Greenmantle

r Pi

anions, now at the War Office, now at the Foreign Office, but mostly in my flat, sunk in an arm-chair and meditating. He left finally on December 1st as a King's Messenger for Cairo. Once there I knew the

d and humanity, and he reckoned that Britain was now the worst exponent of Prussianism going. That letter made a fine racket, and the paper that printed it had a row with the Censor. But that was only the beginning of Mr Blenkiron's campaign. He got mixed up with some mountebanks called the League of Democrats against Aggression, gentlemen who thought that Germany was all right if we could only keep from hurting her feelings. He addressed a meeting under their auspices, which was broken up by the crowd, but not before John S. had got off his c

eather him, and he got kicked out of the Savoy. There was an agitation to get him deported, and questions were asked in Parliament, and the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs said

ave officially requested him to leave, and he sails from Newcastle on Monday. He will be sh

m was a pollution, and made a speech to a small crowd about it. They hissed him and he had to get into a taxi. As he departed there was just

s of my journey were carefully thought out. Lisbon would be a good jumping-off place, for it was the rendezvous of scallywags from most parts of Africa. My kit was an old Gladstone bag, and my clothes were the relics of my South African wardrobe.

two days and a night to waddle from Ushant to Finisterre. Then the weather changed and we came out of snow-squalls into something very like summer. The hills of Portugal were all blue and yellow like the Kalahari, and before we made the Tagus I was b

strolled on deck, and there, just casting anchor in the middle of the stream, was another ship with a blue and white funnel I knew so well. I calculated that a month before she had been smelling the mangrove swamps of Angola. Nothi

reached the vessel-they called her the Henry the Navigator-just as the first sh

adder the first man I me

er had opened his eyes and his mouth, and had

y name now, and don't you forget it. Who is

imself together. 'He was sp

t hold of Sloggett, and presently I had a few words

ship's books. I came aboard at Mossa

it, for reasons which I couldn't give, but which were highly creditable to all parties. In the end he agreed, and I s

ed like a pair of lowbred South Africans home for a spree. It was a fine bright day, so I hired a motor-car and said I would drive it myself. We asked the na

g gear. Half a dozen times we slewed across the road, inviting destruction. But we got there in the end, and had luncheon in an hotel opposite the Moorish

now what that means. Then he took to working off bogus gold propositions on Kimberley and Johannesburg magnates, and what he didn't know about salting a mine wasn't knowledge. After that he was in the Kalahari, where he and Scotty Smith were familiar names. An era of comparative respectability dawned for him with the Matabele War, when he did uncommon good scouting and transport work. Cecil Rhodes wanted to establish him on a stock farm down Sal

ter and his own people for many a day. When it was all over and things had calmed down a bit, he settled in Bulawayo and used to go with me when I went on trek. At the time when I left Africa two years before, I had lost sight of him for months, and

From his present appearance it looked as if he had been living hard lately. His clothes were of the cut you might expect to get at Lobito Bay, he was as lean as a

e the war began. He spat, in the Kaffir way h

the north. You see I knew that Botha couldn't long keep out of the war. Well, I got into German territory all right, and then a skellum of an officer came along, and comm

ommandeered

uck I fell in with 'Nkitla-you remember, the half-caste chief. He said I owed him money for cattle which I bought when I came there with Carowab. It was a lie, but he held to it, and would give me no transport. So I crossed the Kalahari on my feet. Ugh, it was as slow as a vrouw coming from nachtmaal. It took weeks and weeks, and when I came to Lechwe's kraal,

propose to do wi

ll, there was trouble, and I had a merry time for a month or two. But by and by it petered out, and I thought I had better clear for Europe, for South Africa was se

if he had been growing mealies in Natal all his life and ha

, my lad,' I said. 'We

n't like the Germans,' was all he said. 'I'm a qu

us knows any German-publicly. We'd better plan out the fighting we were in-Kakamas will do for one, and Schuit Drift. You were a Ngamiland hunter before the war. They won't have your dossier, so you can tell any

to Germany, what then? There can't be much difficulty about the beginning. But once we're among the beer-swillers I don't quite see our line. We're to find out about so

re. We haven't got much of a spoor, but we'll cast about, and with luck will

a German town?' he asked anxiously

astward to Consta

country. You can reckon on me, friend Corneli

eet and stretche

ith his bottle face? Yon was a fine battle at the drift when I was sitting up to

y of our doings, and by his constant harping on it I pretty soon got it into my memory. That was always Peter's way. He said if you were going to play a part, you must think yourself into it, convince yourself that you were it, ti

ese local squabbles, and the talk was of nothing but what was doing in France and Russia. The place we went to was a big, well-lighted show on a main street, and there were a lot of sharp-eyed fellow

gaan words to fill up. He started on curacao, which I reckoned was a new drink to him, and presently his t

ck fellow said that Maritz was a dirty swine who would soon be hanged. Peter quickly caught his knife-wrist with one ha

ich he admitted he loved, was going to stick to England she was backing the wrong horse, there was a murmur of disapproval. One decent-looking old fellow, who had the air

ith furtive looks around him, began to jabber to me in a low

d; 'but if so be you dirty Dutchmen are sayin' anything against England, I'll ask you to rep

at we mustn't get brawling in a public house. 'Remember the big thing,' I said darkly. Peter

We stood drinks to one or two, and then swaggered into the street. At the door a h

with me and drink a glass of bee

vil are you

, turning back the lapel of his coat, he s

'Lead on, friend. We

ith fine red lacquer, and I guessed that art-dealing was his nominal business. Portugal, since the republic b

ong tankards of ve

glass. 'You are from South Af

ed sullen an

ered. 'You don't expect to buy ou

ferently. From your speech in the cafe

on their grandmothers, a Kaffir ph

s all I want to know. Yo

orget. We may be slow but we win in the end. We two are men worth a great price. Germany fights England in East Africa. We know the natives as no Englishmen can ever know them. They are too soft and easy and the Kaffirs laugh

ted a deep

se-set eyes flashed. 'There is room in Germany for suc

rmany. We are tired with travel and may rest a bit

icantly. 'A ship sails tomorrow for Rotterdam.

d in Lisbon some real soldier of Maritz

u in Germany-oh yes, much work; but if you delay the chance may pass. I will

hrough. He was a Bavarian, it seemed, and we drank to the health of Prince Rupprecht, the same blighter I was trying t

ut on my advice he did not see us off. I told him that, being British subjects and rebels at that, we did not want to run any risks on board, assuming a British cruise

the Tagus we passed the

een off in a boat at daybreak looking up the passenger list. Yon was a right notion of yours, Corn