Page:Roy Norton--The unknown Mr Kent.djvu/168

 from possible observation and looked through the meshes.

"Wonder what in the deuce that rascal has on hand now? It's something. Otherwise he wouldn't have selected the garden for the meeting. No place like a garden or a crowded street to keep from being overheard. He's afraid that walls have ears like an elephant's. And so they have; under my especial provision," he added with grim humour.

He suddenly turned and hastened to his desk, pulled open a drawer and handed a pair of binoculars to Ivan.

"Keep out of sight and tell me what they say," he ordered, after which he returned to his desk and quietly lounged over its corner with folded arms.

Ivan grinned, adjusted the glasses, focussed them at a conveniently thin place in the curtain design and began talking, disjointedly, as if to himself.

"Wish I could open these curtains. They bother me when there's two hundred yards between us. Hard to read the lips unless they turn this way. Ah! They've stopped and I can see them both. Lucky that the banker is smooth-shaven and speaks distinctly."

He paused for a moment as if picking up the [164]