Phil obeyed. Varrell watched the shadow of the moving lips on the screen.
“Repeat!” commanded Varrell.
Phil repeated.
“Flanahan has been fired,” said Varrell.
“Right!” cried the boy, delighted. “Try again!”
The experiment was repeated several times, and with one or two exceptions Varrell read correctly from the screen.[[1]]
“Why, you’re a regular wizard!” cried Melvin, pulling the bandage from his friend’s head. “That’s the greatest stunt I ever saw.”
“It’s a pretty severe test. If I had known what you were talking about so that I could have had something to start with, I shouldn’t have failed the last time. That’s the funny thing about lip-reading; at one instant it’s a blank, and the next you get the key, and the whole thing flashes out clear.”
But even this amazing exhibition could not distract Dick’s mind from the robbery. “Now tell me, please,” he began, “what you really know by this method or any method about what Eddy said to Bosworth that Saturday morning in his room.”
Varrell looked significantly at Phil.