He looked appealingly at Vench, and the cadet relented so far as to shake hands briefly with him. Morro fell into step beside him and they followed the edge of the water together.
“I had no idea that you were a student in this academy,” Paul Morro said to him. “I often wondered what had become of you after you returned from Paris.”
“I wrote to you several times,” Vench retorted. “You did not answer.”
Morro smiled, showing a set of unusually white teeth. “You must blame that on my artistic temperament, my friend,” he said. “I meant to, but never got to it.”
“I see,” said Vench, evenly. “What are you doing here, Paul?”
The Frenchman hesitated. “I cannot tell you that, my friend,” he declared, at last. “I am employed by the man with whom you saw me, and I am not at liberty to disclose his secrets.”
“Very well,” said Vench. “I don’t want to know, if that is the case. Would you like to go back and look around the academy?”
Morro smiled. “I have seen quite a bit of your academy, my friend. Your headmaster is a most mysterious man.”
“What do you mean?” asked Vench, stopping suddenly.
“What do you keep in that old building, that Clanhammer Hall?” Morro countered.