“You are surprisingly like him, Jack, now that I look at you,” I said with a grin.
“Rather be myself, a heap,” he replied drily, and after some chaff the matter dropped.
I had been considering how to tell him about Miralda, and after the next pause I asked him if he knew why we were in Lisbon.
“You haven’t told me,” he replied drily.
“You mean you have guessed?”
He took his pipe out of his mouth, glanced at it, and then at me and smiled. “I know the symptoms. I’ve had the fever myself. You’re the sort to take it badly too.”
“I have.”
“What’s the trouble?”
“All sorts and plenty of it.”
“Well, I’m with you, if you want me. I’d love a scrap.”