Before entering the hospital we had arranged with Moïse a code of signals by which he was to let us know what the doctors thought of our malady. If they thought we were shamming, he was to shake hands with us on saying good-bye. If they were not sure he was to bow to us. If they believed us mad, he was to salute. Hitherto he had bowed his way out, and left us each day with anxious hearts. But on the morning following the Board Meeting and the visit of Madame Paulus he drew himself up in the doorway, clicked his heels, and saluted us both, in turn.
So far, then, all was well.
CHAPTER XXIX
OF HILL’S TERRIBLE MONTH IN GUMUSH SUYU HOSPITAL
Hill and I braced ourselves for the six weeks of acting that lay between us and July. We were under no delusions as to the cause of our success so far. Our acting had no doubt been good, but we knew quite well that by itself it would have availed us little. The decision of the doctors had been based on our “medical history,” as edited by the Spook and presented to them in the reports of the Commandant, the Pimple, the sentries Bekir and Sabit, and the two Turkish doctors of Yozgad.
We have no desire to injure, by our story, the deservedly high professional reputation of Mazhar Osman Bey. We would very much regret such a result, and it would indeed be a poor return for the unfailing courtesy and the gentlemanly consideration that was always shown us by him and indeed by nearly all the doctors of Haidar Pasha Hospital. For to them we were not enemy subjects but patients on the same footing as Turkish officers, to be tested for malingering and treated in exactly the same way as their fellow countrymen. It is only fair to them to say that we attribute our success not so much to our acting as to the manner in which, under O’Farrell’s directions, and with the aid of the Spook, our case was presented.
The evidence Mazhar Osman Bey had to consider was the following:
1.—The reports of Major Osman and Captain Suhbi Fahri of Yozgad. (Chapter XXI.)
2.—The telegraphic and written reports (dictated by the Spook) from Kiazim Bey, Commandant of Yozgad, in which he stated as a fact that we had been regarded as “eccentric” by our comrades for two years, and that our illnesses had been gradually developing throughout our captivity. (Chapter XXII.)
3.—Our spiritualistic and telepathic record.