Greenmantle

ventures o

n great form, to find Peter's even temper badly ruffled. He had remembered Stumm in the night and disliked the memory; this he muttered to me as we rubbed shoulders at the dining-room door. Peter and I got no oppor

go somewhere with Stumm, but the morning was for sight-seeing. 'You will see,' he told us, 'how merciful is a great people. Y

reformatory or hospital. I believe it had been a home for destitute children. There were sentries at the gate and massive concentric circles of barbed wire through which we passed under an arch th

tial valour. Then they stood us sandwiches and beer, and we formed a procession for a tour of inspection. There were two doctors, both mild-looking men in spectacles, and a couple of warders-under-officers of the good old burly, bullying sort I knew well. That w

lu.' It didn't seem to be badly done. This place was entirely for officers, and I expect it was a show place where American vis

s incuriously. They saluted the deputy-commandant, but scarcely wasted a glance on us. No doubt they thought we were inquisitive Germans come to gloat over them. They looked fairly fit, but a little puffy about the eyes, like men who get too little exercise. They seemed thin, too. I expect the food, for all the commandant's talk, was nothing to boast of. In one room people were writing letters. It was a big place wi

rough a sort of convalescent room, where people were sitting who had been in hospital. It was a big place, a little warmer than the rest of the building, but still abominably fuggy. There were about half a dozen

infernal German hole when they might have been giving the Boche his deserts at the front. The commandant went first with Peter, who had developed a great interest in prisons.

wasn't Dolly Riddell, who was our brigade machine-gun officer at Loos. I had

h was agape, and I saw he was going to

I kneeled to pick them up and gripped his knee. Hi

God's sake don't wink an ey

matter. I got a few more words in. 'Chee

t well, smiling as if he was amused by the antics of a monkey. The others were coming back, the deputy

t him till the lie

in English to the doctor. 'He spoils my

ant, grumbling like a sick jackal. After that I had to act a bit. The last place we visited was the close-confinement part where prisoners were kept as a punishment for some breach of

terested and kept on questioning him. Among other things he told us was that they often put bogus prisoners among the rest, who acted as spies. If any plot to escape was hatched these fellows got into it

was very cross, and I didn't care for the look of things; but I brightened up when I heard I was going somewhere with Stumm. If he wanted to see me again he must think m

on. I stood waiting, while a great crowd, mostly of soldiers, swayed past me and filled all the front carriages. An officer spo

rman?' he as

en to Windhuk and learned enough to ask for

et into the carriage. Not

at the platform end would have kept out the most brazen. I wondered if I had woken up his suspicions. I must be on my guard to s

nd let me alone. I read on a notice that one was forbidden to smoke, so to show my ignorance of German I pulled out my pipe. Stumm r

e offered to enter. No doubt they saw the big figure in uniform and thought he was the deuce of a staff swell who wanted solitude. I thought

felt hat. He saluted Stumm, who looked up

little one? I guess I'm about smoked out of my car by

ng to pitch the intruder off the train. Then he seemed to halt and

eet you again, Colonel. I had the honour of making your acquaintance at our Embassy. I reckon Ambassador Gerard

so soon. There he sat staring at me with his full, unseeing eyes, rolling out platitudes to Stumm, who was n

Salonika,' said Mr Blenkiron, by

rs to refrain from discussing military operat

s. But I reckon that that notice to trespassers, whatever it signifies

ixing the American w

African Dutch, and he is not happy, for

rican. Cheer up, friend, for it isn't the call that makes the big wapiti, as they say out wes

'Good day to you, Herr Blenkiron,' he cried over his shoulder. 'If you consider your comfort,

urry, but was recalle

k. But he showed no sign of recognition, and the last I saw of him was sitting sunk in a corner

arted at a terrific pace over bad forest roads. Stumm had put away hi

e announced. 'You may be a fool or a knave or a

am a fool?

the Dvina. You will be re

that unless I c

lly, you are a rebel, and the British, if you go to them, will hang you, supposing they

second, and then h

Some kinds of scoundrel are useful enough. Other kinds ar

I am a g

privilege a mortal man can have.' The strange man said th

overgrown Swiss chalet. There was a kind of archway, with a sham portcullis, and a terrace with battlements which looked as

n, with the stoop in the shoulder that one gets from being constantly on horseback. He had

he said. 'Is this the

mm. 'His name is Brandt. Brandt,

the man who had built the Baghdad and Syrian railways, and the new lines in German East. I suppose he was about the greatest living aut

sampled, seemed made to open. When I had washed I descended to the hall, which was hung round with trophies of travel, like Dervish jibb

d look listlessly round the room while they were talking. The second was to miss not a word, for there lay my chance. The third was to be ready to answer questions at any moment, and to show in the answering that I had not followed the previous conversa

ian the gist of my plan. T

been done at the beginning. We neglec

Einem! Perhaps, but her

wait. Your friend is right in one thing. Uganda is a vital spot for the English, and a blow there will make the

fy myself about. Zimmerman says we have, but Tressler thinks differently, and now we have this fellow

. You see I have a capacious memory, and in my time I had met scores of hunters and pioneers and listened to their yarns, so I could pretend to knowledge of a plac

ake trouble for the British on the th

e if some one else wi

usands of tribes w

les are alike in one thing-they can go mad, and the madness

ou start the f

e Mussulman peoples. But there you must help me. I

' he

you have done alr

r he took liberties. What he gave was: 'Because the Dutchman thinks that we have some big card in dealing w

private, Herr Colonel,' he said. 'If Herr Brandt will forgive us, we will leave him for a little

me of being a rascal, but it was a Dutch rascal. But all the same I was skating on thin ice. I could not sink myself utterly in the part, for if I did I would get no good out of being there. I had to keep my wits going a

erman, and I couldn't help admiring him. I noticed he neither smoked nor drank. His grossness was apparently not in the way of fleshly appetites. Cruelty, from all I had heard of him in German South West, was his hobby; but there were other things in him, some of them good, and he had that kind of crazy patriotism which becomes a religion. I w

t, perhaps the same woman as the Hilda he had mentioned the day before to the Under-Secretary. There was not much in that. She was probably some minister's or ambassador's wife who had a finger in high politics

d swells-I wondered if he had found out anything. What was Peter doing? I fervently hoped he was behaving himself, for I doubted if Peter had really tumbled to the delicacy of our job. Where was Sandy, too? As like as not buc

t, I got up and walked about the room. There were portraits of two decent old fellows, probably Gaudian's parents. There were enlarged p

enormous distance from my goal and moreover I was clean off the road to the East. To go there I must first go to Bavar

hdad railway and the through routes from Germany to Mesopotamia. There were markings on it; and, as I looked closer, I saw that there were dates scribb

er got that map examined. I heard footsteps in the corridor, and very gently I let the map roll up a

bid me join him and

thought I was bullied by Stumm and wanted to tell me that he wa

with his elbows on the mantelpiece a

yourself to thank for it. If you are a rogue you will have little scope for roguery. We will see to that. If you are a fool, you will yourself suffer for it. Bu

stand at atten

land, Herr Brandt,' he said. 'You are not of that Fatherland, but at least you hate its enemies. Therefore we are alli

lemn. He held up his right hand and so did Gaudian, like a

She produced good and bad, cads and gentlemen, bu