpis and Millicent were seated on an 
 upper terrace, when they saw Orkhan coming up to 
 the house. 
 
 "Oh, here is Orkhan Effendi," said Elpis innocent 
 ly. "You will come down to see him." 
 
 Without waiting for a reply she went to greet her 
 guest.
 
 WHERE ELPIS REMAINS SILENT 231 
 
 "You need not mention that I sent for you," she 
 said to the Turk. 
 
 Orkhan smiled at the Greek girl, confident that she 
 was his ally. 
 
 When Millicent joined them, Elpis left the two to 
 gether, in a perfectly matter-of-fact way. She went 
 up to her own room, and there picked up a piece of 
 sewing and worked away on it as if her life depended 
 on finishing it. 
 
 Orkhan stayed a half -hour an hour an hour and 
 a half. An interminable time it seemed to the seam 
 stress. She saw them walking together in the garden, 
 the man erect, triumphant ; the girl drooping, yielding. 
 
 Elpis dropped her sewing in her lap and watched 
 them. From the lovely American girl, she looked to 
 the magnificent specimen of manhood at her side, and 
 shook her head. 
 
 "No, I do not blame her," she murmured; "but I 
 wish she were a Greek." 
 
 When Orkhan went away, Millicent slowly came up 
 to Elpis s room, and sank into a chair. For some time 
 she said nothing, and the other was again absorbed in 
 her sewing. 
 
 "It is no use," Millicent said at length, as if to her 
 self. 
 
 "Have you promised?" Elpis asked quietly. 
 
 "N-n-o. Even now I could not quite bring myself 
 to promise what he wanted."
 
 232 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "What was that?" 
 
 "To go to the frontier and be sold to his cousin, 
 Malkhatoun. And he felt hurt that I was reluctant to 
 be sold as a slave., in order to become his." 
 
 Millicent gave a dreary little laugh. 
 
 Elpis made no comment. She kept on sewing, tak 
 ing large vicious stitches that she knew would have to 
 come out again. She was glad when the needle went 
 deep into her forefinger. 
 
 "Is it true, as he says, that love is everything in this 
 life, and that nothing else matters? I used to think 
 there were so many other things that mattered too." 
 
 Deliberately Elpis stuck her needle twice more into 
 her finger. Then she put the finger in her mouth. 
 
 "He says he made me think," Millicent went on, 
 "that even a year of love is worth all else is worth a 
 lifetime of all that life has thus far held for me." 
 
 "Would he give up his Young Turks movement for 
 you for a year of your love?" Elpis asked. 
 
 "He says that he has thought of nothing except me, 
 ever since he has known he loved me. And then he sees 
 things so differently for men and for women. I am to 
 be kept for his eyes alone, after I am married. I shall 
 not see any of my friends men, I mean. I shall be his 
 precious possession, from whom he will keep all 
 worry and trouble and strife. I had meant to be a 
 part of the world, but he says that the world must 
 never enter the garden of flowers where I shall live."
 
 WHERE ELPIS REMAINS SILENT 233 
 
 Elpis, with great self-control, threaded another 
 needle. 
 
 "And exactly what answer did you make to him?" 
 
 "I asked for a few more days to think. I cannot 
 think when he is there. He says I ought not to think 
 - that it is a woman s place to love and not to think. 
 Oh yes, I know how funny it sounds now. Even 
 when he said it, I knew it only I could not seem to 
 feel it then. Elpis," she asked piteously, "what is this 
 force which seems to rout all the forces of my mind 
 and character?" 
 
 But Elpis only laid down her sewing and gathered 
 Millicent into her tender arms, and drew her down 
 upon her bosom. And while the American girl kneeled 
 before her arid cried, Elpis petted and kissed her, but 
 did not try to answer her.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 A HOURI 
 
 ,RKHAN EFFENDI was distinctly irritated by 
 Millicent s refusal to accept his plans for her. 
 They seemed so simple and feasible to him. The 
 more he thought of it, the less he liked it. An anger 
 rose in his heart which clouded his love for her. He 
 felt antagonistic toward her, though he tried to excuse 
 her attitude by blaming her bringing-up, that Ameri 
 can bringing-up which made women unnatural. He 
 was conscious that Millicent was still struggling 
 against his love, and he was impatient for the time 
 when she should be entirely dependent on him and 
 subservient to his will. But how was that to be 
 brought about, with her unreasonableness in the 
 matter of being sold as a slave? 
 
 Instinctively he turned his steps toward the palace 
 where Malkhatoun, his cousin, lived. She would help 
 him to think of some other scheme. It was late in the 
 afternoon when he reached the kiosk of his nurse. He 
 told her that he must see his cousin again. 
 
 "You will bring death upon us all," the old dame 
 cried, throwing her hands toward heaven. "I should 
 not mind dying, my lion, if you were spared; but I 
 cannot work toward your destruction."
 
 A HOURI 235 
 
 But Orkhan was a charmer, and she worshiped him 
 with extravagant Oriental devotion. They were not 
 empty words, that she was willing to die for him. 
 
 :< Yet perhaps I can manage it this time/ she went 
 on, as she detected the deep air of disappointment 
 which he put on, and thus it came about that once 
 more Orkhan, in his disguise, entered the household 
 of Malkhatoun. 
 
 The young girl had grown more ethereal and exqui 
 site under the suffering she was enduring. Her eyes 
 had become larger and darker from much weeping, 
 and there was a pathos about her face which enhanced 
 its loveliness more than the finest jewels or lace could 
 have done. She received Orkhan with dignity and 
 sweetness, although she knew he would only torture 
 her heart a little more. 
 
 She had hardly taken her seat before Orkhan burst 
 forth:- 
 
 "She is not willing to go to the frontier." 
 
 As he uttered the words, he felt a humiliation greater 
 even than he had felt when alone. 
 
 Malkhatoun divined this, and hastened to say : 
 
 "It is because she does not know Turkey. She is 
 afraid of our customs." 
 
 "Perhaps; but what shall I do now?" 
 
 Malkhatoun lost herself in thought, and Orkhan 
 grew more hopeful. She inspired him with confidence, 
 and near her he became like a child in the presence of
 
 236 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 a mother, who always finds some means, when all 
 looks desperate. As he sat waiting for the result of her 
 deliberations, his eyes were on her delicate face, and 
 for the first time he became conscious of her wondrous 
 beauty. It enchanted and touched him. She appeared 
 to him suddenly like a marvelous garden which had 
 been hidden from view, and the door of which now 
 had been left open. No wonder Malkhatoun had been 
 able to gain the adherence of the most opposed old 
 Turks to the new movement. Now, if she would only 
 go to see Millicent, she could not fail to win her con 
 sent to their plans. 
 
 "Malkhatoun!" he cried, breaking in on her 
 thoughts, "if Millicent were to know you, she would 
 lose her fear of being sold to you as a slave. She would 
 love you, and come willingly to the Palace. Could you 
 arrange to go and see her at the Paparighopoulos ? 
 You know Miss Elpis." 
 
 Malkhatoun brought her far-away look back to the 
 man she loved. 
 
 "You wish me to see her, and to persuade her to 
 become your wife?" she asked slowly. 
 
 "Yes!" 
 
 "But if she has resisted you, the man she loves, of 
 what avail could I be?" 
 
 "Because you are a wonderful little person; because 
 your beauty captivates, and your personality con 
 vinces."
 
 A HOURI 237 
 
 Orkhan spoke with a tremor in his voice. This Mal- 
 khatoun he was discovering stirred him strangely, and 
 he did not know how to express his feelings. 
 
 "I did not know you had even noticed I was 
 pretty." 
 
 "Pretty!" he exclaimed scornfully. "Pretty is too 
 small a word for you. You are meant to be a houri of 
 paradise." 
 
 She smiled sadly. 
 
 "Paradise is so remote and I can only go there 
 after I am dead." 
 
 "You must not talk of death. You are not going 
 to die. You are meant for love and joy on this earth "; 
 and with the words a chill came into his heart at the 
 thought that her happiness would be given to her by 
 some other man. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "No, I will not die before I have helped you. Very 
 well, cousin, since you want me to, I will go to her and 
 try to make her do as you wish. And if I succeed, it 
 will be enough for me that I have helped you to achieve 
 that which you so greatly desire." 
 
 Her last words ended almost brokenly, and the 
 cloud of suffering descended upon her eyes and her 
 lips. 
 
 Orkhan rose to his feet, with an emotion he did not 
 try to define. 
 
 "You are very good to me," he stammered.
 
 238 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 " Never hesitate to come to me when you need help. 
 The more difficult the task, the more reason why you 
 should come to me." 
 
 She went out of the room; but he lingered, unwilling 
 to go, hoping that she would return, longing to hear 
 her voice again. But only a slave appeared, to conduct 
 him out of the house.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE GIRL FROM THE EAST AND THE GIRL FROM THE WEST 
 
 THE shutters of the Paparighopoulos villa were 
 tightly closed against the heat of the sun. The 
 awnings over the terraces extended their protecting 
 canvases about the house. The waters of the foun 
 tains in the garden and in the hall were whispering of 
 coolness, while a man was sprinkling more water on 
 all the lanes leading from the house. 
 
 Millicent in her darkened room was lying on a long 
 wicker chair, pretending to rest, but occupied with 
 thoughts which were bad company for hot weather. 
 
 A knock at the door startled her. Of late she had 
 become nervous. 
 
 The knock was repeated. 
 
 "Come in," she said reluctantly. 
 
 The French maid appeared. 
 
 "Mademoiselle Elpis begs mademoiselle to render 
 herself to the large drawing-room." 
 
 Millicent s first impulse was to excuse herself; but 
 she had several times been so peevish with Elpis of 
 late that she reconsidered this decision. Unwillingly 
 she rose, and went down to the formal drawing-room, 
 which was kept even darker than the rest of the house. 
 On the threshold she stopped and peered in, wonder-
 
 240 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 ing why Elpis had sent for her here at this time of 
 the day. 
 
 "Are you here, Elpis?" she asked. 
 
 She received no answer; yet she was conscious of life 
 within the room. 
 
 "Are you here?" she repeated again. 
 
 Gradually from the darkness emerged the presence 
 of two tall eunuchs, standing within, on either side of 
 the door. They were so black that hardly more than 
 the whites of their eyes were to be distinguished. 
 
 Frightened, Millicent started back, when from the 
 middle of the room she heard some one say : 
 
 "Come forward, Miss Melisande Grey." 
 
 It was the musical and vibrant voice of a woman, 
 and it dispelled her apprehensions. And as the pupils 
 of her eyes adjusted themselves to the gloom, she per 
 ceived a girl, younger than herself, sitting on a low 
 chair, and dressed in a loose yellow garment, like the 
 tunics which the women of ancient Rome wore. Her 
 dark hair was fantastically arranged with what seemed 
 to be a golden crown. At her feet crouched several 
 attendants. 
 
 Millicent had taken a few hesitating steps into the 
 room when the girl again half asked, half asserted: 
 
 "You are Miss Melisande Grey?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "I am very glad to see you. Will you come 
 nearer?"
 
 EAST AND WEST 241 
 
 When Millicent had approached within arm s 
 length of the other, she reached out an exquisite hand 
 and drew her still nearer. 
 
 "Kneel down before me, that I may see your face 
 well." 
 
 Under other circumstances it would not have oc 
 curred to the American girl to obey this extraordinary 
 request. Here, somehow, it seemed the only thing 
 to do. 
 
 The strange girl, with a slight gesture, said some 
 thing in Turkish, and an attendant partially opened a 
 shutter to let more light fall on the kneeling American. 
 Intently the girl in the yellow gown scrutinized Milli 
 cent. She studied her as she might had she been a rare 
 painting which she contemplated buying, but of whose 
 authenticity she was in doubt. With a touch as light 
 as a butterfly s the tips of her fingers touched Milli- 
 cent s neck and shoulders. 
 
 "I have heard so much of your marvelous golden 
 hair - " and before Millicent realized what she was 
 about, the girl drew out her hairpins and threw them 
 into the lap of a slave. 
 
 " Mashallah ! " rippled around the walls of the room 
 at the shower of gold on Millicent s shoulders; and 
 then for the first time she noticed that, besides the 
 attendants crouching at the feet of the girl, the walls 
 of the large room were lined with standing figures. 
 There must have been forty women in the room,
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 standing or seated, and all ready to obey the slight 
 figure on the low chair. 
 
