20 
LAND & WATER 
Uclubci 19, njj( 
Greenmantle 
By John Buchan 
A Sequel to " The Thirty-Nine Steps " 
Synopsis : Richard Hannay is asked by Sir Walter 
Bidlivant 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. Hannay undertakes the mission ; his 
friend Sandy (the Hon. L. G. Atb.iihnot) agrees to help 
him. Sir Walter introduces him to an American, John S. 
Blenkiron. a strong pro- Ally, who joins them. Three 
months later they meet in Constantinople, Hannay having 
reached there by way of the Danub: accompanied by a 
Rhodesian friend, Peter Pienaar, alter many adventures 
in Germany. Blenkiron also goes by way of Germany, 
and Sandy arrives at Constantinople disguised as a Ma- 
hommedan fanatic. After the three meet, Hannay, who has 
Previously posed as a Boer from Western Cape Colony, 
assumes the character of an American engineer. Riding 
one evening on the outskirts of Constantinople with Pienaar 
they lose their way and find themselves in total darkness in 
a garden. Here Hannay. b .' chance, meets Sandy in 
disguise. While talking, a b'g car drives up in which a 
German lady, Hilda von Eincm, is seated ; this woman 
holds a clue to the ^ecret. She provides Hannay with 
passports for Erzerum. Hannay, Blenkiron and Pienaar 
with Hussin. one of Sandy's followers, travel together. 
At Angora thev hire a motor car. It breaks down. Even- 
tually they reach Erzerum in a stolen car. They are taken 
b:fore a German officer, w'ho turns out to bs von Stumm, 
from whom Hannay had fled in Germany. With difficulty 
they make their escape-, stealing a precious map from von 
Stumm, and are liiddcn by Hussin in a cellar. 
CHAPTER XIX 
Greenmantle 
PETER scarcely looked up from his breakfast. 
" I'm willing, Dick," he said. " But you mustn't 
ask me to be friends _with Stumm. He makes my 
stomach cold, that one." 
For the first time he had stopped calling me " Cornelis." 
The day of make-believe was over for all of us. 
" Not to be friends with him," I said, " but to bust him 
and all his kind." 
" Then I'm ready," said Peter cheerfully. " What is it .' " 
I spread out the map on the divan. There was no light 
in the place but Blenkiron's electric torch, for Hussin had 
put out the lantern. Peter got his nose into the thing at 
once, for his intelligence work in the Boer War had made him 
handy with maps. It didn't want much telling from me to 
explain to him the importance of the one I had looted. 
" That news is worth many million poundri, ' said he, 
wrinkling his brows, and scratching delicately tlie tip of his 
left ear. It was a way he had when he was startled. 
" How can we get it to our friends ? " 
Peter cogitated. " There is but one way. A man must 
take it. Once, I remember, when we fought the Matabele 
it was necessary to find out whether the chief Makapan was 
living. Some said he had died, others that he'd gone over 
the Portuguese border, but I believed he lived. No native 
could tell us, and since his kraal was well defended no runner 
could get through. So it was necessary to send a man." 
Peter lifted up his head and laughed. " The man found 
the chief Makapan. He was very much alive, and made 
good shooting with a shot-gun. But the man brought the 
chief Makapan out of his kraal and handed him over to the 
mounted Police. You remember Captain Arcoll, Dick — 
Jim Arcoll ? Well, Jim laughed so much that he broke open 
a wound in his head, and had to have the doctor." 
" You were that man, Peter," I said. 
" J a. I was the man. There are more ways of getting 
into kraals than there are ways of keeping people out." 
" Will you take this chance ? " 
" For certain, Dick. I am getting stiff with doing nothing, 
and if I sit in houses much longer I shall g>ow old.- A man 
bet me five pounds on the ship that I could not get through 
a trench-line, and if there had been a trench-line handy I 
would have taken him on. I will be very happv, D"ck. 
but I do not say I will succeed. It is new country to me,, 
and I will be hurried, and hurry makes bad stalking." 
