gitated
when I had tried to explain to myself just how a case could be made out
against 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 become
too easy and cushioned. Men had forgotten their manhood in soft
speech, and imagined that the rules of their smug 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 we were becoming emasculated humbugs whose gods were our own
weaknesses. Then came war, and the air was cleared. Germany, in spite
of her blunders and her grossness, stood forth as the scourge of cant.
She had the courage to cut through the bonds of humbug and to laugh at
the fetishes of the herd. Therefore I am on Germany's side. But I
came here for another reason. I know nothing 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 was well 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 some destroying fury of a Norse legend. 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 many things, for the Faith marches to victory. Meantime I have
one word for you. You and your companion travel eastward.'

'We go 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 countermanded,' she said. 'I have need of you and you
go with me. Not to the flats of the Tigris, but to the great hills.
Tomorrow you will receive new passports.'

She gave me her hand and turned to go. At the threshold she paused,
and looked towards the oak cupboard. 'Tomorrow I will relieve yo