20 
LAND & WATER 
November 9, 1916 
Greenmantle 
Bv John Buchan 
A Sequel to " The Thirty-Nine Steps'' 
CHAPTER XXII 
The Guns of the North 
BUT no more shells fell. 
The night grew dark and showed a field of glittering 
•tars, for the air was sharpening again towards frost. 
We waited for an hour, crouching just behind the far 
p uaiK'ts, but never came that orninous familiar whistle. 
Then Sandy rose and stretched himself. " I'm hungry," 
hL- said. " Let's have out the food, Hussin. We've eaten 
nothing since before daybreak. 1 wonder what is the meaning 
of this respite. 
I fancied I knew. 
" It's Stumms way. He wants to torture us. He'll keep 
us hours on tenterhooks, while he sits over yonder exulting in 
what he thinks we're endurin? He has just enough im- 
agination for that. ... He would rush us if he had the 
men. As it is. he's going to blow us to pieces, but do it 
slowly and smack his Hps over it." 
Sandy yawned. " We'll disappoint him, for we won't be 
worried, old man. We three are beyond that kind of fear." 
" Meanwhile we're going to do the best we can," I said. 
" He s got the exact range for his whizzbangs. We've got 
to find a hole somewhere just outside the caslrol, and .some 
sort of head-co\'er. We're bound to get damaged whatever 
happens, but we'll stick it out to the end. When they think 
they have finished with us and rush the place, there may 
l>e one of us alive to put a bullet through old Stumm. What 
do you say ? " 
They agreed, and after our meal Sandy and I crawled out 
to prospect, leaving the otiiers on guard in ca,se there should 
be an attack. We found a hollow in the glacis a httle south 
of the castrol, and, working very quietly, managed to enlarge 
it and cut a kind of shallow cave in the hill. It would be 
no use against a direct hit, but it would give some cover from 
flying fragments. As I read the situation, Stumm could 
land as many shells as he pleased in the castrol and wouldn't 
bother to attend to the flanks. When the bad shelling began 
there would be shelter for one or two in the cave. 
Ou' enemies were watchful. The riflemen on the east 
burnt Verey flares at interv'als, and Stumm's lot sent up a 
great star-rocket. I remember that just before midnight 
hell broke loose round Fort Palantuken. No more Russian 
shells came into our hollow, but all the road to the east was 
under fire, and at the Fort itsi'lf there was a shattering explo- 
sion and a queer scarlet glow which looked as if a magazine 
had been hit. For about two hours the firing was intense, 
and then it died down. But it was towards 'the north that I 
kept turning my head. There seemed to be somethinij 
different in the sound there, something sharper in the report 
of the guns, as if shells were dropping in a narrow valley 
whos'! rock walls doubled the echo. Had the Russians by 
any ble sed cliance worked round that flank ? 
I got Sandy to listen, but he shook his head. " Those 
guns are a dozen miles off," he said. " They're no nearer 
liian three days ago. But it looks as if the sportsmen on th( 
south '^might have a chance. When' they break through 
and stream down the valley, they'll be puzzled to account for 
what remains of us. . . . VVe're no longer three adven 
turers in the enemy's country. We're the advance guard 
of the Allies. Our pals don't know about us, and we're 
going to be cut off, which has happened to advance guards 
before now. But all the same, we're in our own battle-hne 
again. Doesn't that cheer you, Dick ? " 
It cheered me wonderfully, for I knew now wliat had been 
th'> weigiit on my heart ever since I accepted Sir Walter's 
mission. It was the lonehness of it. I was fighting far away 
from my friends, far away from the true fronts of battle. 
It was a side-show which, whatever its importance, had none 
of the exhilaration of the main effort. But now we had 
come back to familiar ground. We were like the High- 
landers cut off at Cite St. Auguste on the first day of Loos, 
or those Scots Guards at Festubert of whom I had heard. 
Onlv'j^the others did not know of it« would never hear of it. 
If Peter succeeded he might tell tJie tale, but most likely he 
was lying dead somewhere in the No-man's-land between the 
lines. We should never be heard of again any more, but our 
work remained. Sir Walter would know that, and he would tell 
our few belongings that we had gone out in our country's service. 
