n, my friend?'

'Then there will be hell let loose in those parts pretty soon.'

'Hell which may spread. Beyond Persia, remember, lies India.'

'You keep to suppositions. How much do you know?' I asked.

'Very little, except the fact. But the fact is beyond dispute. I have
reports from agents everywhere--pedlars in South Russia, Afghan
horse-dealers, Turcoman merchants, pilgrims on the road to Mecca,
sheikhs in North Africa, sailors on the Black Sea coasters,
sheep-skinned Mongols, Hindu fakirs, Greek traders in the Gulf, as well
as respectable Consuls who use cyphers. They tell the same story. The
East is waiting for a revelation. It has been promised one. Some
star--man, prophecy, or trinket--is coming out of the West. The Germans
know, and that is the card with which they are going to astonish the
world.'

'And the mission you spoke of for me is to go and find out?'

He nodded gravely. 'That is the crazy and impossible mission.'

'Tell me one thing, Sir Walter,' I said. 'I know it is the fashion in
this country if a man has a special knowledge to set him to some job
exactly the opposite. I know all about Damaraland, but instead of
being put on Botha's staff, as I applied to be, I was kept in Hampshire
mud till the campaign in German South West Africa was over. I know a
man who could pass as an Arab, but do you think they would send him to
the East? They left him in my battalion--a lucky thing for me, for he
saved my life at Loos. I know the fashion, but isn't this just
carrying it a bit too far? There must be thousands of men who have
spent years in the East and talk any language. They're the fellows for
this job. I never saw a Turk in my life except a chap who did
wrestling turns in a show at Kimberley. You've picked about the most
useless man on earth.'

'You've been a mining engineer, Hannay,' Sir Walter said. 'If you
wanted a man to prospect for gold in Barotseland you would of course
like to get one who knew the country and the people and the language.
But the first thing you would require in him would be that he had a
nose for finding gold and knew his business. That is the position now.
I believe that you have a nose for finding out what our enemies try to
hide. I know that you are brave and cool and resourceful. That is why
I tell you the story. Besides ...'

He unrolled a big map of Europe on the wall.

'I can't tell you where you'll get on the track of the secret, but I
can