Ashton-Kirk nodded and smiled.
"It gives us all a certain satisfaction to learn that we are interesting," said he. "This is so almost at any time. But at a moment like this—when interest is created in a person who had utterly lost confidence—it is doubly pleasing."
"Perhaps," said Okiu, and the purr in his low-pitched voice was more pronounced than the secret agent had ever heard it before, "you have occasion for satisfaction; and then perhaps you have not."
Ashton-Kirk met the black, heavy-lidded eyes squarely.
"Will you be more explicit?" he said.
"I can see no harm that it will do now," said the other, and the secret agent quietly noted the emphasis which he laid upon the last word. "So the facts are these. Though I regard you as a sort of fellow workman, and though I have a very definite admiration for your talents, still your interests are arrayed, so to speak, against mine; and this being the case——"
THE GLITTERING EYES LIFTED
Here he paused. The glittering eyes lifted and darted a look over Ashton-Kirk's shoulder to the waiting Sorakicha. But even then the other maintained his lounging attitude and his manner remained unruffled.