Part 23 (1/2)

She did not trouble to look round

'Is he dead?' she asked calmly

'By no uess he can't hear ht you this?' she asked, pointing to the envelope on the table which bore the big blue stamp of the Ministry of War

'The same,' I said 'I'm not perfectly sure of his name, but I think they call him Rasta'

Not a flicker of a s that the news pleased her

'Did he thwart you?' she asked

'Why, yes He thwarted me some His head is a bit swelled, and an hour or two on the shelf will do hiood'

'He is a powerful erous eneh I thought grimly that as far as I could see the value of him was likely to be about the price of ht,' she said with serious eyes 'In these days no eneht, Mr Hanau, to talk business with you, as they say in your country I have heard well of you, and today I have seen you I may have need of you, and you assuredly will have need of e potent eyes fell on ht which showed up every cranny and crack of the soul I felt it was going to be horribly difficult to act a part under that coaze She could not mesmerize me, but she could strip me of my fancy dress and set me naked in the masquerade

'What came you forth to seek?' she asked 'You are not like the stout American Blenkiron, a lover of shoddy power and a devotee of a feeble science There is so more than that in your face You are on our side, but you are not of the Gers for a rococo Empire You come froold and words I ask, what caet a vision of a figure, like one of the old Gods looking down on huure disdainful and passionless, but with its own ination, and I answered with the stuff I had often cogitated when I had tried to explain to ainst the Allied cause

'I will tell you, Madam,' I said 'I am a man who has followed a science, but I have followed it in wild places, and I have gone through it and come out at the other side The world, as I see it, had becootten their ined that the rules of their s civilization were the laws of the universe But that is not the teaching of science, and it is not the teaching of life We have forgotten the greater virtues, and ere becos whose Gods were our oeaknesses Then came war, and the air was cleared Gerrossness, stood forth as the scourge of cant She had the courage to cut through the bonds of huh at the fetishes of the herd Therefore I am on Germany's side But I ca of the East, but as I read history it is from the desert that the purification comes When mankind is smothered with shams and phrases and painted idols a wind blows out of the wild to cleanse and simplify life The world needs space and fresh air The civilization we have boasted of is a toy-shop and a blind alley, and I hanker for the open country'

This confounded nonsense ell received Her pale eyes had the cold light of the fanatic With her bright hair and the long exquisite oval of her face she looked like soend At that moment I think I first really feared her; before I had half-hated and half-admired Thank Heaven, in her absorption she did not notice that I had forgotten the speech of Cleveland, Ohio

'You are of the Household of Faith,' she said 'You will presently learn s, for the Faith marches to victory Meantime I have one word for you You and your coo to Mesopotamia,' I said 'I reckon these are our passports,' and I pointed to the envelope

She picked it up, opened it, and then tore it in pieces and tossed it in the fire

'The orders are countero with reat hills Toave o At the threshold she paused, and looked towards the oak cupboard 'Tomorroill relieve you of your prisoner He will be safer in my hands'

She left me in a condition of pretty blank bewilderment We were to be tied to the chariot-wheels of this fury, and started on an enterprise coainst our friends at Kut seemed tame and reasonable On the other hand, I had been spotted by Rasta, and had got the envoy of the most powerful man in Constantinople locked in a cupboard At all costs we had to keep Rasta safe, but I was very deteroing to be no party to cold-blooded ed to be her expedient It was a pretty kettle of fish, but in thefor nine hours So I went in search of Peter

I had scarcely begundeferred meal when Sandy entered He was before his time, and he looked as sole man clutches a spar

He heardface

'That's bad,' he said 'You say he spotted you, and your subsequent doings of course would not disillusion him It's an infernal nuisance, but there's only one way out of it I e of my own people They will keep him safe and sound till he's wanted Only he mustn't see me' And he went out in a hurry