22 
LAND & WATER 
October 19, 1916 
(ConHnued from page 20.) 
now. One more spurt and its over. You've got to tell me 
what the new snag is. Is it that woman ? 
He shivered hke a frightened colt. \\oman'. he 
cried. " Does a woman drag a man through the nether- 
pit ? She's a she-de%il. Oh. it isn t madness that s %vrong 
with her. She's as sane as you and as cool as Blonkiron. 
Her life is an infernal game of chess, and she plays wtli 
souls for pawns. She is evil— evil-evil Ana 
once more he buried his head in his hands. 
It was Blenkiron who brought sense into this hectic atmos- 
phere.- His slow, beloved drawl was an antisepUc against 
"^Skv. boy," he said. " I feel just like you about the lady. 
But oiir job is not to investigate her character. Her Maker 
wiU do that good and sure some day. We ve got to hgure 
how to circumvent her, and for that you've got to tell us what 
exactly's been occurring since we parted company. 
Sandy pulled himself together with a great effort. 
" Greenmantle died that night I saw you. We buned 
him secretly bv her order in the garden of the viila. Ihen 
came the trouble about his successor. . . • The tour 
Ministers would be no party to a swindle. They were honest 
men, and vowed that their task now was to make a tomb 
for their master and pray for the rest of their days at his 
shrine. They were as immovable as a granite hiU and she 
knew it. . '. . Then they too died." 
•' Murdered ? " I gasped. . 
" Murdered ... all four in one morning. I do not 
know how. but I helped to bury them. Oh. she has Germans 
and Kurds to do her foul work, but their hands were clean 
compared to hers. Pity me. Dick, for I have seen honesty 
and virtue put to the shambles and have abetted the deed 
when it was done. It will haunt me tiU my dying day. 
I did not stop to console him, for my mind was on fire with 
his news. , , , • " t 
" Then the prophet is gone, and the humbug is over, i 
■cried. , , 
" The prophet still lives. She has found a successor. 
He stood up in his linen tunic. _ 
• Why do I wear these clothes ? Because I am Oreen- 
•mantle. I am the Kaaba-i-hurriyeh for all Islam. In three 
■days' time I will reveal myself to my people and wear on my 
breast the green ephod of the prophet." 
He broke off with an hysterical laugh. 
• Only you see, I won't. I will cut my throat first. 
■'Cheer up!" said Blenkiron soothingly. "Well find 
some prettier way than that." , 
" There is no way," he said : " no way but death. We re 
■done for, all of us. Hussin got you out of Stumm's cli t :hes, 
but you're in danger every moment. At the best you have 
three days, and then you, too. will be dead." ■ 
I had' no words to reply. This change in the bold and 
iiii^liakable Sandy took my breath away. „ t v. 
" She made me her acc6mpl.ce," he went on. I should 
have killed her on the graves of those innocent men. But 
instead I did all she asked, and joined in her game. . . . 
She was very candid, vou know. . . . She cares no more 
than Enver" for the faith of Islam. She can laugh at it. 
But she has her own dreams, and they consume her as a 
saint is consumed by his devotion. She has told me them, 
and if the day in the garden was hell, the days since have 
been the innermost fires of Tophet. I think-it is horrible 
to say it— that she has got some kind of crazy liking for me. 
When we have recLiimed tlu- East I am to be bv her side when 
she rides on her milk-white horse into Jerusalem. . . . 
And there have been moments— only* moments. I swear to 
<3od —when I have been fired myself by her madness. . . . 
Sandy's figure seemed to shrink and his voice grew shnU 
and wild It was too much for Blenkiron. He mdulged 
in a torrent of blasphemy such as I beUeve had never before 
passed his lips. , . ^ , . 1 ^ « t* 
•■ I'm damned if 111 listen to this God-darned stuff. It 
isn't delicate. You get busy. Major, and pump some sense 
into your afflicted friend." ^ c j 
I was beginning to see what had happened. Sandy was 
a man of genius— as much as anybody I eVer struck- but 
he had the defects of such liigh-strung. fanciful ?ouls. He 
would take more than mortal risks, and you couldn t scare 
him by any ordinary terror. But let his old conscience get 
cross-eyed ■ let him "find himself in some situation which in 
his eyk involved his honour, and he might go stark crazy. 
The woman who roused in me and Blenkiron only hatred, 
could catch his imagination and stir in him -for the moment 
onlv-an unwilling response. And then came bitter and 
morbid iTpentance. and the last desperation. 
