Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-03

there, he thought, and settled himself COM
fortably in the stern of the kdIck
The next day was feverish unreality for
Rhasneh. She tried on the boys costume
Weir had brought her dozen times, and it was
very fetching little boy she made, Toward
evening the idea of going away forever was not
so alluring Whenever she thought of her
father her courage waned and she wept. But
her intention and Weir were always before her.
Immediately after the feast that followed
the setting of the sun, in this month of Rama
zan, Rhasneh set out on the walk that was to
end in her freedom. 1t was pitch dark and
the slave carried the lantern. Rhasneh had
on her boys clothes under her voluminous
feht-tchdyf, and her hair done up closely
and covered with cap. which could not be
seen under her veil. She carried nothing but
a bag of Jewels.
After the women had passed Yeni-keui,
Rhasneh, who had been full of life and laugh
ter, and continually urged her companions for
ward at faster gait, suddenly developed a
severe headache, and demanded to be left to
herself. and not to be annoyed by her slaves
She fell to the rear of the procession, and or
dered the slaves to sing certain name to her.
Why are you looking around at me!" she
exclaimed angrily to Tsatsar-ab- harlem. Go
on, and pay no attention to me! ! shall be all
right in few minutes
With these words she fell still farther back.
When she was entirely outside the circle of
light from Fahick's lantern, she lifted up her
tcfit-tcharf and scudded off into the darkness.
She turned corner, and stopped to drop her
outer garment and VEIL and step forth boy,
Then she quickly made her way to the quay
Fortune favored her: the first thing she saw
was a kazck that, having deposited a belated
traveller at Yeni-keui, preparing to put off.
Take me to Galata,' she said to the boat
man, with as gruff an assumption of mascu-
Unity as she was capable OF, and | will give
you two med jedies."
"EOuett, Enendim," he replied and she
jumped into the boat
When well out in the stream she looked up
the bank and saw light passing swiftly along,
while faint cries were borne to her across the
water. Perhaps they have found my tchtt-
teharf,' she thought. "Or they may think
am playing some joke on them
AS the Pickering light was lost in the dark
ness Rhasneh realized for the first time the
enormity of her action When she thought of
her father and her home, her courage almost
failed her and then the larger, brighter lights
of Constantinople doomed up before her. They
seemed to typify the new life she was about to
enter, and when she thought that Weir was
waiting to greet her she was no longer afraid.
At Galata she paid the boatman in the same
careless, manlike way in which she had first
accosted him, and jumped ashore. Her feet
hardly touched the earth; and her heart was
singing of love and freedom-which formed
itself on her lips into the word Stephen"
She went to the appointed place. He was
not yet there =" | must be early" she muir
INJURED bravely, to give the lie to the spasm of
fear that shot through her heart. She went to
the toll keeper, at the end of the bridge, and
by his dim lantern saw that it was quarter
past eleven. She walked back to the Credit
Lyonnais building, where she thought that he
would certainly be by now. When She did not
find him, she had the first real misgiving that
had assailed her since she had set out from
home. She had felt so sure of him that in all
her planning she had never provided for the
possibility of his failing her. Her heart began
to beat SO fast that it gave her sense of suffo-
cation, and her knees trembled under her in a
most unmanly way. Her jewel bag felt heavier
than ever.
Then a new horror rose before her. Weir
had said that he would be here unless he was
dead He must be dead then! He would never
have left her alone otherwise. Perhaps some
one had seen him go from the harem and had
killed him and thrown him into the Bosporus.
Rhasneh was almost frantic now. allah,
Allah" she sobbed, Help me! What am /
to dor"
Miserably she waited for an hour-he might
have been unavoidably delayed two hours.
Her mind had gone through SO much agony
that it was numb and she could not think.
Yet vaguely she felt that she could not stay
here much longer The patrol had passed her
once and had looked at her with open suspicion:
she heard it coming again, and drifted away
down the narrow dirty street of Kara-key.
which in the daytime was the busy, business
part of the town; at night deserved its name