When the servant had cleared away, he was as good as his word and laid himself out on my sofa.

I offered him a good cigar, but he preferred one of his own lean black abominations.

Sandy stretched his length in an easy chair and lit his pipe.

'Now for your story, Dick,' he said.
I began, as Sir Walter had begun with me, by telling them about the puzzle in the Near East.

I pitched a pretty good yarn, for I had been thinking a lot about it, and the mystery of the business had caught my fancy.