the fools!"

He snarled venomously. This man was beginning to interest me. His rapid
change of moods was fascinating, now the kindly philosopher, now the
Teuton braggart, now the Hun incorporate. As he limped across the room
to fetch his cigar case from the mantelpiece, I studied him.

He was a vast man, not so much by reason of his height, which was below
the medium, but his bulk, which was enormous. The span of his shoulders
was immense, and, though a heavy paunch and a white flabbiness of face
spoke of a gross, sedentary life, he was obviously a man of quite
unusual strength. His arms particularly were out of all proportion to
his stature, being so long that his hands hung down on either side of
him when he stood erect, like the paws of some giant ape. Altogether,
there was something decidedly simian about his appearance his squat nose
with hairy, open nostrils, and the general hirsuteness of the man, his
bushy eyebrows, the tufts of black hair on his cheekbones and on the
backs of his big, spade like hands. And there was that in his eyes, dark
and courageous beneath the shaggy brows, that hinted at accesses of
ape-like fury, uncontrollable and ferocious.

He gave me his cigar which, as he had said, was a good one, and, after a
preliminary sip of his wine, began to speak.

"I am a plain man, Herr Doktor," he said, "and I like plain speaking.
That is why I am going to speak quite plainly to you. When it became
apparent to that person whom it is not necessary to name further greatly
desired a certain letter to be recovered, I naturally expected that I,
who am a past member in affairs of this order, notably, on behalf of the
person concerned, would have been entrusted with the mission. It was I