"We will disturb hornets and pray that Turks get stung!" He would give no explanation, but it was not long before we all understood.

Little by little, he was admitting us to confidence in those days, never telling at a time more than enough to arouse interest and hope.
Rather than have him look like a Turk any longer, we had dressed up Abraham in the uniform of one of our dead troopers; and when at last a Kurdish chief rode up with a hundred men at his back and demanded to know our business, Ranjoor Singh called Abraham to interpret.

We could easily have beaten a mere hundred Kurds, but to have won a skirmish just then would have helped us almost as little as to lose one.

What we wanted was free leave to ride forward.
"Where are ye, and whither are ye bound?
What seek ye ?" the Kurd demanded, but Ranjoor Singh proved equal to the occasion.
"We be troops from India," said he.

"We have been fighting in Europe on the side of France and England, and the Germans and Turks have been so badly beaten that you see for yourself what is happening.
Behold us! We are an advance party.