I stepped forward as interpreter, for already I had the hang of several score of Korean words.

He scowled and waved me aside.
But what did I reek?
I was as tall as he, outweighed him by a full two stone, and my skin was white, my hair golden.

He turned his back and addressed the head man of the village while his six silken satellites made a cordon between us.

While he talked more soldiers from the ship carried up several shoulder-loads of inch-planking.

These planks were about six feet long and two feet wide, and curiously split in half lengthwise.