{"product_id":"2940012859136","title":"GREENMANTLE","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   1.  A Mission is Proposed\u003cbr\u003e   2.  The Gathering of the Missionaries\u003cbr\u003e   3.  Peter Pienaar\u003cbr\u003e   4.  Adventures of Two Dutchmen on the Loose\u003cbr\u003e   5.  Further Adventures of the Same\u003cbr\u003e   6.  The Indiscretions of the Same\u003cbr\u003e   7.  Christmas Eve\u003cbr\u003e   8.  The Essen Barges\u003cbr\u003e   9.  The Return of the Straggler\u003cbr\u003e  10. The Garden-House of Suliman the Red\u003cbr\u003e  11. The Companions of the Rosy Hours\u003cbr\u003e  12. Four Missionaries See Light in Their Mission\u003cbr\u003e  13. I Move in Good Society\u003cbr\u003e  14. The Lady of the Mantilla\u003cbr\u003e  15. An Embarrassed Toilet\u003cbr\u003e  16. The Battered Caravanserai\u003cbr\u003e  17. Trouble By the Waters of Babylon\u003cbr\u003e  18. Sparrows on the Housetops\u003cbr\u003e  19. Greenmantle\u003cbr\u003e  20. Peter Pienaar Goes to the Wars\u003cbr\u003e  21. The Little Hill\u003cbr\u003e  22. The Guns of the North\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER ONE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Mission is Proposed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had just finished breakfast and was filling my pipe when I got\u003cbr\u003eBullivant's telegram.  It was at Furling, the big country house in\u003cbr\u003eHampshire where I had come to convalesce after Loos, and Sandy, who was\u003cbr\u003ein the same case, was hunting for the marmalade.  I flung him the\u003cbr\u003eflimsy with the blue strip pasted down on it, and he whistled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Hullo, Dick, you've got the battalion.  Or maybe it's a staff billet.\u003cbr\u003eYou'll be a blighted brass-hat, coming it heavy over the hard-working\u003cbr\u003eregimental officer.  And to think of the language you've wasted on\u003cbr\u003ebrass-hats in your time!'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI sat and thought for a bit, for the name 'Bullivant' carried me back\u003cbr\u003eeighteen months to the hot summer before the war.  I had not seen the\u003cbr\u003eman since, though I had read about him in the papers.  For more than a\u003cbr\u003eyear I had been a busy battalion officer, with no other thought than to\u003cbr\u003ehammer a lot of raw stuff into good soldiers.  I had succeeded pretty\u003cbr\u003ewell, and there was no prouder man on earth than Richard Hannay when he\u003cbr\u003etook his Lennox Highlanders over the parapets on that glorious and\u003cbr\u003ebloody 25th day of September.  Loos was no picnic, and we had had some\u003cbr\u003eugly bits of scrapping before that, but the worst bit of the campaign I\u003cbr\u003ehad seen was a tea-party to the show I had been in with Bullivant\u003cbr\u003ebefore the war started.  [Major Hannay's narrative of this affair has\u003cbr\u003ebeen published under the title of _The Thirty-nine Steps_.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sight of his name on a telegram form seemed to change all my\u003cbr\u003eoutlook on life.  I had been hoping for the command of the battalion,\u003cbr\u003eand looking forward to being in at the finish with Brother Boche.  But\u003cbr\u003ethis message jerked my thoughts on to a new road. There might be other\u003cbr\u003ethings in the war than straightforward fighting. Why on earth should\u003cbr\u003ethe Foreign Office want to see an obscure Major of the New Army, and\u003cbr\u003ewant to see him in double-quick time?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I'm going up to town by the ten train,' I announced; 'I'll be back in\u003cbr\u003etime for dinner.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Try my tailor,' said Sandy.  'He's got a very nice taste in red tabs.\u003cbr\u003eYou can use my name.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn idea struck me.  'You're pretty well all right now.  If I wire for\u003cbr\u003eyou, will you pack your own kit and mine and join me?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Right-o!  I'll accept a job on your staff if they give you a corps. If\u003cbr\u003eso be as you come down tonight, be a good chap and bring a barrel of\u003cbr\u003eoysters from Sweeting's.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI travelled up to London in a regular November drizzle, which cleared\u003cbr\u003eup about Wimbledon to watery sunshine.  I never could stand London\u003cbr\u003eduring the war.  It seemed to have lost its bearings and broken out\u003cbr\u003einto all manner of badges and uniforms which did not fit in with my\u003cbr\u003enotion of it.  One felt the war more in its streets than in the field,\u003cbr\u003eor rather one felt the confusion of war without feeling the purpose.  I\u003cbr\u003edare say it was all right; but since August 1914 I never spent a day in\u003cbr\u003etown without coming home depressed to my boots.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI took a taxi and drove straight to the Foreign Office.  Sir Walter did\u003cbr\u003enot keep me waiting long.  But when his secretary took me to his room I\u003cbr\u003ewould not have recognized the man I had known eighteen months before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis big frame seemed to have dropped flesh and there was a stoop in the\u003cbr\u003esquare shoulders.  His face had lost its rosiness and was red in\u003cbr\u003epatches, like that of a man who gets too little fresh air.  His hair\u003cbr\u003ewas much greyer and very thin about the temples, and there were lines\u003cbr\u003eof overwork below the eyes.  But the eyes were the same as before, keen\u003cbr\u003eand kindly and shrewd, and there was no change in the firm set of the\u003cbr\u003ejaw.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'We must on no account be disturbed for the next hour,' he told his\u003cbr\u003esecretary.  When the young man had gone he went across to both doors\u003cbr\u003eand turned the keys in them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Well, Major Hannay,' he said, flinging himself into a chair beside the\u003cbr\u003efire.  'How do you like soldiering?'","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079147143408,"sku":"2940012859136","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012859136_p0.jpg?v=1763573561","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012859136","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}