[Illustration: ALIAS FRITZ RICHTER Photograph of Captain Alan Bott, taken in Constantinople while he was a prisoner. Captain Bott signed it in the name of "Fritz Richter, First Lieutenant in the German Flying Corps." While escaping, he was able, by means of the false signature, to convince a Turkish gendarme that he was a German officer wearing mufti.] EASTERN NIGHTS--AND FLIGHTS _A Record of Oriental Adventure_ BY CAPTAIN ALAN BOTT GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1919 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN TO D. O. V. Transcriber's Note: Inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation have been retained as printed. CONTENTS PAGE Prologue. Through the Looking Glass 3 CHAPTER I. Pain, Purgatory, and a Plan 13 II. The Flight That Failed 27 III. Nazareth; and the Christian Charity of a Jew 39 IV. Damascus; and the Second Failure 64 V. The Berlin-Bagdad Railway; and the Aeroplanes That Never Flew 90 VI. Cuthbert, Alfonso, and a Mud Village 110 VII. In the Shadow of the Black Rock 124 VIII. Constantinople; and How to Become Mad 140 IX. Introducing Theodore the Greek, John Willie the Bosnian, and David Lloyd George's Second Cousin 159 X. The Third and Fourth Failures 175 XI. A Greek Waitress, a German Beerhouse, a Turkish Policeman, and a Russian Ship 189 XII. The Face at the Window 203 XIII. A Shipload of Rogues 213 XIV. The City of Disguises 230 XV. Stowaways, Inc. 250 XVI. A Russian Interlude 266 XVII. Sofia, Salonika, and So to Bed 281 Epilogue. A Damascus Postscript; and Some Words on the Knights of Araby, A Crusader in Shorts, a Very Noble Ladye, and Some Happy Endings 286 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Alias Fritz Richter _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Captain T. W. White 150 Captain Yeats-Brown 236 Eastern Nights--and Flights PROLOGUE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS