J"iy 6, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
sewers of Hagt^d .^ht tn itll^'VurT'Tr ^^' '"^ 
th ntrs and th^,, " * !f ' '^"^ ^'^^V f^d out many 
he sta-Jr/n' t f^"^-, ^''''^.'' "^^"^''^ ^'f-'"' J"st before Kut, 
hL Sa kni "I? Delamain's camp w.tl, ten bullet holes in 
Dui beyond that and the fact that there was a SomethinL' 
a mut^s "'t, ?%'^*^!: !f ■ '''^ ^^'^'^ "°^"'"g- h' ^li°" in ten' 
out Se word ••Vh-^'^.'^ paper on him. and since he cried 
out the ^^ord Kasredin m his last moments, it must have 
had omethmg to do with his quest. It is for vou to find out 
II It lias any meaning. ' . 
I folded it up and placed it in my pocket-pook. 
mr w h"" ^'.^f ^'"°'^' ^'*^^^ ^^^ '"^ n^me ? ■• I asked. 
bir Walter did not answer at once. He was looking out of 
the window. •' His name," he said at last, '■ was Harry 
i^uiuvant. He was my son. God rest his brave soul ! " 
CHAPTER II 
The Gathering of the Missionaries 
I WROTE out a wire to Sandy, asking him to come up by 
the 2.15 tram and meet me at my flat. 
^' I have chosen my colleague," I said. 
" Milly Arbuthnot's boy ? His father was at Harrow 
wiih me. I know the fellow - Harry used to bring him down 
to fish— talhsh, with a lean high-boned face and a pair of 
brown eyes like a pretty girl's. I know his record too 
There's a good deal about him in this office. He rode through 
Yemen, which no white man ever did before. The Arabs 
let him pass, 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 
Europe and Mahmoud broke in with '' Have you not the 
Honourable Arbuthnot ? " He says he's in your battalion. 
I was wondering what had become of him, for we tried to get 
hold of him here, but he had left no address. Ludovick 
Arbuthnot— yes, that's the man. Buried deep in the com- 
missioned ranks of the New Army ? Well, we'll get him out 
pretty quick ! " 
" I knew he had knocked about the East, but !• didn't 
know he was that kind of swell. Sandy's not the chap to buck 
about himself." 
" He, wouldn't," said Sir Walter. " He had always a more 
than Oriental reticence. I've got another colleague for you, 
if you like him." 
He looked at his watch. " You can get to the Savoy Grill 
Room in five minutes in a taxi-cab. Go in from the Strand, 
turn to your left, and you will see in the alcove on the right 
hand side a table with one large 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, a citizen of Boston, Mass. Put this envelofx; in 
your pocket but don't read its contents till you have talked 
to him. I want you to form your own opinion about Mr. 
Blenkiron." 
I went out of the Foreign Office in as muddled a frame of 
mind as any diplomatist who ever left its portals. I was most 
desperately depressed. To begin with I was in a complete 
funk. I've 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 at as well as most people, and 
my b ood could get hot if it were given a chance. But I think 
I had too much imagination. I coulda't shake off the beasth- 
forecasts that kept crowding my mind. 
In about a fortnight I calculated I would be dead. Shot as 
a spy — a rotten sort of ending. At the moment I was quite 
safe, looking for a taxi in the middle of Whitehall, but the 
sweat broke on my forehead. I felt as I had felt in my 
adventure before the war. But this was far worse, for it 
was more cold-blooded and premeditated, and I didn't seem 
to have even a sporting chance. I watched the figures in 
l^hiki passing on the pavement and thought what a nice safe 
prospect they had compared to mine. Yes, even if next wee': 
they were in the HohenzoUern or the Hairpin trench at th'- 
^in-rries or that uglv angle at Hooge. I wondered why 1 
had not been happier that morning before I got that infernal 
wire. Suddenly all the trivialities of Enghsh hfe seemed to 
me inexpressibly dear and terribly far away.' I was very 
19 
angry with Bullivant, till I remembered how fair he had been. 
My fate was my own chousing. 
