They refused point-blank to throw their rifles down, bringing a laugh and a shout of encouragement from the German.  But she screwed the muzzle of her pistol into the lieutenant’s ear, and bade him enforce her orders, the gipsy women applauding with a chorus of “Ohs” and “Ahs.”  The lieutenant succumbed to force majeure, and his men, who were inclined to die rather than take orders from a woman, obeyed him readily enough.  They laid their rifles down carefully, without a suggestion of resentment.

“So.  The women of Zeitoon are good!” said Kagig with a curt nod of approval, and Maga tossed him a smile fit for the instigation of another siege of Troy.

The gipsy women picked the rifles up, and Maga went to hunt through the mule-packs for clothing.  Then Kagig turned on us, motioning with his toe toward Hans von Quedlinburg, who continued to treat himself extravagantly from our jar of ointment.

“You do not know yet the depths of this man’s infamy!” he said.  “The world professes to loathe Turks who rob, sell and murder women and children.  What of a German—­a foreigner in Turkey, who instigates the murder—­and the robbery—­and the burning—­and the butchery—­for his own ends, or for his bloody country’s ends?  This man is an instigator!”

“You lie!” snarled Von Quedlinburg.  “You dog of an Armenian, you lie!” Kagig ignored him.

“This is the German sportman who tried once to go to Zeitoon to shoot bears, as he said.  But I knew he was a spy.  I am not the Eye of Zeitoon merely because that title rolls nicely on the tongue.  He has—­perhaps he has it in his pocket now—­a concession from the politicians in Stamboul, granting him the right to exploit Zeitoon —­a place he has never seen!  He has encouraged this present butchery in order that Turkish soldiers may have excuse to penetrate to Zeitoon that he covets.  He wants you Eenglis sportmen out of the way.  You were to be sent safely back to Tarsus, lest you should be witnesses of what must happen.  Perhaps you do not believe all this?"’

He stooped down and searched the German’s coat pockets with impatient fingers that tugged and jerked, tossing out handkerchief and wallet, cigars, matches that by a miracle had not caught in the heat, and considerable money to the floor.  He took no notice of the money, but one of the old gipsy women crept out and annexed it, and Kagig made no comment.

“He has not his concession with him.  I can prove nothing to-night.  I said you shall stand a test.  You must choose.  This German and those Turks are my prisoners.  You have nothing to do with it.  You may go back to Tarsus if you wish, and tell the Turks that Kagig defies them!  You shall have an escort as far as the nearest garrison.  You shall have fifty men to take you back by dawn to-morrow.”

At that Rustum Khan turned several shades darker and glared truculently.

“Who art thou, Armenian, to frame a test for thy betters?” he demanded, throwing a very military chest.  And Will promptly bridled at the Rajput’s attitude.