CHAPTER XXIII.
The servant of the house—The Onbashee—Five piastres—Osman detected—The guilty man—Vankovitch's remarks—The sentence—May I put Osman in prison?—The barracks—Two old Khans—The women weeping—Immense enthusiasm—Numbers of volunteers—Parading for the march—Men crying—We shall eat the Russians—The Sergeant—The Major of the battalion—The Dervish—A Circassian—The Imaum of the regiment—The Muleteer—Baggage animals required for the regiment—A bitter cry—The women's wail—The old Major—The soldier's hymn—The standard of the battalion—Go in safety—God be with you!
The following morning the servant of the house in which I was lodging entered the room and observed that a Zaptieh corporal, or Onbashee, who had escorted us into the town on the day of my arrival, wished to see me.
"Tell him to come in," I said. In a few minutes the Onbashee opened the door; approaching me, he took from his waistcoat five piastres, and placed them in the palm of his hand.
"What is this for?" I inquired.
"Osman!" answered the Onbashee, with a sigh.
"Osman! What has he been doing?"
"Osman gave them to me, Effendi; but you said that he was to give me half a medjidi—he has kept the difference for himself!"
It now flashed across my mind that the previous evening I had desired Osman to give the corporal half a medjidi as a baksheesh, and that I had told him to do so in the presence of the servant of the house. The latter had informed the Onbashee. Osman, who wished to appropriate to himself the difference between five piastres and the larger coin, was thus detected.
I sent for the culprit. He was aware that his knavery had been discovered. Instead of coming to me with his usual assertion that he was the most industrious man in the world, he stood in the corner of the room, an object of derision to the Onbashee, who was regretting the loss of his half medjidi, and to the servant of the house, who had been the means of disclosing Osman's dishonesty.