Part 26 (1/2)

'They're right enough But what about this story of stealing a car?'

'It is quite true,' I said, 'but I would prefer to use a pleasanter word You will see froive us the best transport Our own car broke down, and after a long delay we got some wretched horses It is vitally important that we should be in Erzeru an empty car we found outside an inn I am sorry for the discorave to wait'

'But the telegram says you are notorious spies!'

I sraive you his name It was Rasta Bey You've picked an aard fellow to hed 'Rasta!' I cried 'He's one of Enver's satellites That explains s I should like a ith you alone, Sir'

He nodded to the staff-officer, and when he had gone I put on my most Bible face and looked as important as a provincial mayor at a royal visit

'I can speak freely,' I said, 'for I a to a soldier of Germany There is no love lost between Enver and those I serve I need not tell you that This Rasta thought he had found a chance of delaying us, so he invents this trash about spies Those Comitadjis have spies on the brainEspecially he hates Frau von Einem'

He jumped at the name

'You have orders from her?' he asked, in a respectful tone

'Why, yes,' I answered, 'and those orders will not wait'

He got up and walked to a table, whence he turned a puzzled face on me 'I'm torn in two between the Turks and my own countrymen If I please one I offend the other, and the result is a dao on to Erzerum, but I shall send a man with you to see that you report to headquarters there I'ed to take no chances in this business Rasta's got a grievance against you, but you can easily hide behind the lady's skirts She passed through this too days ago'

Ten h the slush of the narrow streets with a stolid Ger beside me

The afternoon was one of those rare days when in the pauses of snow you have a spell of weather asour winter's training in Haineered, and well kept too, considering the amount of traffic We were little delayed, for it was sufficiently broad to let us pass troops and transport without slackening pace The fellow at h, but his presence naturally put the lid on our conversation I didn't want to talk, however I was trying to piece together a plan, and o upon We must find Hilda von Einem and Sandy, and between us we must wreck the Greenmantle business That done, it didn't matter so much what happened to us As I reasoned it out, the Turks ot a fillip from Greenmantle, would cruet a chance to change our sides But it was no good looking so far forward; the first thing was to get to Sandy

Noas still in thethe car I did not realize how thin our story was, and how easily Rasta raft at headquarters If I had, I would have shot out the Gerot to Erzeru mixed up in the ruck of the population Hussin could have helpedso confident since our intervieith Posselt that I thought I could bluff the whole outfit

But myto find my little hill At every turn of the road I expected to see the castrol before us You must know that ever since I could stand I have been crazy about high mountains My father took me to Basutoland when I was a boy, and I reckon I have scrambled over almost every bit of upland south of the Za, and froly yellow kopjes of Damaraland to the noble cliffs of Mont aux Sources One of the things I had looked forward to in co the Alps But noas aer than the Alps, and I could hardly keep my eyes on the road I was pretty certain that hty hold onto think it a place of evil oht I was destined to see, and to see pretty soon

Darkness fell ere some miles short of the city, and the last part was difficult driving On both sides of the road transport and engineers' stores were parked, and sohway I noticed lots of s parties, squads of stretcher-bearers-which an the white fingers of searchlights began to grope in the skies

And then, above the huuns The shells were bursting four or five uns must have been as many more distant But in that upland pocket of plain in the frosty night they sounded most intimately near They kept up their solemn litany, with a minute's interval between each-no rafale which rumbles like a drued on a target I judged theythe outer forts, and once there caazine had suffered

It was a sound I had not heard for five months, and it fairly crazed e before Laventie Then I had been half-afraid, half-solemnized, but every nerve had been quickened Then it had been the new thing in my life that held , the thing I had shared with so ood fellows, my proper work, and the only task for ain natural air onceho line of raeant stared at us till he saw the lieutenant beside me, when he saluted and we passed on Al streets, choked with soldiers, where it was hard business to steer There were few lights-only now and then the flare of a torch which showed the grey stone houses, with everylatticed and shuttered I had put out hts and had only side lah the labyrinth I hoped ould strike Sandy's quarters soon, for ere all pretty empty, and a frost had set in which made our thick coats see We had to present our passports, and I anticipated no ne But I wanted to get it over, for uns went on, like hounds baying before a quarry The city was out of range, but there were strange lights on the ridge to the east

At last we reached our goal and h a fine old carved archway into a courtyard, and thence into a draughty hall

'You uide I looked round to see if ere all there, and noticed that Hussin had disappeared It did not matter, for he was not on the passports