The Man from the CloudsClouston, J. Storer (Joseph Storer)
General
The Man from the Clouds
Clouston, J. Storer (Joseph Storer)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
As I walked along that dark shore, I tried to think out all the
possibilities of the situation.
"Is the man living on this island?" (assuming it is an island, and as the
sheep weren't real sheep it may not be a real island) I asked myself. "Or
has he simply landed from a submarine or some other enemy craft, and by
this time is hurrying off again?"
I recalled our conversation, especially his words when I said I had
arrived in "the usual way." "Impossible! There was no signal. I have been
looking out all the time," he had answered. Surely that implied he was
living here on shore, and indeed his very presence alone by himself and
his whole attitude and behaviour were consistent only with that theory.
"What conclusions has he come to about me?" was my next question, and as
I debated this problem my spirits began to rise a little.
"Hang it, he must be puzzled!" I said to myself confidently, and I do
think justly. "For supposing I were on his job in Germany and an entire
stranger suddenly sprang up out of nowhere, hailed me in excellent
English, and then (even if he didn't know the particular riddle I used
as pass-word) conducted himself like a confederate, made no attempt to
arrest me or interfere with me, and spoke German with a distinct English
accent, what would I think?"
I debated the answer for some minutes and then it came to me
involuntarily and inevitably.
"I'd be dashed if I'd know what to think! And that's just exactly the
hole this fellow must be in. I may be a fellow Hun and I may be an enemy,
and he has got to make up his mind which. So far I'm quite certain he
hasn't enough evidence either way."
The obvious corollary to this was that he must be presented with evidence
which would make him think me a fellow Hun. Of course this assumed that
he would have some means of getting news of my doings and my movements
and forming conclusions from what he heard. But I thought it a pretty
safe assumption to make. Confederates the man must have, and he would
certainly tell them of the mysterious stranger, and the whole gang as
certainly would make it their business to learn everything about me.
"What would a fellow Hun do in my place?" I said to myself. "Knowing the
breed as I do, he would certainly overdo the patriotic John Bull
business, he would be a little too polite to everybody, and he would eat
like a hog."
This then should be my role, and I may as well confess honestly that the
last item appealed to me particularly. I kept on smoking till my head
reeled in the hope of forgetting my hunger, but between pipes I felt
ready to chew my oilskin. Of course I should also keep up a touch of the
German waiter accent, and if this programme failed to lead either to my
arrest or to my friend coming to my rescue, I felt that my reputation
both as an ex-diplomatist and a rising young actor would be seriously
tarnished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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