“First, you must know that we’ve had an almighty piece of luck. Last night Hussin took us for a walk over the roofs of Erzerum, and by the blessing of Providence I got into Stumm’s room, and bagged his staff map ... Look there ... d’you see his notes? That’s the danger-point of the whole defence. Once the Russians get that fort, Kara Gubek, they’ve turned the main position. And it can be got; Stumm knows it can; for these two adjacent hills are not held ... It looks a mad enterprise on paper, but Stumm knows that it is possible enough. The question is: Will the Russians guess that? I say no, not unless someone tells them. Therefore, by hook or by crook, we’ve got to get that information through to them.”
Sandy’s interest in ordinary things was beginning to flicker up again. He studied the map and began to measure distances.
“Peter’s going to have a try for it. He thinks there’s a sporting chance of his getting through the lines. If he does—if he gets this map to the Grand Duke’s staff—then Stumm’s goose is cooked. In three days the Cossacks will be in the streets of Erzerum.”
“What are the chances?” Sandy asked.
I glanced at Peter. “We’re hard-bitten fellows and can face the truth. I think the chances against success are about five to one.”
“Two to one,” said Peter modestly. “Not worse than that. I don’t think you’re fair to me, Dick, my old friend.”
I looked at that lean, tight figure and the gentle, resolute face, and I changed my mind. “I’m hanged if I think there are any odds,” I said. “With anybody else it would want a miracle, but with Peter I believe the chances are level.”
“Two to one,” Peter persisted. “If it was evens I wouldn’t be interested.”
“Let me go,” Sandy cried. “I talk the lingo, and can pass as a Turk, and I’m a million times likelier to get through. For God’s sake, Dick, let me go.”
“Not you. You’re wanted here. If you disappear the whole show’s busted too soon, and the three of us left behind will be strung up before morning ... No, my son. You’re going to escape, but it will be in company with Blenkiron and me. We’ve got to blow the whole Greenmantle business so high that the bits of it will never come to earth again ... First, tell me how many of your fellows will stick by you? I mean the Companions.”