“Do you intend to answer me?” quizzed Warwick.
Doctor Palermo pursed his lips. He seemed about to speak. While Warwick waited, the physician made a slow and deliberate reply that brought a gasp of amazement from the detective. For Palermo did not speak in words. He spoke in letters.
“N… O,” he said.
“Y… E… S,” replied Warwick, staring as a man in a daze.
“Noyes,” said Palermo quietly, pronouncing the letters as if they were one word.
“Seyon,” was Warwick’s peculiar response.
Palermo pressed his hands to his chest. One hand was spread; the other showed two fingers.
“The Silent Seven,” hissed Palermo.
Automatically the detective put his hands to the lapels of his coat. One hand was spread; the other formed a fist.
“The Faithful Fifty,” said Warwick, in a voice filled with awe.