 "Yes, you are beautiful," the girl said slowly. She 
 put her hand beneath some of Millicent s locks and 
 held them high. " Comme les eaux blondes d une cas 
 cade," she murmured. With a soft little sigh, she 
 leaned back and closed her eyes. 
 
 Millicent was held in a kind of fascination by the 
 whole affair, and especially by the personality of the 
 strange girl. Who could she be? A Turkish princess, 
 without a doubt. The numerous attendants indicated 
 that, and the tone in which she spoke. 
 
 Suddenly, at an idea which came to her, Millicent 
 became afraid. Could this be the Sultan s daughter 
 who loved Orkhan, and for fear of whose vengeance 
 he had wished Millicent to pass as a slave? And was 
 she now praising her beauty to add zest to some cruelty 
 to follow? The American girl searched the face before 
 her with the fascinated interest one might feel in one s 
 executioner. Small and delicately built, she impressed 
 her as of the finest texture the passionate, over-per 
 fumed East could produce. The man who once loved 
 her must remember her with burning blood to his 
 dying day. 
 
 The girl s eyes, encountering those of Millicent, 
 smiled into them. 
 
 " You are beautiful, even as he says you are. But I 
 see what he does not see. Yes, I see it all."
 
 COMME LES EAUX BLONDES D UXE CASCADE
 
 EAST AND WEST 243 
 
 The last sentence she spoke to herself; then said a 
 word to a slave, and a chair, lower than her own, was 
 brought for Millicent. The Turkish girl waved her 
 hand toward the chair. 
 
 ; You may be seated," she said, and in spite of her 
 self Millicent felt as if an honor had been conferred on 
 her. " Yes, you are beautiful, even as he says you are. 
 You are like a bit of landscape which takes in the blue 
 of the sky, the gold of the flowers, and the blossoming 
 of the almond tree." 
 
 ; You seem to know all about me," Millicent said. 
 "May I ask who you are?" 
 
 The girl waved her hand a delicate flutter of 
 fingers. 
 
 "I? I am only a Turkish woman. I am one of those 
 who live behind latticed windows, for whom you are 
 sorry and who pity you with the pity of those who 
 taste life for those who never shall know its joys." 
 
 " But this does not tell me specifically who you are." 
 
 The Turkish girl laughed, and the laugh matched 
 the eyes and the hair. 
 
 There is the mind of the women of the Occident: 
 they must know things specifically. They cannot un 
 derstand through the heart." She leaned forward, her 
 glance keen, her face eager. "And now tell me specifi 
 cally how much do you love Orkhan Effendi?" 
 
 In spite of all that had gone before, Millicent was 
 taken aback at this blunt demand.
 
 244 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Your questioning is rather intimate," she replied 
 dryly, " considering that I do not even now know who 
 you are." 
 
 "I thought you had guessed. I am Malkhatoun, 
 Orkhan Effendi s cousin. He thought that if you 
 knew me you would no longer be afraid to come 
 to me." 
 
 She leaned over and kissed Millicent. Various emo 
 tions were included in the kiss. Her conception of 
 European women, gleaned from novels, had given 
 her a tremendous admiration for them, since she had 
 learned that they were capable of retaining the love of 
 a man for a lifetime. In the atmosphere of the palace, 
 man s love was of ephemeral existence, and the woman 
 who could hold it for even a few years was an enchan 
 tress. In her imagination she had invested Millicent 
 with supernatural gifts of attraction. Now her intui 
 tion told her that Millicent was only a girl like herself, 
 and moreover a comparative novice in the art of 
 attracting men. Her kiss, therefore, was like that of a 
 grateful patient to the physician who has given her 
 hope. She still meant to use her best endeavor to win 
 Millicent for Orkhan. She loved as many Turkish 
 women love. To them the man is their lord, and they 
 will give him whatever he asks for their love, when 
 he wishes it, or the love of other women, when he 
 desires that. Thus they may win his gratitude, and 
 retain whatever of his love they can.
 
 EAST AND WEST 245 
 
 Now Malkhatoun was thinking only of the man, for 
 whom she had made of herself a shrine to worship him 
 in. But she also felt sorry for Millicent at the thought 
 of how lonely and miserable she would be after Orkhan 
 ceased to care for her, and she resolved to be kind to 
 this child of the West. It never occurred to her to try 
 to save Millicent from this fate. On the contrary, she 
 meant to take her with her at once, if possible, in order 
 that Orkhan might not worry and fret by having to 
 wait for his bride. 
 
 "Tell me, Melisande Hanoum," she asked sweetly, 
 "why did you refuse to obey your lord and go to the 
 frontier? Surely you must have known that, although 
 you would seem to be my slave, you would in reality 
 belong to Orkhan." 
 
 Having lost her exalted idea concerning Millicent, 
 she went to the other extreme and patronized her a 
 little. 
 
 The American girl s pride was roused, both by the 
 tone and the words. 
 
 " It was not a question of obeying. I simply did not 
 care for the plan he proposed. Indeed, I have not yet 
 made up my mind whether I shall marry him at all." 
 
 Malkhatoun opened wide her eyes at these brave 
 words. 
 
 " You do not know whether you will marry him or 
 not, when he wishes to marry you ! " 
 
 "I care for him," Millicent replied quietly, "but I
 
 246 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 have also my own life to lead. I am not sure that for 
 his love I would be willing to live secluded and apart 
 from my friends." 
 
 "What have friends to do with it, when love is in 
 question?" 
 
 "Perhaps we love differently, we women of Amer 
 ica." 
 
 "There is only one kind of love," Malkhatoun cried 
 passionately. "It surges through your whole being; it 
 glorifies, and shows you the face of Allah; it burns and 
 tortures, and envelops your soul in flames." 
 
 "And how long does a love like this last ?" 
 
 "How long does it last?" the Turkish girl echoed. 
 " What has that to do with it? It may last a year a 
 month or a day. Nay, even an hour! What does 
 it matter? It is not the length of time that counts." 
 Her hands were clasped over her heart, her eyes looked 
 far away, whither her thoughts had flown. "One 
 might wait years, dreaming of it and praying for it. 
 Then it comes, that glorious moment! What if one live 
 the rest of one s life only to remember? But what can 
 you understand of this I say to you? What can you 
 know of love, you, who can think of other things when 
 he is near you? You, who can discuss the future when 
 he is present ! You, who can hear the voice of reason 
 while his voice speaks! Can you even conceive the 
 delirious happiness of blindly obeying the lord of your 
 life? Would you walk with bare feet on burning sand,
 
 EAST AND WEST 247 
 
 your hands tied behind your back, tortured, polluted, 
 even, for the mere happiness of knowing that at the 
 last moment of your life he would be near you that 
 you could touch his hand, hear his voice, and die near 
 him?"
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 **TOU ARE A WOMAN AND SO AM l" 
 
 TEARS were streaming down the cheeks of Mal- 
 khatoun as she ceased speaking, but they dried 
 at once, as if by the fire that consumed her. 
 
 Millicent was tremendously moved by her impas 
 sioned words. For an instant it seemed to her as if this 
 wild little thing, who would drink all the joys of life 
 at one draft, might be right. Yet surely such a love 
 was like a hurricane, which, when it had passed, left 
 nothing except destruction behind. Hard on the rush 
 which nearly carried her away came the conviction 
 that just herein lay the danger of loving Orkhan the 
 Turk; and that only misery to herself, with no especial 
 good to him, could come from his love. She leaned 
 over to Malkhatoun. 
 
 "My dear, what you say is very beautiful, in 
 some instances it may also be true, but it can hardly 
 be the rule for men or for women. What, after the 
 storm of passion has passed, is there left in your lives?" 
 
 "Ah! after it has passed, what is there left but, like 
 the flower which has bloomed, to fold one s petals and 
 die." 
 
 Millicent smiled at the single-heartedness of the 
 reply.
 
 YOU ARE A WOMAN AND SO AM I 249 
 
 "That s very romantic and poetic, but you must 
 remember that there is the work of the world to do 
 and it is not done by the flowers who close their petals 
 and die." 
 
 Elpis s sentiments came into her mind, and she 
 quoted them, as nearly as she was able. 
 
 "Our lives do not belong to ourselves alone, so that 
 we may sacrifice them for such gratification as you 
 describe. Love is at its best when it is not only intoxi 
 cating, but when it helps those who love to work hand 
 in hand." 
 
 Malkhatoun was listening like a child to a foreign 
 tongue. She had never heard women talk in this way 
 before. 
 
 "The world is as it is," she said. " How can one 
 make it better?" 
 
 "Each life well lived helps a little, I believe. That 
 is about all any one of us can hope to do. But we can 
 at least try to live above the physical plane or 
 rather, we can make the physical serve the mental, 
 not rule it." 
 
 Malkhatoun clasped her slender hands together, 
 and fixed her luminous eyes on the American girl. 
 
 "And is that what you do in your country?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "We are trying to. And that is why I am debating 
 my marriage to your cousin. If I marry him I am 
 afraid I shall have to give up all my ideals."
 
 250 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 Malkhatoun, only half comprehending, found her 
 self strangely in sympathy with this unknown crea 
 ture from the new world. Millicent became to her 
 again a different woman from herself, and vaguely the 
 Turkish girl wondered if perhaps what Orkhan loved 
 in this golden girl were these strange thoughts of hers. 
 She recalled all his words about her, but nowhere did 
 she remember to have heard him refer to this spiritual 
 side of Millicent. 
 
 " Perhaps that s why you European women keep 
 the love of a man all your lives," she said tentatively. 
 "You think more of others than of your own gratifica 
 tion. Is that true?" 
 
 "When we marry, we do not do so solely from phy 
 sical attraction, but because we have the same sympa 
 thies and ideals, and hope to help each other." 
 
 Malkhatoun thought for a moment. 
 
 "And does this make your marriages very beauti 
 ful? " 
 
 "When they are such marriages, they are very 
 beautiful," Millicent answered. 
 
 "But does not the man desire other women?" Mal 
 khatoun asked simply. 
 
 Millicent shook her head. "It is considered very 
 wrong for a man to love other women than his wife." 
 
 "But does he not wish to?" Malkhatoun persisted. 
 
 " A nice man would not think of another woman if 
 he loved his wife."
 
 YOU ARE A WOMAN AND SO AM I 251 
 
 "But when his wife grows older?" 
 
 "It does not matter. They have other things which 
 bind them together." 
 
 Malkhatoun wrinkled her forehead in deep thought. 
 Something in her nature responded to these ideals; 
 but she had loved too long and too deeply to have 
 room for anything else. And this reminded her of her 
 mission. She still meant not to disappoint Orkhan, 
 and to give him Millicent, since he wished her. She 
 sighed. 
 
 "What you say seems to me as unattainable as the 
 blue dome of heaven. It is not human. If you were to 
 let all those thoughts go and become my cousin s wife, 
 you would learn that nothing on this earth is so great 
 as the love of a man. Come, my hanoum, I have with 
 me forty attendants. One will stay behind, and you 
 can take her place. You shall be made Orkhan s bride 
 at once." 
 
 But Millicent, in stating her own convictions, in 
 hearing the ideas of this other girl, had become 
 conscious how little she wished to give up all her own 
 rich life for the solitary love even of Orkhan. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "I would gladly marry him, if we could meet on the 
 same plane, if I could feel that our marriage would not 
 stifle that voice in me which speaks of life above the 
 physical, and if I could keep on being useful in the 
 world."
 
 252 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 In spite of herself, Malkhatoun was half convinced. 
 With a flash of insight she saw or rather felt the situ 
 ation as it was, and with the understanding came the 
 desire to help this other girl, even if it meant to deny 
 Orkhan. 
 
 "Melisande Hanoum, I came here as my cousin s 
 emissary, but I am also a woman, as you are; and as 
 Allah has made us weaker and dependent on men, 
 we must help each other. I am my cousin s emissary, 
 but now also your friend. If you feel as you do, you 
 must not marry him; for afterwards would be black 
 misery. Your surrender to him would come not be 
 cause of the power his love has over your soul, for 
 your soul will only be lulled, and when it wakes 
 what will become of you? Our lives are secluded, and 
 our point of view is different. It will be impossible for 
 you to lead your life as you wish it and be one of us. 
 After all, Orkhan Effendi is a Turk, and you would 
 have to be a Turk s wife." 
 
