"By grab!" he exclaimed, "I believe you can hear! What do you carry that thing around for?"
She twitched it off and gazed at him again with a triumphant but baffling smile.
"Yes, I can hear," she admitted quietly, "but I'll have to ask you not to tell. Why, Mr. Jepson and some of these people fairly shout when they speak to me now."
She smiled again in such a cryptic manner that Rimrock became suddenly aroused.
"Say, what's going on?" he cried, all excitement, "have you been listening in on their schemes?"
"Why, Mr. Jones!" she exclaimed reproachfully but still with a twinkle in her eye; and Rimrock leaned forward eagerly.
"Yes, that's my name," he answered, "go ahead and tell me what you know."
"No, you wouldn't put it to the best of purposes—but hold this over your ear." She held up the attachment to his ear and, as she ran up the dial, she whispered:
"Do you think you could hear through a wall?"
"You bet!" replied Rimrock and as she took it away he gave her a searching glance. "I wonder," he said, "if you're as innocent as you look." And Mary broke down and laughed.