"Do you think that one will ever be made?" inquired the Caimacan.
"Probably when you have some money in the exchequer."
"We are very poor; why does not your nation lend us some gold?"
"We have already given you more than a hundred millions; with that money you might have made railways in every part of Anatolia."
"Will there be war?" asked an Imaum (priest.)
"I do not know."
"If there is," he added, "I shall go—all the Imaums will go; we will fight by the side of our countrymen. We will kill all the Muscovites."
"Has it not occurred to you," I here remarked, "that perhaps they may kill all the Turks?"
"Impossible! Allah and the Prophet are on our side; they will fight for the faithful."
"What do you think yourself?" now inquired the Caimacan; "will Russia beat us?"