If there
is anyone here present who is unwilling to subscribe to what I have
said, so far, let him withdraw."
No one stirred. But a murmur arose, eager, delighted:
"Go on! Go on--tell us more!"
"Absolute obedience to me is to be the first rule," continued the
Master. "The second is to be sobriety. There shall be no drinking,
carousing, or gambling. This is not to be a vulgar, swashbuckling,
privateering revel, but--"
A slight disturbance at the door interrupted him. He frowned, and
rapped on the table, for silence. The disturbance, however, continued.
Someone was trying to enter there against Rrisa's protests.
"I did not bring you up, sir," the Arab was saying, in broken English.
"You cannot come in! How did you get here?"
"I'm not in the habit of giving explanations to subordinates, or
of bandying words with them," replied the man, in a clear, rather
high-pitched but very determined voice. The company, gazing at him,
saw a slight, well-knit figure of middle height or a little less,
in aviator's togs. "I'm here to see your master, my good fellow, not
you!"
The man at the head of the table raised a finger to his lips, in
signal of silence from them all, and beckoned the Arab.
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