 She rose, and as if a light breeze had come into the 
 room, there whispered the rustle of silk as her at 
 tendants clustered around her. From her throat the 
 Turkish girl unfastened a necklace and put it around 
 Millicent s neck. 
 
 "That is to remind you of me, and to tell you that 
 no matter what may happen I shall be your friend." 
 
 Deftly her attendants covered the princess with 
 veils and silken wraps till she was an unrecognizable
 
 YOU ARE A WOMAN AND SO AM I 253 
 
 bundle. Then all swept Millicent a curtsy and went 
 from the room, leaving her alone, bathed in her golden 
 hair and with the precious stones sparkling at her 
 throat.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 ORKHAN THE TURK 
 
 THIS recent meeting of the Czar and the King 
 of England," Hakir Pasha was saying, "I 
 don t like it. I have good reasons for believing that 
 it had for object the discussion of our unfortunate 
 country." 
 
 Ten of the leaders of the Young Turks were assem 
 bled in Orkhan s house on Princess Island, contrary 
 to their usual precaution of never coming together in 
 a larger number than four. They had come in divers 
 roundabout ways, some of them disguised. All were 
 visibly impressed by Hakir Pasha s words. 
 
 "If they decide to interfere with so-called plans for 
 reform," remarked Righo, " a terrible obstacle will be 
 placed in the way of our success." 
 
 "We must move before they do," Hakir Pasha 
 announced, his jaw thrust forward. "If we succeed. 
 Europe will be outwitted. If we fail Allah keriml 
 What do you say, Orkhan?" he asked, turning to 
 him. 
 
 He could not have appealed to any one more eager 
 to precipitate matters. His nurse had told him that 
 his fiancee had of late become like a tigress. She must 
 have got wind of his visits to the Paparighopoulos,
 
 ORKHAN THE TURK 255 
 
 and he felt as if her vengeance might at any time 
 descend upon him and Millicent. 
 
 "I do not see what we gain by waiting," he replied. 
 "All is ready, and every day s delay only gives a 
 chance for some mishap that we cannot foresee." 
 
 The debate which followed was short. To all of 
 them action would come as a relief from the long 
 planning and plotting. The fight would now be in the 
 open, where men would know their enemies. And the 
 recent harrowing events in Salonica would enable 
 them to make a start there which the Porte would 
 consider merely local. Thus the movement could not 
 get under full headway before its gravity was sus 
 pected. They clasped hands and swore to die before 
 surrendering, and at this instant they forgot their 
 mutual grievance, and only thought of the great 
 cause. 
 
 There came a sharp rap at the door. The leaders 
 hands unclasped, and each one drew his revolver. 
 
 Orkhan went to the door. 
 
 "Who is it? "he asked. 
 
 "It is I, Bey Effendi," replied the voice of one of 
 his servants. "We found a man near the house who 
 we think is a spy." 
 
 Orkhan opened the door and a short, fat man was 
 pushed into the room. His hands were tied behind 
 him, and he had evidently been roughly handled, but 
 it was not that which arrested attention: it was his
 
 256 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 livid face, his eyes starting from their sockets, and the 
 fear which made him tremble so violently that one 
 could hear the chattering of his teeth. 
 
 "I am not a spy," he screamed. "I was passing 
 through the short-cut behind your house to the town, 
 when two men jumped out and " 
 
 Orkhan leaped at him like a tiger. He had recog 
 nized the Armenian he had kicked into the water. 
 
 "Ah! I know you, you vermin !" His voice was not 
 loud, but there was a deadly hatred in it which seemed 
 to shrivel the fat man up. 
 
 "Effendi, I pray you, I am no spy," he managed 
 to stammer; but Orkhan cut him short. 
 
 With a sweep of his arm he sent the lamp to the 
 floor, and, seizing the Armenian, he dragged him out 
 on the terrace and flung him into the water below. A 
 horrible scream broke the silence of the night. It ended 
 with a splash, as the heavy body struck the water. Up 
 above no one moved. Everything had taken place so 
 quickly that there had not been time for interference, 
 had any one wished to interfere. A long time after the 
 splash there came a strangled gurgle from the black 
 waters below. Then all was silence. 
 
 "Bring another lamp," said Orkhan to his servant, 
 "and close the curtains well." 
 
 The rays of the new light shone upon the same scene 
 and the same men as before. Only the broken lamp 
 on the floor indicated the tragedy that had taken place.
 
 ORKHAN THE TURK 257 
 
 Orkhan was still breathing a trifle faster than usual, 
 and a dull red shone in his cheeks. 
 
 Righo alone of those present resented the act of the 
 Turk. He was very pale, and took a step toward his 
 friend. 
 
 "Are you mad, Orkhan?" he demanded. "We do 
 not punish with death without proofs, and what 
 proof had you the man was a spy? He might have 
 been, as he said, taking the short-cut to town." 
 
 With rather exaggerated carelessness Orkhan re 
 plied : 
 
 "Why make a fuss over ridding the earth of one 
 more superfluous person? I disliked the man." 
 
 "But, in God s name, we cannot rid the earth of 
 those we dislike," exclaimed Righo sternly. "I knew 
 that man a dissipated, harmless youth named 
 Kasanzian. He subscribed a hundred pounds to our 
 cause. I would swear he was no spy. He was rich and 
 did not need money." 
 
 Orkhan shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "Well, perhaps he was no spy; but once before he 
 came in my path. Besides, one Armenian, more or 
 less, what does it matter? They are prolific." 
 
 The other leaders laughed, even Hakir Pasha; but 
 Righo s stern face did not relax. 
 
 "What you have done is murder, Orkhan." 
 
 The Turk stepped forward, towering over the Greek. 
 For a minute they measured each other with their
 
 258 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 eyes. The one short and plain, of an old conquered 
 race, which even in its decadence had avoided useless 
 bloodshed. The other, tall and handsome, of a race 
 which even in its zenith had always been soiled with 
 innocent blood, wantonly shed. 
 
 They glared at each other, then Orkhan smiled, and 
 putting his hand on the Greek s shoulder, said sooth 
 ingly: 
 
 "Are you not making a lot out of nothing, Righo? 
 We are not going to quarrel, you and I, over an 
 Armenian." 
 
 Righo saw the futility of his remonstrance, saw the 
 gulf which separated him, the civilized European, 
 from the Asiatic, who knows no pity. Silently he went 
 to his seat ; but during the rest of the meeting he heard 
 nothing more of what was said, for his ears could hear 
 nothing except the agonized scream, and the splash in 
 the water. 
 
 W hen the meeting broke up, he did not accept Ork- 
 han s invitation to spend the night with him, as he 
 often did. Instead, after the usual precautions had 
 been taken to make sure the house was not watched, 
 he walked up the St. Nicholas Road which led to the 
 town. 
 
 The gay life of the island the gayest of all the 
 resorts about Constantinople was not stilled yet. 
 In the pine woods groups of youths were playing on 
 stringed instruments and singing love-songs. Belated
 
 ORKHAN THE TURK 259 
 
 donkey excursions of Turkish women passed, with 
 loud laughter and screams of joy; and many carriages 
 were taking passengers home from the various cafes. 
 
 Niko Paparighopoulos walked on, oblivious of all 
 the gayety around him. He could only think of the 
 poor human being who that night had ruthlessly been 
 thrown from life into death. Till now Righo had been 
 but a lukewarm Greek. He loved his race, it is true, 
 but he felt that the attitude of his race toward the 
 Turk was unjust; that it ought not to keep itself apart 
 from the Turk, but have more community of feeling 
 with him. 
 
 To-night for the first time he saw the Ottomans as 
 they were. The scenes of the conquest of Constanti 
 nople passed before his mind s eye, as if he had seen 
 them himself. He saw the torrents of victorious Turk 
 ish troops entering the city, uttering their ferocious 
 cries of "Allah, il Allah ! " and massacring all that came 
 before them till their lust for blood was sated. With 
 the agonized cry of the Armenian were now mingled 
 the cries of women and children who found no mercy 
 at the hands of the blood-stained soldiery. 
 
 In imagination Righo lived over all the horrors 
 which for days followed the taking of Constantinople. 
 He wiped the heavy perspiration from his brow. 
 
 "I had forgotten!" he murmured. And again: "I 
 had forgotten!" 
 
 The spirits of his dead ancestors became alive, and
 
 260 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 brought to him fragments of the bloody deeds of the 
 Asiatic conquerors. And again he heard the agonized 
 scream of the Armenian, and the thump of his body as 
 it fell into the dark sea. 
 
 Righo shivered. 
 
 "And that it should be Orkhan," he said to him 
 self. "Orkhan, whom I had thought civilized, and 
 whom I loved." 
 
 By a curious trick of the mind, Millicent came and 
 stood beside Orkhan, and for the first time the Greek 
 viewed with loathing the thought of her union with 
 Orkhan. 
 
 "He will be pitiless to her, when the love he has for 
 her shall be at an end." 
 
 He felt that he must warn her. She and Elpis were 
 spending a week s end on Princess Island, at the Papa- 
 righopoulos island villa. Righo pulled out his watch. 
 It was a quarter to one. "They may not have re 
 turned from the Casino yet," he thought, and walked 
 rapidly toward the centre of nocturnal gayety. 
 
 At the entrance to the principal casino a friend 
 linked his arm in his. 
 
 "Hullo, Niko. If you are looking for your sister and 
 her guests, they have just left here. I saw them to 
 their carriages myself." 
 
 "Thanks, I was looking for them." 
 
 Springing into an empty carriage on the stand, he 
 gave the order to drive swiftly to his villa. He found
 
 ORKHAN THE TURK 261 
 
 Elpis and Millicent together. The other guests had 
 already gone to their rooms. 
 
 From his face Elpis knew that something had hap 
 pened. 
 
 "Oh, Niko! What is it?" 
 
 "I wish to speak to Miss Grey," he answered. 
 
 "Orkhan is dead!" she said faintly. 
 
 He looked hard at her. 
 
 "The Orkhan I loved and admired is dead; but 
 Orkhan the Turk is alive." 
 
 Then he told of the death of the Armenian.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 FREE 
 
 AN hour after Millicent had gone to her room, she 
 made her way to Elpis s door. She was still 
 fully dressed. 
 
 Softly she knocked. 
 
 "Come in!" came the answer at once. 
 
 She entered, and found the Greek girl, like herself, 
 dressed. 
 
 "I was afraid you might have gone to bed. I am 
 going out for a walk. Will you come with me?" 
 
 Elpis nodded, as if her guest had made the most 
 natural kind of request. She slipped her little revolver 
 into her pocket, and the two started. 
 
 They went quietly through the silent house, and 
 without arousing any one let themselves out of the 
 front door into the dark, cool night. 
 
 Millicent walked faster than she knew, so fast that 
 Elpis, though a good walker, had hard work keeping 
 up with her. 
 
 Neither one spoke. 
 
 The road wound in and out among the hills, some 
 times through dense pines, blacker than the black 
 night itself; again it came out into the open, where the 
 dark was more translucent, less opaque; and again it
 
 FREE 263 
 
 skirted the shores of the Sea of Marmora, where a 
 faint shimmer, felt rather than seen, betrayed the 
 water. 
 
 They roamed far and fast; but gradually the peace 
 of the dewy night descended upon Millicent, and she 
 walked more slowly. The sky overhead grew less 
 dense. There were little twitterings of birds, waking 
 up from their twigs. The eyes of the two girls, accus 
 tomed to the blackness, began to distinguish more 
 clearly the things they passed. And then there crept 
 into the sky the premonition of the dawn. 
 
 Still they went on in silence. Streaks of pink and 
 yellow and lavender preceded the sun in the heavens. 
 Millicent stopped. They were on a little hill, and Elpis 
 thought she had never seen so beautiful a creature 
 as this young figure, erect, her shoulders thrown back, 
 looking toward the east. 
 
 Millicent spoke at last; and the light of dawn was 
 reflected on her face : - 
 
 "Ah! the blessed sunrise colors of hope, and 
 faith and freedom!"
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 DEFEAT 
 
 THE killing of the Armenian troubled Orkhan him 
 self not at all. He did not give another thought to 
 the matter. Indeed, he was fully occupied with the 
 contents of a letter he had received from Malkhatoun 
 telling him that she had not succeeded in making 
 Millicent agree to their plans. 
 
