But there was a long article, reprinted from the _Times_, about Karolides and

the state of affairs in the Balkans, though there was no mention of any visit to

England. I got rid of the innkeeper for the afternoon, for I was getting very

warm in my search for the cypher.

 

As I told you, it was a numerical cypher, and by an elaborate system of

experiments I had pretty well discovered what were the nulls and stops.

 

The trouble was the key word, and when I thought of the odd million words he

might have used I felt pretty hopeless. But about three o’clock I had a sudden

inspiration.

 

The name Julia Czechenyi flashed across my memory. Scudder had said it was the

key to the Karolides business, and it occurred to me to try it on his cypher.

 

It worked. The five letters of “Julia” gave me the position of the vowels. A was

J, the tenth letter of the alphabet, and so represented by X in the cypher. E

was U=XXI, and so on. “Czechenyi’ gave me the numerals for the principal

consonants. I scribbled that scheme on a bit of paper and sat down to read

Scudder’s pages.

 

In half an hour I was reading with a whitish face and fingers that drummed on

the table.

 

I glanced out of the window and saw a big touring-car coming up the glen towards