This was the most likely explanation for my curious mode of
living and my sudden periodical disappearances, for I was away from
the Mittelstrasse for months at a time. Presumably I was traveling
about to the different watering places on the Continent for my health.
My mission to Constantinople called for some considerable thought in
selecting the most advisable character to impersonate. A tourist came
first to mind. A tourist was out of the question, because tourists do
not stay long in one place and I expected to be three or four months
in Turkey. There was nothing to study in Constantinople. I thought
of a student of botany, the r??le I had used at Port Arthur. But that
would not do. The idea of a merchant came to me, but I dismissed the
idea of a prosperous merchant, for it would necessitate making
business connections, a careful and slow process, the fulfillment of
which would consume entirely too much time. I finally decided to
travel as a physician, or to use the Turkish word a _Hakim_. A
_Hakim_ is always accorded respect, even reverence, by Turks and
Arabs. This character determined upon, I went to the telephone and
requested the Service Intelligence Department to give me letters of
introduction to the German hospital and the Pera Hospital in
Constantinople. They were sent to me signed by the authorities of the
Charitee in Berlin and described that I was going to study tropical
and Asiatic diseases and requested that the hospitals give me every
facility for research work.
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