Mr. Standfast

f the Wi

ggled his way on to a shelf. Presently he turned his face upward to judge the remaining distance. It was the face of a young man, a face s

riggish, but no more-I would have taken my oath on it. Yet here was one of them engaged in black treason against his native land. Something began to beat in my temples when I remembered that Mary and this man had been f

rt of it. I had to convince him that I was an accomplice, and that might not be easy. I leaned over the edge,

Wake,'

d, and recognized me. He did n

ied. 'How did

thought this was my own private sanctuary, and that nobody knew it but me. Have you

him. But I kept my mind fixed on one purpose-to persuade him that I shared his secret and was on his side. His

ore if we would sleep soft.' In the twilight he was a dim figure, but he seemed a new man from the one I had last seen in the Moot Hall at Biggl

as a wonderful red sky in the west, but in the crevice the shades had

ow the meaning of this place. I discovered it by accident, but I want you to know that I

ply. His eyes were hot again, as I r

mean? How muc

my forehead, and I had to p

and that someone came out of the sea and picked it up. That someone i

ou are talking nonsense. No sub

that he wa

deep-water inlet below us. It is the mo

me. For a moment he was silent, and then he spoke in the

les, Mr Brand? You were always a patriot, I remember,

I stammered in my reply. 'It's because I am a patr

e willing to help

nized and the end hurried on.' I was gett

this country is ruined. We must mak

und suddenly, h

damnable blackguard!' And he fl

me in. We were beyond finesse now, and back at the old barbaric game. It was his life or mine.

ight have toppled me over the edge by his sudden assault. As it was, I grappled him and forced him to the ground, squeezing the breath out of his body in the process. I must have hurt him considerably, but he never gave a cry. With a good deal

er instead of the Portuguese Jew, in which case he would have papers about his person. If he knew of the cave, others might have the same kno

rrid sound and it worried me. I had a little pocket electric torch an

oing to do with

nds,' I sa

if I'm afraid of you, or anything like you.' That was a bra

for a dea

u. You come to us and we welcome you, and receive you in our houses, and tell you our inmost thoughts, and all the time you're a bloody

reposterous fool. I strode over to Wake, and he shut his eyes as if he exp

ack and blue, and I won't lift a hand. But not now. Now we've another job on hand. Man, we're on the same side and I never k

bruised shoulders. 'What do

came chasing up here on the same job. Ivery's the biggest German agent in Britain and I'm after him. I've struck his communication lines, and

could have watched Wake's face. He asked questions, for he wasn't convinced in a hurry. I think it was my mention of Mary

n. But you know my politics, and I don't change them for this. I'm more

n't get any heroics about war from me. I'm all fo

ention of climbing the tower, while there was still a faint afterglow of light. 'It's broad on the top, and I can keep a watch out to sea if any light shows. I've been up it

d found the footmarks. There was a big boulder there, which partly shut off the view of it from the direction of our cave. The place was perfect for my purpose, for between the boulder and the wall

he cry of a bird from the crags that beetled above me, and from the shore the pipe of a tern or oyster-catcher. An owl hooted from somewhere up on the tower. That I reckoned was Wake, so I hooted back and was answered. I unbuckled my wrist-watch and pocketed it, lest its luminous dial should be

oming out of the sea, the emissary of that Power we had been at grips with for three years. It was as if the war had just made contact with our own shores, and never, not even when I was alone in the South German forest, ha

ell on my ear. I could see nothing, but I guessed it was the Portuguese Jew

ich I sheltered. It seemed to move a stone and to replace it. After that came silence, and then once more the hoot of an owl. There were steps on th

eone spoke. It was the Portuguese

schweigen im

from a clear, au

balde ruhe

't talk about little birds in that kind of situ

Then to my joy I caught Elfenbein, and when uttered it seemed to be followed by a laugh. I heard too a phrase several times repeated, which seemed to me

with the stones at the base of the tower. To my joy he was close to my crack, and I could hear every word. 'You cannot come here very often,' he said, 'and it may be hard to arrange a meeting. See, t

tter. I plastered myself in the embrasure of the rock and waited with a beating heart. The place was pitch dark, but they had an electric torch, and if they once flashed it on me I was gone. I heard them le

ening, I thought, impatiently to his final message as if eager to be gone. It was a good half-hour before the la

old by heart to do the job in that inky blackness. I remember that he asked no question of me, but he used language rare on the lips of conscientious objectors about th

a German spy I would have been out for his blood, and it was no good explaining that he had given me grounds for suspicion. He was as touchy about his blessed principles as an old maid about her age. I wa

risk morning breeze was curling. Then back to a promontory of heather, where the first beams of the sun coming over the Coolin dried our skins. He sat hunched up staring at the mountains whil

om the sea quite fresh on a pat

riend of the n

, his eyes on the chimneys of Sgurr Dearg. 'They we

peak German i

Gaelic p

d I quoted the stuff about birds wit

hat's Uber allen Gipfeln.

angle of seaweed. It was of a softer stone than the hard stuff in the hills and somebody had scraped of

joined me he was smiling. 'I apologize for my scepticism,' he said. 'There's been some petrol-driven craft here in the night. I can smell it, for I've a n

It seemed he had scrambled about everywhere in Europe, from the Caucasus to the Pyrenees. I could see he must be good at the job, for he didn't brag of his exploits. It was the mountains that he loved, not wriggling his body up hard places. The Coolin, he said, were his favourites, for on some of them you could get two thousand feet of good rock. We got our glasses on the face of Sgurr Alasdair, and he sketched out for me various ways of g

r saw, and as clever on crags as a chamois. He is probably dead by now

end it in the right way,' I said.

n all the details about Gresson and the Portuguese Jew, and described the latter in minute detail. I described, too, most precisely the cache where it had been arranged that the messages should be placed.

job in the neighbourhood. Give him that paper from me. He'll know what to do with it all right. Tell him I'll get somehow to the Kyle before midday the day after tomorrow. I must cover my tracks a bit, so I ca

three days,' he said. 'Any me

But if you see Miss Lamington you can tell her I'm past the Hill Difficulty. I'm coming back as soon as God will let me, and I'm going to drop right into the Biggleswick push. Onl

anyhow to sleep at Broadford tonight ... Goodbye, Brand, for I've forgotten your proper name. You're not a bad fellow, but you've landed me in melodrama

for an hour you were in the front line-the place where the enemy for

nd then he stalked off and I watched his lean

my head that it had been all too easy, and that Ivery was not the man to be duped in this way for long. That set me thinking about the queer talk on the crevice. The poetry stuff I dismissed as the ordinary password, probably changed every time. But who were Chelius and Bommaerts, and what in the name of goodness were the Wi

le and give no hint to Gresson and his friends that I had been so far north. However, that was for Amos to advise me on, and about noon I picked up my waterproof with its bursting pockets and set off on a long detour up the

sson had only waited to get his job finished; he could probably twist the old captain any way he wanted. The second was that at the door of a village smithy I saw the

chance, for I had an odd feeling that the day might c

d an excellent liqueur made of honey and whisky. Next morning I was early afoot, and well before midday was in s

with the horse cropping the moorland grass. A man sat on the bank smoking, with his left arm hooked in t