 Orkhan did not think only of the contents of the 
 letter; its writer received a goodly share of his atten 
 tion dark-eyed Malkhatoun, whom he had never 
 really seen until their last interview. Whenever the 
 fair face of Millicent came before his mind, there was 
 always beside it the darker one of the other, as on the 
 medallion are the profiles of Dante and Cavalcante. 
 He could contemplate with entire serenity the pair of 
 lovely girls faces. They stirred the Turk in him; and 
 the Turk was so undeniably and vitally himself that 
 he experienced great pleasure in making his acquaint 
 ance. He did not worry about the complications that 
 might arise out of this pair of faces. He meant to 
 marry Millicent at once: the other problem could be 
 confronted later. 
 
 In the thought of Millicent he did not feel unalloyed 
 delight. He was distinctly annoyed with her. This
 
 DEFEAT 265 
 
 affair, he told himself, must be settled one way or 
 another at " once, and to Orkhan there was only one 
 way the man s. 
 
 Three days after the death of the Armenian he sent 
 word that he would be at the Paparighopoulos villa. 
 His message naturally was delivered to Elpis. She 
 went to Millicent, and repeated it to her. 
 
 "Would you rather not " she began tentatively. 
 
 "No, I will see him," Millicent interrupted. 
 
 Elpis s brown eyes searched her face; and the anxi 
 ety in them lessened. 
 
 "You are so superbly yourself again, dear," she 
 said. 
 
 Something of the same quality struck Orkhan, in 
 spite of his ill-humor, when Millicent came into the 
 room and greeted him. 
 
 "Mashallah!" he murmured, "such a girl is worth 
 striving for." But he did not say this to her. Rather 
 coldly he said: "I am sorry you could not find it in 
 your heart to agree to go with my cousin Malkhatoun 
 after you had seen her." 
 
 She was very glad he adopted this demeanor. It 
 made her own task easier. 
 
 "It could not be," she replied, inclining her head 
 slightly. 
 
 A flush mounted to Orkhan s face. 
 
 "Then our marriage "
 
 266 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Our marriage can never be," she interrupted 
 quietly. "I don t know how I ever thought we could 
 be happy together. The barriers between us are too 
 great." 
 
 A sudden fear gripped him lest he lose this being, 
 who had never seemed more to be desired than at this 
 minute. He forgot that he had meant to be cold, and 
 a little cruel, to her. 
 
 "What barriers?" he cried impetuously. "What 
 ever they be I will tear them down." 
 
 For just an instant an answering thrill possessed 
 her. Then she mastered herself. 
 
 "They are too great, Orkhan Effendi," she said 
 sadly. "They are our whole different civilizations. 
 I am glad you came to see me to-day ; for I had to tell 
 you that, although I have cared for you, I can never 
 become your wife." 
 
 " Who has put these foolish words into your mouth? " 
 he asked passionately. "What are different civiliza 
 tions, when you are a woman and I a man and we 
 love each other?" 
 
 Gently she shook her head. 
 
 "You are a Turk, and I am a Christian. The piti 
 less way in which you can destroy human life taught 
 me the impassable differences between us. Three 
 days ago, with no more compunction than if he had 
 been a mouse, you killed a man." 
 
 * You do not call a dirty Armenian a man ! Besides,
 
 DEFEAT 267 
 
 he was a spy, and the captured spy suffers death 
 everywhere." 
 
 "Had you proof that he was a spy?" 
 
 "Well, perhaps he was not," Orkhan exclaimed dis 
 dainfully. "He had crossed my path once before, and 
 I chose that he should not do so again. Besides, a wo 
 man has not the right to discuss the acts of a man. 
 What can she know of things like that? It is enough 
 for her that a man wants her." 
 
 "It is not enough for me," Millicent replied, "and 
 I cannot become your wife." 
 
 With a wave of his hand Orkhan brushed her words 
 aside. It came to him that it was only the part of a 
 foolish man to bandy words with a lovely woman. He 
 smiled his radiant smile, and held out his arms to her. 
 But Millicent stepped back, and when he tried to take 
 her in them with gentle force, he found himself re 
 sisted with an uncompromising strength he had not 
 thought her capable of. 
 
 "No! No! Orkhan. Let me keep a kind remem 
 brance of you." 
 
 Orkhan stared. But surely this was the whim of a 
 girl, to be coaxed away by the words of a lover. It 
 was impossible that she should defy him, this girl 
 whom he had held trembling in his arms, and who, so 
 short a time ago, had responded to his love as an ^o- 
 lian harp to the wind. Passionately, incoherently, he 
 pleaded with her, trying all the arts upon her of which
 
 268 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 instinctively he was master. Only after many min 
 utes could he believe that this unbelievable change 
 had come to pass: that she had absolutely subjected 
 the love to which she had once been a slave. 
 
 Orkhan looked at her as if she were a being from 
 another world. The indifference which should follow 
 satiety he could have comprehended, but not the 
 strength which enabled her to draw back from the 
 brimming cup of love before it had reached her lips. 
 Then arose in him the rage of baffled pride of the con 
 quering man toward the woman he cannot conquer. 
 The thing which gnawed at the vitals of his vanity was 
 that as a man he had no more power over her as a 
 woman. 
 
 And then Orkhan the Turk, with black rage in his 
 heart, but with his usual grace of movement, went out 
 of the room.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A COUNTER-MOVE 
 
 I MUST go on the other side of the river this after 
 noon," said Elpis. "Would you care to come? It is 
 the Stephanides tea and I have n t seen Altheon 
 for several days." 
 
 " Do you mind if I stay here and go for a walk when 
 it becomes cooler? I have such a curiously happy sen 
 sation that I want to go out in the open. It seems as 
 if I needed all outdoors to realize my freedom in." 
 
 Elpis, shy of caresses, gave Millicent a little pat. 
 
 "You may do exactly as you choose, only don t 
 stay out late. I shall be rather late myself, but expect 
 to be back for dinner. We shall be alone. Niko has sent 
 word that he has left Constantinople for a few days. 
 It looks as if things might happen any day now." 
 
 After Elpis had gone, Millicent waited until the sun 
 had almost set, then started for the hills. Midway 
 between the Paparighopoulos villa and the hills she 
 met a closed carriage. Its shades were drawn down, 
 in spite of the warm weather, and a eunuch sat on the 
 box by the driver. 
 
 A quarter of a mile farther on she met another car 
 riage, exactly like the first; and just as she reached the 
 hills a third, like the other two.
 
 270 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Poor things," she thought, "this husband is 
 extra jealous, and his playthings must not be seen 
 driving in an open carriage, even in their veils. But I 
 suppose they are happy, after their own fashion." 
 
 She gave a little sigh, yet even with the sigh there 
 came such a rush of joy at her own recovered freedom 
 that she wanted to skip and sing on the public high 
 way. 
 
 She climbed one of the hills and took her seat be 
 neath a great pine to enjoy the panorama of the Bos- 
 phorus. The twilight was coming on, and Millicent 
 knew that through the light mist which would pre 
 sently thinly veil the landscape, it would acquire an 
 added enchantment, like a Turkish coquette seen 
 through her diaphanous yashmak. 
 
 It was the hour when Mussulmans go indoors be 
 cause of their religion, and Christians because of old 
 habits of fear. Millicent for a time had the whole 
 countryside to herself without the disturbing presence 
 of a single other person. 
 
 Presently she was a little disappointed to see a man 
 coming hurriedly toward her. She recognized him as 
 the Paparighopoulos major-domo, Mitro. He was 
 running, and there was that in his manner that dis 
 quieted her. 
 
 She sprang to her feet, and went to meet him. 
 
 "What is it? "she asked. 
 
 Only after he spoke did she realize that she could
 
 A COUNTER-MOVE 271 
 
 not understand him any more than he could her. By 
 signs he indicated that she must follow him. His face 
 was stern, and beads of perspiration stood on his brow. 
 
 She went with him, fearing lest something might 
 have happened to Elpis. 
 
 Down the hill they hurried. When they came to 
 the dividing road he motioned to her to go by the one 
 she had never been before, instead of by the usual way. 
 
 She hesitated. Vehemently he signed to her to pro 
 ceed, and even laid his hand on her arm. There was 
 no mistaking the earnestness of his wish. For an in 
 stant she debated whether to go where he indicated 
 or not. Then she remembered Elpis s saying that she 
 trusted him as she did her own brother, and that his 
 integrity and courage were beyond question, and 
 decided the best thing was to obey his instructions. 
 
 The road they were now on seemed to lead away 
 from home rather than toward it. They walked swiftly, 
 stopping sometimes to listen. At one of these stops 
 they heard the rumble of a carriage behind them. 
 
 The rumble ceased, and there was a shrill whistle. 
 It was answered by another in front, though no per 
 son or carriage was visible in the uncertain light. 
 
 Mitro muttered something between his teeth, and 
 seizing her arm half dragged her in among the trees at 
 the side of the road. Their footsteps sounded pain 
 fully plain on the twigs and litter of the woods. 
 
 Mitro pointed disapprovingly at Millicent s white
 
 272 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 dress. It would betray their whereabouts a long way 
 off. He put her behind a large tree, and, crouching 
 down at her side, peered forth, revolver in hand. 
 
 The carriage drove past their hiding-place, and 
 through the fading light Millicent recognized it as one 
 of those that had passed her when she was on her way 
 to the hills. Why this should have seemed of sinister 
 import it would be hard to say, but Millicent felt a 
 cold shiver run over her at the sight, and for the first 
 time was afraid. 
 
 After the carriage had gone by, they resumed their 
 flight, back toward the hills. It was rough walking, 
 and Millicent was continually stumbling over roots 
 or fallen branches. Her breath came fast, and she had 
 to stop to rest a minute. 
 
 From his belt Mitro handed her a short sharp knife. 
 He made a circular wave of his hand, as if they were 
 surrounded, and, raising his revolver, imitated shoot 
 ing in all directions. Then he pointed to her, and 
 grimly made the motion of stabbing himself. The 
 girl smiled. Things did not seem to her at such a des 
 perate pass as that. 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi!" Mitro said. 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi yok fena," she replied in her lim 
 ited Turkish. She wished to impart to Mitro her own 
 confidence in Orkhan. 
 
 Mitro shook his head, and in a guttural whisper 
 replied :
 
 A COUNTER-MOVE 273 
 
 "Orkhan Effendi Turk!" 
 
 The gray mist of the evening was thickening, and 
 to Millicent s excited imagination the woods seemed 
 peopled with their pursuers. She heard the snapping 
 of twigs, and often took bushes or shadows for waiting 
 men. 
 
 As the night deepened, it became more difficult to 
 make their way. The terrors of the unknown preyed 
 on her imagination more than any seen dangers would 
 have done. It was past the dinner hour, and she 
 thought of what Elpis must be suffering at her non- 
 appearance. 
 
 Suddenly four forms seemed to rise up from the 
 ground before them. Mitro fired, and at the same 
 instant Millicent felt a pair of strong arms thrown 
 about her, pinioning her. 
 
 "Help! Mitro!" she called. 
 
 He whirled and fired, so close that the explosion 
 deafened her; but she was free again. 
 
 Then for a few seconds there was a demoniac con 
 test of shots and thrusts and hoarse gruntings, as men 
 fought bestially together. 
 
 Millicent found herself hacking away with her knife 
 with a certain fierce exhilaration she would not have 
 imagined possible. But again a pair of black arms 
 gripped her tight, a shawl soaked in chloroform was 
 thrown over her head, and she was lifted and swiftly 
 carried away.
 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 
 THE SEARCH 
 
 ELPIS was detained on the other side of the 
 Bosphorus and did not return home until long 
 after the dinner hour. 
 
 "I hope you have given Miss Grey her dinner," she 
 said to her nurse, who opened the door for her. 
 
 "Miss Grey is not back neither is Mitro," the 
 old woman said in a frightened voice. "I thought 
 perhaps you had met somewhere and stayed out 
 together." 
 
 Elpis stood rigid for a minute, thinking hard. 
 
 "Call Thanasy, Andrea, and Stavro," she said 
 sharply. 
 
 Into the household there had already crept a feeling 
 of uneasiness, and the coachman and the grooms 
 responded promptly to the summons. 
 
 "Miss Grey and Mitro have not come back," Elpis 
 said tersely. "It is possible they have met with foul 
 play. They went to the hills. Arm yourselves, and 
 each of you take a horse and go look for them. Than 
 asy follow the straight road, Andrea the first path to 
 the right, and Stavro the crooked one to the left. Sad 
 dle Caesarino for me. I shall take the lower back road. 
 And don t let any one know what has happened."
 
