Part 28 (1/2)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Greenmantle

Peter scarcely looked up fro, dick,' he said 'But you mustn't ask me to be friends with Stumm He makes my stomach cold, that one'

For the first ti me 'Cornelis' The day of make-believe was over for all of us

'Not to be friends with him,' I said, 'but to bust him and all his kind'

'Then I'm ready,' said Peter cheerfully 'What is it?'

I spread out the ht in the place but Blenkiron's electric torch, for Hussin had put out the lantern Peter got his nose into the things at once, for his intelligence work in the Boer War hadfrom me to explain to him the importance of the one I had looted

'That news is worthhis brows, and scratching delicately the tip of his left ear It was a way he had when he was startled

'How can we get it to our friends?'

Peter cogitated 'There is but one way A ht the Matabele it was necessary to find out whether the chief Makapan was living Souese border, but I believed he lived No native could tell us, and since his kraal ell defended no runner could get through So it was necessary to send a hed 'The man found the chief Makapan He was very un But the ht the chief Makapan out of his kraal and handed him over to the Mounted Police You rehed so much that he broke open a wound in his head, and had to have a doctor'

'You were that man, Peter,' I said

'Ja I was theinto kraals than there are ways of keeping people out'

'Will you take this chance?'

'For certain, dick I a, and if I sit in houses row old A et through a trench-line, and if there had been a trench-line handy I would have taken him on I will be very happy, dick, but I do not say I will succeed It is new country to '

I showed hiht the likeliest place-in the spurs of the Palantuken s was all his own He scraped earth and plaster out of a corner and sat down tothe contours of the reat hunters, he was as deft as a weaver bird He puzzled over it for a long tiot it by heart Then he took his field-glasses-a very good single Zeiss which was part of the spoils fro to follow s disappeared through the trap, and Blenkiron and I were left to our reflections

Peter , for he stayed on the roof the better part of the day It was a dull job for us, since there was no light, and Blenkiron had not even the consolation of a gaood spirits, for he had had no dyspepsia since we left Constantinople, and announced that he believed he was at last getting even with his darned duodenuine as detaining Sandy It was clear that our presence must have been kept secret from Hilda von Einem, for she was a pal of Stuaff on Peter andcould this secrecy last, I asked myself We had now no sort of protection in the whole outfit Rasta and the Turks wanted our blood: so did Stu her she would want it n of his existence I began to fear that with his had miscarried

And yet I wasn't really depressed, only ination of that Constantinople week The guns kept me cheerful There was the devil of a boht that our Allies were thundering there half a dozen roundless hope If they burst through the defence Hilda von Einem and her prophet and all our enee And that blessed chance depended very eon on the house-tops

It was not till the late afternoon that Hussin appeared again He took no notice of Peter's absence, but lit a lantern and set it on the table Then he went to the door and waited Presently a light step fell on the stairs, and Hussin drew back to let someone enter He promptly departed and I heard the key turn in the lock behind him

Sandy stood there, but a new Sandy who made Blenkiron and one, and he wore instead a long linen tunic clasped at the waist by a broad girdle A strange green turban adorned his head, and as he pushed it back I saw that his hair had been shaved He looked like so in his walk or nerve in his carriage He dropped numbly on the divan and laid his head in his hands The lantern showed his haggard eyes with dark lines beneath them

'Good God, old man, have you been sick?' I cried