22 
LAND & WATER 
November 2, 1916 
Greenmantle 
By John Buchan 
A Sequel to " The Thirty-Nine Steps ' 
CHAPTER XXI (continued) 
A FTER Hussin had told me we would start in the 
/^k morning I did not sleep much, for I was strung 
L — ^ too high with expectation, and I envied Blenkiron 
^ .Ai. his now eupeptic slumbers. But for an hour or 
so I dropped off, and my old nightmare came back. Once 
again I was in the throat of a pass, hotly pursued, straining 
for some sanctuary which I knew I could not reach. But I 
was no longer alone. Others were with me : how many I 
could not tell, for when I tried to see their faces they dis- 
solved in mist. Deep snow was underfoot, a grey sky was 
over us, black peaks were on all sides, but ahead in the mist 
of the pass was that curious castrol which I had seen in my 
dream on the Erzerum road. 
I saw it distinct in every detail. It rose to the left of the 
road through the pass, above a hollow where great boulders 
stood out in the snow. Its sides were steep, so that the snow 
had slipped off in patches, leaving stretches of glistening 
black shale. The kranz at the top did not rise sheer, but 
sloped at an angle of forty-five, and on the very summit 
there seemed a hollow, as if the earth within the rock-rim 
had been beaten by weather into a cup. That is often the 
way with a South African castrol, and 1 knew it was so with 
this. We were straining for it, but the snow clogged us, 
and our enemies were very close behind. 
Then I was awakened by a figure at my side. " Get ready, 
my lord," it said ; " it is the hour to ride." 
Like sleep-walkers we moved into the sharp air. Hussin 
led us out of an old postern and then through a place like an 
orchard to the shelter of some tall evergreen trees. There 
horses stood, champing quietly from their nose bags. " Good," 
I thought ; " a feed of oats before a big effort." 
There were nine beasts for nine riders. We mounted 
without a word and filed through a grove of trees to where 
a broken paling marked the beginning of cultivated land. 
There for the matter of twenty minutes Hussin chose to guide 
us through deep, clogging snow. He wanted to avoid any 
sound till we were well beyond earshot of the house. Then 
we struck a by-path which presently merged in a hard high- 
way, running, as I judged, south-west by west. There we 
delayed no longer, but gallopped furiously into the dark. 
I had got back all my exhilaration. Indeed I was intoxica- 
ted with the movement and could have laughed out loud and 
sung. Under the black canopy of the night perils are either 
forgotten or terribly alive. Mine were forgotten. The dark- 
ness I galloped into led me to freedom and friends. Yes, 
and success, which I had not dared to hope and scarcely 
even dream of. 
Hussin rode first, with me at his side. I turned my head 
and saw Blenkiron behind me, evidently mortally unhappy 
about the pace we rode and the mount he sat. He used to 
say that horse-exercise was good for his liver, but it was a 
gentle amble and a short gallop that he liked, and not this 
mad helter-skelter. His thighs were too round to fit a saddle- 
leather. We passed a fire in a hollow, the bivouac of some 
Turkish unit, and all the horses shied violently. I knew 
by Blenkiron s oaths that he had lost his stirrups and was 
sitting on his horse's neck. 
Beside him rode a tall figure swathed to the eyes in wrap- 
pings, and wearing round his neck some kind of shawl whose 
ends floated behind him. Sandy, of course, had no European 
ulster, for it was months since he hjd worn proper clothes. 
I wanted to speak to him, but somehow I did not dare. His 
stillness forbade me. He was a wonderful fine horseman, 
with his firm English hunting seat, and it was as well, for he 
paid no attention to his beast. His head was still full of 
unquiet thoughts. 
Then the air around me began to smell acrid and raw, 
and I saw that a fog was winding up from the hollows. 
" Here's the devil's o«m luck," I cried to Hussin. " Can 
you guide us in a mist ? " 
■' I do not know." He shook his head. " I had counted 
on seeing the shape of the hills." 
