good fortune and proud and
vicious when their luck goes. They are not a people to be happy with.'

Then he told me that to keep up his spirits he had amused himself with
playing a game. He had prided himself on being a Boer, and spoken
coldly of the British. He had also, I gathered, imparted many things
calculated to deceive. So he left Germany with good marks, and in
Switzerland had held himself aloof from the other British wounded, on
the advice of Blenkiron, who had met him as soon as he crossed the
frontier. I gathered it was Blenkiron who had had him sent to St Anton,
and in his time there, as a disgruntled Boer, he had mixed a good deal
with Germans. They had pumped him about our air service, and Peter had
told them many ingenious lies and heard curious things in return.

'They are working hard, Dick,' he said. 'Never forget that. The German
is a stout enemy, and when we beat him with a machine he sweats till he
has invented a new one. They have great pilots, but never so many good
ones as we, and I do not think in ordinary fighting they can ever beat
us. But you must watch Lensch, for I fear him. He has a new machine, I
hear, with great engines and a short wingspread, but the wings so
cambered that he can climb fast. That will be a surprise to spring upon
us. You will say that we'll soon better it. So we shall, but if it was
used at a time when we were pushing hard it might make the little
difference that loses battles.'

'You mean,' I said, 'that if we had a great attack ready and had driven
all the Boche planes back from our front, Lensch and his circus might
get over in spite of us and blow the gaff?'

'Yes,' he said solemnly. 'Or if we were attacked, and had a weak spot,
Lensch might show the Germans where to get through. I do not think we
are going to attack for a long time; but I am pretty sure that Germany
is going to fling every man against us. That is the talk of my friends,
and it is not bluff.'

* * * * *

That night I cooked our modest dinner, and we smoked our pipes with the
stove door open and the good smell of woodsmoke in our nostrils. I told
him of all my doings and of the Wild Birds and Ivery and the job we
were engaged on. Blenkiron's instructions were that we two should live
humbly and keep our eyes and ears open, for we were outside
suspicion--the cantankerous lame Boer and his loutish servant from
Arosa. Somewhere in the place was a rendezvous of ou