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"These are." Violet expressed a certain indignation. "Of high quality indeed."
The other family members, after some hesitation, admitted that a few good-quality pearls were
available.
Urged on by a savage pounding on the door, they at last produced a small handful of pale rounded
gems, which Yambu pronounced more than sufficient to buy off a dozen rascals. Shaking her head,
she thrust most of the gems back into Bonar's unsteady hands. "To offer them too much at this
stage would be worse than to give them too little. Now, Zoltan, attend me. Stand here, and let
them see that you are armed and ready!"
When Gesner unbarred and opened the door at last, the two men outside started to push their way
into the house. But then they halted on the threshold. The appearance in the kitchen of an
unexpected stranger, armed and resolute, and of an unknown lady of queenly bearing, was enough to
delay them momentarily. And that moment was long enough for the Lady Yambu's commanding presence
to take over. In a firm voice she demanded to know just who these intruders thought they were and
what they thought they wanted.
"Captain Koszalin, ma'am. I'm in charge of the defenses here. This is Shotoku, first sergeant in
my company."
"Are you indeed? Those defenses seem singularly ineffective, not to say inoperative. My party was
not challenged approaching the house, and I daresay that if we had been a full company bent on an
attack, the result would have been the same. Were I your commanding officer, you'd be in trouble."
Zoltan grinned inwardly, in admiration of the way Yambu had managed to suggest the presence of an
armed escort besides himself.
Koszalin was not a large man, but gave the impression of fierce energy, now under tight control.
He and the massive Sergeant Shotoku, who stood stoically behind him, both wore scraps of armor and
dirty green scarves, evidently as a kind of company insignia.
Under pointed questioning by Lady Yambu, Koszalin claimed to have twenty men at his command. He
had come pounding on the door, he said, to collect the gold that was due him in back pay. But
after a brief hesitation he accepted four small pearls, and then withdrew with his sergeant.
"He'll need a conference with his men now, I suppose," said Yambu when the door was closed. "Very
unreliable troops, in my judgment. Doubtless the two of them will now hold a conference with their
men on how best to enjoy their sudden wealth. From our point of view it will be best if they go to
the nearest large town to spend it how far is that?"
"A good day's journey," said Rose, thoughtfully.
Within a few minutes after the two mercenaries had left the house, a servant looking from an
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upstairs window reported that eight or ten of the ruffians, all heavily armed and moving on foot,
could be seen at the bottom of the hill. They appeared to be going upon their way.
For a minute or two the members of the family were loud in their rejoicing. But the celebration
was brief. First Bonar and then Violet began to voice their misgivings that the mercenaries would
be likely to come back, as soon as they had spent the pearls.
Yambu nodded. "But in the meantime we can expect to enjoy a respite of about three days that
should give us the time we need to decide upon our next move."
When the servant on lookout reported that the irregular soldiers were now completely out of sight,
the brother and two sisters more volubly expressed their gratitude to Yambu and Zoltan.
Meanwhile the party was drifting back into the great hall. There, some of the few active servants
remaining in the household were called upon to begin a belated cleanup, and provide something in
the way of hospitality for the honored guests.
But the survivors of the Clan Malolo and their visitors had not been seated long at the table
before Bonar, unable to relax for any length of time, began to have doubts as to whether they
might need the mercenaries after all, and before the three days were up. The damned Senones, he
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