 THE SEARCH 275 
 
 "But had not one of us better go with you?" pro 
 tested Thanasy. 
 
 " No. I can take care of myself," she replied curtly. 
 "Now go at once." 
 
 The men dared not disobey her, and went off with 
 sober faces to saddle the horses. 
 
 Elpis changed her afternoon gown for her riding- 
 habit. She was dressed even before the horses were 
 ready, and carried her revolver out to the stable and 
 slipped it into the holster in front of her saddle. The 
 three men were heavily armed, for no Greek house 
 hold in Turkey is without its arsenal; and the four 
 rode off into the starlit night. 
 
 When they reached the first fork in the road Elpis 
 said : 
 
 "Ride slowly, and listen for any sound from the 
 woods." 
 
 Thanasy, the old coachman, ventured one more 
 remonstrance against her going alone. 
 
 "Thank you, Thanasy," she answered gently, 
 "but only in this way shall we cover the whole 
 ground. And you know I can shoot better than you 
 can." 
 
 She galloped off alone, down the back road, Csesar- 
 ino, who had not been out for two days, bounding 
 w T ith life, and shying at a hundred imaginary terrors 
 of the night. 
 
 Presently she coaxed him down to a walk, and now
 
 276 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 and again stopped to listen for any sound from the 
 woods on either side. 
 
 With the marvelous sympathy of a well-bred horse 
 for the rider he knows, Csesarino lost the festive pranc 
 ing step with which he had started, and walked along 
 with catlike care, his ears pricked forward, every 
 nerve taut, and instantly ready for the slightest 
 signal from Elpis. When the slight pressure on the 
 reins bade him stop, he stood like a statue of bronze, 
 listening, not even breathing. Then he would resume 
 his stealthy walk, as if he were trying to creep up on 
 some one unaware. 
 
 Suddenly a change came over him. Every muscle 
 in him stiffened. His neck arched itself into a perfect 
 bow. His head was raised and his nostrils distended. 
 
 "Csesarino, do you see anything?" Elpis whispered, 
 leaning forward till her cheek nearly touched his neck. 
 
 He had stopped, shivering. The slightest tremor 
 on his reins, and he would have bolted from this terror 
 of the night. 
 
 "Come, boy forward!" Elpis said, touching his 
 side with her heel. 
 
 He did not obey, but blew a blast of fear through 
 his distended nostrils. 
 
 "Come on, boy. That is where we must go," Elpis 
 urged gently. 
 
 Quivering like an aspen every instinct in him, 
 except confidence in his rider, urging him to flight
 
 THE SEARCH 277 
 
 he obeyed. Into the woods they crept, peering for 
 ward. It was impossible to tell which shadow might 
 be the most gruesome object. Any other horse than 
 this favorite of hers would have refused to advance 
 against this horror which he scented. 
 
 Elpis, her revolver in her hand, and straining sight 
 and hearing to the uttermost, leaned forward, her 
 lips parted, her head slightly on one side. Presently 
 she made out what seemed to be a patch of denser 
 black at the foot of a tree. At the same moment Cse- 
 sarino reared so violently that he almost unseated her. 
 
 "Csesarino!" she called sharply; and when he came 
 down on all fours again she felt his back sink beneath 
 her, as if his limbs had turned to water, but he did not 
 try to run. 
 
 " Millicent ! " she called. " Mitro ! " 
 
 There was no answer. 
 
 She slipped from her saddle, the reins in her left 
 hand, and cautiously advanced. Csesarino, his head 
 close to her, followed at her heels with a low whinny, 
 as if he were afraid of being left alone. The shadow 
 revealed itself as a heap of human bodies. They did 
 not stir nor utter a sound. Elpis grasped the top one 
 and turned it over. It was a eunuch, stiff and stark. 
 Shuddering, she pulled away another. Beneath the 
 two lay Mitro. She dropped on her knees, and tear 
 ing open his shirt put her hand on his heart. There 
 were several ghastly wounds about his shoulders ; but
 
 278 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 he was warm not like the others, and there was a 
 faint flickering of his heart. She chafed his hands and 
 wrists, but could not revive him. Why had she not 
 thought of bringing a flask of brandy with her? Per 
 haps one of her men had some. She must summon 
 them. It might be dangerous, but there was no help 
 for it. 
 
 She rose to her feet. 
 
 "Now, Caesarino, don t be frightened," she said, 
 caressing him. 
 
 Holding her revolver over her head she fired twice 
 in to the air. The horse started violently . Fortunately 
 he had been used to Elpis s firing from his back. 
 
 In only a minute Thanasy came tearing up, lashing 
 his horse like a demon to force him against the smell 
 of blood. 
 
 "I m all right, Thanasy. I Ve found Mitro." 
 
 "Thank God! I thought " He stopped. 
 
 Even under the circumstances Elpis noticed in 
 what a suspiciously short time the old coachman had 
 appeared. 
 
 "Have you any brandy with you? Mitro is uncon 
 scious." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 They forced some of the liquor between his lips, and 
 Mitro, half-reviving, struggled to raise himself. 
 
 "Be quiet, Mitro. It is I, Elpis. Where is Miss 
 Grey? Did Orkhan "
 
 THE SEARCH 279 
 
 "I don t know," he muttered. "There were many 
 they attacked from all sides. They - 
 
 He mumbled a few words more, incoherently, and 
 again lost consciousness. 
 
 "We must get him home. They may return," said 
 Thanasy. 
 
 "Get him on your horse. I can manage to mount 
 by myself afterwards," Elpis commanded. 
 
 Under the excitement of the moment, the old man 
 lifted Mitro and threw him across the back of his 
 frightened horse as if he had been a sack of corn. 
 Then while Elpis held the bridle, he scrambled up into 
 the saddle, grasped the unconscious man in his arms, 
 and managed to prop him up against himself. 
 
 Elpis made a long step to her own stirrup, and drew 
 herself up into the saddle by the horns. Then taking 
 hold of the bits of Thanasy s horse, she guided him 
 along, the coachman being occupied with his burden. 
 
 As swiftly as possible they made their way home. 
 There Mitro was placed on a bed, and Elpis and her 
 nurse worked over him, but without being able to 
 rouse him to consciousness. 
 
 When the physician arrived, Elpis said to him: 
 
 "Can you revive him enough to speak to me even 
 for a minute?" 
 
 The old doctor, who had known Elpis since her child 
 hood, could tell from her tone that the matter was of 
 the utmost importance.
 
 280 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "I 11 do what I can," he answered. 
 
 He tried one powerful restorative after another, at 
 first without success. Finally Mitro moaned, and 
 muttered something. 
 
 Elpis leaned over him. 
 
 "What is it, Mitro? Speak !" she commanded. 
 
 " Orkhan," he muttered. "There were many " 
 and again he relapsed into unconsciousness. 
 
 The Greek girl straightened herself up. 
 
 "It is enough, Doctor," she said. "Do what you 
 can for him. I must leave you." 
 
 She went to her own room, and sat down at the 
 table, her elbows on it, her head in her hands. The 
 minutes passed and she did not stir. She was think 
 ing hard, trying to find out what was best to do for 
 Millicent. 
 
 If only her brother were here ! He could go straight 
 to Orkhan and demand the return of Millicent and 
 kill him if he refused. But now she had to do every 
 thing herself. The idea of going to the American Em 
 bassy suggested itself to her, but she was afraid that 
 if matters passed into the slow hands of diplomacy 
 she might never see Millicent again alive. 
 
 She went over and over every possible place where 
 Millicent could be, sitting immobile for so long a time 
 that one might have thought she had fallen asleep 
 after the terrible fatigues of the day. 
 
 "He has taken her to the Palace," she finally cried
 
 THE SEARCH 281 
 
 with conviction. "The most dangerous place is the 
 safest, and it is Malkhatoun who has her in charge." 
 
 She thought of going herself to the Palace; but if 
 Malkhatoun were his accomplice, she would certainly 
 be refused admission; and if a hint of her errand crept 
 out, it might mean even worse danger to Millicent 
 from the jealousy of Princess Leila. 
 
 Some one else must penetrate into the Palace for 
 her, and this some one must be a Turkish lady, power 
 ful enough to be received, and not a known friend of 
 hers. 
 
 Elpis sat without movement for half an hour. 
 
 "I must risk it," she murmured at length.
 
 CHAPTER XLII 
 
 A LEAF FROM THE PAST 
 
 IN a rambling old wooden palace, darkened by the 
 weather and the years, and so close to the waters 
 of the Bosphorus as to seem to be floating on them, 
 lived a daughter of the late Sultan Aziz. 
 
 In years gone by she had been famous for her 
 beauty and for her daring, which defied even the 
 customs of her race and religion. Her palace, then, 
 had been the rendezvous of the fiercest spirits of 
 the time, and had been visited by many handsome 
 men, both Mussulman and Christian. Now it stood 
 silent and gloomy, its portals rarely opening to admit 
 strangers; for one day Death entered w r ith the other 
 guests and when he went away he took with him the 
 joy of the household, the only child of the terrible 
 princess. 
 
 And to-day, while Elpis s horses w r ere taking her to 
 this old palace, the Sultan s daughter was sitting cross- 
 legged on her divan, dealing out a pack of cards before 
 her. Three rows of seven cards she laid down, face 
 upward. The rest she held in the palm of her left 
 hand. From a low table near her she took a lighted 
 cigarette and smoked it, while studying the cards. 
 Laying the cigarette down, she turned up three more
 
 A LEAF FROM THE PAST 283 
 
 cards from the pack in her hand, and placed them on 
 the third card of each of the rows. 
 
 " Vach! vach!" she exclaimed. "What is going to hap 
 pen to me to-day? Never before did the cards act like 
 this. Vach! vach! What more can happen to x me, ex 
 cept death? But that I have long expected, and these 
 cards foretell unexpected things." 
 
 She turned up one more card the ten spot of 
 spades and dropped the pack on the floor. 
 
 "Vach! vach!" she wailed, covering her face. 
 
 At this instant the gusty wind outside drove the 
 rain fiercely against the window panes. 
 
 The Princess stopped her wailing. 
 
 "The ghouls and the djinns of the graveyard," she 
 muttered. "This is their day. They have struck the 
 window panes. Have they a message for me from my 
 little one?" 
 
 She raised the window and then the cafass, and 
 thrust her head out. The rain struck her in the face, 
 but she did not notice it. 
 
 "Any message for me? " she cried. "Any message? " 
 
 There was no answer. Only the rain continued to 
 fall unmercifully on her gray head. 
 
 The brocade portiere of the room was raised, and 
 an old eunuch entered. 
 
 "What are you doing?" he demanded querulously. 
 "Get away from that rain at once." 
 
 The Princess drew her head back into the room,
 
 284 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 and the eunuch, protest in every movement, noisily 
 closed the lattice and the window. Wrathfully he 
 went into the next room, returning with a towel, and 
 bade his mistress dry her face and hair. 
 
 The Princess suffered his scolding without protest. 
 Had he not held her in his arms when she was a baby? 
 And had he not endured all her whims and caprices 
 ever since? Moreover, had he not been her confidant 
 in all her tempestuous life? 
 
 "There, there!" she exclaimed, drying her hair; 
 "there is no reason why you should be so scoldy for a 
 little thing like that." 
 
 "You call it a little thing, your catching cold? Be 
 sides, why did you go and do such a dreadful thing 
 as to send for her?" 
 
 "Send for whom?" the Princess asked. 
 
 The eunuch glared defiantly at his mistress. 
 
 "Are you going to deny that you sent for her?" 
 
 "When you tell me whom you mean, I may deny or 
 not, as I please." 
 
 The eunuch took a step toward the Princess, trying 
 to hold his bent old body erect. Suddenly he broke 
 into a whimper. 
 
 "Why, to see her will be enough to kill you. It al 
 most finished me," and he fell at his mistress s feet, 
 crying like a child. 
 
 "Yusuf! My little Yusuf! What has happened? 
 Who is here?"
 
 A LEAF FROM THE PAST 285 
 
 The eunuch raised his head. 
 
 " Paparighopoulos Pasha s daughter is downstairs," 
 he wailed, "with the same face as our little one had." 
 
 The Princess gasped. She clutched at her throat, 
 as if she were choking. 
 
