The Dark Star
Page 11"Who did draw them, daddy?"
"A German friend of mine, Herr Conrad Wilner."
"What for?"
"I think his master sent him to Turkey to make those pictures."
"For the Sultan?"
"No; for his Emperor."
"Why?"
"I don't exactly know, Rue."
At this stage of the conversation her father usually laid aside his
book and composed himself for the inevitable narrative soon to be
demanded of him.
Then, although having heard the story many times from her crippled
would grow round and very solemn in preparation for her next and
inevitable question: "And did Herr Wilner die, daddy?"
"Yes, dear."
"Tell me!"
"Well, it was when I was a missionary in the Trebizond district, and
your mother and I went----"
"And me, daddy? And me, too!"
"Yes; you were a little baby in arms. And we all went to Gallipoli to
attend the opening of a beautiful new school which was built for
little Mohammedan converts to Christianity----"
"Did I see those little Christian children, daddy?"
"Tell me. Don't stop!"
"Then listen attentively without interrupting, Rue: Your mother and
you and I went to Gallipoli; and my friend, Herr Wilner, who had been
staying with us at a town called Tchardak, came along with us to
attend the opening of the American school.
"And the night we arrived there was trouble. The Turkish people, urged
on by some bad officials in the Sanjak, came with guns and swords and
spears and set fire to the mission school.
"They did not offer to harm us. We had already collected our converts
and our personal baggage. Our caravan was starting. The mob might not
have done anything worse than burn the school if Herr Wilner had not
him with stones, there in the walled yard."
At this point in the tragedy, the eagerly awaited and ardently desired
shivers passed up and down the child's back.
"O--oh! Did they kill him dead?"
"Yes, dear."
"Was he a martyr?"
"In a way he was a martyr to his duty, I suppose. At least I gather so
from his diary and from what he once told me of his life."
"And then what happened? Tell me, daddy."