I need help worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.' 'Get on with your yarn,' I said, 'and I'll tell you.' He seemed to brace himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest rigmarole.

I didn't get hold of it at first, and I had to stop and ask him questions.

But here is the gist of it: He was an American, from Kentucky, and after college, being pretty well off, he had started out to see the world.

He wrote a bit, and acted as war correspondent for a Chicago paper, and spent a year or two in South-Eastern Europe.

I gathered that he was a fine linguist, and had got to know pretty well the society in those parts.