"Don't look for a minute, but that's Chandra Dass over in the corner, and he's watching us," he said.
Ennis shook his clutching hand away. "Damned old shark!" he muttered again.
He turned his swaying head slowly, letting his eyes rest a moment on the man in the corner. That man was looking straight at him.
Chandra Dass was tall, dressed in spotless white from his shoes to the turban on his head. The white made his dark, impassive, aquiline face stand out in chiseled relief. His eyes were coal-black, large, coldly searching, as they met Ennis' bleared gaze.
Ennis felt a strange chill as he met those eyes. There was something alien and unhuman, something uncannily disturbing, behind the Hindoo's stare. He turned his gaze vacantly from Chandra Dass to the black curtains at the rear, and then back to his companion.
The silent Malay waiter had brought the liquor, and Campbell pressed a glass toward his companion. "'Ere, matey, take this."
"Don't want it," muttered Ennis, pushing it away. Still in the same mutter, he added, "If Ruth's here, she's somewhere in the back there. I'm going back and find out."
"Don't try it that way, for God's sake!" said Campbell in the wheedling undertone. "Chandra Dass is still watching, and those Malays would be on you in a minute. Wait until I give the word.
"All right, then," Campbell added in a louder, injured tone. "If you don't want it, I'll drink it myself."
He tossed off the glass of gin and set the glass down on the table, looking at his drunken companion with righteous indignation.