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Updated: June 13, 2025
I wondered when they would come down as avalanches. There was a kind of croft on one hillside, and from a hut the smoke of breakfast was beginning to curl. Stumm's gunners were awake and apparently holding council. Far down on the main road a convoy was moving I heard the creak of the wheels two miles away, for the air was deathly still.
I lay for four days like a log in that garret bed. The storm died down, the thaw set in, and the snow melted. The children played about the doors and told stories at night round the fire. Stumm's myrmidons no doubt beset every road and troubled the lives of innocent wayfarers. But no one came near the cottage, and the fever worked itself out while I lay in peace.
An officer spoke to me gruffly and told me to stand aside behind a wooden rail. I obeyed, and suddenly found Stumm's eyes looking down at me. 'You know German? he asked sharply. 'A dozen words, I said carelessly. 'I've been to Windhuk and learned enough to ask for my dinner. Peter my friend speaks it a bit. 'So, said Stumm. 'Well, get into the carriage. Not that one! There, thickhead!
'Only you see, I won't. I will cut my throat first. 'Cheer up! said Blenkiron soothingly. 'We'll find some prettier way than that. 'There is no way, he said; 'no way but death. We're done for, all of us. Hussin got you out of Stumm's clutches, but you're in danger every moment. At the best you have three days, and then you, too, will be dead. I had no words to reply.
More, there returned to me some of the old devil-may-careness which before had served me well. Ivery had gone, but this was his sanctum. Just as on the roofs of Erzerum I had burned to get at Stumm's papers, so now it was borne in on me that at all costs I must look at that pile. I advanced to the table and picked up the topmost paper.
Last night Hussin took us for a walk over the roofs of Erzerum, and by the blessing of Providence I got into Stumm's room, and bagged his staff map ... Look there ... d'you see his notes? That's the danger-point of the whole defence. Once the Russians get that fort, Kara Gubek, they've turned the main position.
The three of us were bundled into the back seat of the car, while two men sat before us with their rifles between their knees, one got up behind on the baggage rack, and one sat beside Stumm's chauffeur. Packed like sardines we moved into the bleak streets, above which the stars twinkled in ribbons of sky. Hussin had disappeared from the face of the earth, and quite right too.
In Paris she began the study of figure painting, and her exhibition at the Salon was favorably received, the purity and brilliancy of her coloring being especially commended. Several of Miss Stumm's pictures are well known by reproductions. Among these is the "Mother and Child," the original of which is owned by Mr. Patterson, of the Chicago Tribune.
South lay the Palantuken range of mountains, with forts defending the passes, where ran the roads to Mush and Lake Van. That side, too, looked pretty strong. North in the valley of the Euphrates I made out two big forts, Tafta and Kara Gubek, defending the road from Olti. On this part of the map Stumm's notes were plentiful, and I gave them all my attention.
'That was a rough trek, friends, he said; 'I want to see your general pretty quick, for I've got a present for him. He was taken to an officer in a dug-out, who addressed him in French, which he did not understand. But the sight of Stumm's plan worked wonders. After that he was fairly bundled down communication trenches and then over swampy fields to a farm among trees.
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