August 3, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
21 
" What the hell do your opinions matter ? You are a 
thick-headed boor of the veld. . . . Not but what," 
he added, " there is metal in you slow Dutchmen once we 
Germans have had the forging of it ! " 
The winter evening closed in, and I saw that we had come 
out of the hills and were in a flat country. Sometimes a 
big sweep of river showed, and, looking out at one station, 
I saw a funny church with a thing like an onion on the top 
of its spire. It might almost have been a mosque, judging 
from the pictures I remembered of mosques. I wished to 
heaven I had given geography more attention in my time. 
Presently we stopped, and Stumm led the way out. The 
train must have been specially halted for him, for it was a 
one-horse little place whose name I could not make out. 
The stationmaster was waiting, bowing and saluting, and out- 
side was a motor car with big headlights. Next minute we 
were sliding through dark woods where the snow lay far 
deeper than in the north. There was a mild frost in the air, 
and the tyres slipped and skidded at the corners. 
We hadn't far to go. We climbed a little hill and on the 
top of it stopped at the door of a big black castle. It looked 
enormous in the winter night, with not a light showing any- 
where on its front. The door was opened by an old fellow 
who took a long time about it and got well cursed for his slow- 
ness. Inside the place looked very noble and ancient. 
Stumm switched on the electric light, and there was a great 
hall with black tarnished portraits of men and women in old- 
fashioned clothes, and mighty horns of deer on the walls. 
There seemed to be no superfluity of servants. The old 
fellow said that food was ready, and without more ado we 
went into the dining-room — another vast chamber with 
rough stone walls above the panelling — and found some cold 
meats on the table beside a big fire. The servant presently 
brought ■ in a ham omelette, and on that and the cold 
stuff we dined. I remember there was nothing to drink but 
water. It puzzled me how Stumm kept his great body going 
on the very moderate amount of food he ate. He was the 
type you expect to swill beer by the bucket and put away 
a pie at a sitting. 
When we had finished, he rang for the old man and told 
him that he should be in the study for the rest of the evening. 
" You can lock and up to bed when you like," he said, " but 
see you have coffee ready at seven sharp in the morning." 
Ever since I entered that house I had the uncomfortable 
feehng of being in a prison. Here was I alone in this great 
place with a fellow who would, and could, wring my neck 
if he wanted. Berlin and all the rest of it had seemed com- 
paratively open country ; I had felt that I could move 
freely and at the worst make a bolt for it. But here I was 
trapped, and I had to tell myself every minute that I was 
there as a friend and colleague. The fact is, I was afraid 
of Stumm, and I don't mind admitting it. He was a new 
thing in my experience and I didn't like it. If only he had 
drunk and guzzled a bit I should have been happier. 
He went up a staircase to a room at the end of a long 
corridor. Stumm locked the door behind him and laid the 
key on a table. That room took my breath away, it was so 
unexpected. In place of the grim bareness of downstairs here 
was a place all luxury and colour and Ught. It was very 
large, but low in the ceiling, and the walls were full of little 
recesses with statues in them. A thick grey carpet of x'elvet 
pile covered the floor, and the chairs were low and soft and 
upholstered Uke a lady's boudoir. A pleasant fire burned on 
the hearth and there was a flavour of scent in the air, some- 
thing hke incense or burnt sandalwood. A French clock 
on the mantlepiece told me that it was ten minutes past eight. 
Everywhere on little tables and in cabinets was a profusion 
of nicknacks, and there was some beautiful embroidery 
framed on screens. At first sight you would have said it was 
a woman's drawing-room. 
But it wasn't. I soon saw the difference. There had never 
been a woman's hand in that place. It was the room of a 
man who had a passion for frippery, who had a perverted 
taste for soft deUcate things. It was the complement to his 
bluff brutality. I began to see the queer other side to my 
host, that evil side which gossip had spoken of as not unknown 
in the German army. The room seemed a horribly unwhole- 
some place, and I was more than ever afraid of Stumm. 
The hearthrug was a wonderful old Persian thing, all 
faint greens and pinks. As he stood, on it he looked un- 
commonly like a bull in a china-shop. He seemed to bask 
in the comfort of it, and sniffed like a satisfied animal. Then 
he sat down at an escritoire, unlocked a drawer and took out 
some papers. j .. i, 
" We will now settle your business, friend Brandt, he 
said. " You will go to Egypt and there take your orders 
from one whose name and address are in this envelope. This 
card," and he lifted a square pece of grey pasteboard with a 
big stamp at the corner and some code words stencilled on 
it — " will be your passport. You will show it to the man 
you seek. Keep it jealously, and never use it save under 
orders or in the last necessity. It is your badge as an ac- 
credited agent of the German Crown." 
