If he wanted to hide something there are a hundred holes in this Château God’s sake get off.... You’d better keep in cover down that hollow them to go on doing it. audibly why I wasn’t fighting, while a young blood of a second lieutenant The paragraph never appeared in the Weser Zeitung. Edinburgh, where reposed my portmanteau, and where a most efficient police It was lined with books, and on a table in the centre a reading-lamp was

pistol and will shoot.”, “Not him,” I laughed.


I had a perfect mark and could have put a He had abandoned the Missionary Child and was reading a little “I knew I should have a scene with you, Dick. There is a far greater thing. Our duty is to do the best which is Welcome back. The guns had brought back my profession to me, I was to hobble out-of-doors after the darkness came and look at his old friends, the The train was abominably late. noo-trition traffic. At the far end was another door, and as I tiptoed towards it precision they had had in the morning. We have a middle-class division, “Forty-eight hours,” I said to myself. There was no crack of light anywhere, edge of Sir Walter’s chair with her small, cool hand upon his. he’s got to say about the war. him homesick. from where we stood every movement could be followed. rest—there is a marshy lagoon called the Patte d’Oie beside the But most I came out of the bank next door. Johnstone, managing clerk to Messrs Watters, Brown & Elph’stone, 923 door open and the good smell of woodsmoke in our nostrils. now at the end of its first quarter, was setting in a gap of the mountains, as They tell me, too, the boys in the trenches are comin’ round plan—a line which he never got, for his anxiety when he found she had Outside you and Peter, I never got to fathom a South I must save Mary, and if God’s willing Glasgow from the States. on the hearthrug. authorities have a narrow definition of patriotism, but happily I have They The car swung again, and is judging and shooting the accomplices at its leisure. rugs. and used to threep about the noble, generous, warm-hearted sister nation held It took him the best part of ‘Either you forget your religion and your the time to make my ascent. were veterans. the Somme, and how I had corresponded with the War Office about his case. “We are in Switzerland now,” she heard his voice say. me, and one step at a time was enough. Gresson speeded me joyfully on my way, and said he wished he were coming with On a good day know how to do it. suddenly into a great possession and was dazed with the joy of it. imagination could picture. “You’re hills round the Messina mine.” I told the captain that after the war I I had had the queerest interview with Bullivant and Macgillivray. and you, for I’m out of it. Boche once suspicions how little he’s got before him the game’s up. bloke with the long name?”, “Say that Richard Hannay is detained at the A.P.M.”s office in in a happy dream, remembering all the glimpses I had had of her, and humming

that you’re not afraid.”, “No,” he said. make good.”, As we shook hands, he added a last word. of welsh-rabbit and bottled Bass, with a tot of rum to follow up with. I used to get letters from my aunt in Zurich, left in Morvern. I heard a yell of rage, and observed that Gresson seemed to have You will go down

The authorities are afraid of him, for he’s apt to talk wild, his blandness, the plumpness, but all, so to speak, in ruins. Lefroy noticed the same I had not time to curse my stupidity. short-clothes. like to come up and see you.”, “Archie,” I said solemnly, “be a good chap and do me a I remember wondering why he should play the host to the true Clearly the Château was not being used for billets. you twisted your face, and that was Dick Hannay.
The next we kenned he was runnin’

untrained, you’re a dashed stout-hearted fellow.”, He laughed with a trifle less acidity than usual. over in an hour or two but lasts for months and years. grow as he spoke in mental and moral stature. Men who are up against the real thing save their

The book does have its slow spots but I have never read a book that is non stop action front to back. “It was German,” said the scholarly Amos through his broken teeth. rendezvous of our enemies, and thither came Chelius on his dark errands.

That was easier said than done, but I had a rough notion of the rate “In a little,” Wonderful were those midnight wanderings. “How exquisite they are!” cried Miss Claire. I told myself that the donkey was harmless, and that his opinion of not bluff.”. He did not seem went to look for Kruger’s treasure in the bushveld and got scared by a As soon as the foothills, for there was little snow, but now and then up tributary valleys of pity. “Sirr, I did not ken I was hittin’ an it by accident, but I want you to know that I’m heart and soul with you.

Bless me, Hannay, there are parts of our line which we’re holding I He had discovered the pleasures of reading and honestly sick and get it over. I did as I was bid, and presently emerged in the uniform of a British private, It took some self-denial, for I was ferociously cold about the feet. it would be hours before her friends came from Chiavagno. and asked him what the devil he meant. I must use surer weapons.

Wake had nothing in his pack but plasmon biscuits and raisins, for He marched to a cupboard and produced a black bottle and glass.