It was no time to mince matters. Sandy you old fool, 
1 cried •* be thankful you have friends to keep you from 
pl.ving the fool. You saved my life at Loos and I m lollv 
wtU "oing to get you through this show, I m bossing the 
outfit now, and for all your confounded prophetic marmers, 
you've got to take your orders from me. You aren't going 
to revccd yours -If to your people, and still less are you going 
to cut your throat. Greenmantle will avenge the mur^^er of 
his forerunners, and make that bedlamite woman sorry she 
was bom. We're going to get clear away, and inside of a week 
we'll be having tea with the Grand Duke Nicholas." 
I wasn't bluffing. Puzzled as I was about ways and means 
I had still the blind belief that we should win out. And as 
I spoke two legs dangled through the trap and a dusty and 
blinking Peter descended in our midst. 
I took the maps from him and spread them on the table. 
" First, you must know that we've had an almighty piece 
of luck. Last night Hussin took us for a walk over the roofs 
of Erzerum, and by the blessing of Providence I got into . 
Stumm's room and bagged his stag map, . . . Look 
there . . . d'you see his notes ? That's the danger- 
point of the whole defence. Once the Russians get that fort, 
Kara Gubek, they've turned the main position. And it can 
be got ; Stumm knows it can ; for these two adjacent hills 
are not held. ... It looks a mad enterprise on paper, 
but Stumm knows that it is possible enough. The question is : 
Will the Russians guess that ? I say no, not unless some one 
tells them. Therefore by hook or by crook, we've got to get 
that information through to them." 
Sandy's interest in ordinary things was beginning to flicker 
up again. He studied the map and began to measure 
distances. 
" Peter's going to have a try for it. He thinks there's 
a sporting chance of his getting through the Unes. If he 
does— if he gets this map to the Grand Duke's staff — then 
Stumm's goose is cooked. In three days the Cossacks will 
be in the streets of Erzerum." 
" What are the chances ? " Sandy asked. 
I glanced at Peter. " We're hard-bitten fellows and can 
face the truth. I think the chances against success are about 
five to one." 
" Two to one," said Peter modestly. " Not worse than 
that. I don't think you're fair to me, Dick, my old friend. " 
I looked at that lean, tight figure and the gentle, resolute 
face, and I changed my mind. " I'm hanged if I think there 
are any odds." I said. " With anybody else it would want 
a miracle, but with Peter I believe the chances are level." 
" Two to one," Peter persisted. " If it was evens I 
wouldn't be interested." 
" Let me go, " Sandy cried. " I talk the lingo, and can 
pass as a Turk, and I'm a milUon times likelier to get through. 
For God's sake, Dick, let me go." 
" Not you. You're wanted here. If you disappear the 
whole show's busted too soon, and the three of us left behind 
will be strung up before morning No, my son. 
You're going to escape, but it will be in company with Blenk- 
iron and me. We've got to blow the whole Greenmantle 
business so high that the bits of it will never come to earth 
again. . . . First, tell me how many of your fellows 
will stick by you ? I mean the Companions." 
" The whole half-dozen. They are very worried already 
about what has happened. She made me sound them in her 
presence, and they were quite ready to accept me as Green- 
mantle's successor. But they have their suspicions about 
what happened at the villa, and they've no love for the 
woman. . . . They'd, follow me through hell if I bade 
them, but they would rather it was my own show." 
" That's all right," I cried. " It is the one thing I've 
been doubtful about. Now observe this map. Erzerum 
isn't invested by a long chalk. The Russians are round it 
in a broad half moon. That means that all the west, south- 
west, and north-west is open and undefended by trench-lines. 
There are flanks far away to the north and south in the hills 
which can be turned, and once we get round a flank there's 
nothing between us and our friends. . . . I've figured out 
our road." and I traced it on the map. " If we can make that 
big circuit to the west and get over that pass unobserved 
we're bound to strike a Russian column the next day. It'll 
be a rough road, but I fancy we've all ridden as bad in our 
time. But one thing we must have, and that's horses. Can 
we and your ^ix ruffians slip off in the darkness on the best 
beasts in this township ? If you can manage that, we'll 
do the trick." 
Sandy sat down and poidered. Thank Heaven, he was 
thinking now of action i-nd not of his own conscience. 
" It must be done." he said at last. " but it won't be easy. 
• Hussin's a great fellow, but as you know well, Dick, horses 
right up at the battle-front are not eisy to come by. To- 
morrow I've got some kind of infernal fast to observe, and the 
next day that wonvan will be coaching me for my part. We'll 
have to give Hussin time. ... I wish to Heaven it could 
be to-night." He was silent a^in for a bit. and then he said ; 
