The man would have struck Eyer for his grinning levity; but at that moment a door opened in the side of the large building and a man in Oriental robes stood there.
"Bring then here at once, Naka!" he said.
The man called Naka, the leader whom Jeter had first struck, bowed low, with deep respect, to the man in the doorway.
"Yes, O Sitsumi!" he said. As he spoke he sucked in his breath with that snakelike hissing sound which is the acme of politeness, in Japan—"that my humble breath may not blow upon you"—and spread wide his hands. "They are extremely low persons and dared lay hands upon your emissaries."
Eyer grinned again.
"I think," he called, "there transpired what might be called a general laying on of hands by all hands."
"I deeply deplore your inclination to levity, Tema Eyer," said the man in the doorway. "It is not seemly in one whose intelligence entitles him to a place in our counsels."
Eyer looked at Jeter. What was the meaning of Sitsumi's cryptic utterance?
"Bring them in," snapped Sitsumi.