Meeting up at the Ritz again, Gimlet tells Cub, Copper and Trapper that he has been asked by a Government department to rescue a man from a medieval fortress in Eastern Europe. The man is Muraz Ismit, known as Ismit Pasha, of Turkish nationality, until recently a member of the Turkish Government. A keen yachtsman, Pasha has been shipwrecked on the Caucasian coast. Intelligence reports have revealed that he is now a prisoner in the ancient fortress of Kalashan.