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Vincent Berger's mission is a failure because the Ottoman nationalism on which Enver Pasha counted does not exist.

Central Asia is sunk in a somnolence from which nothing can awaken it ; ;

and amid a dusty desolation in which nothing human any longer seemed to survive, Vincent Berger begins to dream of the Occident.

`` Oh, for the green of Europe!!

Trains whistling in the night, the rattle and clatter of cabs.

'' Finally, after almost being beaten to death by a madman -- he could not fight back because madmen are sacred to Islam -- he throws up his mission and returns to Europe.

This has been his first encounter with mankind, and, although he has now become a legendary figure in the popular European press, it leaves him profoundly dissatisfied.

Despite Berger's report, Enver Pasha refuses to surrender his dream of a Turkish Blood Alliance ; ;

and Vincent Berger learns that political ambition is more apt to hide than to reveal the truth about men.

But as he discovers shortly, on returning among intellectuals obsessed by le culte du moi, his experience of action had also taught him a more positive lesson.

`` For six years my father had had to do too much commanding and convincing, '' writes the narrator, `` not to understand that man begins with ' the other ' ''.