Part 10 (1/2)

'I a that 'If any man stands in my way I trample the life out of hireat We do not loves and fine phrases, but with hard steel and hard brains We Gerreen-sickness of the world The nations rise against us Pouf! They are soft flesh, and flesh cannot resist iron The shi+ning ploughshare will cut its way through acres of mud'

I hastened to add that these were also my opinions

'What the hell do your opinions matter? You are a thick-headed boor of the veldNot but what,' he added, 'there is ing of it!'

The winter evening closed in, and I saw that we had co sweep of river showed, and, looking out at one station I saw a funny church with a thing like an onion on top of its spire Itfrom the pictures I reraphy more attention in my time

Presently we stopped, and Stumm led the way out The train must have been specially halted for him, for it was a one-horse little place whose na, bowing and saluting, and outside was athrough dark woods where the snow lay far deeper than in the north There was a mild frost in the air, and the tyres slipped and skidded at the corners

We hadn't far to go We climbed a little hill and on the top of it stopped at the door of a big black castle It looked enor anywhere on its front The door was opened by an old felloho took a long tiot well cursed for his slowness Inside the place was very noble and ancient Stureat hall with black tarnished portraits of hty horns of deer on the walls

There seemed to be no superfluity of servants The old fellow said that food was ready, and without -rooh stone walls above the panelling-and found so fire The servant presently brought in a ham omelette, and on that and the cold stuff we dined I re to drink but water It puzzledon the very moderate amount of food he ate He was the type you expect to swill beer by the bucket and put away a pie in a sitting

When we had finished, he rang for the old man and told hi 'You can lock up and go to bed when you like,' he said, 'but see you have coffee ready at seven sharp in the '

Ever since I entered that house I had the unco in a prison Here was I alone in this great place with a felloho could, and would, wring my neck if he wanted Berlin and all the rest of it had seemed comparatively open country; I had felt that I could move freely and at the worst make a bolt for it But here I was trapped, and I had to tell ue The fact is, I was afraid of Stu in uzzled a bit I should have been happier

We went up a staircase to a roo corridor Stumm locked the door behind him and laid the key on the table That roorim bareness of downstairs here was a place all luxury and colour and light It was very large, but low in the ceiling, and the walls were full of little recesses with statues in therey carpet of velvet pile covered the floor, and the chairs were low and soft and upholstered like a lady's boudoir A pleasant fire burned on the hearth and there was a flavour of scent in the air, so like incense or burnt sandalwood A French clock on the ht Everywhere on little tables and in cabinets was a profusion of knickknacks, and there was soht you would have said it was a wo-room

But it wasn't I soon saw the difference There had never been a woman's hand in that place It was the room of a man who had a passion for frippery, who had a perverted taste for soft delicate things It was the coan to see the queer other side to ossip had spoken of as not unknown in the German army The room seemed a horribly unwholesome place, and I waswas a wonderful old Persian thing, all faint greens and pinks As he stood on it he looked uncommonly like a bull in a china-shop He seemed to bask in the comfort of it, and sniffed like a satisfied animal Then he sat down at an escritoire, unlocked a drawer and took out some papers

'We will now settle your business, friend Brandt,' he said 'You will go to Egypt and there take your orders from one whose name and address are in this envelope This card,' and he lifted a square piece of grey pasteboard with a big stamp at the corner and some code words stencilled on it, 'will be your passport You will Show it to the man you seek Keep it jealously, and never use it save under orders or in the last necessity It is your badge as an accredited agent of the German Crown'

I took the card and the envelope and put theypt?' I asked

'That reo up the Blue Nile Riza, the ents ork peacefully under the nose of the English Secret Service'

'I aypt?'

'You will travel by Holland and London Here is your route,' and he took a paper froiven you at the frontier'

This was a pretty kettle of fish I was to be packed off to Cairo by sea, which would take weeks, and God knoould get fro to pieces aboutnicely

Stumm must have interpreted the look on my face as fear

'You have no cause to be afraid,' he said 'We have passed the word to the English police to look out for a suspicious South African named Brandt, one of Maritz's rebels It is not difficult to have that kind of a hint conveyed to the proper quarter But the description will not be yours Your na home to his plantations after a visit to his native shores You had better get your dossier by heart, but I guarantee you will be asked no questions We s well in Germany'

I keptI knew they would not let ht till they saw me in Holland, and, once there, there would be no possibility of getting back When I left this house I would have no chance of giving them the slip And yet I ell on my way to the East, the Danube could not be fifty miles off, and that way ran the road to Constantinople It was a fairly desperate position If I tried to get away Stuo to join Peter in some infernal prison-camp