They Saw My Determination To Start Alone, If Necessary, And
To Do Them Justice, They At Once Arose.
This was the more courageous in
them, as alarmists had done their worst:
But a day before, some travelling
Somali had advised them, as they valued dear life, not to accompany that
Turk to Harar. Once in the saddle, they shook off sad thoughts, declaring
that if they were slain, I should pay their blood-money, and if they
escaped, that their reward was in my hands. When in some danger, the
Hammal especially behaved with a sturdiness which produced the most
beneficial results. Yet they were true Easterns. Wearied by delay at
Harar, I employed myself in meditating flight; they drily declared that
after-wit serves no good purpose: whilst I considered the possibility of
escape, they looked only at the prospect of being dragged back with
pinioned arms by the Amir's guard. Such is generally the effect of the
vulgar Moslems' blind fatalism.
I then wrote an English letter [29] from the Political Agent at Aden to
the Amir of Harar, proposing to deliver it in person, and throw off my
disguise. Two reasons influenced me in adopting this "neck or nothing"
plan. All the races amongst whom my travels lay, hold him nidering who
hides his origin in places of danger; and secondly, my white face had
converted me into a Turk, a nation more hated and suspected than any
Europeans, without our _prestige_. Before leaving Sagharrah, I entrusted
to the End of Time a few lines addressed to Lieut.
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