Orient Express Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: John Dos Passos
gentlemanly to break in. Well they just wrapped her up in a blanket and carried her off the way she was.
âWell, sir, I was the last white man outa Sebastopol.⦠Agricultural machineryâs my line.
âTurkish bandits carried off six Greeks last night from that village opposite.â¦
âDid you hear the one about young Stafford was walking with a Red Cross nurse out on the road near the Sweet Waters and bandits held them up? They didnât touch the girl but they stripped him down to the skin.⦠The girl made them give him back his drawers for decency.
âAnd the General said: Thereâs not enough light, we want a flambeau in each of the windows. People tried to point out that the lace curtains might catch, but the General had had beaucoup champagne and kept calling for his flambeaux; well, they brought his flambeaux and the curtains did catch and now the Sultan has one less palace.⦠It was a great sight.
âThis is extremely confidential, what Iâm telling you now. This man we were talking about. His name begins with a Z.⦠You know the Vickers man.⦠You ask me some time about Vickers and the Ismid Roads. It seems that heâs not a Jew at all but a Constantinople Greek. Everybody knew him around Pera, some little clothing business or other. Then one day he disappeared with the contents of a safe and turns up a couple of years later as a millionaire silk buyer in Lyon, and benefactor of the French Republic and all that sort of thing.
âNo, this chap was a colonel on Wrangelâs staff. They were starving and one day he found out that his wife and daughter had been ⦠you know ⦠for money and he shot âem both dead and disappeared. Last night some charcoal burners found his body out in the hills.â¦
âYessir I was the last white man outa Sebastopol ⦠strange things you see in the Black Sea.⦠Agricultural machineryâs my line. Last time I was out in Batum I seen upwards of six hundred women in swimminâ anâ not one of âem had a stitch on, in their birthday suits every one of âem.
âWell, Major, how about another shakerful of Alexanders? Theyâre mild and they hit the right spot.
âKemal! Heâs finished.⦠Like hell he is. Thereâs a lot of legendary stuff about him going round. How at Eski Chehir the Turkish army sank into the ground and came up behind the Greek lines. Thatâs the kind of stuff that makes a hero in the east.
âThey say that three divisions of Bolos are going in through Armenia and that heâs promised âem Constantinople in return for their help.
âLet âem try and get it.
âThey will get it some day.
âNonsense the Greeksâll have itâThe BritishâThe FrenchâThe Bulgarians â¦âThe League of Nations,âThe TurksâI suggest it be made neutral and presented to Switzerland, thatâs the only solution.
Outside on the terrace Mr. Deinos and the two tall Greek ladies with Cupidâs-bow mouths were eating pistachio nuts and drinking douzico in the amethyst twilightâGreece, continued Mr. Deinos, has always been the bulwark of civilization against the barbarians. Inspired by Marathon and Salamis and I hope by the help and sympathy of America, Greece is once more going to take up her historic mission.â¦
III. TREBIZOND
1. Afternoon Nap
Between Ineboli and Samsoun. Lying on the empty boat-deck of the Italian steamer Aventino, a scrawny boat that used to be Austrian, empty this trip except for several hundred Russian soldiers crowded into the forward hold, prisoners being repatriated. Iâm lying on my face; through my shirt the two oâclock sun claws my back already stinging from the burn of a dayâs swimming at Prinkipo. In the space between the deck and the lifeboat I can sleepily see a great expanse of waves grey and green like the breast of a pigeon, and beyond the khaki hills of
âWell, sir, I was the last white man outa Sebastopol.⦠Agricultural machineryâs my line.
âTurkish bandits carried off six Greeks last night from that village opposite.â¦
âDid you hear the one about young Stafford was walking with a Red Cross nurse out on the road near the Sweet Waters and bandits held them up? They didnât touch the girl but they stripped him down to the skin.⦠The girl made them give him back his drawers for decency.
âAnd the General said: Thereâs not enough light, we want a flambeau in each of the windows. People tried to point out that the lace curtains might catch, but the General had had beaucoup champagne and kept calling for his flambeaux; well, they brought his flambeaux and the curtains did catch and now the Sultan has one less palace.⦠It was a great sight.
âThis is extremely confidential, what Iâm telling you now. This man we were talking about. His name begins with a Z.⦠You know the Vickers man.⦠You ask me some time about Vickers and the Ismid Roads. It seems that heâs not a Jew at all but a Constantinople Greek. Everybody knew him around Pera, some little clothing business or other. Then one day he disappeared with the contents of a safe and turns up a couple of years later as a millionaire silk buyer in Lyon, and benefactor of the French Republic and all that sort of thing.
âNo, this chap was a colonel on Wrangelâs staff. They were starving and one day he found out that his wife and daughter had been ⦠you know ⦠for money and he shot âem both dead and disappeared. Last night some charcoal burners found his body out in the hills.â¦
âYessir I was the last white man outa Sebastopol ⦠strange things you see in the Black Sea.⦠Agricultural machineryâs my line. Last time I was out in Batum I seen upwards of six hundred women in swimminâ anâ not one of âem had a stitch on, in their birthday suits every one of âem.
âWell, Major, how about another shakerful of Alexanders? Theyâre mild and they hit the right spot.
âKemal! Heâs finished.⦠Like hell he is. Thereâs a lot of legendary stuff about him going round. How at Eski Chehir the Turkish army sank into the ground and came up behind the Greek lines. Thatâs the kind of stuff that makes a hero in the east.
âThey say that three divisions of Bolos are going in through Armenia and that heâs promised âem Constantinople in return for their help.
âLet âem try and get it.
âThey will get it some day.
âNonsense the Greeksâll have itâThe BritishâThe FrenchâThe Bulgarians â¦âThe League of Nations,âThe TurksâI suggest it be made neutral and presented to Switzerland, thatâs the only solution.
Outside on the terrace Mr. Deinos and the two tall Greek ladies with Cupidâs-bow mouths were eating pistachio nuts and drinking douzico in the amethyst twilightâGreece, continued Mr. Deinos, has always been the bulwark of civilization against the barbarians. Inspired by Marathon and Salamis and I hope by the help and sympathy of America, Greece is once more going to take up her historic mission.â¦
III. TREBIZOND
1. Afternoon Nap
Between Ineboli and Samsoun. Lying on the empty boat-deck of the Italian steamer Aventino, a scrawny boat that used to be Austrian, empty this trip except for several hundred Russian soldiers crowded into the forward hold, prisoners being repatriated. Iâm lying on my face; through my shirt the two oâclock sun claws my back already stinging from the burn of a dayâs swimming at Prinkipo. In the space between the deck and the lifeboat I can sleepily see a great expanse of waves grey and green like the breast of a pigeon, and beyond the khaki hills of
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