"But I have a favour to ask, uncle. Forget you've seen me. I'm here on business—secret political business."
"I shan't say a word. Get me out of this benighted place and I'll do anything you like. Now come on with me to my hotel and I'll write that letter."
The two men left the gardens and walked up towards the Old Town.
"I'm staying at The Three Lilies, a comfortable old place—nothing grand and smart like these"—Jasper waved to the great hotels on the front,—"but I wanted somewhere quiet, you see."
"The Three Lilies? Is that the little inn that faces an old castle sort of a place—just on the edge of the Old Town?"
"Yes—why?"
"Oh, nothing. I'm only wondering if you have noticed anything strange about that old place opposite."
"Well—they seem rather a queer lot. Men—mostly soldiers—come pretty often to see the man who lives there. They come secretly too; there was one the other night who hid in the yard under my window. I heard something and looked out; you can understand the fright I got when I saw the tip of a man's cigar."
"What kind of a man was he? Can you describe him?"
"I watched after I had put the light out. There was a horse standing at the door opposite and the owner of the place came and saw a man—another soldier—off the premises. When the sound of the horse had died away in the distance, the man under my window crossed over. I've often seen him."