s for a tooth paste. There's
nothing in that."

"Don't be too sure," warned Fleck. "If a man cuts out one tooth-paste
advertisement, the natural presumption would be that he wished to
remind himself to buy some. When he cuts out two, he must have some
special interest in that particular tooth paste. We'll have to find out
what his interest is."

"Maybe he owns it," suggested Carter.

"Perhaps," said Fleck, as he began studying the advertisements, "but it
would not surprise me if these advertisements contained some sort of
code messages."

"Messages in advertisements," exclaimed Carter incredulously.

"Why not? The Germans have hundreds of spies at work here in this city
and all over the country. What would be an easier method of
communicating orders to them than by code messages concealed in
advertising. They have done it before. When the German armies got into
France they found their way placarded in advance with much useful
information in harmless looking posters advertising a certain brand of
chocolate. I'd be willing to bet that every one of these advertisements
carries a code message. I've noticed that these advertisements, all
peculiarly worded, have been running for some time. I never thought of
hooking them up with German propaganda, but, see, it is a German firm
that inserts them."

Carefully he cut out the two advertisements and laid them side by side
on his desk. Turning to Carter he said:

"Go at once to see Mr. Sprague, the publisher of this paper. Get him to
give you a copy of each paper that has contained an advertisement of
this sort in the last six months. Find out what agency places the
advertising. Tell him I want to know. He'll understand. We have worked
together before."

Alone in his office, Fleck bent with wrinkled brow over the first of the
two advertisements, which read:

REMEMBER

Please, that our new paste, DENTO,
will stop decay of your teeth. Sound
teeth are passports to good health and
comfort. Now, no business man can
risk ill health. It is closely allied with
failure. The teeth if not watched are
quickly gone.

USE DENTO

A genuine, safe, pleasing paste for the
teeth, prepared and sold only by the
Auer Dental Company, New York.

He tried all the methods of solving cipher letters that he thought of.
He drew diagonals this way and that across the advertisement. He tried
reading it backward. He tried reading ev