There must be no indication of
surprise, among you. Remain impassive, at all costs!" He turned to
Brodeur, and in French warned him:
"Remember the signals, now. One mistake on your part may cost my
life--more than that, the lives of all the Legion. Remember!"
"Count on me, my Captain!" affirmed Brodeur. The masked woman, coming
to the Master's side, said also in French:
"I have one favor to ask of you!"
"Well, what?"
"Your life is worth everything, now. Mine, nothing. Let me subject
myself--"
He waved her away, and making no answer, turned to the Olema.
"Hast thou, O Bara Miyan," he asked in a steady voice, "a swordsman
who can with one blow split a man from crown to jaw?"
"Thou speakest to such a one, White Sheik!"
"Take, then, a simitar of the keenest, and cut me down!"
The old man turned, took from the hand of a horseman a long, curved
blade of razor-keenness and with a heavy back. The Master glanced
significantly at Brodeur, who knelt by the switchboard with one
steady hand on a brass lever, the other on the control of a complex
ray-focussing device.
Toward Bara Miyan the Master advanced across the turf. He came close.
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