"Yes, so am I," Irving returned quickly. "But I like to talk."
"So I observe," said Strauss with veiled significance, which the boy did not try to penetrate.
"Just to be sociable," the spy added by way of explanation and to prevent the conversation from lagging.
But Strauss did not appear to be so talkatively eager. They were in the locker and wash room during most of this exchange of words, and nothing further was said between them until they were outside the building. The catalog expert then spoke first.
"Where do you eat?" he asked.
"Oh, any place," Irving replied. "I've been in two or three restaurants around here. There's a good one down in the next block."
"That suits me," said Strauss.
They walked along in silence half a square, and then the boy's mysterious companion put to him the most inquisitive query that the spy had listened to from this man since he became acquainted with him:
"When do you expect to go back to America?"
"Good!" Irving said to himself. "Sounds as if he's going to open up. Maybe I'll get something out of him after all."