'Can I speak to you?' he said. 'May I come
in for a minute?' He was steadying his voice with an effort, and his hand was
pawing my arm.
I got my door open and motioned him in. No
sooner was he over the threshold than he made a dash for my back room, where I
used to smoke and write my letters. Then he bolted back.
'Is the door locked?' he asked feverishly,
and he fastened the chain with his own hand.
'I'm very sorry,' he said humbly. 'It's a
mighty liberty, but you looked the kind of man who would understand. I've had
you in my mind all this week when things got troublesome. Say, will you do me a
good turn?'
'I'll listen to you,' I said. 'That's all
I'll promise.' I was getting worried by the antics of this nervous little chap.
There was a tray of drinks on a table
beside him, from which he filled himself a stiff whisky-and-soda. He drank it
off in three gulps, and cracked the glass as he set it down.
'Pardon,' he said, 'I'm a bit rattled
tonight. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.'
I sat down in an armchair and lit my pipe.
'What does it feel like?' I asked. I was
pretty certain that I had to deal with a madman.
A smile flickered over his drawn face.
'I'm not mad—yet. Say, Sir, I've been watching you, and I reckon you're a cool
customer. I reckon, too, you're an honest man, and not afraid of playing a bold
hand. I'm going to confide in you. 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. 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. I gathered that most of the people in it were the sort of educated
anarchists that make revolutions, but that beside them there were financiers
who were playing for money. A clever man can make big profits on a falling
market, and it suited the book of both classes to set Europe by the ears.
He told me some queer things that
explained a lot that had puzzled me—things that happened in the Balkan War, how
one state suddenly came out on top, why alliances were made and broken, why
certain men disappeared, and where the sinews of war came from. The aim of the
whole conspiracy was to get Russia and Germany at loggerheads.
When I asked why, he said that the
anarchist lot thought it would give them their chance. Everything would be in
the melting-pot, and they looked to see a new world emerge. The capitalists
would rake in the shekels, and make
fortunes by buying up wreckage. Capital, he said, had no conscience and no
fatherland. Besides, the Jew was behind it, and the Jew hated Russia worse than
hell.
Vocabulary
Rigmarole: confused, rambling, or incoherent discourse
At loggerhead: engaged in a
dispute
Shekel: money
Main ideas
Richard Hannay´s neighbour visits him
He shows himself strange and nervous
This man says he trusts Richard and
needs help
He tells that he is from Kentucky and
that he has travelled a lot
He explains about a conspiracy to
engage Russia and Germany in conflict
The anarchists will profit from this
situation
The capitalists can have their
benefit
The Jews are also responsible for the
conflict
Resources on the Internet
Thirty-Nine Steps, trailer
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