"Y-e-s." The superior's single acquiescence was prolonged into three syllables, urged by the acknowledged supreme ability of Kolinsky and restrained by a fear of apprehended duplicity.
Aware of this struggle the clever fellow turned back in the doorway to laugh at the other's perplexity.
"Really, Excellency, you have only one thing to fear." His chief started up suspiciously.
"What is that?" he asked tersely.
"That I may decide to claim the throne of Krovitch myself," Josef replied, as with his habitual smile he softly closed the door and hurried from the house.
IV
THE GRAY MAN
"Do you realize, Carrick, that three weeks have passed since I proposed this trip to Krovitch?" They were whirling along a badly kept road in that province of Russia as Calvert Carter made the above remark which was also an interrogation. The place of their debarkation had been an unusual one—Danzig—chosen because it had been the more accessible to the Russian frontier. Slowing down the automobile for obvious reasons, Carrick turned a ruminating expression in the direction of his master.
"Seems yesterday, sir."