He ran a loosening finger between his collar and throat.

"Quite a start, I'll admit, but--some of my friends are great practical jokers.

They have a way of jumping out at me and crying 'Boo!' when I least expect it." "Um-m! I see.

Mr.Dietz told me that he was under lifelong obligation to a certain Colonel Calvin Gray.

Something to do with passports--" "I once rendered him a slight favor." "He doesn't regard the favor as 'slight.' He was about to be imprisoned for the duration of the war and you managed to get him back home." "Merely a matter of official routine.