" We've a map and a compass, anyhow. But those make 
slow travelling. Pray God it lifts ! " 
Presently the black vapour changed to grey, and the day 
broke. It was little comfort. The fog rolled in waves to 
the horses' ears, and riding at the head of the party I could 
but dimly see the next rank. 
It is time to leave the road," said Hussin, " or we may 
meet inquisitive folk." 
We struck to the left, over ground which was for all the 
world hke a Scotch moor. There were pools of rain on it, 
and masses of tangled snow-laden junipers, and long reefs 
of wet slatey stone. It was bad going, and the fog made it 
hopeless to steer a good course. I had out the map and the 
compass, and tried to fix our route so as to round the flank of 
a spur of the mountains which separated us from the valley 
we were aiming at. 
" There's a stream ahead of us," I said to Hussin. " Is 
it fordable ? " 
" It is only a trickle," he said, coughing. " This accursed 
mist is from Eblis." But I knew long before we reached 
it that it was no trickle. It was a hill stream coming down 
in spate, and, as I soon guessed, in a deep ravine. Presently 
we were at its edge, one long whirl of yeasty falls and brown 
rapids. We could as soon get horses over it as to the topmost 
cliffs of the Palantuken. 
Hussin stared at it in consternation. " May Allah forgive 
my folly, for I should have known. We must return to the 
highway and find a bridge. My sorrow, that I should have 
led my lords so ill." 
Back over that moor we went with my spirits badly damped. 
We had none too large a start, and Hilda von Einem would 
rouse heaven and earth to catch us up. Hussin was forcing 
the pace, for his anxiety was as great as mine. 
Before we reached the road the mist blew back and revealed 
a wedge of country right across to the hills beyond the river. 
It was a clear view, every object standing out wet and sharp 
in the light of morning. It showed the bridge with horsemen 
drawn up across it, and it showed, too, cavalry pickets moving 
along the road. 
They saw us at the same instant. A word was passed 
down the road, a shrill whistle blew, and the pickets put their 
horses at the bank and started across the moor. 
" Did I not say this mist was from Eblis ? " growled Hussin, 
as we swung round and galloped back on our tracks. " These 
cursed Zaptiehs have seen us, and our road is cut." 
I was for trying the stream at all costs, but Hussin pointed 
out that it would do us no good. The cavalry beyond the 
bridge were moving up the other bank. " There is a path 
through the hills that I know, but it must be travelled on 
foot. If we can increase our lead and the mist cloaks us 
there is yet a chance." 
It was a weary business plodding up to the skirts of the 
hills. We had the pursuit behind us now, and that put an 
edge on every difficulty. There were long banks of broken 
screes I remember, where the snow slipped in wreaths 
from under our feet. Great boulders had to be circumvented, 
and patches of bog, where the streams from the snows first 
made contact with the plains, mired us to our girths. Happily 
the mist was down again, but this, though it hindered the 
chase, lessened the chances of Hussin finding the path. 
He found it nevertheless. There was the gully and the 
rough mule-track leading upwards. But there also had been 
a landshp, quite recent from the marks. A large scar of 
raw earth had broken across the hillside, which with the snow 
above it looked like a slice cut out of an iced chocolate-cake. 
We stared blankly for a second, till we recognised its hope- 
lessness. 
" I'm trying for the crags," I said. " Where there once 
was a way another can be found." 
" And be picked off at their leisure by these marksmen, ' 
said Hussin grimly. " Look ! " 
The mist had opened again, and a glance behind showed 
me the pursuit closing upon us. They were now less than 
three hundred yards off. We turned our horses and made 
off eastward along the skirts of the cUffs. 
Then Sandy spoke for the first time. " I don't know how 
you fellows feel, but I'm not going to be taken. There's 
n' thmg much to do except to find a good place and put up a 
fight. We can sell our hves dearly." 
" That's about all," said Blenkiron cheerfully. He had 
suffered such tortures on that gallop that he welcomed any 
kind of stationary fight. 
" Serve out the arms," said Sandy. 
The Companions all carried rifles slung across their 
(Continued on paqe 24I 
