In all probability the Janissary, when he picked himself up
again, had dipped his finger in his own blood, and then scrawled the
names upon the wall in order to perpetuate the memory of the incident.
He had also taken good care to put Halil Pelivan uppermost and Halil
Patrona undermost.
"Nay, but that is not right," said Halil to himself; "it was you who
were undermost," and snatching up the fragment of a red tile he wrote
his name above that of Halil Pelivan.
He hurried and scurried about till late in the evening without
discovering a single trace of Janaki, and by that time his head was so
confused by all manner of cogitations that when, towards nightfall, he
began chaffering for fish in the Etmeidan market, he would not have been
a bit surprised if he had been told that every single carp cost a
thousand piastres.
He began to perceive, however, that he would have to keep the money
after all, and the very thought of it kept him awake all night long.
Next day he again strolled about the bazaars, and then directed his
steps once more towards that house where he had chalked up his name the
day before. And lo! the name of Pelivan was again stuck at the top of
his own.
"This must be put a stop to once for all," murmured Halil, and beckoning
to a load-carrier he mounted on to his shoulders and wrote his name high
up, just beneath the eaves of the house on a spot where Pelivan's name
could not top his own again, from whence it is manifest that there was a
certain secret instinct in Halil Patrona which would not permit him to
take the lower place or suffer him to recognise anybody as standing
higher than himself.
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