These women are
always accompanied by a whole retinue of officers and young Turkish
noblemen. It is part of their work. Their method of procedure is to
bewitch young officers and officials, attach them to their person,
make them spend huge sums of money and then play their card. I
noticed that the money Turkish officers squandered on these women
compared to their pay and income was tremendous. They think nothing
of going ahead blindly and buying the most expensive jewels; I have
seen them even buy motorcars. The result is not difficult to
forecast. The young officer soon finds himself head over heels in
debt. Two courses are open to him. Either he must pay the debt or be
transferred to some dreary interior post, and a Turk who has been in
the gay life of Constantinople would rather commit suicide than go to
any inland garrison. Those women then pay the debts, exacting state
secrets as the price of their timely assistance.
Abdulla, therefore, might only be one of these hangers-on. Kim
established connections with Mlle. Balniaux's household and soon I
had the required information. He brought me letters and scraps of
paper that Mlle. Balniaux's dark skinned servants had stolen for him.
He supplemented this by conversations that the servants had overheard
and told to Kim. All this showed me that more by good luck I had
stumbled upon the hotbed of the prime mover of the whole intrigue,
Mlle.
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