\yhen I was hunting the Black Stone the interest of the 
problem had helped to keep me going. But now I could see 
no problem. My mind had nothing to work on, but three 
words of gibberish on a sheet of paper and a mystery of which 
Sir Walter had been convinced but to which lie couldn't give 
a name. It was like a story I had read of St. Theresa setting 
off at the age of ten with her small brother to convert the 
Moors. 1 sat huddled in the ta.\i with my chin on my breast, 
wishing that I had lost a leg at Loos and been comfortably 
tucked away for the rest of the war. 
Sure enough I found my man in the Grill Room. There 
he was feeding solemnly with a napkin tucked under his 
collar. He was a big fellow with a fat, sallow, clean-shaven 
face. I disregarded the hovering waiter and pulled up a 
chair beside him at the little table. He turned on me a pair 
of full sleepy eyes, like a ruminating ox. 
" Mr. Blenkiron ? " I asked. 
You have my name, .sir." he , said. " Mr. John Scantle- 
bury Blenkiron. I would wish you good morning, if I saw 
anything good in this darned British weather." 
I' I come from Sir Walter Bullivant," I said, speaking low. 
" So ? " said he. " Sir Walter is a very good friend of 
mine. Pleased to meet you Mr. , or I guess it's Colonel 
" Hannay," 1 said. " Major Hannay." I was wondering 
what this sleepy Yankee could do to help me. 
" Allow me to offer you luncheon. Major. Here, waiter, 
bring the carte. I regret that I cannot join you in sampling 
the efforts of the management of this Ho-tel. I suffer, sir, 
from dyspepsia— duo-denal dyspepsia. It gets me two 
hours after a meal and gives me hell just below the breast- 
bone. So I am obhged to adopt a diet. My nourishment is 
fish, sir, and boiled milk and a little dry toast. It's a melan- 
choly descent from the days when I could do justice to a lunch 
at Sherry's and sup off oyster-crabs and devilled bones." 
He sighed from the depths of his capacious frame. 
I ordered an omelette and a chop and took another look 
at him. The large eyes seemed to be gazing steadily at me 
without seeing me. They were as vacant as an abstracted 
child's, but I had an uncomfortable feeling that they saw 
more than mine. 
"You have seen fighting, Major? The Battle of Loos' 
Well, I guess that must have been some battle. We m 
America respect the fighting of the British soldier, but 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 fought at Chatta- 
nooga, but these eyes have seen nothing gorier than a Presi- 
dential election. Say, is. there any way I could be let into a 
scene of real bloodshed ? " 
His serious tone made me laugh. " There are plenty of your 
countrymen in the present show," I said. " The French 
Foreign Legion is full of young Americans, and so is our Army 
Service Corps. Half the chauffeurs you strike in France 
seem to come from the' States." 
He sighed. " I did think of some belligerent stunt about 
a year back. But I reflected that the good God had not given 
John S. Blenkiron the kind of martial figure that would do 
credit to the tented field. Also I recollected that we Americans 
are 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 renunc.ation. 
Major, for I was lying sick during the Phihppines business, and 
I have never seen the lawless passions of men let loose on a 
battlefield. And, as a stoodent of humanity, I hankered for 
the experience." 
" What have you been doing ? " I jisked. This calm gentle- 
man had begun to interest me. 
" Wall," he said, " I just waited. The Lord has blessed 
me with money to burn, so I didn't need to go scrambling like 
a wild-cat for war contracts. But I reckoned I would get let 
into the game somehow, and I was. Being a nootral, I was 
in an advantagous 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 
myself out of the bloodshed business, but, as your jwet sings, 
peace has its victories not less renowned than war, and I 
reckon that means that a nootral can have a share in a scrap 
as well as a belligerent." 
" That's the best kind of neutrality I've ever heard of ' I 
said. 
" It's the right kind," he replied solemnly. " Say, 
Major, what are your lot fighting for ? For your own skins 
and your Empire and the peace of Europe. Wall, those 
ideals don't concern us one cent. We're not Europeans and 
there aren't any German trenches on Long Island yet. You've 
made a ring in Europe, and if we came butting in it wouldn't 
be the rules of the game. You wouldn't welcome us, and I 
