I spoke very gently. “You seem to be the victim of a mistake, sir. These are our papers. We are under orders to report ourselves at Erzerum without an hour’s delay. Whoever hinders us will have to answer to General von Liman. We will be obliged if you will conduct us at once to the Governor.”
“You can’t see General Posselt,” he said; “this is my business. I have a wire from Siwas that four men stole a car belonging to one of Enver Damad’s staff. It describes you all, and says that two of you are notorious spies wanted by the Imperial Government. What have you to say to that?”
“Only that it is rubbish. My good Sir, you have seen our passes. Our errand is not to be cried on the housetops, but five minutes with General Posselt will make things clear. You will be exceedingly sorry for it if you delay another minute.”
He was impressed in spite of himself, and after pulling his moustache turned on his heel and left us. Presently he came back and said very gruffly that the Governor would see us. We followed him along a corridor into a big room looking out on the river, where an oldish fellow sat in an arm-chair by a stove, writing letters with a fountain pen.
This was Posselt, who had been Governor of Erzerum till he fell sick and Ahmed Fevzi took his place. He had a peevish mouth and big blue pouches below his eyes. He was supposed to be a good engineer and to have made Erzerum impregnable, but the look on his face gave me the impression that his reputation at the moment was a bit unstable.
The staff-officer spoke to him in an undertone.
“Yes, yes, I know,” he said testily. “Are these the men? They look a pretty lot of scoundrels. What’s that you say? They deny it. But they’ve got the car. They can’t deny that. Here, you,” and he fixed on Blenkiron, “who the devil are you?”
Blenkiron smiled sleepily at him, not understanding one word, and I took up the parable.
“Our passports, Sir, give our credentials,” I said. He glanced through them, and his face lengthened.
“They’re right enough. But what about this story of stealing a car?”