"You show weakness?" he said. "I am disappointed. So you know who released that Kent Fanning, and Peters' daughter?"
"No I don't. I'm sorry. That was just my desire to stop you doing that to that woman."
Amusement was in Tollgamo's eyes and twitching at his thin grey lips. "So? You would join me, and still try to lie to me?" His gesture dismissed it. "We will talk of that some other time." For a moment he stood pondering. "That girl—that Peters' daughter," he added. "Rhool tells me she is very beautiful. Is that so?" There seemed a twinkle in his inscrutable eyes.
"Yes," Allen agreed.
"That is interesting. I must see for myself. I think perhaps I must protect her from the things that will happen tonight."
Allen tensed inside. Did he mean that his attack upon the Arones would take place tonight?
"The woman Garga will give you supper," Tollgamo added abruptly. From a ring on his finger a silent light-signal sprang across the room and through a small arcade doorway; and at once Garga appeared there.
"Take him to my rest-room," Tollgamo said. "He is hungry. Give him food. I will send for him later."
"Yes, Master."
Then as Tollgamo moved away, lithe and silent as a great panther, with his padded soles soundless on the metal floor, he said quietly.