From a book categorized as Fiction / Classics and 313 pages follows a description and a number of hidden haikus found in the book:
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir GCMG GCVO CH PC (/ˈbʌxən/; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
After a brief legal career, Buchan simultaneously began his writing career and his political and diplomatic careers, serving as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort in the First World War. Buchan was in 1927 elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, but he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably writing The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction. In 1935 he was appointed Governor General of Canada by King George V, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada R. B. Bennett, to replace the Earl of Bessborough. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan proved to be enthusiastic about literacy, as well as the evolution of Canadian culture, and he received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom (font: Wikipedia).
The younger men were
mostly Government clerks or
writers or artists.
Before we parted
he made me promise to come
one night to supper.
'Sure, mister,' he said,
and the next second we were
in the thick of it.
That afternoon, when
I got a chance, I had out
my _Pilgrim's Progress_.
After that it dropped
in easy steps to the moor
beyond the tower.
'This morning,' I said,
'I swam in the deep-water
inlet below us.
He is probably dead
by now, dead in a filthy
jaeger battalion.
I said we were all
good friends and offered to stand
drinks for the party.
On these latter shells
were bursting, but there was no
sign of life in them.
And the crazy thing
was that I knew the new man
better than the old.
's office. The thought
drove me frantic, and I got
up and paced the floor.
'I was in London,
you see, and they telephoned
on your telegram.
I found Mary's eyes
fixed upon me, and in them
I read the same thought.
There isn't any
drink concocted yet that could
lay me out like that.
By a bit of luck
our divisional quarters
were almost next door.
'It's only a car
on the main road,' said Mary.
'How did you get in?'
'Besides,' he went on,
'what a girl it is! She can't
scare and she can't soil.
I was back again
in the old life and was not
thinking of the new.
I wheeled Peter past
the entrance on the crackling
snow of the highway.
The American
was beside me, and his mouth
was close to my ear.
I saw my old friend
Orion, the hunter's star,
looking through the bars.
Nothing moved, nor could
I raise the bars on my legs
the smallest fraction.
As she rose weakness
came over her and she swayed
till his arm caught her.
'I call you,' he said.
I didn't believe my ears.
Nor did Ivery.
He looked steadily
at him. 'You don't believe it.
Well, I'll give you proof.
He told me in two
days' time Germany would smash
our armies to hell.
It was terribly
costly fighting and all wrong,
but it succeeded.
No more was needed,
for Wake knew the position
as well as I did.
Where was the fifth man?
He must have fought his way through,
and it was too late.