"Oh, ah! Certainly!"
And he was quiet for a few minutes. Then his loquacity gained the better of him, and he burst forth:
"It's not as it used to be in the Balkans, gentlemen! The law doesn't run any stronger. I'll say that. And boundaries are still vague, for all that the great ones in Paris decided. But people are poor as Hajji Achmet after he'd been to Mecca. They earn nothing, and have nothing—and therefore there's nothing to take or to steal. Hee-hee-hee!"
"You talk nonsense," said Nikka savagely. "Am I to be annoyed by such as you?"
No prince could have been more arrogant; no lackey could have succumbed more completely.
"P-p-par-d-dd-don!" The Armenian's teeth rattled.
"You may go. I will summon you if I have need."
The man went like a whipped dog, and cowered over his mysterious accounts at the desk in the next room.
Nikka sat through the meal with a black frown on his face. He was plainly out of sorts, and while I could understand his aversion to Kostabidjian, I was secretly amazed by the constantly growing change in his manner, for he was normally of a uniformly pleasant disposition. But it was not until we had been shown to a bedroom on the upper floor that he unmasked his feelings. I began to undress, but he paced the floor restlessly from wall to wall. Suddenly he turned on me:
"Jack, I hope I haven't insulted you in the past twenty-four hours."