e 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 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 the inn. It drew up at the door, and there was the sound
of people alighting. There seemed to be two of them, men in
aquascutums and tweed caps.

Ten minutes later the innkeeper slipped into the room, his eyes bright
with excitement.

'There's two chaps below looking for you,' he whispered. 'They're in
the dining-room having whiskies-and-sodas. They asked about you and
said they had hoped to meet you here. Oh! and they described you jolly
well, down to your boots and shirt. I told them you had been here last
night and had gone off on a motor bicycle this morning, and one of the
chaps swore like a navvy.'

I made him tell me what they looked like. One was a dark-eyed thin
fellow with bushy eyebrows, the other was always smiling and lisped in
his talk. Neither was any kind of foreigner; on this my young friend
was positive.

I took a bit of paper and wrote these words in German as if they were
part of a letter--

... 'Black Stone. Scudder had got on to this, but he could not
act for a fortnight. I doubt if I can do any good now, especially
as Karolides is uncertain about his plans. But if Mr T. advises
I will do the best I ...'

I manufactured it rather neatly, so that it looked like a loose page of
a private letter.

'Take this down and say it was found in my bedroom, and ask them to
return it to me if they overtake me.'

Three minutes later I heard the car begin to move, and peeping from
behind the curtain caught sight of the two figures. One was slim, the
other was sleek; that was the most I could make of my reconnaissance.

The innkeeper appeared in great excitement. 'Your paper woke them up,'
he said gleefully. 'The dark fellow went as white as death and cursed
like blazes, and the fat one whistled and looked ugly. They paid for
their drinks with half-a-sovereign and wouldn't wait for change.'

'Now I'll tell you what I want you to do,' I said. 'Get on your
bicycle and go off to Newton-St