{"product_id":"2940012859198","title":"MR STANDFAST","description":"PART I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   1.  The Wicket-Gate\u003cbr\u003e   2.  'The Village Named Morality'\u003cbr\u003e   3.  The Reflections of a Cured Dyspeptic\u003cbr\u003e   4.  Andrew Amos\u003cbr\u003e   5.  Various Doings in the West\u003cbr\u003e   6.  The Skirts of the Coolin\u003cbr\u003e   7.  I Hear of the Wild Birds\u003cbr\u003e   8.  The Adventures of a Bagman\u003cbr\u003e   9.  I Take the Wings of a Dove\u003cbr\u003e  10.  The Advantages of an Air Raid\u003cbr\u003e  11.  The Valley of Humiliation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART II\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  12.  I Become a Combatant Once More\u003cbr\u003e  13.  The Adventure of the Picardy Chateau\u003cbr\u003e  14.  Mr Blenkiron Discourses on Love and War\u003cbr\u003e  15.  St Anton\u003cbr\u003e  16.  I Lie on a Hard Bed\u003cbr\u003e  17.  The Col of the Swallows\u003cbr\u003e  18.  The Underground Railway\u003cbr\u003e  19.  The Cage of the Wild Birds\u003cbr\u003e  20.  The Storm Breaks in the West\u003cbr\u003e  21.  How an Exile Returned to His Own People\u003cbr\u003e  22.  The Summons Comes for Mr Standfast\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNOTE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe earlier adventures of Richard Hannay, to which occasional reference\u003cbr\u003eis made in this narrative, are recounted in _The Thirty-Nine Steps_ and\u003cbr\u003e_Greenmantle_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJ.B.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePART I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER ONE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Wicket-Gate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI spent one-third of my journey looking out of the window of a\u003cbr\u003efirst-class carriage, the next in a local motor-car following the\u003cbr\u003ecourse of a trout stream in a shallow valley, and the last tramping\u003cbr\u003eover a ridge of downland through great beech-woods to my quarters for\u003cbr\u003ethe night. In the first part I was in an infamous temper; in the second\u003cbr\u003eI was worried and mystified; but the cool twilight of the third stage\u003cbr\u003ecalmed and heartened me, and I reached the gates of Fosse Manor with a\u003cbr\u003emighty appetite and a quiet mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs we slipped up the Thames valley on the smooth Great Western line I\u003cbr\u003ehad reflected ruefully on the thorns in the path of duty. For more than\u003cbr\u003ea year I had never been out of khaki, except the months I spent in\u003cbr\u003ehospital. They gave me my battalion before the Somme, and I came out of\u003cbr\u003ethat weary battle after the first big September fighting with a crack\u003cbr\u003ein my head and a D.S.O. I had received a C.B. for the Erzerum business,\u003cbr\u003eso what with these and my Matabele and South African medals and the\u003cbr\u003eLegion of Honour, I had a chest like the High Priest's breastplate. I\u003cbr\u003erejoined in January, and got a brigade on the eve of Arras. There we\u003cbr\u003ehad a star turn, and took about as many prisoners as we put infantry\u003cbr\u003eover the top. After that we were hauled out for a month, and\u003cbr\u003esubsequently planted in a bad bit on the Scarpe with a hint that we\u003cbr\u003ewould soon be used for a big push. Then suddenly I was ordered home to\u003cbr\u003ereport to the War Office, and passed on by them to Bullivant and his\u003cbr\u003emerry men. So here I was sitting in a railway carriage in a grey tweed\u003cbr\u003esuit, with a neat new suitcase on the rack labelled C.B. The initials\u003cbr\u003estood for Cornelius Brand, for that was my name now. And an old boy in\u003cbr\u003ethe corner was asking me questions and wondering audibly why I wasn't\u003cbr\u003efighting, while a young blood of a second lieutenant with a wound\u003cbr\u003estripe was eyeing me with scorn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe old chap was one of the cross-examining type, and after he had\u003cbr\u003eborrowed my matches he set to work to find out all about me. He was a\u003cbr\u003etremendous fire-eater, and a bit of a pessimist about our slow progress\u003cbr\u003ein the west. I told him I came from South Africa and was a mining\u003cbr\u003eengineer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Been fighting with Botha?' he asked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'No,' I said. 'I'm not the fighting kind.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe second lieutenant screwed up his nose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Is there no conscription in South Africa?'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Thank God there isn't,' I said, and the old fellow begged permission\u003cbr\u003eto tell me a lot of unpalatable things. I knew his kind and didn't give\u003cbr\u003emuch for it. He was the sort who, if he had been under fifty, would\u003cbr\u003ehave crawled on his belly to his tribunal to get exempted, but being\u003cbr\u003eover age was able to pose as a patriot. But I didn't like the second\u003cbr\u003elieutenant's grin, for he seemed a good class of lad. I looked steadily\u003cbr\u003eout of the window for the rest of the way, and wasn't sorry when I got\u003cbr\u003eto my station.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had had the queerest interview with Bullivant and Macgillivray. They\u003cbr\u003easked me first if I was willing to serve again in the old game, and I\u003cbr\u003esaid I was. I felt as bitter as sin, for I had got fixed in the\u003cbr\u003emilitary groove, and had made good there. Here was I--a brigadier and\u003cbr\u003estill under forty, and with another year of the war there was no saying\u003cbr\u003ewhere I might end. I had started out without any ambition, only a great\u003cbr\u003ewish to see the business finished. But now I had acquired a\u003cbr\u003eprofessional interest in the thing, I had a nailing good brigade, and I\u003cbr\u003ehad got the hang of our new kind of war as well as any fellow from\u003cbr\u003eSandhurst and Camberley.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079147208944,"sku":"2940012859198","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012859198_p0.jpg?v=1763573657","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012859198","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}