August 3, 191^ 
LAND & WATER 
19 
Greenmantle 
By John Buchan 
A Sequel to " The Thirty-Nine Steps " 
Synopsis : Richard Hannay, who obtained a commission 
in the new army and was wounded at Loos is asked by 
Sir Walter Bullivant of the Foreign Office, to undertake 
a mission to unearth a secret connected with Turkey and 
Germany. It is a secret that, in his opinion, may pos- 
sibly lead to a big uprising throughout Asia and Africa. 
The only clue is a scrap of paper bearing the words, 
Kasredin — cancer — -v. I. This torn document was handed 
io the British headquarters in Mesopotamia by an 
officer — Sir Walter s son — wounded to death in obtaining it. 
Aannay undertakes the mission, his friend Sandy (the Hon. 
L. G. Arbuthnot) agrees to help him. Sir Walter intro- 
duces him to an American gentleman, John S. Blenkiron. 
•a strong pro-Ally, who also joins them. On November lyth 
the three dine together at a London fiat, and agree to meet 
in a cafe in a back street of Constantinople two months 
■later — on January lyth. Sandy decides to go to Constanti- 
nople, disguised as a Turk, by way of Cairo. John S. 
Blenkiron drops into Germany as his own self by way of 
Scandinavia. Hannay, who has lived in South Africa 
«s a mining engineer, and can speak Dutch perfectly, 
enters Germany through Holland as a Boer from Western 
Cape Colony. Hannay sails for Lisbon where he finds 
<i steamer just arrived from Angola ; boarding it he meets 
his old Rhodesian friend, Peter Pienaar, to whom he un- 
folds his plans. Peter agrees to be his companion. They 
go straight on to Germany and at the frontier are met by a 
German junior officer who conducts them to Berlin. Here 
they have an interview with two Government high officials ; 
one. Colonel von Stumm, had been in German South West 
Africa, fighting the Hereios. The Colonel is a huge man 
" as hideous as a hippopotamus." Stumm takes them in 
charge, interested by Hannay's plans for an uprising in 
Africa. He leaves Pienaar in Berlin, but brings Hannay 
by railway and motor car to a big house in the country, 
where he is introduced to Herr Gaudian, " one of the biggest 
railway engineers in the world." Gaudian, " a white man, 
and a gentleman,", closely cross-examines Hannay on his 
anti-British plans, and appears to be thoroughly satisfied. 
CHAPTER VI 
The Indiscretions of two Dutchmen 
I WAS standing stark naked next morning in that icy 
bedroom, trying to bathe in about a quart of water, 
when Stumm entered. He strode up to me and 
stared me in the face. I was half a head shorter than 
him to begin with, and a man does not feel his stoutest when 
he has no clothes, so he had the pull of me in every way. 
" I have reason to believe that you are a liar," he growled. 
I pulled the bed-cover round me since I was shivering with 
cold, and the German idea of a towel is a pocket handkerchief. 
I own I was in a pretty blue funk. 
" A har ! " he repeated. " You and that swine Pienaar." 
With my best effort at surliness I asked what we had done. 
" You hed because you said you knew no German. Appa- 
rently your friend knows enough to talk treason and blas- 
phemy." 
This gave me back some heart. 
" I told you I knew a dozen words. But I told you Peter 
could talk it a bit. I told you that yesterday at the station." 
Fervently I blessed my luck for that casual remark. 
He evidently remembered, for his tone became a trifle more 
civil. 
" You are a precious pair. One of you is a scoundrel, why 
not the other." 
" I take no responsibility for Peter," I said. I felt I was 
a cad in saying it, but that was the bargain we made at the 
start. "I have known him for years as a great hunter, and a 
brave man. I know he fought well against the English. 
But more I cannot tell you. You have to judge him for 
yourself. What has he done ? " 
I was told, for Stumm had got it that morning on the 
telephone. While telling it he was kind enough to allow me 
to put on my trousers. 
