Greenmantle by John Buchan (learn to read activity book TXT) đ
- Author: John Buchan
Book online «Greenmantle by John Buchan (learn to read activity book TXT) đ». Author John Buchan
âThis ainât the time of year to buy fruit,â said Blenkiron as we passed on. âThose oranges are rotten as medlars.â
We were almost on our own doorstep before I guessed the meaning of the business.
âIs your morningâs work finished?â I said.
âOur morningâs walk?â he asked innocently.
âI said âworkâ.â
He smiled blandly. âI reckoned youâd tumble to it. Why, yes, except that Iâve some figuring still to do. Give me half an hour and Iâll be at your service, Major.â
That afternoon, after Peter had cooked a wonderfully good luncheon, I had a heart-to-heart talk with Blenkiron.
âMy business is to get noos,â he said; âand before I start on a stunt I make considerable preparations. All the time in London when I was yelping at the British Government, I was busy with Sir Walter arranging things ahead. We used to meet in queer places and at all hours of the night. I fixed up a lot of connections in this city before I arrived, and especially a noos service with your Foreign Office by way of Rumania and Russia. In a day or two I guess our friends will know all about our discoveries.â
At that I opened my eyes very wide.
âWhy, yes. You Britishers havenât any notion how wide-awake your Intelligence Service is. I reckon itâs easy the best of all the belligerents. You never talked about it in peace time, and you shunned the theatrical ways of the Teuton. But you had the wires laid good and sure. I calculate there isnât much that happens in any corner of the earth that you donât know within twenty-four hours. I donât say your highbrows use the noos well. I donât take much stock in your political push. Theyâre a lot of silver-tongues, no doubt, but it ainât oratory that is wanted in this racket. The William Jennings Bryan stunt languishes in war-time. Politics is like a chicken-coop, and those inside get to behave as if their little run were all the world. But if the politicians make mistakes it isnât from lack of good instruction to guide their steps. If I had a big proposition to handle and could have my pick of helpers Iâd plump for the Intelligence Department of the British Admiralty. Yes, Sir, I take off my hat to your Government sleuths.â
âDid they provide you with ready-made spies here?â I asked in astonishment.
âWhy, no,â he said. âBut they gave me the key, and I could make my own arrangements. In Germany I buried myself deep in the local atmosphere and never peeped out. That was my game, for I was looking for something in Germany itself, and didnât want any foreign cross-bearings. As you know, I failed where you succeeded. But so soon as I crossed the Danube I set about opening up my lines of communication, and I hadnât been two days in this metropolis before I had got my telephone exchange buzzing. Sometime Iâll explain the thing to you, for itâs a pretty little business. Iâve got the cutest cypher ... No, it ainât my invention. Itâs your Governmentâs. Any one, babe, imbecile, or dotard, can carry my messagesâyou saw some of them todayâbut it takes some mind to set the piece, and it takes a lot of figuring at my end to work out the results. Some day you shall hear it all, for I guess it would please you.â
âHow do you use it?â I asked.
âWell, I get early noos of what is going on in this cabbage-patch. Likewise I get authentic noos of the rest of Europe, and I can send a message to Mr X. in Petrograd and Mr Y. in London, or, if I wish, to Mr Z. in Noo York. Whatâs the matter with that for a post-office? Iâm the best informed man in Constantinople, for old General Liman only hears one side, and mostly lies at that, and Enver prefers not to listen at all. Also, I could give them points on what is happening at their very door, for our friend Sandy is a big boss in the best-run crowd of mountebanks that ever fiddled secrets out of menâs hearts. Without their help I wouldnât have cut much ice in this city.â
âI want you to tell me one thing, Blenkiron,â I said. âIâve been playing a part for the past month, and it wears my nerves to tatters. Is this job very tiring, for if it is, I doubt I may buckle up.â
He looked thoughtful. âI canât call our business an absolute rest-cure any time. Youâve got to keep your eyes skinned, and thereâs always the risk of the little packet of dynamite going off unexpected. But as these things go, I rate this stunt as easy. Weâve only got to be natural. We wear our natural clothes, and talk English, and sport a Teddy Roosevelt smile, and there isnât any call for theatrical talent. Where Iâve found the job tight was when I had got to be natural, and my naturalness was the same brand as that of everybody round about, and all the time I had to do unnatural things. It isnât easy to be going down town to business and taking cocktails with Mr Carl Rosenheim, and next hour being engaged trying to blow Mr Rosenheimâs friends sky-high. And it isnât easy to keep up a part which is clean outside your ordinary life. Iâve never tried that. My line has always been to keep my normal personality. But you have, Major, and I guess you found it wearing.â
âWearingâs a mild word,â I said. âBut I want to know another thing. It seems to me that the line youâve picked is as good as could be. But itâs a cast-iron line. It commits us pretty deep and it wonât be a simple job to drop it.â
âWhy, thatâs just the point I was coming to,â he said. âI was going to put you wise about that very thing. When I started out I figured on some situation like this. I argued that unless I had a very clear part with a big bluff in it I wouldnât get the confidences which I needed. Weâve got to be at the heart of the show, taking a real hand and not just looking on. So I settled I would be a big engineerâthere was a time when there werenât many bigger in the United States than John S. Blenkiron. I talked large about what might be done in Mesopotamia in the way of washing the British down the river. Well, that talk caught on. They knew of my reputation as an hydraulic expert, and they were tickled to death to rope me in. I told them I wanted a helper, and I told them about my friend Richard Hanau, as good a German as ever supped sauerkraut, who was coming through Russia and Rumania as a benevolent neutral; but when he got to Constantinople would drop his neutrality and double his benevolence. They got reports on you by wire from the StatesâI arranged that before I left London. So youâre going to be welcomed and taken to their bosoms just like John S. was. Weâve both got jobs we can hold down, and now youâre in these pretty clothes youâre the dead ringer of the brightest kind of American engineer ... But we canât go back on our tracks. If we wanted to leave for Constanza next week theyâd be very polite, but theyâd never let us. Weâve got to go on with this adventure and nose our way down into Mesopotamia, hoping that our luck will hold ... God knows how we will get out of it; but itâs no good going out to meet trouble. As I observed before, I believe in an all-wise and beneficent Providence, but youâve got to give him a chance.â
I am bound to confess the prospect staggered me. We might be let in for fightingâand worse than fightingâagainst our own side. I wondered if it wouldnât be better to make a bolt for it, and said so.
