“Exactly!” I said.
Smith turned his searching gaze upon me. “Where did you find it, Petrie?”
“I did not exactly find it,” I replied; and I related to him the circumstances of my meeting with Karamaneh.
He directed that cold stare upon me throughout the narrative, and when, with some embarrassment, I had told him of the girl’s escape—
“Petrie,” he said succinctly, “you are an imbecile!”
I flushed with anger, for not even from Nayland Smith, whom I esteemed above all other men, could I accept such words uttered as he had uttered them. We glared at one another.
“Karamaneh,” he continued coldly, “is a beautiful toy, I grant you; but so is a cobra. Neither is suitable for playful purposes.”
“Smith!” I cried hotly—“drop that! Adopt another tone or I cannot listen to you!”
“You must listen,” he said, squaring his lean jaw truculently. “You are playing, not only with a pretty girl who is the favorite of a Chinese Nero, but with my life! And I object, Petrie, on purely personal grounds!”
I felt my anger oozing from me; for this was strictly just. I had nothing to say, and Smith continued: