He spoke familiarly of many names that I remembered to have seen in the newspapers.
He had played about with politics, he told me, at first for the interest of them, and then because he couldn't help himself.

I read him as a sharp, restless fellow, who always wanted to get down to the roots of things.

He got a little further down than he wanted.
I am giving you what he told me as well as I could make it out.

Away behind all the Governments and the armies there was a big subterranean movement going on, engineered by very dangerous people.

He had come on it by accident; it fascinated him; he went further, and then he got caught.