He shook his head. âI reckon not. In the first place we havenât finished our inquiries. Weâve got Greenmantle located right enough, thanks to you, but we still know mighty little about that holy man. In the second place it wonât be as bad as you think. This show lacks cohesion, Sir. It is not going to last for ever. I calculate that before you and I strike the site of the garden that Adam and Eve frequented there will be a queer turn of affairs. Anyhow, itâs good enough to gamble on.â
Then he got some sheets of paper and drew me a plan of the dispositions of the Turkish forces. I had no notion he was such a close student of war, for his exposition was as good as a staff lecture. He made out that the situation was none too bright anywhere. The troops released from Gallipoli wanted a lot of refitment, and would be slow in reaching the Transcaucasian frontier, where the Russians were threatening. The Army of Syria was pretty nearly a rabble under the lunatic Djemal. There wasnât the foggiest chance of a serious invasion of Egypt being undertaken. Only in Mesopotamia did things look fairly cheerful, owing to the blunders of British strategy. âAnd you may take it from me,â he said, âthat if the old Turk mobilized a total of a million men, he has lost 40 per cent of them already. And if Iâm anything of a prophet heâs going pretty soon to lose more.â
He tore up the papers and enlarged on politics. âI reckon Iâve got the measure of the Young Turks and their precious Committee. Those boys arenât any good. Enverâs bright enough, and for sure heâs got sand. Heâll stick out a fight like a Vermont game-chicken, but he lacks the larger vision, Sir. He doesnât understand the intricacies of the job no more than a sucking-child, so the Germans play with him, till his temper goes and he bucks like a mule. Talaat is a sulky dog who wants to batter mankind with a club. Both these boys would have made good cow-punchers in the old days, and they might have got a living out West as the gun-men of a Labour Union. Theyâre about the class of Jesse James or Billy the Kid, excepting that theyâre college-reared and can patter languages. But they havenât the organizing power to manage the Irish vote in a ward election. Their one notion is to get busy with their firearms, and people are getting tired of the Black Hand stunt. Their hold on the country is just the hold that a man with a Browning has over a crowd with walking-sticks. The cooler heads in the Committee are growing shy of them, and an old fox like David is lying low till his time comes. Now it doesnât want arguing that a gang of that kind has got to hang close together or they may hang separately. Theyâve got no grip on the ordinary Turk, barring the fact that they are active and he is sleepy, and that theyâve got their guns loaded.â
âWhat about the Germans here?â I asked.
Blenkiron laughed. âIt is no sort of a happy family. But the Young Turks know that without the German boost theyâll be strung up like Haman, and the Germans canât afford to neglect an ally. Consider what would happen if Turkey got sick of the game and made a separate peace. The road would be open for Russia to the Aegean. Ferdy of Bulgaria would take his depreciated goods to the other market, and not waste a day thinking about it. Youâd have Rumania coming in on the Alliesâ side. Things would look pretty black for that control of the Near East on which Germany has banked her winnings. Kaiser says thatâs got to be prevented at all costs, but how is it going to be done?â
Blenkironâs face had become very solemn again. âIt wonât be done unless Germanyâs got a trump card to play. Her gameâs mighty near bust, but itâs still got a chance. And that chance is a woman and an old man. I reckon our landlady has a bigger brain than Enver and Liman. Sheâs the real boss of the show. When I came here, I reported to her, and presently youâve got to do the same. I am curious as to how sheâll strike you, for Iâm free to admit that she impressed me considerable.â
âIt looks as if our job were a long way from the end,â I said.
âItâs scarcely begun,â said Blenkiron.
That talk did a lot to cheer my spirits, for I realized that it was the biggest of big game we were hunting this time. Iâm
Comments (0)