somewhere in him ... I've given a good deal of
thought to this courage business, for I haven't got a great deal of it
myself. Not like Peter, I mean. I've got heaps of soft places in me.
I'm afraid of being drowned for one thing, or of getting my eyes shot
out. Ivery's afraid of bombs--at any rate he's afraid of bombs in a big
city. I once read a book which talked about a thing called agoraphobia.
Perhaps it's that ... Now if we know that weak spot it helps us in our
work. There are some places he won't go to, and there are some things
he can't do--not well, anyway. I reckon that's useful.'

'Ye-es,' said Macgillivray. 'Perhaps it's not what you'd call a burning
and a shining light.'

'There's another chink in his armour,' I went on. 'There's one person
in the world he can never practise his transformations on, and that's
me. I shall always know him again, though he appeared as Sir Douglas
Haig. I can't explain why, but I've got a feel in my bones about it. I
didn't recognize him before, for I thought he was dead, and the nerve
in my brain which should have been looking for him wasn't working. But
I'm on my guard now, and that nerve's functioning at full power.
Whenever and wherever and howsoever we meet again on the face of the
earth, it will be "Dr Livingstone, I presume" between him and me.'

'That is better,' said Macgillivray. 'If we have any luck, Hannay, it
won't be long till we pull you out of His Majesty's Forces.'

Mary got up from the piano and resumed her old perch on the arm of Sir
Walter's chair.

'There's another blind spot which you haven't mentioned.' It was a cool
evening, but I noticed that her cheeks had suddenly flushed.

'Last week Mr Ivery asked me to marry him,' she said.

PART II

CHAPTER TWELVE

I Become a Combatant Once More

I returned to France on 13 September, and took over my old brigade on
the 19th of the same month. We were shoved in at the Polygon Wood on
the 26th, and after four days got so badly mauled that we were brought
out to refit. On 7 October, very much to my surprise, I was given
command of a division and was on the fringes of the Ypres fighting
during the first days of November. From that front we were hurried down
to Cambrai in support, but came in only for the last backwash of that
singular battle. We held a bit of the St Quentin sector till just
before Christmas, when we had a spell of rest in billets, which
endured, so far as I was concerned, till