British instinct cried out for justice.

They would take her straight to the Vali or whatever authority ruled in the wild land, so that punishment should be inflicted on the murderers.

But she laughed at them.

It would take an army to dislodge her enemies from their mountain fastnesses.

And who could send an army but the Sultan, a most unlikely person to trouble his head over the massacre of a few Christians?
As for a local government, the _mallisori_, the mountain tribes, did not acknowledge any.