"Your name is----"
"Michael Lee."
"You answer promptly, like a soldier."
"I am not one, sir."
"You are an elderly man--about my own age, I should say. Is your eyesight good?"
"Fairly good for my age."
"I ask because in the place where you will stand the light is rather dim. I must test you."
He looked around for a newspaper or other printed matter, and finding none, drew a letter from his pocket. It was in a man's writing, and a spasm came into his face as he gazed at it. He held it open at a little distance from Michael Lee.
"Are your eyes good enough to read this?" Michael Lee changed colour, and his lips trembled as his eyes fell upon the writing.
"You can read it?"