Greenmantle - John Buchan

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wretched horses. It is vitally important that we should be in Erzerum without delay, so I took the liberty of appropriating an empty car we found outside an inn. I am sorry for the discomfort of the owners, but our business was too grave to wait.' 'But the telegram says you are notorious spies!' I smiled. 'Who sent the telegram?' 'I see no reason why I shouldn't give you his name. It was Rasta Bey. You've picked an awkward fellow to make an enemy of.' I did not smile but laughed. 'Rasta!' I cried. 'He's one of Enver's satellites. That explains many things. I should like a word with you alone, Sir.' He nodded to the staff-officer, and when he had gone I put on my most Bible face and looked as important as a provincial mayor at a royal visit. 'I can speak freely,' I said, 'for I am speaking to a soldier of Germany. There is no love lost between Enver and those I serve. I need not tell you that. This Rasta thought he had found a chance of delaying us, so he invents this trash about spies. Those Comitadjis have spies on the brain ... Especially he hates Frau von Einem.' He jumped at the name. 'You have orders from her?' he asked, in a respectful tone. 'Why, yes,' I answered, 'and those orders will not wait.' He got up and walked to a table, whence he turned a puzzled face on me. 'I'm torn in two between the Turks and my own countrymen. If I please one I offend the other, and the result is a damnable confusion. You can go on to Erzerum, but I shall send a man with you to see that you report to headquarters there. I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I'm obliged to take no chances in this business. Rasta's got a grievance against you, but you can easily hide behind the lady's skirts. She passed through this town two days ago.' Ten minutes later we were coasting through the slush of the narrow streets with a stolid German lieutenant sitting beside me.
The afternoon was one of those rare days when in the pauses of snow you have a spell of weather as mild as May. I remembered several like it during our winter's training in Hampshire. The road was a fine one, well engineered, and well kept too, considering the amount of traffic. We were little delayed, for it was sufficiently broad to let us pass troops and transport without slackening pace. The fellow at my side was good-humoured enough, but his presence naturally put the lid on our conversation. I didn't want to talk, however. I was trying to piece together a plan, and making very little of it, for I had nothing to go upon. We must find Hilda von Einem and Sandy, and between us we must wreck the <strong>Greenmantle</strong> business. That done, it didn't matter so much what happened to us. As I reasoned it out, the Turks must be in a bad way, and, unless they got a fillip from <strong>Greenmantle</strong>, would crumple up before the Russians. In the rout I hoped we might get a chance to change our sides. But it was no good looking so far forward; the first thing was to get to Sandy. Now I was still in the mood of reckless bravado which I had got from bagging the car. I did not realize how thin our story was, and how easily Rasta might have a big graft at headquarters. If I had, I would have shot out the German lieutenant long before we got to Erzerum, and found some way of getting mixed up in the ruck of the population. Hussin could have helped me to that. I was getting so confident since our interview with Posselt that I thought I could bluff the whole outfit. But my main business that afternoon was pure nonsense. I was trying to find my little hill. At every turn of the road I expected to see the castrol before us. You must know that ever since I could stand I have been crazy about high mountains. My father took me to Basutoland when I was a boy, and I reckon I have scrambled over almost every bit of upland south of the Zambesi, from the Hottentots Holland to the Zoutpansberg, and from the ugly yellow kopjes of Damaraland to the noble cliffs of Mont aux Sources. One of the things I had looked forward to in coming home was the chance of climbing the Alps. But now I was among peaks that I fancied were bigger than the Alps, and I could hardly keep my eyes on the road. I was pretty certain that my castrol was among them, for that dream had taken an almighty hold on my mind. Funnily enough, I was ceasing to think it a place of evil omen, for one soon forgets the atmosphere of nightmare. But I was convinced that it was a thing I was destined to see, and to see pretty soon. Darkness fell when we were some miles short of the city, and the last part
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GREENMANTLE by
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Flying Corps.
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I had just finished breakfast and w
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He laughed. 'You do yourself an inj
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Sir Walter lay back in an arm-chair
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if a man has a special knowledge to
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years—mostly young officers of th
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and premeditated, and I didn't seem
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advantageous position to take a han
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provide food and service. I kept th
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'V. I,' I read. 'There you have me.