We were in the castrol again, sitting under the parapets. 
The same thought must have been in Sandy's mind, for he 
suddenly laughed. 
" It's a queer ending, Dick. We simi)ly vanish into the 
infinite. If the Russians get through they will never recognise 
what is left of us among so much of the wreckage of battle. 
The snow will soon cover us, and when the spring comes there 
will only be a few bleached bones. Ujwn my soul it is the 
kind of death I always wanted." And he quoted softly to 
himself a verse of an old Scots ballad : 
" Mony's the ane for him maks mane. 
But nane sail ken whar he is gane. 
Ower his white banes, when they are bare. 
The winti .sail blaw for evcrmair." 
" But our work lives," I cried, with a sudden great gasp 
of happiness. ■ " It's the job that matters, not the men that 
do it. And our job's done. We have won, old chap — won 
hands down — and there is no going back on that. VVe have 
won any way ; and if Peter has had a slice of luck, we've 
scooped the pool. . . . .\fter all, we never exptcted to 
come out of this thing with our lives." 
Blenkiron. with his leg stuck our stiflly before him, was 
humming quietly to himself, as he often did when he felt 
cheerful. He had only one song, " John Brown's Body " ; 
usually only a fine at a time, but now he got as far as a whole 
\x>rse : 
He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen men so true, 
.\nd he frightened old Virginny till she trembled through ani through. 
They hung him for a traitor, themselves the tra.tor crew, 
. But his soul goes mavching along." 
" Feehng good ? " I asked. 
" Fine. I'm about the luckiest man on God's earth. 
.Major. I've always wanted to get into a big show, but I 
didn't see how it would come the way of a homely citizen 
like me, living in a steam-warmed house and going down town 
to my office every morning. I used to cn\'y my old dad that 
fought at Chattanooga, and never forgot to tell you about 
it. But I guess Chattanooga was like a scrap in a Bowery 
bar compared to this. When I meet the old man in Glory 
he'll have to listen some to me. . . ." 
It was just after Blenkiron spoke that we got a reminder 
of Stumm's presence. The gun was well laid, for a shell 
plumped on the near edge of the castrol. It made an end of 
one of the Companions who was on gu.ird there, badly 
wounded another, and a fnignunt gashed my thigh. We 
took refuge in the shallow cave, but some wild shooting from 
the east side brought us back to the parapets, for we feared 
an attack. None came, nor any more shells, and once again 
the night was quiet. 
I asked Blenkiron if he had any near relatives. 
" Why, no, except a sister's son, a college-boy who has no 
need of his uncle. It's fortimate that we three have no 
wives. I haven't any regrets, neither, for I've had a mighty 
deal out of life. I was thinking this morning that it was a 
pity I was going out when I liad just got my duo-denum 
to listen to reason. But I reckon that's another of my mercies. 
The good God took away the pain in my stomach so that I 
might go to Him with a clear head and a thankful heart." 
" We're lucky fellows," said Sandy : " We've all had our 
whack. When I remember the good times I've had I could 
sing a hymn of praise. We've hved long enough to know 
ourselves, and to shape ourselves into some kind of decency. 
But think of those boys who have given their fives freely 
when they scarcely knew what life meant. They werej^just 
at the beginning of the road, and they didn't know what 
dreary bits lay before them. It was all sunshiny and bright 
coloured, and yet they gave it up witl out a moment's doubt. 
And think of the men with wives ai d children and homes 
that were the biggest things in life to them. For fellows 
like us to shirk would bi' blark cowardice. It's small credit 
for us to stick it out. But when those others shut their teeth 
and went forward, tiiey were blessed heroes. . . *." 
After that we fell silent. A man's thoughts at a time like 
that seem to be double-powered, and the memory becomes 
very sharp and clear. I don't know what was in the others' 
minds, but I know what filled my own. . 
1 fancy it isn't the men who get most out of the world 
and are always buoyant and Cheerful that most fear to die. 
Rather it is the weak-engined souls, who go about with dull 
(Continued on pa^e 22) 
