"Yes."
"Will you speak to him for me, and recommend me for promotion?"
"How can I? I do not belong to your army, and am only here as a traveller."
"But you are an Englishman!" exclaimed the Zaptieh excitedly. "That is quite sufficient. The Pacha would know that no Englishman would recommend any one without a reason. I should be promoted!"
"My good sir," I observed, "I have only seen you for a few minutes; how could I solicit your promotion on the ground of your merits?"
The captain was not to be rebuffed.
"I will write down my name," he said, "and then you will speak to the Pacha."
Taking a dirty piece of paper from his pocket, he scribbled something and handed it to me.
Forward again for twelve more hours, our horses slipping up, or varying the performance by falling into snow-drifts, and we came to a spot where the Erzingan track meets the Trebizond and Erzeroum road. Here most of the snow had been cleared away. There was but little to impede our progress. Large caravans of several hundreds of horses and mules were bringing cartridges from Trebizond; bands of Bashi Bazouks were with them and on the march to Kars.
We rode along the left bank of the Kara Su (Black Water), the name given to the Euphrates in this district, and presently were met by some Zaptiehs. Their leader, advancing a few steps, said that he had been ordered by the Pacha to meet me, and escort my party into the town.