Ascher took up the telephone receiver.
“If you like,” he said, “I can give you letters of introduction to our correspondents wherever you go. They are bankers, of course, but you will find them intelligent men.”
He summoned a clerk.
“If you give me an idea of your route——” he said.
“At present,” I said, “my plans are very vague. I haven’t settled anything. Perhaps you will give me your advice.”
He drew a sheet of paper towards him and began to write.
“You ought to see the work at Panama,” he said. “It is very interesting and of course of immense importance. Certainly you must see that. Afterwards——”
He scribbled on his sheet of paper, making lists of place names and adding notes about ways of travelling.
“If you go further south still——” he said. “I don’t recommend the Amazon, a huge river of course, but unless you are interested in rubber or entomology. The insect life I believe——”
“I’m interested in everything,” I said, “even insects which bite.”