“You mean you looked into our rooms from here?”

“Yes, clairvoyantly.”

“What did you see?”

“The Iaglamichi!” she said with a shudder. “Kai! The Toug of Djamouk is anointed at last!”

“Is that the beast of a Mongol who did this murder?”

“Djamouk and Prince Sanang planned it,” she said, trembling a little. “But that butchery was Yaddin’s work, I think. Kai! The work of Yaddined-Din, Tougtchi to Djamouk the Fox!”

They stood confronting each other, the length of the sitting-room between them. And after the silence had lasted a full minute Cleves reddened and said: “I am going to sleep on the couch at the foot of your bed, Tressa.”

His young wife reddened too.

He said: “This affair has thoroughly scared me. I can’t let you sleep out of my sight.”

“I am quite safe. And you would have an uncomfortable night,” she murmured.