argue that way myself, when my dinner doesn't agree with me. It's
not so hard as to wander round the Fatherland abusing Britain,
which was your last job.'

'I'm ready,' I said. 'But I want to do one errand on my own first.
I must see a fellow in my brigade who is in a shell-shock hospital in
the Cotswolds. Isham's the name of the place.'

The two men exchanged glances. 'This looks like fate,' said
Bullivant. 'By all means go to Isham. The place where your work
begins is only a couple of miles off. I want you to spend next
Thursday night as the guest of two maiden ladies called Wymondham
at Fosse Manor. You will go down there as a lone South
African visiting a sick friend. They are hospitable souls and entertain
many angels unawares.'

'And I get my orders there?'

'You get your orders, and you are under bond to obey them.'
And Bullivant and Macgillivray smiled at each other.

I was thinking hard about that odd conversation as the small
Ford car, which I had wired for to the inn, carried me away from
the suburbs of the county town into a land of rolling hills and
green water-meadows. It was a gorgeous afternoon and the blossom
of early June was on every tree. But I had no eyes for landscape
and the summer, being engaged in reprobating Bullivant and cursing
my fantastic fate. I detested my new part and looked forward to
naked shame. It was bad enough for anyone to have to pose as a
pacifist, but for me, strong as a bull and as sunburnt as a gipsy and