Greenmantle

ng of the M

ng him to come up by the two-fift

en my collea

ss, for they thought him stark mad and argued that the hand of Allah was heavy enough on him without their efforts. He's blood-brother to every kind of Albanian bandit. Also he used to take a hand in Turkish politics, and got a huge reputation. Some Englishman was once complaining to old Mahmoud Shevkat about the scarcity of statesmen in Western

I didn't know he was that kind of swell.

ys a more than Oriental reticence. I've got

rge American gentleman sitting at it. They know him there, so he will have the table to himself. I want you to go and sit down beside him. Say you come from me. His name is Mr John Scantlebury Blenkiron, now

always thought I was about as brave as the average man, but there's courage and courage, and mine was certainly not the impassive kind. Stick me down in a trench and I could stand being shot

d-blooded and premeditated, and I didn't seem to have even a sporting chance. I watched the figures in khaki passing on the pavement, and thought what a nice safe prospect they had compared to mine. Yes, even if next week they were in the Hohenzollern, or the Hairpin trench at the Quarries, or that ugl

sheet of paper and a mystery of which Sir Walter had been convinced, but to which he couldn't give a name. It was like the story I had read of Saint Teresa setting off at the age of ten wit

n. He was a big fellow with a fat, sallow, clean-shaven face. I disregarded the hovering waiter and pulled up a

kiron?'

bury Blenkiron. I would wish you good morning if I

lter Bullivant,' I

y good friend of mine. Pleased to m

.' I was wondering what this sl

uodenal dyspepsia. It gets me two hours after a meal and gives me hell just below the breast-bone. So I am obliged to adopt a diet. My nourishment is fish, Sir, and boiled milk and a little d

emed to be gazing steadily at me without seeing me. They were as vacant as an abs

we don't quite catch on to the de-vices of the British Generals. We opine that there is more bellicosity than science among your highbrows. That is so? My father

ow,' I said. 'The French Foreign Legion is full of young Americans, and so is our Army

ecollected that we Americans were nootrals-benevolent nootrals-and that it did not become me to be butting into the struggles of the effete monarchies of Europe. So I stopped at home. It was a big renunciat

I asked. The calm gentlema

as. Being a nootral, I was in an advantageous position to take a hand. I had a pretty hectic time for a while, and then I reckoned I would leave God's country and see what was doing in Europe. I have counted

of neutrality I've e

at delicate-minded we can't interfere and that was what my friend, President Wilson, meant when he opined that America was too proud to fight. So we're nootrals. But likewise we're benevolent nootrals. As I follow events, there's a skunk been let loose in the world, and the odour of it is going to make life none too sweet till it is cleared away. It wasn't us that stirred up that skunk, but we've got to take a hand in disinfec

er. This fellow was a perfect jewel

off the German fleet from interfering with Dewey in Manila Bay in '98.' Mr B

Have you talked to

a deal ahead which you're going to boss. There are no flies on that

it's uncommon

an almighty lot to give up, provided you get a good price in the deal. Besides, how big is the risk? About one o'clock in the morning, when you can't sleep, it will be the size of Mount Everest, but if you run out to meet it, it will be a hillock you can jump over. The

r and handed it to the stout philosopher.

ot milk. You will forgive me if I borrow your couch after the meal a

he States. He had nosed out the Dumba plot, and had been instrumental in getting the portfolio of Dr Albert. Von Papen's spies had tried to murder him, after he had defeated an attempt to blow up

and was running wide over the whole business. Not that I hoped to find anything by my cogitations. It wasn't thinking in an arm-chair that would solve the mystery. But I was getting a sort of grip on a

shifted to one of the new blocks in Park Lane where they provide food and service. I kept the pl

akes with the serious res

the news? Is it a br

going to disappear from His Majesty's

in. Have we to tout deputations of suspicious neutrals over munition works or ta

much. It's about as safe and easy as to go th

y,' said Sandy, and began

then in creased clothes, walking with the light outland step, slinking into clubs as if they could not remember whether or not they belonged to them. From them you may get news of Sandy. Better still, you will hear of him at little forgotten fishing ports where the Albanian mountains dip to the Adriatic. If you struck a Mecca pilgrimage the odds are you would meet a dozen of Sandy's friends in it. In shepherds' huts in the Caucasus you will find bits of his cast-off clothing, for he has a knack of shedding garments as he goes. In the caravanserais of Bokhara and Samarkand he is known, and there are shikaris in the Pamirs who still speak of him round their fires. If you were going to visit Petrograd or Rome or Cairo it would be n

the words as a memo for his own use. People who follow his career have good memories. He must have written them in order that, if he perished and his body was found, his friends might ge

