From a silver box on the table he took a little scented lozenge and put it into his mouth.

No reasonable being would have suspected from his appearance that he had been moved to furious anger and had done a murderous deed less than twenty minutes earlier.

His still eyes were quite calm now, and the yellow gleam in them had given place to their naturally uncertain colour.

With a smile of admiration for his own extraordinary powers, he turned and left the room.

He was enjoying one of his rare moments of satisfaction, for the rival he had long hated and was beginning to dread was never to stand in his way again nor to rob him of the least of his attributes of sovereignty.
* * * * *.