He had been left alone in the vast dim hall while a slave, made obsequious by the sight of the ring of the Prince Pasha, sought his master.

As he waited he was conscious that people were moving about behind the great screens of mooshrabieh which separated this room from others, and that eyes were following his every motion.

He had gained easy ingress to this place; but egress was a matter of some speculation.
The doors which had closed behind him might swing one way only! He had voluntarily put himself in the power of a man whose fatal secret he knew.

He only felt a moment's apprehension, however.

He had been moved to come from a whisper in his soul; and he had the sure conviction of the predestinarian that he was not to be the victim of "The Scytheman" before his appointed time.