Any moment there might arrive an incriminating wire from Rustchuk.

Finally he lent us a car to take us the few miles to the city.
So it came about that at five past three on the 16th day of January, with only the clothes we stood up in, Peter and I entered Constantinople.
I was in considerable spirits, for I had got the final lap successfully over, and I was looking forward madly to meeting my friends; but, all the same, the first sight was a mighty disappointment.

I don't quite know what I had expected--a sort of fairyland Eastern city, all white marble and blue water, and stately Turks in surplices, and veiled houris, and roses and nightingales, and some sort of string band discoursing sweet music.

I had forgotten that winter is pretty much the same everywhere.

It was a drizzling day, with a south-east wind blowing, and the streets were long troughs of mud.