Part 2 (1/2)

'What have you been doing?' I asked The calun to interest me

'Waal,' he said, 'I just waited The Lord has blessedlike a wild cat for war contracts But I reckoned I would get let into the gaeous position to take a hand I had a pretty hectic time for a while, and then I reckoned I would leave God's country and see as doing in Europe I have counted s, peace has its victories not less renowned than war, and I reckon that means that a nootral can have a share in a scrap as well as a belligerent'

'That's the best kind of neutrality I've ever heard of,' I said

'It's the right kind,' he replied sole for? For your own skins and your Empire and the peace of Europe Waal, those ideals don't concern us one cent We're not Europeans, and there aren't any Ger in Europe, and if we caaht We're that delicate-minded we can't interfere and that hat my friend, President Wilson, ht So we're nootrals But likee're benevolent nootrals As I follow events, there's a skunk been let loose in the world, and the odour of it is going to make life none too sweet till it is cleared away It wasn't us that stirred up that skunk, but we've got to take a hand in disinfecting the planet See? We can't fight, but, by God! so to sweat blood to sweep the ive off Notes like a leaky boiler gives off steam But as individooal citizens we're in it up to the neck So, in the spirit of Jefferson Davis and Woodrow Wilson, I' to be the nootralist kind of nootral till Kaiser will be sorry he didn't declare war on A my temper This felloas a perfect jewel, and his spirit put purpose into uess you British were the same kind of nootral when your Ad with Dewey in Manila Bay in '98' Mr Blenkiron drank up the last drop of his boiled ar

I leaned forward 'Have you talked to Sir Walter?' I asked

'I have talked to hiivento boss There are no flies on that big ood business then you can count erous?'

'I judged so But it don't do to begin counting risks I believe in an all-wise and beneficent Providence, but you have got to trust Hiive Hi on a strict diet and having frequent pains in ive up, provided you get a good price in the deal Besides, how big is the risk? About one o'clock in the , when you can't sleep, it will be the size of Mount Everest, but if you run out to rizzly looks very fierce when you're taking your ticket for the Rockies and wondering if you'll coot the sight of your rifle on him I won't think about risks till I'm up to my neck in them and don't see the road out'

I scribbled my address on a piece of paper and handed it to the stout philosopher 'Coht,' I said

'I thank you, Major A little fish, please, plain-boiled, and soiveon ot a taxi and drove to iven s, the dossier of Mr Blenkiron He had done wonders for the Allies in the States He had nosed out the Du the portfolio of Dr Albert Von Papen's spies had tried to murder hi gun factories Sir Walter had written at the end: 'The best h hell with a box of bismuth tablets and a pack of Patience cards'

I went into the little back s-room, borrowed an atlas from the library, poked up the fire, and sat down to think Mr Blenkiron had givento work now, and was running wide over the whole business Not that I hoped to find anything byin an ar a sort of grip on a plan of operations And toabout the risks Blenkiron had shamed me out of that If a sedentary dyspeptic could show that kind of nerve, I wasn't going to be behind him

I went back to one to the wars long ago, so I had shi+fted to one of the new blocks in Park Lane where they provide food and service I kept the place on to have a hoot leave It's ain an hotel

Sandy was devouring tea-cakes with the serious resolution of a convalescent

'Well, dick, what's the news? Is it a brass hat or the boot?'

'Neither,' I said 'But you and I are going to disappear from His Majesty's forces Seconded for special service'

'O my sainted aunt!' said Sandy 'What is it? For Heaven's sake put me out of pain Have we to tout deputations of suspicious neutrals overjournalist in a ine he sees a Boche?'

'The neill keep But I can tell you this h the Ger-stick'

'Coan cheerfully on the muffins

I must spare a moment to introduce Sandy to the reader, for he cannot be allowed to slip into this tale by a side-door If you will consult the Peerage you will find that to Edward Cospatrick, fifteenth Baron Clanroyden, there was born in the year 1882, as his second son, Ludovick Gustavus Arbuthnot, commonly called the Honourable, etc The said son was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, was a captain in the Tweeddale Yeomanry, and served for some years as honorary attache at various ee will stop short at this point, but that is by no means the end of the story For the rest you must consult very different authorities Lean brown men from the ends of the earth may be seen on the London paveht outland step, slinking into clubs as if they could not reed to theet news of Sandy Better still, you will hear of hi ports where the Albanian e the odds are you would meet a dozen of Sandy's friends in it In shepherds' huts in the Caucasus you will find bits of his cast-off clothing, for he has a knack of shedding garoes In the caravanserais of Bokhara and Samarkand he is known, and there are shi+karis in the Paoing to visit Petrograd or Ro hiave thee haunts But if Fate coo to Llasa or Yarkand or Seistan he could map out your road for you and pass the word to potent friends We call ourselves insular, but the truth is that we are the only race on earth that can produceinside the skin of relish, but we're all a thousand per cent better than anybody else Sandy was the wandering Scot carried to the pitch of genius In old days he would have led a crusade or discovered a new road to the Indies Today he merely roamed as the spirit moved him, till the ept hiot out Sir Walter's half-sheet of note-paper It was not the original-naturally he wanted to keep that-but it was a careful tracing I took it that Harry Bullivant had not written down the words as a ood memories He must have written them in order that, if he perished and his body was found, his friends ued, the words ible to somebody or other of our persuasion, and likewise they ibberish to any Turk or German that found the of I asked Sandy

'Youcrumpets

'What's that?' I asked sharply

'He's the General believed to be coo in Aleppo He talked bad French and drank the sweetest of sweet chane'