Читать книгу The Ostrekoff Jewels онлайн

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Haven moved uneasily in his chair.

"It doesn't sound exactly pleasant," he reflected. "You say he knows that I am here?"

"He knows," Alexis admitted. "No sort of concealment was possible. Spies have been at work. He knows that you are here and he demands an interview. For myself—many thoughts have come to me. At first it was in my mind to speak to him of that night and refuse Ostrekoff hospitality."

"I'm afraid that wouldn't go very well," Haven meditated.

"The Young Master is right," Alexis acknowledged. "We are in Patinsky's country, he has a troop of a hundred men quartered on the premises. I think it would be wiser for the Young Master to see him. If he should show curiosity about the papers or the contents of the satchel the Young Master is carrying, the Young Master will know how to deal with him. It is not our business. We can answer no question. We can only fight. That," Alexis continued, his voice becoming deeper, "we will do to the death, if necessary, but we think—I think, Ivan thinks and Paul thinks—that it would be well if Young Master talked first with Patinsky."