September 14, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
19 
Greenmantle 
By John Buchan 
A Sequel to " The Thirty-Nine Steps" 
Synopsis : Richard Hannay, who obtained a commission 
tn the new army and was wounded at Loos is asked by 
Sir Walter Bitllivant of the Foreign Office, to undertake 
a mission to unearth a secret connected with Turkey and 
Germany. The only clue is a scrap of paper bearing 
the words, Kasredin — cancer — v. I. This was handed 
lo the British headquarters in Mesopotamia bv an officer 
— Sir Walter's son — wounded to death in obtaining it. 
Hannay tmdertakes the mission, his friend Sandy (the Hon. 
L. G. Arbiilhnot) 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 ijth 
the three dine together at a London flat, and agree to meet 
in a cafe in a back street of Constantinople two months 
later — on January \jth. Sandy goes to Constantinople, 
disguised as a Turk, by way of Cairo. Blejikiron drops into 
Germany by way of Scandinavia. Hannay, who in South 
Africa was 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 tneets 
his oM Rhodcsian friend, Peter Pienaar, who agrees to be 
his companion. They go on to Germany and find their 
way 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 Hereros. 
Stumm takes them in charge, leaves Pienaar in Berlin, bat 
brings Hannay to his castle in Bavaria. On the way Hannay 
has an interview with the Kaiser, and also with a Herr 
Gaudian, a great engineer. Stumm grossly insults Hannay, 
who knocks him out and makes a bolt for it. Reaching 
the Danube he gets taken on as an engineer on a steamer 
tugging barges of munitions to Rustchuk. On the journey 
down the Danube Pienaar, having escaped from a prison 
camp, rejoins Hannay, and on arrival at Constantino.ple 
they are saved from a Turkish rabble by a fanatic. The 
next day, January lyth, they go to the cafe where they are 
arrested by a ruse of Blenkiron and Sandy, whom they 
join. Hannay assumes the character of an American 
engineer and dines in Constantinople at the house of a 
German, Moellendorff, where he meets Gaudian. 
CHAPTER XIII [continued) 
I doubt if Gaudian would have recognised me even in the 
clothes I had worn in Stumm's company, for his 
eyesight was wretched. So I ran no rislc in ' dr-ess- 
clothes, with my hair bruslied baclv and a fine American 
accent. I paid him higli compliments, as a fellow engineer, 
and translated part of a highly technical conversation 
between him and Blenkiron. Gaudian was in uniform, and 
I liked the look of his honest face better than ever. 
But the great event was the sight of Enver. He was a 
slim fellow of Rasta's build, very foppish and precise in his 
dress, with a smooth oval face like a girl's, and rather fine 
straight black eyebrows. He spoke perfect German and had 
the best kind of manners, neither pert nor overbearing. He 
had a pleasant trick, too, of appealing all round the table for 
■confirmation and so bringing everybody into the talk. Not 
that he spoke a great deal, but all he said was good sense, and 
he had a smiling way of saying it. Once or twice he ran 
counter to Moellendorff, and I could see there was no love 
lost between these two. I didn't think I wanted him as a 
•friend — he was too cold-blooded and artificial ; and I was 
pretty certain that I didn't want those steady black eyes as 
•an enemy. But it was no good denying his quality. The 
little fellow was all cold courage, like the fine pohshed blue 
steel of a sword. 
I fancy I was rather a success at that dinner. For one 
thing I could speak German and so had a pull on Blenkiron. 
For another I was in a good temper and really enjoyed putting 
my back into my part. They talked very high-flown stuff 
about what they had done and were going to do, and Enver 
was great on Gallipoli. I remember he said that he could 
have destroyed the whole British army if it hadn't been for 
•somebody's cold feet — at which Moellendorff looked daggers. 
They were so bitter about Britain and all her works that I 
gathered they were getting pretty panicky, and that made 
me as jolly as a sandboy. I'm afraid I was not free from 
bitterness myself on that subject. I said things about my 
own country that I sometimes wake in the night and sweat 
to think of. 
Gaudian got on the use of water power in war and that 
gave me a chance. 
" In my country," I said, " when we want to get rid of a 
mountain we wash it away. There's nothing on earth that 
will stand against water. Now, speaking with all respect, 
gentleman, and as an absolute novice in the military art, I 
sometimes ask why this God-given weapon isn't more used 
in the present war. I haven't been to any of the fronts, but 
I've studied them some from maps and the newspapers. 
Take your German position in Flanders, where you've got 
the high ground, If I were a British General, I reckon I 
would very soon make it no sort of a position." 
Moellendorff asked " How ? " 
" Why, I'd wash it away. Wash away fourteen feet of 
soil down to the stone. There's a heap of coalpits behind 
the British front where they could generate power, and I 
judge there's an ample water supply from rivers and canals. 
I'd guarantee to wash you away in twenty-four hours — yes, 
in spite of all your big guns. It beats me why the British 
haven't got on to this notion. They used to have some bright 
engineers." 
Enver was on the point hke a knife, far quicker than 
Gaudian. He cross-e.xamined me in a way that showed he 
knew how to approach a technical subject, though he mightn't 
have much technical knowledge. He was just giving me a 
sketch of the flooding in Mesopotamia, when an aide-de- 
camp brought in a chit which fetched him to his feet. 
" I have gossiped long enough, " he said. " My kind host, 
I must leave you. Gentlemen all, my apologies and farewells," 
Before he left he asked my name and wrote it down. 
" This is an unhealthy city for strangers, Mr. Hanau," he said 
in very good Enghsh. " I have some small power of pro- 
tecting a friend, and what I have is at your disposal." This 
with the condescension of a king promising his favour to a 
subject. 
The little fellow amused me tremendously, and rather im- 
pressed me, too. I said so to Gaudian after he had left, but 
that decent soul didn't agree. 
"I do not love him," he said, " We are Alhes — yes, but 
friends — no. He is no true son of Islam, which is a noble 
faith and which despises hars and boasters and betrayers 
of their salt." 
That was the verdict of one honest man on this ruler in 
Israel. The next night I got another from Blenkiron on a 
greater than Enver. 
He had been out alone and had come back pretty late with 
his face grey and drawn with pain. The food we ate — not 
at all bad of its kind — and the cold east wind played havoc 
with his dyspepsia. I can see him yet, boiling milk on a 
spirit-lamp, while Peter worked at a Primus stove to get him 
a hot-water bottle. He was using horrid language about his 
inside. 
" By God, Dick, if I were you with a sound stomach I'd 
fairly conquer the world. As it is, I've got to do my work 
with half my mind, while the other half is dwelling in my 
intestines. I'm like the child in the Bible that had a fox 
gnawing at its vitals." 
He got his milk boiling and began to sip it. 
" I've been to see our pretty landlady," he said. " She 
sent for me and I hobbled off with a grip full of plans, for 
she's mighty set on, Mesoptamy." 
" Anything about Greenmantle ? " I asked eagerly. 
" Why, no, but I have reached one conclusion. I opine 
that he will soon wish himself in Paradise. For if ever 
Almighty God created a female devil it's Madame von Einem." 
He sipped a little more milk with a grave face. 
" That isn't my duo-denal dyspepsia. Major. It's the 
verdict of a ripe experience, for I have a cool and penetrating 
judgment even if I've a deranged stomach. And I give it as 
my con-sidered con-elusion that that woman's mad and bad 
— but principally bad." 
CHAPTER XIV 
The Lady of the Mantilla 
Since that first night I had never clapped eyes on 
Sandy. He had gone clean out of the world, and 
Blenkiron and I waited anxiously for a word of news. Otir 