 "Allah, be merciful to me!" she implored. Then 
 to the eunuch: " Yusuf, you mean Xenophon Effendi s 
 daughter?" 
 
 The eunuch nodded strongly. " And her face is that 
 of our little one." 
 
 The daughter of Sultan Aziz grew very pale. Trem 
 bling shook her. 
 
 "Water!" she begged. 
 
 The distress of his mistress brought the eunuch to 
 his senses. He filled a glass for her. 
 
 The Princess drank in deep gulps. 
 
 "Where is she?" she demanded, as soon as she 
 could speak. 
 
 "Where else but downstairs." 
 
 " Don t let me see her, Yusuf ! Don t let me see her ! " 
 
 "Then you did not send for her?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 The eunuch fell into a rage. "She has dared, then, 
 all by herself!" 
 
 The Princess clutched his arm. "You said she 
 looked like my little one, and you are cross at her! " 
 
 "I hate her," he screamed, "for she is living, and 
 our little one is dead."
 
 286 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 The Princess pointed to the rain outside. 
 
 "It is the day of the ghouls and the djinns of the 
 graveyard. We cannot send his child away when she 
 comes to us. Think of it, Yusuf his child!" 
 
 She threw herself on the sofa, weeping pitifully. 
 
 " Xenophon ! Xenophon ! " she murmured tenderly. 
 "My little daughter my little one!" 
 
 For a few minutes she abandoned herself to her 
 grief. Then she raised herself up with resolution. 
 
 "Go bring her here, Yusuf." 
 
 "Are you mad?" the old man demanded. "It will 
 kill you. I told you it nearly finished me. I shall be 
 put to sleep in the graveyard to-night." 
 
 "Go fetch Xenophon Effendi s child, Yusuf. You 
 must bring her to me, and no one else. Go, Yusuf." 
 
 With uncertain steps the eunuch left the room, and 
 shortly reappeared with Elpis. 
 
 The Greek girl salaamed low, in Turkish fashion, 
 to the woman she had never seen, to the woman 
 who had virtually killed her mother, who had ruined 
 her home, and of whom she had now come to ask 
 a favor. 
 
 After the salutation, the two women, the old and 
 the young, stood facing each other, in the middle of 
 the room. 
 
 Elpis s heart was beating fast. 
 
 The Princess drew her fur cloak around her. She 
 was shivering.
 
 A LEAF FROM THE PAST 287 
 
 "What do you want of me?" she asked, her voice 
 harsh and strained in her endeavor to appear calm. 
 
 "I want your help," Elpis answered. 
 
 The Princess breathed hard. Try as she would she 
 could not take her eyes from the girl s face. She had 
 loved such a face so fiercely, so passionately : first in a 
 man, and then in a child and death had robbed her 
 of them both. 
 
 A sob escaped her, and then she broke down. 
 She cried as if her heart were breaking; and Elpis, who 
 had hated this woman ever since she had known of her, 
 could not help feeling sorry for her. Seeing the carafe 
 of water, she poured out a glass and brought it to the 
 Princess, who took it from her like a child, and seemed 
 soothed by it. 
 
 "Why do you need my help?" she asked, still sob 
 bing. "Are you in trouble?" 
 
 ; Yes. I need your help." 
 
 "And you come to me because of your 
 father?" 
 
 "No. I come to you because of my mother." 
 
 : Your mother! I do not understand. I have never 
 known your mother. I have never even seen her." 
 
 You did not have to know her in order to kill her. 
 She left a diary for me to read after I was fifteen. 
 There is a debt you owe her and you can pay it by 
 helping me." 
 
 The Princess trembled. Had another human being
 
 288 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 spoken to her thus, he would hardly have left the 
 house alive; but Elpis Paparighopoulos had not only 
 the face of her father, she carried herself like him, and 
 the tones in which she spoke were the same tones 
 which years ago had thrilled the older woman and 
 made her mad for love. 
 
 "Xenophon s child, tell me what it is you wish of 
 me." 
 
 She curled herself up on the sofa, and motioned 
 Elpis to sit beside her. 
 
 Elpis did as she was bid, and then, as shortly as pos 
 sible, explained to her why she had come to her. She 
 ended : 
 
 " Something tells me that she is in the Palace. Will 
 you help me to find my friend?" 
 
 "How am I to know her without asking ques 
 tions that would be dangerous to ask?" 
 
 "From her golden hair; from the pure light which 
 burns in her gray-blue eyes; and above all from the 
 independent way she carries herself that of a race 
 which has never been conquered. If you find her, I 
 will attend to getting her out." 
 
 The Princess dropped her head in her hands, and 
 remained in this position for a few minutes. When 
 she raised her head, her face was pitifully white and 
 drawn. Elpis had brought the past too vividly before 
 her. 
 
 "Are you very fond of this American girl?" she
 
 A LEAF FROM THE PAST 289 
 
 asked, not because she wanted to know, but that she 
 might again hear the voice of the girl who resembled 
 her daughter. 
 
 " I love her." The tone thrilled the older woman. 
 
 " I had a daughter once, younger than you, and as 
 beautiful as you are. She is dead. Allah took her 
 from me when she was like an almond tree in blossom. 
 She was so graceful in her youth, so pure in the dawn 
 of her womanhood; and every day she lived she be 
 came more perfect. Allah gave her all the gifts, so 
 that I might suffer the more when he struck me." 
 
 She hid her face in her hands again and wept. 
 
 "It is because she is dead that I came to you." 
 
 The Princess took her hands from her tear-stained 
 face and leaned forward, searching the face of Elpis. 
 
 "You are very wise for your age. How did you 
 come by so much wisdom?" 
 
 "I am motherless. I had to learn for myself." 
 
 "I shall help you, young hanoum, but not because 
 of your mother; for my debt to her I paid long ago." 
 
 She stopped speaking and gazed before her, her 
 eyes dark, with a light in them of fear and horror. 
 
 "Yes, I have paid the debt I owed your mother." 
 
 She pulled a bell-rope, and the eunuch answered it. 
 
 "Bring me the secret coffer." 
 
 She covered her face again, and remained thus until 
 the eunuch placed before her a small strongbox of 
 Oriental device.
 
 290 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "You can go, Yusuf." 
 
 She unlocked the box, and from a secret drawer 
 took out what looked like a bejeweled cigarette case. 
 From this she brought forth half a dozen letters, yellow 
 with years. One by one she read them over, and put 
 them back again in the case. 
 
 "Take this, Xenophon s child, and when you are 
 alone and locked in your room, read them, and burn 
 them. They may not be safe in your keeping. They 
 were found in your father s hunting-lodge in Thessaly 
 after he had been made a prisoner on suspicion of be 
 ing connected with the uprising in Macedonia. The 
 man who was sent by the Sultan to find these papers 
 was in love with me and I loathed him. He brought 
 them to me. My mother was a Mussulman Cretan 
 and had taught me to read Greek. I read these letters 
 and knew what it would mean to Xenophon s children 
 if they were ever brought to light. It is because I 
 bought these letters from the man at his own price 
 that you still are what you are. Otherwise you 
 would to-day be one of those thousand nameless wo 
 men who get their living from the gutters of this piti 
 less city. Yes, I have paid my debt to your mother at 
 a cost which may you never know." 
 
 She held out the jeweled case to Elpis. 
 
 "Take them," the Princess continued. "Allah 
 might have been mollified by my sacrifice, but he was 
 not."
 
 A LEAF FROM THE PAST 291 
 
 Elpis, with the case in her hand, was hardly listen 
 ing now. A joyous hope was in her heart for reestab 
 lishing her faith in one whom she had loved and in 
 whose honor she had lost faith. 
 
 "Then my father did not die because he loved you? " 
 she asked, her breath coming quickly. 
 
 "No. The man who found these letters told the 
 Sultan he had found nothing; and the government 
 meant to torture your father to obtain from him the 
 names of those who had conspired in Macedonia. I 
 knew this. In the dead of night, Yusuf and I managed 
 to get to him in his prison. When we left him he was 
 beyond the power of the Sultan s torturers." 
 
 Elpis, who had not cried since she was a child, min 
 gled her tears with those of the older woman. They 
 were very near together, this Greek girl and this Otto 
 man princess. And being women, they understood 
 many things that there was no need of saying. 
 
 "Go now, Xenophon s child," the Princess said at 
 last. " I shall pay a visit to the Palace to-day. Do not 
 come here again. I will let you know how I succeed." 
 
 When Elpis w r as back in her own room, with locked 
 door, she took out the letters from the bejeweled case 
 and read them. And as she did so a wondrous light 
 came into her face. 
 
 "My father!" she murmured. : Then you did die 
 for Greece ! You did die for the freedom of your coun 
 try!"
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 She kissed the letters. 
 
 "Millicent," she whispered, "if you only knew 
 what peace you have brought to my heart. I have 
 lived all these years under a cloud of shame, disown 
 ing my own father in my heart, and because of you I 
 get him back a hero." 
 
 She read the letters once more. Then lighted a can 
 dle, and one by one burned them over it. To the last 
 black ashes she spoke: 
 
 "What a sword of Damocles you were, and we did 
 not even know it."
 
 CHAPTER XLIII 
 
 THE CHILDREN OP THE TURKS 
 
 ORKHAN in his disguise stood in Malkhatoun s 
 room, by the latticed window, waiting for her. 
 The sun was setting, and the sky outside was a mass 
 of iridescent black clouds, lined with fiery red. 
 
 A rustle of silk, a light step, and Malkhatoun was 
 in the room. 
 
 Orkhan turned around and filled his eyes with the 
 sight of the girl who was helping him to forget Milli- 
 cent. Ever since the last time he had been here and 
 had become aware of her womanliness, her image had 
 stayed with him. Seeing her again she was fairer than 
 his remembrance of her, and dearer than when she 
 had come to him in spirit. 
 
 "Allah be with thee, cousin," the girl said, con 
 scious of his burning glance. 
 
 "Allah is always with thee," he responded; "and 
 since I am near thee, I am near Allah." 
 
 You are extravagant, cousin." 
 
 "How can I be extravagant, when it is impossible 
 even to be just. The human language is not intended 
 to describe heavenly beings." 
 
 The blush deepened on Malkhatoun s face. This 
 was a new Orkhan speaking; and the light in his eyes
 
 294 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 added fuel to the fire in her own heart. Yet she did 
 not dare to understand what another woman might 
 have let herself understand. 
 
 "As soon as I heard of your return to town I sent 
 for you on a matter which concerns you deeply," she 
 said. 
 
 "I would that you had sent for me on a matter 
 which concerned you deeply," he replied. 
 
 His tone and his words disconcerted her. She has 
 tened on: 
 
 "Cousin, Princess Leila is holding Melisande Ha- 
 noum prisoner. I fear she means to hurt her." 
 
 "Ah!" Orkhan commented. With rather exag 
 gerated indifference he added, "What an absurd per 
 son Princess Leila is becoming." 
 
 Malkhatoun had expected an outburst at her news, 
 and was disappointed at his careless reception of it. 
 
 "I no longer care forMillicent Hanoum," he went 
 on, noticing the wonder in Malkhatoun s eyes. "I 
 know now that she is incapable of love, and therefore 
 my own is dead." 
 
 "She is a woman of a different race from us," pro 
 tested Malkhatoun generously. "They do not obey 
 their instincts they obey their minds more. Per 
 haps they do not understand love as we do. When we 
 love, we belong wholly to our lord he becomes our 
 religion. If he loves us, we are willing to give eternity 
 for one moment with him. !
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE TURKS 295 
 
 She ended passionately, her little hands clasped over 
 her heart. The veil on her head had fallen back, and 
 the long loose cloak had half dropped from her shoul 
 ders. The light of the afterglow filled the room and 
 fell upon her white throat and her face, already lighted 
 by the feeling which was consuming her. 
 
 Orkhan, feasting his eyes on her beauty, and drink 
 ing in her words, was overcome by a rage of jealousy. 
 From the moment he had learned that he wanted 
 Malkhatoun, he had thought of her as his own; and 
 to hear her speak thus of love set him on fire with sus 
 picion. 
 
 "Who taught you to know love?" he demanded 
 fiercely. 
 
 She hid her face in her hands, lest he should read 
 the truth in it. 
 
 Orkhan snatched away her hands, and searching 
 her very soul with his gaze, repeated : 
 
 "Tell me! Who taught you to love?" 
 
 "Love himself," she answered. 
 
