The Argosy, June 1904 — page 76: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

562 THE ARGOSY. “ Ah, effendi, do not shoot! We are Christians!” cried one. * Well, if you don’t take these rifles and do some fighting you'll all go to vour Heavenly reward,” I said, now too angry to be choice of speech. * Get that coward Nufet out of that cellar. Load these guns. If I catch aman among you running away, Pll shoot, and I can shoot straighter than the Osmanlis.”’ “We will! We will!” they cried. One, who was a Syrian like Nutet, rushed to the cellar and returned with the innkeeper, trembling in every Limb. ‘“ Here, you!” I said. “ We are going to defend this place. Do you intend to help, or do you want to be shot now? ” “Oh, effendi, 1—But what will you do?” “Shoot you if you don’t lend a hand. Understand that, my friend?” * But we are men, and can run and hide. If there were woman to protect!” * Have vou no wife? ” “Yes, but—she is old—it will not matter.” “This,” I said, turning to Adria, “ 1s what is called Christianity in the Hast.” “Such cowards!” she cried. “ Tell them I a “No,” I said, * we are all men here, and we will fight. Now get those guns ready for action. Do you not hear the attack coming nearer?” “Yes,” said Nufet. “Vhat is why f am afraid.” There was a voung Jewish traveler who sold rugs, and he seemed the bravest of the lot. He picked up a rifle and looked at it. “ These are loaded,” he said. “ 1 will stand by you.” A Persian, too, traveling with two camels, so he told me, picked up a rifle and looked down the barrel to see if it was ready for use. A kick at the old lock would soon have proven to his satisfac- tion that it was. A Greek took up another and picked at the lock, with the result that an ex- plosion occurred, sending a bullet so near Nufet’s head that that martyr fell upon his face and began to pray. Truly, if it had not been for the faet that I had Adria to think of. this would have been to me a most ludicrous scene. There was scarcely a man in the crowd PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ecommclooolks ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED : brave enough to take a gun and face the Turks I knew were coming, for I could hear the firing. “Tf what Schryada told us is true,” said Adria, “ why do the Turks attack a peaceful village? ” “To make it unpeaceful,” I answered. “That is the only reasonable explana- tion, but we have no proof that what Schryada said was true.” The roars and shouts of men outside suddenly became very audible. “ Bar the doors!” I ordered. Nufet seemed to sink into himself. The others accepted me as their leader. The doors were barred, and they stood waiting for orders. “Take a window—two to each, and shoot any man with a gun, for such are on no peaceful errand to-night.” I did not care if I killed a hundred Turks. Adria’s hfe was in my keeping. I reasoned that any measure was justifiable if 1t prevented her from fall- ing into the hands of the Turks. The Jew, who was the foremost among the group, leaped to a window. A moment later i heard his rifle. “ Have they come?” J asked. [saw one and fired,” he replied. “I am not going to wait till they come.” “There you are,” I said to the group. “There isa man. You fire at any man you see with a gun. If all the other in- habitants of Orlitz are like you, you won't hit a villager because they will be in their cellars hiding.” “Come,” said the Jew. “I see sev- eral. It is time to fight.” CILAPTER XVIII. THE END OF THE BATTLE. AprRIA stood by my side at a window. The Jew, true to his first evidence of courage, was blazing away with his old rifle. Nufet, waking up to what might almost be called courage, joined him. I peered into the darkness, and as I saw a man run from one cover to an- other, I fired. There was a howl. Rifles were fired toward us, too, but none took effect, except to bring cries of terror from Nufet and the Persian. Adria, f truly believe, was the coolest ‘person in the inn. Calmly she stood at CO