He hesitated a moment, then he drew aside the curtains of the right-hand door and went in, his brother, his uncle, and his two cousins following.
A sleepy voice asked who was there.
"I come to see the lord Olandi," said the intruder.
He heard a rustle at the farthermost end of the room and the creaking of a skin bed.
"What seek you?" said a voice, and it was that of a man used to command.
"Is that my lord?" demanded the visitor.
He had a broad-bladed elephant sword gripped fast, so keen of edge that a man might shave the hair from the back of his hand therewith.
"I am Olandi," said the man in the darkness, and came forward.
There was absolute stillness. They who waited could hear the steady breathing of the sleepers; they heard, too, a "whish!" such as a civilised man hears when his womenfolk thrust a hatpin through a soft straw shape.
Another tense silence, then: