But if Fate compelled you to go to Llasa or Yarkand or Seistan he could map out your road for you and pass the word to potent friends.

We call ourselves insular, but the truth is that we are the only race on earth that can produce men capable of getting inside the skin of remote peoples.

Perhaps the Scots are better than the English, but we're all a thousand per cent better than anybody else.

Sandy was the wandering Scot carried to the pitch of genius.

In old days he would have led a crusade or discovered a new road to the Indies.