After the circumlocutions of a people so devious-minded that they had no word for No, it was pleasant to be asked a straight question in simple English.
‘Yes,’ he said, and wondered a little. The man sounded as if he might be an American.
‘You the guy who put that advertisement in the paper?’
There was no doubt about the nationality this time.
‘Yes.’
The man tipped his hat further back on his head and said in a resigned way: ‘Oh, well. I’m crazy too, I guess, or I wouldn’t be here.’
Grant began to reel in.
‘Won’t you come down, Mr—?’
The man moved off the bridge and came down the bank to him.
He was youngish, well-dressed, and pleasant-looking.