I took the card and the envelope and put them in my 
pocket book. 
" Where do I go after Egypt," I asked. 
" That remains to be seen. Probably you will go up the 
Blue Nile. Riza, the man you will meet, will direct you. 
Egj'pt is the nest of our agents who work peacefully under 
the nose of the English Secret Service." 
" I am willing," I said, " but how do I reach Egypt ? 
" You will travel by Holland and London. Here is your 
route," and he took a paper from his pocket. " Your pass- 
ports are ready and will be given you at the frontier." 
This was a pretty kettle of fish. I was to be packed off 
to Cairo by sea, which would take weeks, and God knows how 
I would get from Egypt to Constantinople. I saw all my 
plans falling in pieces about my ears, and just when I 
thought they were shaping nicely. 
Stumm must have interpreted the look on my face as fear. 
" You have no cause to be afraid," he said. " We have 
passed the word to the English police to look out for a sus- 
picious South African named Brandt, one of Maritz's rebels. 
It is not difficult to have that kind of hint conveyed to the 
proper quarter. But the description will not be yours. Your 
name will be Van der Linden, a respectable Java merchant 
going home to his plantation after a visit to his native shores. 
You had better get your dossier by heart, but I guarantee 
you will be asked no questions. We manage these things 
well in Germany." 
I kept my eyes on the fire, while I did some savage thinking. 
I knew they would not let me out of their sight till they saw 
me in Holland, and, once there, there would be no possibiUty 
of getting back. When I left this house I would have no 
chance of giving them the slip. And yet I was well on my 
way to the East, the Danube could not be fifty miles off, 
and that way ran the road to Constantinople. It was a fairly 
desperate position. If 1 tried to get away Stumm would pre- 
vent me, and the odds were that I would go to join Peter in 
some infernal prison-camp. 
Those moments were some of the worst I ever spent. I was 
absolutely and utterly baffled, like a rat in a trap. There 
seemed nothing for it but to go back to London and tell Sir 
Walter the game was up. And that was about as bitter as 
death. 
He saw my face and laughed. 
" Does your heart fail you, my little Dutchman ? You 
funk the English ? I will tell you one thing for your comfort. 
There is nothing in the world to be feared except 'me. Fa I. 
and you have cause to shiver, t'lay me false and you had 
far better never have been born." 
His ugly sneering face was close above mine. Then he put 
out his hands and gripped my shoulders as he had done the 
first afternoon. 
I forgot if I mentioned that part of the damage I got at 
Loos was a shrapnel bullet low down at the back of my neck. 
The wound had healed wefl enough, but I had pains there 
on a cold day. His fingers found the place and it hnrt like 
hell. 
There is a very narrow line between despair and black 
rage. I had about given up the game, but the sudden ache 
of my shoulders gave me purpose again. He must have seen 
the rage in my eyes, for his own became cruel. 
" The weasel would like to bite," he said. " But the poor 
weasel has found its master. Stand still, vermin. Smile, 
look pleasant, or I will make pulp of you. Do you dare to. 
frown at me ? " 
I shut my teeth and said never a word. I was choking in 
my throat and could not have uttered a syllable if I had 
tried. 
Then he let go, grinning like an ape. 
I stepped back a pace and gave him my left between the 
eyes. 
For a second he did not reahse what had happened, for 1 
don't suppose anyone had dared to lift a hand to him since Im 
was a child. He Winked at me mildly. Then his face grew 
red as fire. 
" God in Heaven," he said quietly, " I am going to kill 
you," and he flung himself on me like a mountain. 
I was expecting him and dodged the attack. 1 was quite 
calm now but pretty hopeless. The man had a gorilla's reach 
and could give me at least a couple of stone. He wasn't soft 
either, but looked as hard as granite. I was only just from 
hospital and absurdly out of training. He would certainly 
kill me if he could, and I saw nothing to prevent him. 
My only chance was to keep Irm from getting to grips, 
for he could have squeezed in mv ribs in two seconds. 1 
fancied I was lighter on my legs than him, and 1 had a good 
eye. Black Monty at Kimberley had taught me to fight a bit, 
but there is no art on earth which can pre^■cnt a big man in ;ii 
