Screened behind a bush Dick watched the pair until he saw them
coming toward the road. Then Prescott drew back, finding better
shelter, but he did not seek complete concealment. It occurred
to him to wait there, in silence, and see if Private Mock displayed
any uneasiness on coming face to face with his captain's chum.

"That will be a good way, perhaps, to test out the note," Prescott
decided.

Though the two men appeared to be talking earnestly, only a mumble
of voices reached Dick's ears when the men were no more than thirty
feet away. Then they stepped into the road, where they halted
hardly more than a dozen feet away from the screened captain.

"It's a pity you wouldn't have your nerve," said the stranger,
to Mock. "You tell me you hate your captain."

"Wouldn't you, if he had treated you like he treated me?" demanded
Mock heatedly.

"Surely I would," agreed the stranger.

"And there's Holmes's friend, that fellow Prescott, who, he, you
say, would spend all his time looking into anything that happened
to Holmes. You could settle with them both, and then there'd
be no one left to worry about."

"Say, just what are you thinking of doing to 'em?" demanded Mock,
in a tone of uneasy suspicion.