ives you half a chance."

"I'm married!" said the Secretary.

"I'm quite aware of it!"

"I'm immune!"

"And yet you're wishing to see her in the flesh!" Harleston smiled.

"I think I can safely take the risk!" smoothing his chin complacently.

"Other men have thought the same, I believe, and been burned. However,
if the lady is in Washington I'll engage that you meet her. Also, I'll
acquaint her of your boasted immunity from her _beaux yeux_."

"The latter isn't within the scope of your duty, sir," the Secretary
smiled. "Now we'll have Carpenter."

He touched a button.

A moment later Carpenter entered; a scholarly-looking man in the
fifties; bald as an egg, with the quiet dignity of bearing which goes
with a student, who at the same time is an expert in his particular
line--and knows it. He was the Fifth Assistant Secretary, had been the
Fifth Assistant and Chief of the Cipher Division for years. His superior
was not to be found in any capital in Europe. His business with the
secret service of the Department was to pull the strings and obtain
results; and he got results, else he would not have been continued in
office. His specialty, however, was ciphers; and his chief joy was in a
case that had a cipher at the bottom. Ciphers were his recreation, as
well as his business.

The Secretary with a gesture turned him over to Harleston--and Harleston
handed him the letter.

"What do you make out of it, Mr. Carpenter?" he asked.

Carpenter took the letter and examined it for a moment, holding it to
the light, and carefully feeling its texture.

"Not a great deal cursorily," he answered. "It's a French paper--the
sort, I think, used at the Quay d'Orsay. Have you the envelope
accompanying it?"

"Here it is!" said Harleston.

"This envelope, however, is not French; it's English," Carpenter said
instantly. "See! a saltire within an orle is the private water-mark of
Sergeant & Co. I likely can tell you more after careful examination in
my workshop."

"How about the message itself?" Harleston asked.

"It is the Vigenerie cipher, that's reasonably certain; and, as you are
aware, Mr. Harleston, the Vigenerie is practically impossible of
solution without the key-word. It is the one cipher that needs no
code-book, nor anything else that can be lost or stolen--the code-word
can be carried in one's mind. We used it in the De la Porte affair, you
will remember. Indeed, just because of its simplicity it is used more