He took a long drink and resumed:
"There are occasions, lieutenant, when our admirable German discipline recoils upon us. But one cannot have it all ways. Take a drink."
"Thank you, major, but I will not drink beer. Some Turks take it with a quiet conscience, but not I."
"Please yourself. When we have been with you a little longer your scruples will vanish. There are lemons; help yourself. How you can drink lemonade passes my understanding. Lemons set my teeth on edge. The scent of them makes me shudder."
The Turk was in the act of squeezing a lemon into a tumbler when a telegraph instrument clicked.
"Take it, will you?" said Wonckhaus, indolently.
The Turk sprang up and went through a French window into the adjoining room. The clicking continued for a while. Presently he returned.
"Three torpedo boats, two believed to be British, one French, sighted off Cape Baba," he said.
"Ah! our friends will scarcely get in to-night, then, unless they have already slipped past."
"It will not be easy to see them in the darkness."