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'I should add that it's about as sa
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lack the larger vision. They can be
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CHAPTER THREE Peter Pienaar Our var
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summer. The hills of Portugal were
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Beyers would have hanged him if he
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the predikant used to preach about
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ar-keeper, with a lot of Shangaan w
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Peter grunted a deep approval. 'Tha
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I had expected a big barricade with
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men with heavy eyes. No wonder, poo
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factory look like a house, though y
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'Maybe he wasn't,' said the giant i
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'You need men, and the men are wait
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As I walked dizzily away the big ma
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convalescent room, where people wer
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I did as I was bid, he followed, an
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a portfolio, and flung me a few sen
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shiver. But how can we strike? They
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had only heard a gurgle of somethin
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in about a quart of water, when Stu
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abominating the English and burning
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The door opened and Stumm entered.
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'There are thousands, sire,' I said
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veld ... Not but what,' he added, '
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German Crown.' I took the card and
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helpless. The man had a gorilla's r
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'The village is five minutes off at
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my idiot had been absorbed into the
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paling of rough stakes plaited with
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village. There were one or two peop
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Hampshire. The bouts had been short
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'Gruss Gott,' I replied. I leaned a
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danced through my head in a crazy f
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your stocking-foot and use it only
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my passport inside Germany, to join
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shoulder. The others wore thick jer
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Stumm's cordon had got busy at last
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dry crackle of wild geese going ove
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Peter was in the middle of the conv
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others, for I was not a prisoner of
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elieved it. I was a poor Dutchman t
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I did not pay much attention to the
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him short. 'Come along to the comma
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The Turk swaggered up and addressed
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clearly not approving of this wet a
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here for their pleasure, and but la
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Then Peter fired over their heads.
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for any trouble with demoniacs. Up
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I had had the good fortune to colle
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have been. Sandy had said that the
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passage and the empty shop, and out
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'But I don't understand,' I stammer
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statesmen don't figure enough on. S
Page 130 and 131: understood a word of. "Maister Tamm
Page 132 and 133: 'I know,' I said; 'he is called Gre
Page 134 and 135: mine. Meantime, I've got to clear,
Page 136 and 137: sailor, Blenkiron flung him three o
Page 138 and 139: Petrograd and Mr Y. in London, or,
Page 140 and 141: He tore up the papers and enlarged
Page 142 and 143: fellow engineer, and translated par
Page 144 and 145: dwelling in my intestines. I'm like
Page 146 and 147: made me sick for the burning veld.
Page 148 and 149: top of them, and the three were off
Page 150 and 151: I told him in a hectic sentence, fo
Page 152 and 153: She led me through a long corridor
Page 154 and 155: Stumm and Rasta and the whole Germa
Page 156 and 157: passports. Say, do you come from En
Page 158 and 159: out to find my visitor in a brown s
Page 160 and 161: for the open country.' This confoun
Page 162 and 163: lacker one. Do you think that woman
Page 164 and 165: 'There was a time when the papers w
Page 166 and 167: I picked up the map and pocketed it
Page 168 and 169: different members of our gang. Pete
Page 170 and 171: swung along at a great pace with a
Page 172 and 173: It proved to be a wretched tumble-d
Page 174 and 175: About midday we descended on a wide
Page 176 and 177: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Trouble by The Wa
Page 178 and 179: glittering like jewels. The arches
Page 182 and 183: was difficult driving. On both side
Page 184 and 185: With an effort Stumm recovered hims
Page 186 and 187: Sandy's somewhere outside, and he's
Page 188 and 189: I guessed he had gone to have a loo
Page 190 and 191: with the impetus right on our heads
Page 192 and 193: The Deve Boyun lines seemed to me m
Page 194 and 195: I had learned what I needed. We wer
Page 196 and 197: much that he broke open a wound in
Page 198 and 199: 'Drugged,' he cried, with a weary l
Page 200 and 201: Sandy's figure seemed to shrink and
Page 202 and 203: 'That's all right,' I cried. 'It is
Page 204 and 205: The outbuilding we were lodged in a
Page 206 and 207: On the road itself he would soon be
Page 208 and 209: the howitzers, and was thankful whe
Page 210 and 211: seemed to be a kind of cup between
Page 212 and 213: dislodge one ounce of snow. Still t
Page 214 and 215: 'They may not understand it,' said
Page 216 and 217: and looked at his map, and then put
Page 218 and 219: von Einem was getting ready for her
Page 220 and 221: Beside him rode a tall figure swath
Page 222 and 223: We stared blankly for a second, til
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Page 226 and 227: It was a woman's voice, high, penet
Page 228 and 229: woman had singled me out above the
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Blenkiron's field-glasses and had a
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ange for his whizz-bangs. We've got
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'Feeling good?' I asked. 'Fine. I'm
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The choice fell on one of the Compa
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deaf to the sound. Stumm had seen u
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for the rear of the fugitives, but
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*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG E
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1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perfor
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Section 2. Information about the Mi
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