“Did you ever hear of lip-reading, Phil?”
“Why, yes. I know some one at home who is pretty good at it. Can you do it?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’ve suspected you two or three times, but I thought I’d better not say anything till you spoke of it yourself.”
Varrell gave Melvin a reproachful glance.
“Dick here doesn’t believe in it. Did you ever see the shadow trick?”
“No,” replied Phil.
Varrell got up. “Give us a big sheet of paper,” he said. “That’s it. Come here.”
He pinned the white paper to the wall on a level with Phil’s head, placed Phil near it and adjusted the lamp on the shelf opposite so that a sharp profile of the boy’s face fell on the paper. Next he stationed Melvin two or three steps in front of the boy; and then, having bound a heavy handkerchief around his own ears, took a place just behind Phil.
“Now, Phil, without moving your head and in your ordinary tones, say something to Dick.”