“You coming to Zeitoon?”

Gloria nodded.  Glancing over toward Kagig I saw that he was aware of Maga and was watching her out of the corner of his eye while he talked with Gregor and the Turk.  They were both getting angry with the Turk and using gestures suggestive of impending agony by way of emphasis.  The Turk was growing fidgety.

Maga spread her arms out as if she were embracing all the universe and called it hers.

“Then—­if you ar-re coming to Zeitoon—­you choose first a ’usband.  There are—­many ’usbands.  Some ’ave lost a wife—­some ’ave sick wife—­some not yet never ’ad no wife.  Plenty Armenians—­also two other men there—­but you let that one—­Will—­alone!  Choose a ’usband —­marry,’im—­then you come to Zeitoon!  If you come without a ’usband —­I will keel you—­do you understand?”

“Now then, America!” grinned Fred in a stage aside that Maga could hear as clearly as if it had been intended for her.  “Let’s see the eagle scream for liberty!”

“Eagle scream?” said Maga, almost screaming herself.  “What you know about eagles?  You ol’ fool!  That man Will is thinking you ar-re ‘is frien’.  You ar-re not ‘is frien’!  Let ‘im come with me, an’ I will show ’im what ar-re eagles—­what is freedom—­what is knowledge —­what is life!  I know.  You ol’ fool, you not know!  You ol’ fool, you marry that woman—­then you can bring ‘er to Zeitoon an’ she is safe!  Otherwise—­”

She reached in the bosom of her blouse and drew out, not the mother-o’-pearl-plated pistol that I feared, but a knife with an eighteen-inch blade of glittering steel.  Instantly Fred covered her with his own repeater, but she laughed in his face.

“You ol’ fool, you ar-re afraid to shoot me!”

If she meant that Fred would feel squeamish about shooting before she hurled the knife, then she was certainly right.  But she knew better than to make one preliminary motion.  And Kagig knew better than to permit further pleasantries.  I saw him whisper to Gregor, and the gipsy attaman started on hands and knees to creep round behind her.  But Maga’s eyes were practised like those of all other wild creatures in detecting movement behind her as well as in front.  She spat, and gave vent to a final ultimatum.

“You ’ave ’eard.  I said—­you let that man Will Yerr-kees alone!  An’ don’t you dare come to Zeitoon without a ’usband!”

Then she turned and dodged Gregor, and ran for her gray stallion—­mounted the savage brute with a leap from six feet away, and rode like the wind toward the gut of the pass that shut off Zeitoon from our view.  A minute later a shell from a small-bore cannon screamed overhead, and burst a hundred yards beyond us on a sheet of rock.

“Not bad for a ranging shot!” said Fred, suddenly as self-possessed as if the world never held such a thing as an untamed woman.

“Observe, you sportmen all!” Kagig exclaimed, getting to his feet.  “The Turkish nobility are proceeding to rescue poor Armenians.  Behold, their charity comes even from the cannon’s mouth!  It is time to go now, lest it overtake us!  No cannon can come in sight of Zeitoon.  Follow me.”