"Let me congratulate you," Peter Gross began, but Muller stayed him.
"No, not yet, mynheer. What I have said is for your ears alone. Remember, you know nothing."
"Your confidence is safe with me," Peter Gross assured him.
Muller suddenly recollected his duties as host.
"Ho, mynheer, you must have some Hollands with me," he cried hospitably. "A toast to our good fellowship." He clapped his hands and Cho Seng appeared in the doorway.
"A glass of lemonade or iced tea, if you please," Peter Gross stated.
"You are a teetotaler?" Muller cried in dismay.
"As resident of Bulungan, yes, mynheer. A servant of the state cannot be too careful."
Muller laughed. "Lemonade and jenever, Cho Seng," he directed. "Well, mynheer, I'll wager you are the only resident in all the colonies that will not take his glass of Hollands. If it were not for jenever many of us could not live in this inferno. Sometimes it is well to be able to forget for a short time."
"If one has a burdened conscience," Peter Gross conditioned quietly.