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He was no common man, for in his presence I felt an attraction which was not merely the mastery of one used to command. That would not have impressed me, for I had never owned a master. But here was a human being who, unlike Stumm and his kind, had the power Of laying himself alongside other men. That was the irony of it.
But he showed no sign of recognition, and the last I saw of him was sitting sunk in a corner with his head on his chest as if he were going to sleep. He was a man who kept up his parts well. There was a motor-car waiting one of the grey military kind and we started at a terrific pace over bad forest roads. Stumm had put away his papers in a portfolio, and flung me a few sentences on the journey.
I had got over the first hurdle. But there was no time to be lost. Stumm would meet the postman and would be tearing after me any minute. I took the first turning, and bucketed along a narrow woodland road. The hard ground would show very few tracks, I thought, and I hoped the pursuit would think I had gone on to Schwandorf.
He blew the dust away from his cards very gingerly and went on playing. 'Sister Anne, he asked, 'do you see anybody coming? Then came a dud which dropped neatly inside on the soft ground. I was determined to break for the open and chance the rifle fire, for if Stumm went on shooting the castrol was certain death.
We moved into the country, but the windows were blurred with frost, and I saw nothing of the landscape. Stumm was busy with papers and let me alone. I read on a notice that one was forbidden to smoke, so to show my ignorance of German I pulled out my pipe. Stumm raised his head, saw what I was doing, and gruffly bade me put it away, as if he were an old lady that disliked the smell of tobacco.
But I reckon that that notice to trespassers, whatever it signifies, don't apply to you and me. I take it this gentleman is in your party. I sat and scowled, fixing the American with suspicious eyes. 'He is a Dutchman, said Stumm; 'South African Dutch, and he is not happy, for he doesn't like to hear English spoken. 'We'll shake on that, said Blenkiron cordially. 'But who said I spoke English?
<b>STUMM, MAUD.</b> Born in Cleveland, Ohio. Pupil of Art Students' League under Kenyon Cox and Siddons Mowbray, and of Oliver Merson in Paris, where her painting was also criticised and approved by Whistler. Her earliest work was flower painting, in which she gained an enviable reputation.
I heard footsteps in the corridor, and very gently I let the map roll up and turned away. When the door opened I was bending over the stove trying to get a light for my pipe. It was Gaudian, to bid me join him and Stumm in his study. On our way there he put a kindly hand on my shoulder.
He began in the taal, with the thick guttural accent that you get in German South West. 'You have heard of me, he said. 'I am the Colonel von Stumm who fought the Hereros. Peter pricked up his ears. 'Ja, Baas, you cut off the chief Baviaan's head and sent it in pickle about the country. I have seen it. The big man laughed.
The tension of the talk at supper had made me very tired. I was accepted by these men for exactly what I professed to be. Stumm might suspect me of being a rascal, but it was a Dutch rascal. But all the same I was skating on thin ice. I could not sink myself utterly in the part, for if I did I would get no good out of being there.
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