"I'm a human being, too. What do you want me to do, Thusis?"
"Permit me to assign them their rooms."
I said: "You are here to watch these kings. You knew they were coming. You are here to watch them in the interest of your government."
"Well, Michael?"
"Is it so?"
"Yes."
I looked at her in wonder, dismay, and deep concern.
This young girl—this fresh, sweet, laughing, slender little thing a spy? And yet I had vaguely supposed her to be some sort of political agent masquerading in my service for purposes occult.
But the sinister agent who lurks at the heels of suspects—the shadow that haunts marked men—the unseen, unheard presence that lingers by doors ajar, by unlighted corridors, in the shade of trees!—I had not thought of Thusis in such a way.
Something of this I think she read in my eyes fixed on her, for she flushed slightly and made as though to withdraw her hands.