"When the appointed day arrived the gaoler repudiated his part of the contract, on the ground that Mostigo, aware that his life was forfeited, would probably give the prison a wide berth if allowed to leave its precincts. After some further negotiations, however, I agreed to give two hostages for his return, one of them a brother Koord, whose life the brigand's notions of honor would not allow him to sacrifice for the chance of saving his own. At last he came to me one evening, walking over the roofs, lest the police permanently stationed at my door should espy him. I kept him all night, showed him to two of the most respectable Europeans in Erzeroum, and, lest any doubt should be thrown on my story, had myself photographed with him next morning. The tale unfolded by that Koordish noble constitutes a most admirable commentary upon Turkish régime in Armenia. This is not the place to give it in full. One or two short extracts must suffice. "'Now, Mostigo, I desire to hear from your own lips and to write down some of your wonderful deeds. I want to make them known to the "hat-wearers."' (Europeans). "'Even so. Announce them to the Twelve Powers.' (The whole universe). "There were evidently no misgivings about moral consequences; no fears of judicial punishment. And yet retribution was at hand; Mostigo was said to be doomed to death. Desirous of clearing up this point, I went on: "'I am sorry to find that you are living in prison. Have you been long there?' "'I, too, am sorry. Five months, but it seems an age.' "'These Armenians are to blame, I suppose?' "'Yes.' "'You wiped out too many of them, carried off their women, burned their villages and made it generally hot for them, I am told.' "(Scornfully). 'That has nothing to do with my imprisonment. I shall not be punished for plundering Armenians. We all do that. I seldom killed, except when they resisted. But the Armenians betrayed me and I was caught. That's what I mean. But if I be hanged it will be for attacking and robbing the Turkish post and violating the wife of a Turkish Colonel who is now here in Erzeroum. But not for Armenians! Who are they that I should suffer for them?' After he had narrated several adventures of his, in the course of which he dishonored Christian woman, killed Armenian villagers, robbed the post and escaped from prison, he went on to say: "'We did great deeds after that: deeds that would astonish the Twelve Powers to hear told. We attacked villages, killed people who would have killed us, gutted houses, taking money, carpets, sheep and women, and robbed travelers.... Daring and great were our deeds, and the mouths of men were full of them.' "Having heard the story of many of these 'great deeds,' in some of which fifty persons met their death, I asked: "'Do the Armenians ever offer you resistance when you take their cattle and their women?'