Bedient noted the yellow eyelids of the other droop a little.  He understood perfectly that there were many men now at The Pleiad who were badly wanted.

“Don’t mistake me, Senor Rey,” he added.  “The man I wish to talk with can only prosper for my coming.”

“Frequently it happens that the one searched for in Equatoria—­is the last found,” the Spaniard observed.

Linen, silver, crystal and candle-radiance were superbly blended upon the small round table between them.  Rey, as a talker, was artful and inspiriting.  His disordered body seemed an ancient classic volume, done in scarred vellum—­a book of perils, named Celestino Rey—­and all things about, the spears, guns, skins, shields, even the grim shadows, were but references to the text.  The dinner was perfect.  A tray of wines and a sheaf of cheroots were placed upon the balcony, at length, with two chairs covered with puma skins.  The Chinese assisted Rey thither, and when they were alone, he said: 

“Do you feel at all like discussing the affair which really brings you to The Pleiad?...  You neither eat nor drink nor smoke—­perhaps you talk.”

Bedient laughed.  “Wouldn’t it be the simplest way to believe me?” he asked.  “I want to see Jim Framtree, and I heard he was here.  The matter has nothing to do with Equatoria, the present unrest, nor with any relation of his or mine to the Island or to The Pleiad.  You can make it possible for me to see him at once.”

“Unfortunately, I cannot.  My province in The Pleiad is to cut down tension to a minimum.  So many gentlemen present are of a highly nervous temperament.  My best procedure many times is to act negatively....  Doubtless Dictator Jaffier was very glad of your return to the dreamiest of climates——­”

“Yes,” said Bedient.

“I noted this morning that he dispatched a convoy to your hacienda, bearing doubtless the official welcome——­”

“Yes, I met the party.”

Bedient perceived that the Spaniard missed little that was going on in the city and Island; also that he believed Jaffier’s convoy had something to do with his own presence at The Pleiad; and finally that Celestino Rey was not trained to truth.  In fact, Bedient had done more to disconcert the master of the establishment by stating the exact facts, than by any strategy he might have evolved....  Bedient arose at length and took the cold hand.  He could not forbear a laugh.

“I am flexible enough to appreciate your position,” he said.  “As an acknowledged resource of the government, I suppose it is rather hard to see me—­at this particular moment in the history of Equatoria—­as carrying anything so simple as a friendly token.”

“You are very absorbing to me, Mr. Bedient,” the Senor said delicately.  “An old man may express his fondness....  I am glad The Pleiad pleases you.  I have built it out of the clods that the world has hurled at me, and have preserved enough vitality to laugh at it all.  I find it best to keep down the tension——­”