Just finished reading The Man Who Would Be King (hereafter, MWWBK), by Rudyard Kipling. I enjoy Kipling, though I know others do not. I get his imperialism, I think. MWWBK is a short story, though I didn't realize this at first. The volume I have, published by Oxford World Classics, gave me access to a lot of Kipling short stories in the genre.
MWWBK is about a journalist who, by chance, meets a man on the train. The man on the train asks the journalist to deliver a message for him to another man on another train. The journalist decides to do this and then promptly reports both men for con-artists (which they are). Some time later they both show up at the newspaper printer and ask the journalist to hear their plan for the domination of some mysterious kingdom in the hills of Afghanistan. He gives them some assistance and off they go. Two years later one of them shows up and tells the journalist their story. This is the real meat of the story.
The delivery is fun and energetic. I won't spoil the real story, but instead direct you to read it yourself. Enjoy!
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