Rohbar glared, but I could have smiled. Smiled in welcome. He was
extricating me from a most embarrassing position. I faced him and spoke
steadily.
"My friend, you were rude to me at our first meeting. Now you threaten.
I begin to think you don't like me, and that we'll only be happy
shedding each other's blood."
"Amen to that!" he snarled. And to Doriza: "Get out, get away from him."
I moved a step closer, and rapped him on the chest with my knuckles.
"She came to speak courteously to me, and she shall go only if she so
desires." As I spoke, I reflected that she might be worth fighting for,
after all. I turned to her.
"Doriza, is this true? Do you belong to Rohbar."
She shook her bright head, and for once her eyes did not meet mine.
I felt a sudden joy and relief, such as Elonie's frank throwing of
herself at my head could not bring.
But Rohbar had drawn his pistol-weapon. Another moment, and he would
have brought it in line with my chest. But I caught his weapon wrist in
my left hand, and with the heel of my right I whacked him solidly on
his bearded chin. His head bobbed, and a moment later I had twisted the
pistol away from him, throwing it back into the niche. A moment later,
Gederr and several others had hurried in, seizing him. He struggled and
cursed.
"Put him under arrest!" Gederr bade, and Rohbar ceased struggling. He
drew himself up.
"So that's it!" he roared. "Do you think you dare treat me thus,
Gederr? I do not care if you're of the Council--I know a secret very
close and very valuable--"
"Stop his mouth!" Elonie was imploring, and he cursed her, too.
"It seems," I put in, "that Rohbar makes a practice of rudeness to
women."
I got smiles from Elonie and Doriza both, and Rohbar fairly blackened
in the face as he strove to pull free and get at me.
"You!" he choked. "Yandro you call yourself--you're a fraud, a
figurehead, foisted by these scheming, sneaking Council folk--a living
lie!"
"Let him go," I bade those who held him. "Nobody says 'lie' to me and
goes unpunished."
There was silence, as far as my voice had reached. Only in the
background did music and pleasant conversation continue. It was Elonie
who spoke first:
"Yandro, you have privileged me in my speech to you. May I dare point
out that this is dangerous--that Rohbar, long a guard officer, is
skilled in every weapon--"
"Elonie, you now make it impossible for me to withdraw, without being
thought cowardly," I said. I put my hand to the saber I wore. "Is there
a quiet place apart? Let the two of us fight."
Rohbar was quiet again, in the hands of his captors. He now spoke,
almost as gently as Elonie: "I have no friends here. The fight might
not be fair."
"Nonsense," I snapped, and looked past the little group. There was a
face I knew--the man with the deep voice. "You," I hailed him, "come
here."
He came respectfully, and stood at attention.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Klob is my name, great Yandro. Under-officer of the guard."
"Klob, do you know Rohbar?"
"I do, sir."
"If I, Yandro, ordered you to act as second for a man in a duel, would
you perform the office faithfully?"