He returned, clapped his hands thrice, sharply, and waited.

Almost at once a door opened at the southeast corner of the room--where the observatory connected with the stairway leading down to the Master's apartment on the top floor of the building--and a vague figure of a man appeared.
The light was steadily fading, so that this man could by no means be clearly distinguished.

But one could see that he wore clothing quite as conventional as his master's.

Still, no more than the Master did he appear one of life's commonplaces.

Lean, brown, dry, with a hawk-nose and glinting eyes, surely he had come from far, strange places.
"Rrisa!" the Master spoke sharply, flinging the man's name at him with the exasperation of overtensed nerves.
"_M'alme ?_" (Master ?) replied the other.
"Bring the evening food and drink," commanded the Master, in excellent Arabic, guttural and elusive with strange hiatuses of breath.
Rrisa withdrew, salaaming.