Evening star., 1925-04-26
by FRANCIS YEATs-BRowN.

morning, l began a strange
~ chapter of adventures, which
ended in the underworld of
Constantinople.
1t was war time, but my part in
the war, such as it was, ends at
the beginning of this story, soon after
I had settled myself in the observer S
seat of a Maurice Farman airplane,
win q couple of pounds of guncot-
ton wherewith to blow up the Turk
ish telegraph lines near Bagdad.
Not the slightest idea had / when
I went up at 6 o'clock that morning
that I was destined to come down
two hours later in an entirely differ
ent world---a world first of all of ter
ror, then of subterfuge, intrigue and
conspiracy. But so it was.
Bagdad looked much the same as
usual when we neared it, with the
golden domes of Kazimain cleaning
amid the green of date palms. Then
we swung westward and landed in
the desert, near the ancient site of
Nimrod's tomb.
Click The curtain had shut down
on my old life. A crashing noise
came from the splintering spars of
my machine, which had colllded with
a telegraph post. The pilot cursed
the rear wind which had caused the
1ndCnln6
/, of course. cursed the pilot. But
it was no time for lnduiglnS In 1u-
tile recriminations.
] blew up the telegraph line as
quickly as I could, and even as |
did so I caught sight of host of
mounted men sweeping up from the
west. We tried to taxi away in the
old bus, failed, were captured, looted,
mauled by Arabs, rescued from them
af nd N
Bagdad under escort almost before
we had time to realize that our fly
ing days were over.
The population of the City of the
Arabian Nights turned out several
thousand strong to Jeer at us, for
they had been told-not quite accu-
rately, as a matter of fact-that we
We're the airmen who had bombed
Bagdad. Elderly merchants wagged
their white boards and cursed us,
children babbled and brandished
knives, and Arab women pulled back
their wells in scorn, put out their
tongues and cried ia, la, la" in a
note of derision. 1t was great re-
ception.
Once in the city, we were taken
to a hospital, to recover from the
welcome the Arabs had given US.
And it was here in hospital that
began to realize what the prisoner S
world is like-a long, long procession
of wasted days. Seven hundred and
thirty days passed by, and then l
found myself in a little camp for
prisoners of war at Psamattia, sea :
side suburb of Constantinople. Ii
was here that 1 regained grip on
things.
A friend. Sir Robert Paul, was de-
termined as l was to make getaway.
We decided to go together. We had
stolen a Baedeker guide to the city or
Constantinople and we had. by sub
terfuge. obtained several fathoms of
rope and a Turkish fez apiece. And
one evening we looked over our re-
sources and decided we were ready to
attempt to escape.
The very next day we were allowed
out with three SentrieS for a drive
through Constantinople. After turn
in the Seraglio Gardens we stopped al
a cafe and ordered beer and sand
wiches for five. AS handed back the
menu card TO the Greek waiter | also
handed him a note saying l would pay
him two hundred dollars for night s
lodging for myself and friend if no
questions were asked.
When the refreshments arrived and
the .sentries' eyes were popping at the
sight of the quart bottles, the waiter
made a sign for me to look under my
plate, found a piece of paper there.
Presently l made an excuse to wash
my hands and was able to read 1t in
privacy. 1t was an address in the
Greek quarter. We drove back to
prison in high good humor.
The house next to ours at Psamat
tia was the Armenian Patriarchate.
Every evening one or two dead Arme-
mans We've brought into the church
and left lying there till the following
morning, when they were taken away
for burial. Our first idea was to climb
the wall dividing the Patriarchate
from our exercise yard and substitute
ourselves for two corpses. The plan
had much to commend it. 1t was
simple, original, and seemed likely to
succeed. We would have been car
ried out by the funeral party and then
at the grave side We would have risen
from the dead and walked away.
But it failed. When we tried to
climb the wall into the church a
sentry at the house saw us and yelled
as if seven devils had entered into his