', I could make noth

in,' he said, still

at?' I ask

Mesopotamia. I remember him years ago in Aleppo. He talk

t the paper. The '

cover anything from Hagia Sofia to a suburban villa. What's your next p

,' I re

e it is the name of a painful diseas

,' I

tor-car. The police would find out for you. I call th

ho wrote it? It looks as i

ullivant

low God ever made. I saw his name in the casualty list before Kut. ... H

o change and have a bath. There's an American

feet I could judge him better. He had a fat face, but was not too plump in figure, and very muscular wrists

ad cleared away, he was as good as his word and laid himself out on my sofa. I offered him a good cigar, but he preferred one of h

the Near East. I pitched a pretty good yarn, for I had been thinking a lot abo

might be any one of twenty things. Thirty years ago there was a bogus prophecy that played the devil in Yemen. Or it might be a flag such as

e get his purc

the Senussi. But I'm inclined to think he must be something extra special if he can put a spell on the whole Moslem world. The Turk and the Persian wouldn't follow the ordinary new theology game. He must be of the

tor prove that? For I su

, remember, that claim the Koreish blood. Then he'd have to be rather a wonder on his own account-saintly, eloqu

any living man. Do you think that

aid Sandy, wit

ty well every secret agent we possess. That all seems to prove the fact. But we ha

me. But it may be the key for all that. A clue m

t give me orders, but he offers the job of going out to find what the mischief is. Once he knows that, he says he can check

studying t

huck-farthing at the Loos Cross-roads, the day you

ourse,' said Sandy i

table towards him. From his pocket he had taken a pack of Patience cards and had begun to

mission into the enemy's citadel without an idea what we were to do or how we were to do it. And one of the three was looking at the ceil

ked at me

o go on this mad trail wherever we think we can hit it. Well, I'm with you. But I don't mind admitting that I'm in a blue funk.

you know what f

some daft things, but I never started on them without wishing they were over. Once I'm in the show

ke it you'

ou didn't imagine I w

r?' I addres

mpleting eight little heaps of cards with a contented g

g conversation. I guess I haven't missed a syllable. I find that a game of Patience stimulates the

cards and deal

but this ready assent cheered me wonderfu

Somehow or other we have to reach Constantinople, and to beat the biggest area of country we must go by different roads. Sandy, my lad, you've got to get into Tu

irely to me. I'll find out the best way. I suppose the Fo

too far east. The secret, so far as conc

low in on the Bospo

n American, and can travel through Germany direct. But I wonder how

hn S. Blenkiron, once a thorn in the side of their brightest boys on the other side. But it will be a different John S. I reckon he will have experienced a change of heart. He will have come to appreciate the great, pure, noble soul of Germany, and he will be sorrowing for his past like a converted gun-man at a camp meeting. He will be a victim of the meanness and perfidy of the British Government. I am going to have a first-class row with your Foreign Office about my passport, and I am going to speak harsh words about them up and down this metropolis. I am going to be shadowed by your sleuths at my port of embarkation, and I guess I shall run u

ere first waits for the others. If by that date we're not all present, it will be considered that the missing man has got into trouble and must be given up. If ever we get there we'l

cafe kept by a Greek called Kuprasso. Behind the cafe is a garden, surrounded by high walls which were parts of the old Byzantine Theatre. At the end of the garden is a shanty called the Garden-house of Suliman the Red. It has been in

and it seemed the hour for whisky-punch. I made a brew

e?' I asked. 'You'r

ywhere as a Turk. The first will do for eaves

' I asked

tongues. But the part I have chosen for myself don't require the polyglot. Neve

us your own line,

Germany, and, not being a neutral, i

looked

desperate. Is your

I shall talk Dutch and nothing else. And, my hat! I shall be pretty bitter about the British. There's a powerful lot of good swear-words in the taal. I shall know all about Africa, and be panting to get another whack at the verdommt rooi

. The sense of hopeless folly again descended on me. The best plans we could make were like a few buckets of water to ease the dro