TWO MEETINGS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 84, 3 January 1919, Page 5

TWO MEETINGS

A TALE WITH A THRILL. ' At-the beginning of the war I stated in ■ triplicate on an Army form'that L could ; ■ speak. Arabic -and Turkish. Several / . . months, later I. was.4ent to Suvla Bay. ' on a mission that has no bearing on this story. I;wore : the uniform of : a'Britiah officer,. to which'my commission entitled me, for I am no;spy. ■ ■/■'},! ■' ' It took me four days to make my way through tho Turkish lines'—l could move only at dawn and again at dusk, and on /' the Peninsula night falls' quickly:' On the fifth day I lay in No Man's Land waiting; fpr the first glimmer of light to . 'guide me to the; British trenches.', -Slime //'■ ' was hardenirig_on my-clothes and shiver*. ■ ing; body, ■ I'was, weak' and'. famished- '• .my Wow- was burning .'. . fover was mounting to my brain. : Two" gruff voices a short.distance away ...brought me to «iy senses. " .'•'■• /• • . "Uldhy Ahmed, uldir. / Douniaden •' mahou it."' ("Kill-him, Ahmed, kill-hiin.. Wake him fronrthis earth.".) ._ ■ A man was bending' over mo w,ith a knife in his hand. < I was too dazed'-to: ' have fear; or even to wish, to resist. I ' •caught a'glimpse of a man's face.above mo—a man with a bito out of his left • ear.- ■ ■ ■- ■ • _ "Have no (car," said a low- voice m English. "! don't kill Englishmen," it went on in Arabio almost unconsciously. ■ The speaker joined liis companions, and I heai|d him„say something about a dead body as . the party moved towards, the; Turkish lines,. ' '/' / The east was faintly luminous. I crawled to the British lines. Moro'than three.years later at a camxt ' ■in England I was accosted by a young officer. , • -. , "Major,-1 hear you'.know Arabic,'' he . said,:."and I want yon, please.: to .tell ' me what these letters are about." . . i He explained that with the help of an. interprets: vho had been ..instructing a : class of Arabs and Syrians, .and that several ' of, them, bad written him'fthese' ', .'letters in Arabic. The • men had only recently reached England,, he said;; they- ... bad been forced to fight in the Turkish .; Army until they had • made .'their way •- into the Russian-lines. , // "Thanks ; tremendously, .major," he'said , when I had translated'the letters—letters, of thanks. "Oh, by the way,'' he rattled on. "they're giving me a.dinner to-night; will you come? I said I should .bring : some friends."' •—' " I. accepted, and -that ■ evening I found •myself seated between, an -Arab and- ,a /Syrian,' The : Syrian' on my right—who, . .' had seen the' Armenian- massacres—was relating how he"had ' conie to England via Vladivostok, San Francisco, and. NewYork. One ( of his friends had had n, wonderful escaoe—- ' - ;: I;'.: interrupted. "When' I was 'at r Suvla Bay in 1915 ' ■ "Suvla Bayexclaimed the' Arab;, on ,my left.."ahd'in l there too— across the.i : way/; sir. . 'But ; I interrupt V yonr.Btbry',"!he fulded-coiirteously;:/ :■/:•■: t ''One night in' No/Man'sVLand-^—'' I. / begap/but-got no further,' for the. Arab . had turned round, arid faced me. rHe had a bite out of his left ear.' ■i V- ; /-V ' B.M.