Part 21 (2/2)

I walked like a blind man in that nether-pit of darkness The road seeravelit, and several ti bushes And then I stopped short in

It was quite close, about ten yards away And the strange thing was that it was a tune I knew, about the last tune you would expect to hear in this part of the world It was the Scots air: 'Ca' the yowes to the knowes,' which was a favourite of my father's

The whistler must have felt my presence, for the air suddenly stopped in the middle of a bar An unbounded curiosity seized me to knoho the fellow could be So I started in and finished it myself

There was silence for a second, and then the unknown began again and stopped Once more I chipped in and finished it Then it see nearer The air in that dank tunnel was very still, and I thought I heard a light foot I think I took a step backward Suddenly there was a flash of an electric torch fro of the man who held it

Then a low voice spoke out of the darkness-a voice I kneell-and, following it, a hand was laid onhere, dick?' it said, and there was so like consternation in the tone

I told hi to feel badly rattled er in your life,' said the voice 'Great God,here today of all days?'

You can iine that I was pretty scared, for Sandy was the last h And the next second I felt worse, for he clutched ed , but I felt that his head was screwed round, and mine followed suit And there, a dozen yards off, were the acetylene lights of a big reat cat, while we pressed into the bushes The headlights see the full width of the drive and its borders, and about half the height of the over-arching trees There was a figure in unifor beside the chauffeur, wholow, but the body of the car was dark

It crept towards us, passed, and ain when it stopped A switch was snapped within, and the liure

The servant had got out and opened the door and a voice caue I didn't understand Sandy had started forward at the sound of it, and I followed hi in the bushes

I was so dazzled by the suddenness of the glare that at first I blinked and saw nothing Thenat the inside of a car upholstered in some soft dove-coloured fabric, and beautifully finished off in ivory and silver The woman who sat in it had a mantilla of black lace over her head and shoulders, and with one slender jewelled hand she kept its fold over the greater part of her face I saw only a pair of pale grey-blue eyes-these and the sliht with his hands on his hips, by no means like a servant in the presence of his ure of a man at all times, but in those wild clothes, with his head thrown back and his dark brows drawn below his skull-cap, he looked like so Turkish, and glancing at ry and perplexed I took the hint that he was not supposed to know any other tongue, and that he was asking who the devil I ht be

Then they both looked at ipsy, the lady with those curious, beautiful pale eyes They ran over -breeches, my splashed boots, my wide-brimmed hat I took off the last and made my best bow

'Madaarden The fact is, I and uess you noticed hiood and well lost We ca for your front door to find soand-chief who didn't understandGovernment proposition I hate to trouble you, but if you'd send a man to show us how to strike the city I'd be very much in your debt'

Her eyes never left lish 'At the house I will give you a servant to direct you'

She drew in the skirts of her fur cloak toclothes I took the seat she pointed out She said a word in Turkish to Sandy, switched off the light, and the car moved on

Women had never come much my way, and I knew about as e All h crowd at that When I made my pile and came home I looked to see a little society, but I had first the business of the Black Stone on uished I had never been in a motor-car with a lady before, and I felt like a fish on a dry sandbank The soft cushi+ons and the subtle scents fillednow about Sandy's grave words, or about Blenkiron's warning, or aboutonly that I felt mortally shy The darknessatat me for a clown

The car stopped and a tall servant opened the door The lady was over the threshold before I was at the step I followed her heavily, the wet squelching from my field-boots At that moh a long corridor to a room where two pillars held lamps in the shape of torches The place was dark but for their glow, and it was as warm as a hothouse from invisible stoves I felt soft carpets underfoot, and on the walls hung soeometrical pattern, but with every strand as rich as jewels There, between the pillars, she turned and faced me Her furs were thrown back, and the black mantilla had slipped down to her shoulders

'I have heard of you,' she said 'You are called Richard Hanau, the American Why have you con,' I said 'I'ht I could help out with some business like Mesopotamia'

'You are on Germany's side?' she asked

'Why, yes,' I replied 'We Americans are supposed to be nootrals, and that means we're free to choose any side we fancy I'm for the Kaiser'

Her cool eyes searchedwith the question whether I was speaking the truth She was sizinglook There was no sex in it, nothing even of that i explores the existence of another I was a chattel, a thing infinitely removed from intiht of buying, scanning his shoulders and hocks and paces Even so must the old lords of Constantinople have looked at the slaves which the chances of war brought to theirtheir usefulness for soht of a humanity common to purchased and purchaser And yet-not quite This wo me, not for any special duty, but for my essential qualities I felt that I was under the scrutiny of one as a connoisseur in hu about women But every man has in his bones a consciousness of sex I was shy and perturbed, but horribly fascinated This slim woman, poised exquisitely like sohts, with her fair cloud of hair, her long delicate face, and her pale bright eyes, had the glamour of a wild dreaed to arouse her interest To be valued coldly by those eyes was an offence towithinfelloell set up, and rather above the average height, andlance, pride against pride