ne of all men I have seen are fit to ride with me on my
mission. Germany may fail, but I shall not fail. I offer you the
greatest career that mortal has known. I offer you a task which will
need every atom of brain and sinew and courage. Will you refuse that
destiny?'

I do not know what effect this vapouring might have had in hot scented
rooms, or in the languor of some rich garden; but up on that cold
hill-top it was as unsubstantial as the mist around us. It sounded not
even impressive, only crazy.

'I stay with my friends,' said Sandy.

'Then I will offer more. I will save your friends. They, too, shall
share in my triumph.'

This was too much for Blenkiron. He scrambled to his feet to speak the
protest that had been wrung from his soul, forgot his game leg, and
rolled back on the ground with a groan.

Then she seemed to make a last appeal. She spoke in Turkish now, and I
do not know what she said, but I judged it was the plea of a woman to
her lover. Once more she was the proud beauty, but there was a tremor
in her pride--I had almost written tenderness. To listen to her was
like horrid treachery, like eavesdropping on something pitiful. I know
my cheeks grew scarlet and Blenkiron turned away his head.

Sandy's face did not move. He spoke in English.

'You can offer me nothing that I desire,' he said. 'I am the servant
of my country, and her enemies are mine. I can have neither part nor
lot with you. That is my answer, Madam von Einem.'

Then her steely restraint broke. It was like a dam giving before a
pent-up mass of icy water. She tore off one of her gauntlets and
hurled it in his face. Implacable hate looked out of her eyes.

'I have done with you,' she cried. 'You have scorned me, but you have
dug your own grave.'

She leaped on the parapet and the next second was on the glacis. Once
more the mist had fled, and across the hollow I saw a field-gun in
place and men around it who were not Turkish. She waved her hand to
them, and hastened down the hillside.

But at that moment I heard the whistle of a long-range Russian shell.
Among the boulders there was the dull shock of an explosion and a
mushroom of red earth. It all passed in an instant of time: I saw the
gunners on the road point their hands and I heard them cry; I heard
too, a kind of sob from Blenkiron--all this before I realized myself
what had happened. The next thing I saw was Sandy, already beyond the
glacis, leaping