There was, however, a marked difference in their regard. The Englishman was suave, self-possessed, restrained, and his manner, though watchful and even suspicious, was placid and polite. But in his every trait the other, his visitor, was restless and provocative. The baleful glare in his dark and burning eyes was in itself a challenge, and his movements had something of the menacing deliberation of a wild beast. There was an indescribable air of primeval savagery about him with his bulging tufted brows, his enormous deep chest, his long and powerful arms, his short thick legs, as he confronted the other across the desk.
Presently his eyes left the Chief’s face as, with insolent deliberation, he let his gaze sweep slowly round the room. It took in the desk with its dusty bundles of papers, the safe in the wall behind, the office calendar, the clock, the hat-stand, and the filing-cabinet, before coming to rest again upon the impassive mask confronting him.
With a comprehensive wave of his stick he indicated their surroundings.
“Na,” he croaked, “as between colleagues was there really any necessity for this elaborate setting?” Shrewdly he watched the other’s face.
“My instructions from the gentleman to whom you wrote,” replied the Chief evenly, “are to hear what you wish to say. I was to add that, in according you this interview, my Chief in no way binds his liberty of future action, notably with regard to the punishment he proposes to inflict upon you.”
Anger flashed swiftly into the hard, dark eyes. “Punishment?” he exclaimed; then dropped chuckling into a chair. “Bold words!” he added. “So ist’s aber recht! As between man and man!”
Impressively he laid one hairy palm downwards upon the desk.
“You have had ample warning of my power,” he said. “I have decimated your Service, Herr Kollege; its _moral_ is profoundly shaken; and, after the series of sanguinary reverses you have sustained at my hands, I can only suppose that a form of puerile _amour-propre_ prevents you from recognizing the futility of continuing the struggle. So I have come to you, frankly and openly, as is our German way, to lay my cards upon the table.”
Not by so much as the flutter of an eyelid did the Chief interrupt the flow of this harangue. He listened quietly, composedly, his keen grey eyes fixed on his visitor’s face.