 "Malkhatoun, for you to know all this, a man has 
 come into your life." 
 
 "What does it matter to you, cousin? You did not 
 even know that I had grown to be a woman." 
 
 "I know it now," he answered hoarsely. 
 
 She freed her hands from his, afraid to guess his 
 meaning, yet longing to hear the words which in her 
 most daring dreams she had not hoped for.
 
 296 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 He recaptured her rose-scented hands and, holding 
 them palm up, kissed them. Her slender frame trem 
 bled, and he, drawing her so close to him that their lips 
 almost met, imperiously demanded: 
 
 "Who is the man you love?" 
 
 His tone enthralled the girl, who had loved him so 
 long, with so little hope. Still she thirsted to hear his 
 words, before she gave him hers. 
 
 "Why do you wish to know? Why do you care?" 
 
 "Because I love you! Because I want your love in 
 return. Tell me who is the man?" 
 
 "You, Orkhan. It has always been you, even when 
 I did not exist for you." 
 
 "You have always existed. I carried you with me 
 in my heart without knowing it. Even when I loved 
 the girl from the West, you came and took your place 
 by her side. I love you, Malkhatoun." 
 
 He drew her nearer to him, and making a ring of her 
 arms, placed them around his neck. Then, nestling 
 her head on his breast, he enveloped her with his arms 
 and inhaled the perfume of her hair and of her throat. 
 
 Thirsting to hear words of devotion which would be 
 balm to his recent wound and would help to reestab 
 lish his pride in himself as a conquering man, he asked: 
 "And are you wholly mine?" 
 
 Yours, Orkhan, as the flower belongs to its stem, 
 as the star belongs to the firmament. Yours , lord of my 
 life, to do with as you please."
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE TURKS 297 
 
 Yet even now she remembered that it was for Milli- 
 cent she had sent for him. She disengaged herself 
 from his arms. 
 
 "My lord, I sent for you because of MelisandeHa- 
 noum. She is a prisoner perhaps in great danger. 
 What must I do?" 
 
 "Why trouble about her?" he replied, essaying to 
 draw her to him again. 
 
 Through the fire in Malkhatoun a cold shiver 
 passed at his egotism. But womanlike she would not 
 permit herself to think ill of the man she was making 
 her god. 
 
 "My lord, we must think of her." 
 
 "Very well! When we become masters here, you 
 may keep her as your slave, if you like." 
 
 "She is not ours to dispose of, my lord. It is be 
 cause we brought it upon her that she is now in dan 
 ger. I cannot be happy till she is free, and out of the 
 Palace." 
 
 Orkhan laughed. 
 
 "Malkhatoun, my little Malkhatoun, you are jeal 
 ous of her you! you! my queen!" 
 
 "My lord, I love you above jealousy and above 
 meanness. When you came to ask my help to get her, 
 I already loved you. Still, I worked to give you as 
 wife the woman you wanted myself without hope. 
 If you desired her again, I should again help to make 
 her yours. It is not for me who love you to deny you
 
 298 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 anything, even if its gratification should mean death 
 for me." 
 
 Her nobility awed him. 
 
 "Forgive me, Malkhatoun. I will do what you 
 wish, only you must wait twenty -four hours. Even at 
 this minute I ought not to be here; but I could not 
 keep myself from coming when you sent for me." 
 
 "Are things near a crisis, my lord?" 
 
 He nodded. "We shall strike in two days." 
 
 "Inshallah! Inshallah!" the girl prayed. 
 
 "And you know what that will mean, houri of my 
 earthly heaven. It will mean that I can make you 
 mine absolutely mine." 
 
 "I am that now, my master. But since go you 
 must, you had better go now, my lord." Taking one 
 of his hands in each of hers, she led him to the door, 
 and called for the slaves. "Go, my lord." 
 
 After he was gone she walked slowly back to the 
 window. The gorgeous colors of the afterglow were 
 sobered. Only small patches of yellow and rose were 
 strewn here and there on the gray-blue sky, like 
 flower petals scattered by the wind. 
 
 "I should have liked him more generous toward 
 the woman he once loved," she murmured. 
 
 Her happiness was marred by this cruelty to that 
 other woman; but she resolutely closed the door to 
 her heart which admitted heresies toward her lord. 
 She found excuse for him because Millicent had made
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE TURKS 299 
 
 him suffer. She thought of the American girl s 
 dreams and aspirations. Love was not all in Milli- 
 cent s life, neither was it in that of Elpis. She tilted 
 her head to one side and pondered deeply on life as 
 these other two saw it. 
 
 All color had disappeared from the sky. A silver- 
 gray mist hung between heaven and earth. 
 
 Malkhatoun s soul rose in prayer. 
 
 "Allah! they may be right, and they may be great, 
 those two girls of the West; but oh! Allah, my creator, 
 I thank thee for making me just a woman."
 
 CHAPTER XLIV 
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE GREEKS 
 
 fTHHE master has returned, Miss Elpis. He has gone 
 I to his rooms, and asked not to be disturbed." 
 
 "Thank heaven, he is back." 
 
 She went immediately to her brother, and found 
 him writing. He rose on her appearance, with a slight 
 frown. 
 
 "I am sorry, Niko, but it was of the utmost import 
 ance that I should see you at once. Millicent J> 
 She stopped, struck by his appearance. He seemed so 
 old and careworn. "Niko, how tired you look." She 
 put her hand on his forehead. " You are feverish, too, 
 dear." 
 
 "I have hardly slept since I left here." 
 
 "You must not work yourself to death, Niko." 
 
 "It is not work that pulls one down, enthusiasm 
 takes the hardship out of work, it is lost confi 
 dence, disillusionment." 
 
 "Have the plans miscarried again?" she asked in a 
 low tone. 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " The plans are all right. If nothing new goes wrong, 
 the Young Turks will be masters here in two weeks." 
 
 "Then, what is it, Niko?"
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE GREEKS 301 
 
 "I have lost my faith in Orkhan, and mistrust the 
 intentions of the Turks toward the Christians." 
 
 "You ought never to have believed much in them, 
 and you ought not to have made of Orkhan a sort of 
 demigod, as you did." 
 
 " He had always shown himself so fine; but since the 
 night he killed the Armenian a curtain has dropped 
 between what he appeared to be and what he is. We 
 had a discussion two nights ago, and he clearly told 
 me that the Young Turks had no intention of letting 
 Crete go and that he had come to think they were 
 right. And he had sworn it to me, and on that pro 
 mise the money was raised among the Greeks. Life 
 contains so little when one loses faith in the man with 
 whom one has worked for years." 
 
 " Brother, have you given him most of your money ? " 
 
 " No. I gave him most of my income, but the prin 
 cipal is intact. I was just engaged on that when you 
 came in. I have a presentiment that I had better 
 put my affairs in order. Some years ago I made a will 
 leaving most of what I had to Orkhan to be used for 
 the cause. I am revoking that will, and shall leave 
 everything to you, to use for whatever purpose you 
 think best. It is all in foreign securities, with the 
 Bank of England." 
 
 "Thank you. brother. We need money. We need 
 better schools than we have; and above all, the Greek 
 boys need military training."
 
 302 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 A significant glance passed between brother and 
 sister, and for the first time in their lives both had 
 only one thought the fear of the Turk for their 
 nation. 
 
 There was a knock at the door, and the old nurse 
 came in with a letter. 
 
 "The messenger said it was urgent." 
 
 She gave it to Elpis and left the room. 
 
 The girl tore it open and hastily read it. 
 
 "It is this I came to see you about," she said, when 
 she had finished it. "Millicent was carried off, three 
 days ago - 
 
 "Orkhan!" Righo cried, starting up. 
 
 "No. I thought so, too, until this letter came. It 
 is " she hesitated "it is from a Turkish princess 
 I know. Listen : - 
 
 Your friend is in the haremlik of Princess Leila. 
 I came by the knowledge only yesterday. It may be 
 possible to rescue her to-night. I send you the key to 
 a little gate in the Palace wall. At ten o clock count 
 three hundred paces northward from the southeast 
 corner of the wall. There, there is a clump of four 
 large cypresses. From then on, at intervals, are sin 
 gle cypresses, close to the wall. Opposite the twenty- 
 first, after the clump of four, is a little gate, half hid 
 den beneath a tangle of vines. It opens inward, and 
 this key will unlock it. A guide will be waiting, a 
 trusted eunuch of ours. Send two men only, armed
 
 steel is best. They may succeed or they may 
 die. Allah alone knows." 
 
 Elpis folded up the letter without reading the sig 
 nature. 
 
 "Two men, did she say?" mused Righo. "Mitro 
 and I will go." 
 
 " Poor Mitro, how he would have liked it." 
 Would have liked it ! - - but why can t he come? " 
 
 "He was with Millicent the day she was kidnaped 
 and they left him for dead, after he had killed two of 
 them. He is not out of danger yet. It is pathetic, 
 Niko, to hear him beg me not to let him die. Miss 
 Elpis, he cries, even Hell would not have me, an 
 Albanian, if I were killed by eunuchs." 
 
 Into Righo s weary face came a smile at this char 
 acteristic utterance. 
 
 "Let me see, then; whom shall I take with me?" 
 
 "Won t you let Euripides Stellos go with you? He 
 has been a comfort to me in this trouble." 
 
 Righo gave a quick, questioning glance at his sister, 
 but she shook her head. 
 
 "Will you make all the arrangements, Elpis? I 
 must spend the whole of the day settling my af 
 fairs." 
 
 "Very well, Niko. I will send for Euripides Stellos 
 at once. It would be wise for him to go and recon 
 noitre. It will facilitate your manoeuvres at night." 
 
 She rose and kissed her brother on the forehead.
 
 304 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 She wished to tell him about their father, but 
 changed her mind and went from the room. 
 
 At ten o clock that night, Righo and Euripides were 
 creeping along the wall of the Palace, counting the 
 cypresses under their breath. The new moon had set 
 hours before, and clouds shut off even the faint light 
 of the stars. 
 
 In the dark, and in the vagueness of thought which 
 the dark induces, they feared lest they had made a 
 mistake in the counting. 
 
 "Do you make this the twen ty -first ?" whispered 
 Righo, stopping. 
 
 "Yes," Euripides replied. "I could n t see the gate 
 at all when I came to reconnoitre this afternoon. It 
 must be under this clump of vines." 
 
 With considerable difficulty they found the door in 
 the wall, and cautiously inserted the key. The hinges 
 creaking slightly, they opened it and stepped inside. 
 
 The black form of a eunuch appeared before them. 
 
 "I am to conduct you," he said softly. 
 
 They followed him. He did not take any path, but 
 walked noiselessly over the grass, in and out among 
 the trees. The Greeks tried to preserve some idea of 
 direction, in case flight became necessary; but soon 
 lost all sense of this, and had to trust entirely to their 
 guide. 
 
 The light night breeze was murmuring through the
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE GREEKS 305 
 
 trees and bushes, filling the air with obscure, terrify 
 ing noises that might mean anything or nothing. The 
 life of the Palace was not yet asleep. This time was 
 better than a later would be. If seen now, they might 
 be mistaken for some who had business in the Palace 
 grounds. There were lights in various palaces, and the 
 sound of laughter and talking floated out on the 
 vagrant breeze. 
 
 Their guide stopped, near one of the palaces, and 
 motioned to them to squat down among a clump of 
 bushes. For fifteen minutes they waited. Then there 
 appeared two candles in a window. 
 
 "Everything is going well," the eunuch whispered. 
 "Now we must wait until a third candle is placed by 
 the other two." 
 
 A long half-hour dragged away. No third candle 
 was lighted beside the two. Righo and Euripides be 
 came more and more impatient; but the eunuch 
 remained stolidly squatting among the bushes, and 
 showed no sign of anxiety. 
 
 "Ah!" breathed Righo, as finally a slave came to 
 the unlatticed window. 
 
 She peered out into the night as if she would fain 
 pierce its blackness where everything must be invisi 
 ble to her. Then, leaning down, she blew out one of 
 the candles, and then the other. 
 
 The Greeks caught the sinister import of the act 
 even before the eunuch muttered excitedly:
 
 306 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Something has gone wrong!" 
 
 Still they waited, their eyes fixed on the dark, 
 where the two candles had shone, hoping against hope 
 that they would be relighted. 
 
 They had not yet made up their minds to abandon 
 their undertaking when a shadowy form emerged 
 suddenly from the darkness. 
 
