Part 9 (2/2)

The door opened and Stuer in the interval and to carry his head higher There was a proud light, too, in his eye

'Brandt,' he said, 'you are about to receive the greatest privilege that ever fell to one of your race His Ih here, and has halted for a few minutes He has done me the honour to receive me, and when he heard my story he expressed a wish to see you You will follow hest is racious Answer his questions like a man'

I followed him with a quickened pulse Here was a bit of luck I had never dreamed of At the far side of the station a train had drawn up, a train consisting of three big coaches, chocolate-coloured and picked out with gold On the platfor grey-blue cloaks They seeht I reraphs in the picture papers

As we approached they drew apart, and left us face to face with one ht, and all muffled in a thick coat with a fur collar He wore a silver hel on his sword Below the helrey paper, from which shone curious sombre restless eyes with dark pouches beneath the him These were the features which, since Napoleon, have been best known to the world

I stood as stiff as a ramrod and saluted I was perfectly cool and one through fire and water

'Majesty, this is the Dutche does he speak?' the E a South African he also speaks English'

A spasm of pain seemed to flit over the face before lish

'You have come from a land which will yet be our ally to offer your sword to our service? I accept the gift and hail it as a good oiven your race its freedoed ive you in spite of yourselves Are there many like you in your country?'

'There are thousands, sire,' I said, lying cheerfully 'I am one of many who think that my race's life lies in your victory And I think that that victory must be won not in Europe alone In South Africa for the moment there is no chance, so we look to other parts of the continent You in in Europe You have won in the East, and it now relish where they cannot fend the blow If we take Uganda, Egypt will fall By your pero there to make trouble for your enemies'

A flicker of a smile passed over the worn face It was the face of one who slept little and whose thoughts rode hilishman once said that he would call in the New World to redress the balance of the Old We Germans will suland Serve us well, and you will not be forgotten' Then he suddenly asked: 'Did you fight in the last South African War?'

'Yes, Sir,' I said 'I was in the coland'

'What were your countryerly

I did not know, but I hazarded a guess 'In the field some twenty thousand But many lish'

Again a spasm of pain crossed his face

'Twenty thousand,' he repeated huskily 'A mere handful Today we lose as many in a skirmish in the Polish marshes'

Then he broke out fiercely 'I did not seek the warIt was forced on meI laboured for peaceThe blood of land e it He that takes the sill perish by the sword Mine was forced frouiltless Do they know that a your people?'

'All the world knows it, sire,' I said

He gave his hand to Stu like a sleep-walker, with no spring in his step, aer tragedy than any I had seen in action Here was one that had loosed hell, and the furies of hell had got hold of him He was no common man, for in his presence I felt an attraction which was not merely the mastery of one used to command That would not have impressedwho, unlike Stuside other men That was the irony of it Stumm would not have cared a tinker's curse for all the massacres in history But this man, the chief of a nation of Stuifts that had ination and nerves, and the one hite hot and the others were quivering I would not have been in his shoes for the throne of the Universe

All afternoon we sped southward, mostly in a country of hills and wooded valleys Stumm, for hiracious to him, and he passed a bit of it on to ht ihest is reed with his,' he said sententiously, 'but for us lesser folks it is a tri we can well do without'

I nodded my approval