He's one of Enver's
satellites. That explains many things. I should like a word with 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 am speaking 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 brain ... Especially 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 damnable confusion. You
can go on to Erzerum, but I shall send a man with you to see that you
report to headquarters there. I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I'm obliged 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 town two days ago.'

Ten minutes later we were coasting through the slush of the narrow
streets with a stolid German lieutenant sitting beside Me.

The afternoon was one of those rare days when in the pauses of snow you
have a spell of weather as mild as May. I remembered several like it
during our winter's training in Hampshire. The road was a fine one,
well engineered, 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 my side was
good-humoured enough, 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 making very little of it, for I had nothing to go
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 must be in a bad
way, and, unless they got a fillip from Greenmantle, would crumple up
before the Russians. In the rout I hoped we might get a chance to
change our sides. But it was no good looking so far forward; the first
thing was to get to Sa