 " Where are you, Senih?" whispered a girl s voice. 
 
 "Here I am," the eunuch whispered. 
 
 "Princess Leila was restless to-night, and she sent 
 for the American slave to come and talk to her. You 
 had better -- Hush!" 
 
 She faded away into the night as silently as she had 
 come. At the same instant the eunuch grasped 
 Righo s arm convulsively. 
 
 "Run to the gate!" he said in an agonized whisper. 
 "The Palace guard is coming." 
 
 At home Elpis, for one of her nature, was having a 
 harder task than the men inactivity. She had 
 wished to go with them, at least as far as the gate; but 
 Righo would not hear of this. In spite of all he knew 
 of his sister, he could not get over the idea that the 
 woman s place was in the house to wait, while the man 
 acted. And for once she was obliged to give in, since 
 he refused to go unless she promised to remain at 
 home. 
 
 The hours of the night dragged slowly on. Reading
 
 or needlework was impossible for her. She roamed 
 about the house; then out into the garden, and down 
 to the Bosphorus, where the little waves, flapping 
 against the landing, mocked at her. Her fears were 
 less for Righo and Euripides than for Millicent. How 
 had she been treated in the Palace? What had Prin 
 cess Leila done to her? Had she disfigured her? Such 
 a thing was quite possible. 
 
 Elpis could not help thinking that all the danger 
 Millicent was now in was partially her fault. If Milli 
 cent had not come on this visit, she would probably 
 not have seen Orkhan Effendi again. But since 
 Millicent had seen him, she, Elpis, ought to have 
 taken better care of her. 
 
 Toward the end of the short summer night, Elpis, 
 standing on the eastern terrace, heard the sound of 
 men s feet coming slowly and shuffingly up from the 
 boat landing. She did not move to go to them. A 
 premonition came over her that something dreadful 
 had happened. Still as a statue she stood in the faint 
 gray light. Four men were carrying a body up the 
 path. Behind them walked Euripides, his bared head 
 bowed. When he came near Elpis, he looked up as if 
 he knew she would be there, waiting, and made a gest 
 ure of despair. 
 
 The men carried the body into the large drawing- 
 room and laid it on a couch. Elpis came and kneeled 
 down, and took the face of her dead brother between
 
 308 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 her hands, and kissed it over and over again. The 
 tears flowed silently. At last she began to talk to him. 
 
 "Oh, Niko dear! And I did not tell you about 
 father," she whispered, as if he could still hear her. 
 "Brother, he died endeavoring to free Macedonia. 
 His death, like yours, was a noble one." 
 
 She kissed his eyes and his brow and his lips, giving 
 him the many tender names she had given him when 
 she was a child and worshiped him without any criti 
 cism. 
 
 Euripides stood silently by, his heart bleeding at 
 the grief he was unable to lessen. He wished that he 
 were in her brother s place. Then she might have been 
 sorry for him. She might have cried for him. She 
 might even have kissed him, dead. 
 
 At last Elpis looked up at him. 
 
 "Tell me, Euripides, how it all happened." 
 
 She listened while in a muffled voice he described 
 the failure of their plans, to the time when the candles 
 were blown out. He continued: 
 
 "Then the guards surprised us. We ran for the 
 little gate, and had almost reached it when we found 
 some eunuchs between us and it. Our guide deserted 
 us. Righo and I fought our way on. Then he fell. The 
 others caught up with us. I beat them off, and carried 
 Niko through the gate and along the wall, till the men 
 we had left with the horses heard the noise and came 
 to our help."
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE GREEKS 309 
 
 He had spoken simply, like a child telling why he 
 has failed to execute an errand. 
 
 "And you carried Niko, while fighting for your 
 life?" asked Elpis very gently. 
 
 "But you would have grieved if his body were left 
 in their hands," he replied. 
 
 "Yes, I should." 
 
 She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. 
 She noticed his torn clothes, his bandaged head, and 
 the limp way in which one of his arms was hanging by 
 his side. 
 
 "Euripides," she said slowly, "I do not have in my 
 heart for you what I think a woman ought to feel for 
 the man she marries ; but if you want me, I will marry 
 
 you." 
 
 She held out her hand to him across her brother s 
 dead body. 
 
 Euripides took it and raised it to his lips. 
 
 Her willingness to pay with herself for what he had 
 done for her moved him as he had never been moved 
 in his life. Although at another time he might have 
 taken her on any terms, at this instant he rose to the 
 degree of nobility equal to her own. 
 
 "If you ever marry me, dear, you must have in 
 your heart what you think you ought to have." 
 
 In her turn Elpis raised his hand to her lips.
 
 CHAPTER XLV 
 
 THE LAST CHAPTER 
 
 early in the morning, two days later, a 
 
 T closed carriage drove rapidly through the vil 
 lages along the Asiatic coast of the Bosphorus. It 
 stopped at a side gate of the Paparighopoulos place, 
 and the eunuch on the box beside the driver sprang 
 down and opened the door. 
 
 Millicent Grey, clothed like a Turkish woman, 
 stepped forth. She held out her hand to the yash- 
 maked woman inside. 
 
 " Good-bye ! " she said. " I cannot imagine why you 
 should have done this for me. I can only thank you." 
 
 "Good-bye, young American hanoum. Tell the 
 child of Xenophon Effendi that she may always come 
 to me when she needs help only when she needs 
 help. Good-bye!" 
 
 The eunuch closed the door, and the carriage drove 
 off as rapidly as it had come. 
 
 "What a strange sort of woman," Millicent mur 
 mured, looking after it. "It must have been a con 
 siderable risk for her to rescue me. I suppose she is a 
 friend of Elpis. Dear Elpis! I wonder if she is ex 
 pecting me." 
 
 Millicent passed through the gateway, and hurried
 
 THE LAST CHAPTER 311 
 
 up the path, impatient to see her friend again. In the 
 dewy morning, with the familiar garden about her, 
 she had to glance down at her own attire to make her 
 self believe that all her adventure in the Palace had 
 been more than an ugly dream of the previous night, 
 from which she had awakened to her ordinary life. 
 
 Yet the large gardens appeared singularly deserted. 
 Usually the men were at work in them long before this 
 time. When she came in sight of the villa she further 
 noticed that its shutters were closed, and that the 
 porches were devoid of their comfort of chairs and 
 rugs. An indefinable air of desolation hung over the 
 whole place, and Millicent hastened on, fearing lest 
 its inmates might all have gone away. She rang the 
 bell, and was relieved to hear footsteps approaching. 
 The butler opened the door, and the joy and pleasure 
 which came into his countenance was matched by the 
 relief in her own at finding this indication of the usual 
 habitation of the place. 
 
 "Miss Grey!" cried the man, almost moved out of 
 his official decorum. " Miss Elpis is in the upper hall." 
 
 Millicent flew past him, in her intense delight at 
 finding Elpis here paying no attention to the aspect of 
 the darkened hall, where every piece of furniture was 
 covered with black, and the perfume of many flower- 
 wreaths mingled with the scent of incense. 
 
 In the upper hall Elpis, in a black robe, was direct 
 ing half a dozen women who were sewing on black
 
 312 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 draperies. At sight of them, Millicent hesitated; but 
 Elpis, dropping the crepe she was holding, gazed at 
 her for an instant as if she could not believe her eyes, 
 and then rushed to her and threw her arms around her. 
 
 "My very dearest one!" she cried, touching her 
 arms and shoulders to make sure it was a real Milli 
 cent and not a vision. 
 
 The warmth of the greeting dispelled the misgiv 
 ings that had come over the American girl, and quite 
 happily she let Elpis lead her to her old quarters, 
 where the Greek girl again gave her an affectionate 
 hug; then held her off at arms length, crying: 
 
 ; You really here! And safe sound?" 
 
 Millicent only answered with a long sigh of content. 
 
 "And how did you get out?" 
 
 "In the middle of last night I waked up suddenly. 
 A tall old woman was there. Come with me, she 
 said. She muffled me up till I could hardly see. Some 
 thing in her manner made me feel that she meant me 
 no harm, so I did exactly as I was told. Oh ! you don t 
 know how I tried to keep down the hope that I was 
 going to be freed, as we crept out into the cool night, 
 and over the grass to a little gate in a tall wall. Out 
 side was a carriage, and we drove along way to a boat. 
 After we crossed the Bosphorus there was another 
 carriage, and - - Oh ! I almost forgot something she 
 told me to tell you," and Millicent delivered the 
 message of the old woman to Elpis.
 
 THE LAST CHAPTER 313 
 
 "And Princess Leila did you no harm all the time 
 she had you prisoner?" 
 
 "W-e-1-1," Millicent began a trifle doubtfully; but 
 the bubbling joy of being safe with her friends again 
 was too much for her. She threw back her head and 
 laughed, and as she did so her scarf fell from her 
 hair. 
 
 ; Your hair! Your lovely hair!" Elpis cried. 
 
 Millicent laughed again. 
 
 ; Yes, it suffered vicariously. Princess Leila 
 told me that she was going to disfigure me so that no 
 man would ever care to look at me again. She began 
 by cutting off my hair." 
 
 "Did she do nothing else?" 
 
 Millicent held out her hands. On her wrist were the 
 red marks of chains. 
 
 "That wasn t very bad," she said cheerfully, 
 "though I did hate the feeling of being perfectly 
 helpless. Well, I came over here thinking I should be 
 able to teach the women of the East. I have only 
 learned myself. But, Elpis, why are you in black? Is 
 Mitro ?" 
 
 "No, he was only wounded. He will recover." She 
 stopped and considered for a minute. Yet there was 
 no use in trying to hide it from Millicent. "My 
 brother is dead." 
 
 "Mr. Righo!" Millicent cried, horrified. "When? 
 How?"
 
 314 IN THE SHADOW OF ISLAM 
 
 "Two days ago. I will tell you some day how he 
 died not now." 
 
 Millicent fell on her knees before Elpis, and the two 
 girls clung to each other for an instant. Then Elpis 
 gently pushed her away, and rose to her feet. 
 
 "If you would like to see him, come now with me; 
 for in a short time they will be here to take him." 
 
 Elpis took Millicent down to the largest of the 
 reception-rooms. It was all draped in black and 
 wreaths of flowers were on every piece of furniture. 
 In the middle of the room stood a black velvet coffin, 
 heavily ornamented with silver. Torches were burn 
 ing at the head and foot, and Niko Paparighopoulos, 
 dressed as if for a reception, with a flower in his but 
 tonhole, and the ikon of his patron saint on his 
 crossed hands, was sleeping his last sleep and receiv 
 ing his last human homage. 
 
 Millicent put her arm through that of Elpis, and 
 the two girls drew near the coffin. 
 
 "So much I can tell you," Elpis said at last. " His 
 death was worth while." 
 
 As they were standing thus, the door opened, and 
 Mitro advanced painfully toward the coffin. 
 
 "Mitro! Haven t the doctors forbidden you to 
 move?" Elpis cried, running toward him. 
 
 Without disrespect he waved her aside, and came 
 to his dead master. He placed both his hands on the 
 body of Niko Paparighopoulos, saying solemnly: -
 
 THE LAST CHAPTER 315 
 
 "So thou art dead, and the Turks have killed thee. 
 But thou shalt not turn to ashes unavenged. There 
 are ten knives in my belt and each of them shall be 
 dyed with Turkish blood each shall send to his 
 grave a faithless Turk. I swear it to thee." 
 
 Three times he made the sign of the cross ; then bent 
 and kissed the dead man s face and the ikon on his 
 folded hands. 
 
 To thee, Christian God, who ought to be reigning 
 here, to thee I make my oath." 
 
 A distant fusillade disturbed the heavy silence. 
 
 Elpis went to the window and stood listening. 
 
 There was a second fusillade, and then a third. 
 
 "It is beginning," Elpis said tensely. Turkey s 
 supreme hour has come." She clung to Millicent as if 
 for protection. "I cannot feel trust in the Young 
 Turks: I am afraid afraid for all the Christians, 
 and especially for the Greeks." 
 
 There was more sound of firing, which seemed to 
 shake Elpis to the very centre of her being. 
 
 In an awed tone she went on, as if she were one of 
 the Greek maidens of ancient times looking darkly 
 into the future: 
 
 "What will be the outcome of the revolution? Will 
 it mean the regeneration of Turkey or will it mean 
 at last the end of the Turks in Europe?" 
 
 THE END
 
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