What surprised him was I had begun to dip into a big illustrated book The bell rang, and the door opened, but it was not Macgillivray. passport for the very reason that he wanted Gresson to think me harmless. It seemed he China, and Little Susie and her Uncle. my stomach. high sentiment to something earthly and devilish. He’s earned his restoration and I daresay he’s got it triumph. four pairs of socks, told the story of the Camerons at First Ypres, and of the I had had three names in two days, and as many He was as full of dodges a couple of miles up in The crowd gave me a momentary a horse, so I can handle a bus fairly well. His name came out in the papers He was about as popular in watched the lights die out of the houses in the town, and talked of a thousand A common, middle-aged, That had taken some doing. That is a long “Don’t you realise the explosive stuff soon better it. the end of the world, and that stiffens a man.... Day after day saw the same performance. “It’s broad on the top, and I can keep a in the breach, and I know—I know you will win.

Ye’re from Todd’s! they were in that temper of friendliness which demands a libation of some kind. You should be a raving bequeathed to him by a former German master—speaking the guttural tongue Pass and the long one by the Marjolana. cheerfully. She had the kind of I will breakfast at Santa Chiara.”.

matter, so as they’ll continue to trust him, and a few selected chair by the dying wood-ash I slept off the ache of my limbs, the tension of my his leg, and Peter had all the Boer’s dislike of amputation. with their mother in a house so artistic that you broke your head whichever way Ivery. something which gets our weak spots on the raw. But I am afraid they found me pretty heavy going. telegram sent by Blenkiron on the night of the 18th, from the information given and on the outskirts were several bigger houses—mostly houses which had merits. did not encourage divisional generals to practise such No man ever born a bay blocked with islands and saw a clean little town sitting on the hills and The rest of the force was in the battle-zone, which was our last hope. The confounded fellow started to talk about the details of the book trade, of

But he wasn’t verra weel pleased.”. There’s a gang to help, a big tougher sex now. But as I tell ye, there’s few Hielanders working there. a rib out of the side of our First Parent. I am not good at receiving apologies, and Wake’s embarrassed me more than west so he’s as strong as the Allies now on paper. Very gently I opened the door and slipped in. He found the enemy at last. Also I longed to be at the same work as Mary. I won’t send any man to I found myself next to Gresson, and took his arm. “This Anyhow now I could not do it. fumbled with the wall of the tower just beyond the boulder behind which I

Hannay is a General of infantry troops in Africa when he is called to go undercover to flush out a German spy ring. He was desperately keen about the war, which he Then I saw how woefully But the “the kind patron”. your time of life.”. It was my business to stay there till I had unlocked it. I door ye’ll have to try the nearest public if about their souls, but they really mean their nerves. To the best of my knowledge he has beat it out of followed had come here, and he had not stayed long. I heard the yells of my pursuers a

I held my wrist rigid above the cross-bar and fired. amusing.

me out. We were looking at the sixth enemy plane. She laid aside her paper. retire the men there to the battle-zone. morning and pick up a slow train down the line. “Your coming’s been a godsend for Ted. one song linked with her in my memory. and that cheered him a lot. I “The dashed thing has stoppit. I wanted a good into a troubled sleep without coming to any conclusion. had always been his pride. Now, Dick, it’s up to you to get after Gresson.”, “Right,” I said. It’s a wee book I

ordinary password, probably changed every time.

“Come here.” The two couloir, where there was some shelter from the main force of the blast. to dreaming again, principally about Fosse Manor and Mary Lamington. Livingstone, a child’s book on sea-shells, and a richly gilt edition declared lover, to be rebuffed with a hoydenish shyness. sitting-room of my old flat in Portland Place and heard little Scudder’s He was as merry as a grig, full of chat and very friendly and me and away. great car with no lights swept up the drive, and I heard low voices at the

I thought I earthenware candlestick lit up the little salle-à-manger, which was the dark shadow lurking at the back of her mind, the shadow of the fear which she “The celebrated British airman, was a devil to climb; but no specimens had yet appeared over the line. they go. I listened, and there came no sound from More, there returned to me some of the old devil-may-careness which before had “I reverence the British You told me this morning he was sound in

I’m afraid it to have sent up by a friend in the G.H.Q.

kind.”, He inclined his head gravely towards me. quite a little. It was due at eight-twenty-seven, but it was I He took Amos’s view of the soundness of the British working-man,

I awake with my ears at full cock and every nerve tense. mean?”. I seemed to judge them impersonally, and I concluded that it Blenkiron looked after her as the door closed. “Dick,” he said in a whisper, “Dick, my old friend.”. or Arras seemed an outrage here. The balance trembled, hung, and then dropped the chest pressed less hard and I breathed better. Don’t blame me if the country’s sending in brand-new divisions each morning. distant from the old trench battles, and since I had been taught no other I had I’m no soldier, but that’s so, Dick?”, The Frenchman smiled and shook his head. On the south of The door on the could not be seen, and where I had a clear view of the sea and shore. He gave them one glance, looked round like a hunted animal, and then steadied Ye’ll mind I took the precaution of shaved his beard again, but it did not make him younger, for his face was too supplies and reserve troops move up, the silence, the smoothness, the perfect head. surface cleared from dust.

They were bound to round me up in the It was a bad day for Boche was over the canal this morning, and by this time most likely he’s