Greeenmantle (Kara Gubek)

 

    Kara Gubek was the point of interest.  It stood on a rib ofland between two peaks, which from the contour lines rose verysteep.   So long as it was held it was clear that no invader couldmove down the Euphrates glen.  Stumm had appended a note to the peaks—“not fortified”; and about two miles tothe north-east there was a red cross and the name “Prjevalsky.”  I assumed that to be thefarthest point yet reached by the right wing of the Russian attack.

     Then I turned to the paper from which Stumm had copied the jottings onto his map.  It was typewritten, and consisted of notes on differentpoints.  One was headed “Kara Gubek” and read: “No time to fortify adjacent peaks.  Difficult for enemy toget batteries there, but not impossible. This is the real point of danger, forif Prjevalsky wins the peaks Kara Gubek and Tafta must fall, and enemy will beon the left rear of Deve Boyun main position.”

 

     I was soldier enough to seethe tremendous importance of this note.  On Kara Gubek depended thedefence of Erzerum, and it was a broken reed if one knew where the weaknesslay.  Yet, searching the map again, I could not believe that any mortal commanderwould see any chance in the adjacent peaks, even if he thought themunfortified.  That was information confined to the Turkish and Germanstaffs.

NOTE:  


I haven't read Greenmantle in a long time, but I remember first turning its pages under LosCabos, Baja Sur, sun with hawks wheeling overhead and whales breaking the Seaof Cortez surface and spouting very close offshore.


The paragraphs quoted above are atmospheric, but don’t convey thebreadth, sweep, and moral depth and focus of John Buchan's trans-Caucasian WorldWar I espionage-adventure novel.


I'm not the world's biggest Steven Spielberg fan, but I can'tunderstand why he hasn't yet attacked Greenmantle.  It is tailor-made for him. I think hecould make a commanding and moving success of it and The Three Hostages also (since sequel-itis seems to be a disease with no knowncure).  He could transfer Mr Standfast to the care of PeterJackson.

 

 John Buchan(1875-1940)

V For ______ (The Island Of Sheep 2)

   

        “Then I thought I’d better make his acquaintance.  You know CharlesLamancha’s taste for freak parties?  Well, I got him to give a dinner at theclub  -- himself, Christopher Stannix, anUnder-Secretary, a couple of bankers, and Ned Leithen, and Ihad myself placed next to Barralty.  Ofcourse by this time he knew all about me, for the Laverlaw party had begun, andhis friends had discovered the way we have tied up Harraldsen’s fortune, sonaturally I was considered the villain of the piece.  He made no mistakes that night.  He was very polite to me, and talkedintelligently about my Far East Commission and foreign affairsgenerally, and even condescended to be enthusiastic about this Bordercountry in which he said he often motored. He did not attempt to pump me, butbehaved as if I were an ordinary guest of whom he had heard and whom he wasquite glad to meet.  There was somepretty good talk, for Stannix always manages to put life into a dinner table,and Barralty kept his end up.  He had awrangle with one of the bankers over some financial point, and I thought he puthis case uncommonly well.   So did theothers, for he was listened to with respect.  There’s no doubt that he has a pretty solidfooting in the world, and there’s no mistake about his brains.  He’s as quick as lightning on a point, and Ican see him spinning an immense web and keepingan eye on every thread in it.” 

 

  “I told you thatseveral weeks ago,” said Lombard.  “Barralty is as clever as the devil.  But what about therest of him – besides his mind?”

      

          “I’m coming to that.”

The Summons Comes For Mr Standfast

       

    

     They took Peter from the wreckagewith scarcely a scar except his twisted leg. Death had smoothed out some of the age in him, and had left his face muchas I remembered it long ago in the Mashonaland hills.  In his pocket was his old battered Pilgrim’s Progress.  It lies before me as I write, as beside it,for I was his only legatee – the little case which came to him weeks later,containing the highest honour that can be bestowed upon a soldier of Britain.

 

  

        It was fromthe Pilgrim’s Progress that I readnext morning, when in the lee of an apple orchard Mary and Blenkiron and Istood in the soft spring rain beside his grave. And what I read was the tale of the end, not of Mr Standfast who he hadsingled out for his counterpart, but of Mr Valiant-for-Truth whom he had nothoped to emulate.  I set down the wordsas a salute and a farewell:

 

         “Then said he, ‘I am going to my Father’s;and though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me ofall the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to himthat shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him thatcan get it.  My marks and scars I carrywith me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles who will now bemy rewarder.’

 

        “So he passed over, and all thetrumpets sounded for him on the other side.” 

John Buchan, Mr Standfast (Chapter 54).  London, Hodder & Stoughton (1919)