I showed him what I thought- the likeliest place—in the- 
spurs of the Palantuken mountains. Peter s way of doing, 
things was all his owr. He scraped earth and plaster out ot 
a corner and sat down to make a little mode! ot a landscape 
on the table, following the contours of the map. He did it 
e.xtraordinaiily neatly, for, like all great hunters, he was as. 
deft as a weaver-bird. He puzzled over it for a long t me„ 
and conned the map till he must have got it by heart. Then 
he took his field-glasses — a very good smgle Zeiss which was 
part of the spoils from Rasta's motor-car — and announced 
that he was going to follow my e.xainple and get on to tin- 
house-top. Presently his leg.-; disappeared through thr 
trap, and Blenkiron and I were left to our icflc ciions. 
Peter must have found something uncommon interesting, 
for he stayed on the roof the belter jiart of the day. It 
was a dull job for us, since there was no light, and Blenkiron 
had not even the consolation of a game of Patience. But 
for all that he was in good spirits for he had iiad no dyspcp? 
since we left Constantmople, and announced that he Lelievt^. 
he was at h;st getting even with Lis darned duodenum. As 
for me. I was pretty restless, for I could not imagine wh; t 
was detaining Sandy. It was clear that our presence mus. 
have been kept secret from Hilda von Einem, for she was a 
pal of Stumm's, and he must by now have blown the g.fc 
on Peter and me. How long could tliis secrecy last, I asked 
myself. We had now no sort of protection 'in the whoU 
outfit. Rasta and the Turks wanted emr blood : so di.. 
Stumm and the Germans ; and once the lady feund we weie 
deceiving her she would want it most of all. Our only hclj) 
was Sandy, and he gave no sign of his existence. I began to 
fear that with him, too, things had miscanied. 
And yet I wasn't really depressed, only impatient, I 
could ne\er again get back to the beastly stagnation of that 
Constantinople week. The guns kept me cheerful. There 
was the devil of a bombardment all day, and the thought 
that our Allies were thundering there half a do?en miles oft 
gave me a perfectly groundless hope. If they buist through 
the defence Hilda von Einem and her propl.et and all oui 
enemies woulel be overwhelmed in the deluge. Anel that 
blessed chance depended very much on old Peter, now brood- 
ing like a pigeon on tlie housetops. 
It was not till the late afternoon that Hussin appeared 
again. He took no notice of Peter's absence, but lit a lantei n 
and set it on the table. Then lie went to the de)or and waited. 
Presently a light step fell on the stairs, and Hussin drew back 
to let some one enter. He promptly departed, and I heard 
the key turn in the lock behii d him. 
Sandy stocd there, but a new Sandy, who made Blenkin : 
and me jump to our feet. The pelts and skin-cap had gone, 
and he wore instead a long linen tunic ck sped at the waist 
by a broad girdle. A strange green turban adorned his head, 
and as he pushed it back I saw that his hair had been shaved. 
He looked like some acolyte - a weary acolyte, for there was 
no spring in liis walk or nerve in Lis carriage. He dropped 
numbly on the divan and laid Lis head in Lis hands. The- 
lantern showed his haggard eyes with dark lines beneath 
them. 
" Good God, old man, have j'ou been sick ? " I cried* 
" Not sick," he said hoarsely. " My body is right enough,. 
but the last few days I have been living in hell." 
l')lenkiron noddeel sympathetically. That was how he- 
himself would have described tiie company of the lady. 
I marched across to him and gripped 1 oth his wrists. 
" Look at me," I said, " straight in the eyes." 
His eyes were like a sleep-walker's, unwinking, unseeing- 
" Great heavens, man, you've been drugged ! " I said. 
" Drugged," he ciied, with a we>aiy laugh. " Yes, I have 
been elrugged, but not by any physic. No one has been 
doc'o ing my food. But you can't go through hell without 
getting your eyes red-iiot." 
I kept my grip on his wrists. " Take j'our time, old chap, 
and tell us about it. Blenkiron and I are here, and olel 
Peter's onthe roof not far off. We \\ look after you." 
" It does me good to hear your voice, Dick," he said. 
" It reminds me of clean, honest things." 
" They'll come back, never fear. We're at tiie last lap 
[CovtimieiJ on page i:.) 
