LITMIR.BIZ

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began to crowd on each other. The green flags made a forest between the Gran Seco frontier and the city, and spread out till their right wing was very close to the Universum Mine.

      “That’s the cavalry,” Sandy explained. “They’re finding it a tougher job than they reckoned. Yesterday they tried a sort of Jeb Stuart ride round the city and came in for some rough handling from Peters. They’ve first-rate cavalry, but indifferent M.I.”

      Then came a halt and the green flags did not advance for a day or two.

      “We put up quite a good little show,” was Sandy’s comment. “You remember the fifth mile-post down the line where it runs through a horse-shoe valley. That’s our position, and it is pretty much like that of the Boers at Magersfontein. They can’t find our trenches to shell us out of them. Lossberg is getting nervous about a frontal attack and is considering an enveloping movement. See! He has two of his machine-gun battalions moving east of the Universum. He’s bringing up another infantry division, too. That makes three, besides oddments. A pretty good muster against our modest territorials!”

      Two days later the red flags had fallen back two miles along the railway. Sandy, with his eye on a smaller chart, elucidated the position on the big map. “Our forward zone has gone, and now we’re in our battle zone, though we don’t intend to have much of a battle. But we’ve got to stick it there for a couple of days… You see this bunch of red flags east of the Mines? That’s our counter-movement beginning.”

      “It looks as if we were shaping for a big field action,” said one of the young Americans.

      “Not a bit. We aren’t looking for any barren victories. This is all directed to Lossberg’s address. We know a good deal about him, and he’s a cautious warrior. He’s taking no risks, for he has the strength and he means to use it… I hope to Heaven Peters doesn’t dip in too deep.”

      To Janet and Barbara these days were as thrilling as the last act of a good play. Up in that quiet place, they seemed to watch the struggle like gods from the empyrean. The very map became like a crystal in which their fancy could see the hot mustard-coloured hills, the puffs of shrapnel on the ridges, the ant-like movements of little mortals. Even the Gobernador lost something of his calm, and the eyes under his level brows kindled. In these days the aircraft were never idle. Every hour of the day and night heard the drone of their going or returning.

      On the evening of July 17th Sandy had much to tell.

      “You will be glad to hear that Lossberg has got his reinforcements. This morning the last division of his Expeditionary Force crossed the frontier.”

      “You seem pleased?” asked the puzzled Janet.

      “I am. I don’t want unnecessary bloodshed, and these small holding battles take their toll. It’s only a matter of hours now till we acknowledge defeat and fling up the sponge. It hasn’t been a bad show, except that Peters went further than I intended. He pushed his counter-attack at the Universum a little too deep, and suffered accordingly. That’s the worst of the enthusiastic amateur… There will be a great Olifa triumph presently. It will be fun to see what the papers make of it.”

      Next day Sandy’s good-humour had increased. He appeared at luncheon silent but beaming, and when an excited company gathered in the mess-hut before dinner he arrived like a breathless boy.

      “I want a drink, for I’ve had a dusty afternoon… Thanks, Bobby, a whisky-and-soda… We needn’t wait. I can give you the news now. Early this morning we fell back from our last positions and all our troops have been withdrawn from the city. Lossberg’s cavalry patrols must be in it now… Also the Universum is in his hands, and the Alhuema and the San Tome whenever he likes to have ‘em. He will meet with no opposition. The first bout is past and we’ve been knocked over the ropes. It’s Lossberg’s round… You needn’t look anxious, Excellency. There hasn’t been ten pounds’ worth of damage done to the Company’s property.”

      “I wasn’t thinking of the Company,” said Castor, and his face had become very grave. “Has all this happened according to your plan?”

      “More or less… except for Peters’s venture. I didn’t want our casualties to go beyond two hundred, and they’re actually three hundred and seventeen. Still, your army has not suffered badly.”

      “For God’s sake don’t call it mine. I’m your prisoner and your enemy. What’s the next step? When is this infernal folly to cease?”

      Sandy grinned benignly. “Properly speaking, the infernal folly has just begun. The sparring is over and the real business is about to commence.”

      The other considered. “Your plan, I take it, was to put up just enough resistance to compel Olifa to send the whole of her Expeditionary Force inside the Gran Seco. You know, of course, that she has reserves?”

      Sandy nodded. “But they will take some time to assemble, and they will have to make their way up.”

      “Why should they not?”

      “It may be difficult, for soon there will be a most imperfect railway.”

      “And Lossberg.”

      “Our first business was to get him in. Our business now is to see that he does not get out.”

      Castor laughed, but there was no mirth in the sound.

      “An ingenious plan! I have been obtuse. I might have guessed it.”

      Dinner that evening was a strange meal and a short one.

      There was little talk, since for the first time the unpredictable future brooded over all of them like a cloud. In the cloud there was no depression, but a certain awe.

      Sandy and Castor were the last to rise. The elder man had recovered his balance, and as they left the hut his eyes met the other’s. “We are declared enemies. Lord Clanroyden,” he said, “and the gloves are off. I make you my compliments on your boldness. I take it you are about to leave me and assume the direct command of the revolutionaries?”

      “As your lieutenant. I shall report to you regularly.”

      “Let that fooling stop. I am at present your victim, but some day soon the parts will be reversed, I have only one thing to say to you. You have succeeded for the moment in putting me out of action. But I am something more than a single man marooned up on this shelf of mountain. I have my bodyguard—everywhere in the world, and also in Olifa, and in the Gran Seco. You cannot destroy that bodyguard, though no doubt you have tried, for most of it is subterranean and secret. That force will be fighting for me. Its methods are what you would call criminal, for it does not accept conventional standards of honour. But it is resourceful and subtle and it will stick at nothing. What chance have you against it? You will be compelled to take risks, and that force I speak of will make those risks a certainty of death.”

      “I wonder why you tell me that. Is it meant as a friendly warning?”

      “I am not your friend. It is a warning. I do not wish you to deceive yourself. I want you to know what is against you.”

      For a moment Sandy stared at Castor’s face as if he sought something buried deep in the man. Then he laughed. “Thank you. Excellency… I hope they’ll make you comfortable while I’m away. If we meet again, we may be able to shake hands.”

      III

       Table of Contents

      The details of Lossberg’s advance up the railway, when, with overwhelming superiority of numbers and artillery, and after various checks, he drove in the screen of the defence, and on July 19th entered the Gran Seco city, do not belong to this story. They will be found set out at length in the dispatches of the correspondents who accompanied the Olifa army. Those veracious writers gave ample information about the Olifa command, for censorship was thought unnecessary in such a case, but they were very much in the dark as to in the personnel

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