We were admitted.
The Sirdar received us kindly, but was dreadfully tired, and looked
years older than he had two days before. He had ridden some 150
kilometres in sixteen hours, had left Chainitza at two o'clock in the
morning, and had been in the saddle ever since. He is a famous horseman,
but is no longer young. Almost all his escort had succumbed to the
speed, and he was full of the story of his orderly's horse which had
done 300 kilometres in four days, and was the only animal which had come
through with him, he having changed mounts at Plevlie. We left him and
went straight to bed.
Just as we were comfortably dozing off, a man burst into the room and
demanded "Mike," and said something about a horse. Jan dressed hurriedly
and clattered downstairs. It was pitch dark. He ran to the stable, felt
his way in, and struck a match. There were two horses, one was lying on
its side, evidently foundered and dying but Jan felt that they would not
have disturbed him for that. By matchlight again he found that his own
horses had been turned out by the Sirdar's orderly, and that one was
missing.
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