The other gave him a sidelong glance and made answer without changing his attitude and more as if speaking to himself:
"This is now an unguarded spot. The wars are over."
"Do they close the door at the bottom of this tower at night?" enquired Cosmo.
"That is a matter worth consideration especially for those like you, for instance, who have a soft bed to go to for the night."
The young than put his head on one side and looked at his interlocutor with a faint smile.
"You don't seem to care," he said. "So I conclude I need not. As long as you are content to stay here I am safe enough. I followed you up the stairs, you know." The man with the pipe stood up abruptly. "You followed me here? Why did you do that, in the name of all the saints?"
The young man laughed as if at a good joke. "Because you were walking in front of me. There was nobody else in view near the Mole. Suddenly you disappeared. Then I saw that the door at the bottom of the tower was open and I walked up the stairs on to this platform. And I would have been very surprised if I hadn't found you here."
The man in the strange cap ornamented with a tassel had taken his pipe out of his mouth to listen. "That was all?"
"Yes, that was all."
"Nobody but an Englishman would behave like that," commented the other to himself, a slight appearance of apprehension passing over his features. "You are an eccentric people."