It was just the sort of thing I might have foreseen. Peter, 
Jeft alone, had become first bored and then reckless. He had 
persuaded the Lieutenant to take him out to supper at a big 
Berlin restaurant. There, inspired by the lights and music 
—-novel things for a backveld hunter — and no doubt bored 
stiff by his company, he had proceeded to get drunk. That 
had happened in my experience with Peter about once in 
three years, and it always happened for the same reason. 
Peter, bored and solitary in a town, went on the spree. He 
had a head Uke a rock, but he got to the required condition 
by \yild mixing. He was quite a gentleman in his cups, and 
not in the least violent, but he was apt to be very free with 
his tongue. And that was what occurred at the Franciscana. 
He had begun by insulting the Emperor, it seemed. He 
drunk his health, but said he reminded him of a wart-hog, 
and thereby scarified the Lieutenant's soul. Then an officer 
—some tremendous swell — at an adjoining table, had ob- 
jected to his talking so loud, and Peter had replied insolently 
in respectable German. After that things became mixed. 
There was some kind of a fight, during which Peter calumniated 
the German army and all its female ancestry. How he wasn't 
shot or run through I can't imagine, except that the Lieu- 
tenant loudly proclaimed that he was a crazy Boer. Anyhow 
the upshot was that Peter was marched off to gaol, and I was 
left in a pretty pickle. 
" I don't believe a word of it," I said firmly. I had most 
of my clothes on now and felt more courageous. "It is all 
a plot to get him into disgrace and draft him off to the front." 
He did not storm, as I expected, but smiled. 
" That was always his destiny," he said, " ever since I 
saw him. He was no use to us except as a man with a rifle. 
Cannon-fodder, nothing else. Do you imagine, you fool, 
that this great Empire in the thick of a world-war is going 
to trouble its head to lay snares for an ignorant taakhaar ? " 
" I wash my hands of him," I said. " If what you say of 
his folly is true, I have no part in it. But he was my com- 
panion and I wish him well. What do you propose to do 
with him ? " 
" We shall keep him under our eye," he said, with a wicked 
twist of the mouth. " I have a notion that there is more at 
the back of this than appears. We will investigate the 
antecedents of Herr Pienaar. And you, too, my friend. 
On you also we have an eye." 
I did the best thing I could have done, for what with 
anxiety and disgust I lost my temper. 
" Look here, sir," I cried, " I've had about enough of this. 
I came to Germany abominating the English and burning to 
strike a blow for you. But you haven't given me much 
cause to love you. For the last two days I've had nothing 
from you but suspicion and insult. The only decent man 
I've met is Herr Gaudian. It's because I believe that there 
are many in Germany like him that I'm prepared to go on 
with this business and do the best I can. But, by God, 'I 
wouldn't raise my little finger for your sake." 
He' looked at me very steadily for a minute. " That 
sounds like honesty," he said at last in a civil voice. " You 
had better come down and get your coffee." 
I was safe for the moment, but in very low spirits. What 
on earth ^ would happen to poor old Peter ? I could do 
nothing even if I wanted, and, besides, my first duty was 
my mission. I had made this very clear to him at Lisbon and 
he had agreed, but all the same it was a beastlv reflection. 
Here was that ancient worthy left to the tender mercies of 
the people he most detested on earth. My only comfort 
was that they couldn't do very much with him. If they 
sent him to the front, which was the worst they could do, he 
would escape, for I would have backed him to get through 
any mortal lines. It wasn't much fun for' me either. Only 
when I was to be deprived of it did I realise how much his 
company had meant to me. I was absolutely alone now 
and I didn't like it. I seemed to have about as much chance 
of joining Blenkiron and Sandy as of flying to the moon. 
After breakfast I was told to get ready. When I asked 
where I was going Stumm advised me to mind my own busi- 
ness, but I remembered that last night he had talked of taking 
me home with him and giving me my orders. I wondered 
where his home was. 
Gaudian patted me on the back when we started and wrung 
my hand. He was a capital good fellow, and it made me 
feel sick to think that I was humbugging him. We got into 
the same big grey car, with Stumm's servant sitting beside 
the chauffeur. It was a morning of hard frost. The bare 
