ys, when the millions were
not yet arrived, and their only luxury was companionship and
champagne--or something less expensive.

As Byng spoke, Krool entered the room with a great coffee-pot and a
dozen small white bowls. He heard Byng's words, and for a moment his
dark eyes glowed with a look of evil satisfaction. But his immobile
face showed nothing, and he moved like a spirit among them his lean
hand putting a bowl before each person, like a servitor of Death
passing the hemlock-brew.

At his entrance there was instant silence, for, secret as their
conference must be, this half-caste, this Hottentot-Boer, must hear
nothing and know nothing. Not one of them but resented his being Byng's
servant. Not one but felt him a danger at any time, and particularly
now. Once Barry Whalen, the most outwardly brusque and apparently frank
of them all, had urged Byng to give Krool up, but without avail; and
now Barry eyed the half-caste with a resentful determination. He knew
that Krool had heard Byng's words, for he was sitting opposite the
double doors, and had seen the malicious eyes light up. Instantly,
however, that light vanished. They all might have been wooden men, and
Krool but a wooden servitor, so mechanical and concentrated were his
actions. He seemed to look at nobody; but some of them shrank a little
as he leaned over and poured the brown, steaming liquid and the hot
milk into the bowls. Only once did the factotum look at anybody
directly, and that was at Byng just as he was about to leave the room.
Then Barry Whalen saw him glance searchingly at his master's face in a
mirror, and again that baleful light leaped up in his eyes.

When he had left the room, Barry Whalen said, impulsively: "Byng, it's
all damn foolery your keeping that fellow about you. It's dangerous,
'specially now."

"Coffee's good, isn't it? Think there's poison in it?" Byng asked with
a contemptuous little laugh. "Sugar--what?" He pushed the great bowl of
sugar over the polished table towards Barry.

"Oh, he makes you comfortable enough, but--"

"But he makes you uncomfortable, Barry? Well, we're bound to get on one
another's nerves one way or another in this world when the east wind
blows; and if it isn't the east wind, it's some other wind. We're
living on a planet which has to take the swipes of the universe,
because it has permitted that corrupt, quarrelsome, and pernicious
beast, man, to populate the hemispheres. Krool is staying on with