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I make no doubt that this was the way in which van der Spyck & Co. transacted their business with Hartley Parrish. They simply posted their conventional code letters through the post in the ordinary way, confident that there was nothing in them to catch the eye of the Censor's Department. The key might be sent in half a dozen different ways, by hand, concealed in a newspaper, in a parcel ..."
But, in the absence of any other apparent explanation of the girl's extraordinary decision to come to Rotterdam, Robin decided he would accept the theory that she had come about the van der Spyck letter. How like Mary, after all, he mused, self-willed, fearless, independent, to rush off to Holland on her own on a quest like this! Where would her investigations lead her?
It was an ordinary business letter from a firm in Holland ..." "In Holland?" cried Greve. "Did you say in Holland? Tell me the name! No, wait, see if I can remember. 'Van' something 'Speck' or 'Spike' ..." "I remember the name perfectly," answered Bruce, rather puzzled by the other's sudden outburst; "it was Van der Spyck and Co. of Rotterdam. We had a good deal of correspondence with them ..."
In every neutral country there were, of course, firms which specialized in importing contraband for the use of the Germans, but van der Spyck & Co. brought the evasion of the blockade to a fine art. They covered up their tracks, however, with such consummate art that we could never bring anything home to them.
He cleared the sofa with a sweep of his arm which sent the books flying on to the floor. "Ernest," said MacTavish, "I want you to give Miss Trevert here a letter to some reliable fellow in Rotterdam who can assist her in making a few enquiries of a very delicate nature!" "What sort of enquiries?" asked Dulkinghorn bluntly. "About a firm called Elias van der Spyck," replied Euan.
"ELIAS VAN DER SPYCK & Co., GENERAL IMPORTERS, ROTTERDAM," stood printed before his eyes as plainly as though he still held the typewritten sheet in front of him. But the mind plays curious tricks. Robin's brain had registered the name; yet it recorded no impression of the contents of the letter.
Miss Trevert was engaged to H.P. and has a letter from Elias van der Spyck and Company which she found on Parrish's desk after his death. I should say that the Marbran-Parrish connection would repay investigation. Yours P.S. The letter is, of course, in conventional code. P.P.S. Don't frighten the life out of the Trevert girl, you unsympathetic brute! Robin read the letter through to the end.
At the famous town-hall, where, in Holland's great days, when De Ruyter's and Van Tromp's guns were thundering in the sea outside, the great merchant princes used to sit round the republican council-board, was to be exhibited that day, for the first time, the new picture of the young Dutch hero, Van Spyck, who blew up his ship in the war of 1830 against Belgium.
"What's all this about blackmail being levied from Holland?" Then Robin Greve told him of the letters written on the slatey-blue paper and of their effect upon Parrish, and of the letter headed, "Elias van der Spyck & Co., General Importers, Rotterdam," which had lain on the desk in the library when Parrish's dead body had been found. Manderton nodded gloomily.
While we fully appreciate your own difficulties with labour at home, you will understand that this is a question which we cannot afford to adjourn sine die. Yours faithfully, pro ELIAS VAN DER SPYCK & CO. The signature was illegible. Euan MacTavish folded the letter again and handed it back to Mary. "That doesn't take me any farther," he said. "What do the police think of it?"
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