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"This is the man who probably did more than any one man to beat the Boche. Whenever the brother Hun changed his code, Brother Ernest was called in and he produced a key in one, two, three!..." "What rot you talk, Euan!" said Dulkinghorn. "Working out a code is a combination of mathematics, perseverance, and inspiration with a good slice of luck thrown in! But isn't Miss Trevert going to sit down?"
Dulkinghorn cast a glance at it, swiftly removed the letter, held it for an instant up to the electric light, fingered the paper for a moment, and handed the letter back to Mary. "If it's code," he said, "it's a conventional code and that always beats the expert ... at first. Go to Rotterdam and call on my friend, Mr. William Schulz.
"Before we go any farther," he went on, "perhaps I had better identify myself to save any further misunderstandings, don't you know? Do either of you gentlemen happen to know a party called Dulkinghorn? You may have heard of him, Mr. Greve, for I can see you have been in the army ..." "Not Ernest Dulkinghorn, of the War Office?" asked Robin. "The identical party!" "I never met him," said Robin.
Let me introduce myself. I am Mr. Schulz ..." Mary Trevert looked at him thoughtfully. Was this the friend of Ernest Dulkinghorn, the man of confidence to whom he had recommended her? A feeling of great uneasiness came over her. She listened. The house was absolutely still.
But it was a cruel, wolfish grin without a ray of kindliness in it. The girl felt her heart turn cold within her every time her eyes fell on the mask-like face. Mr. Schulz shrugged shoulders. "Since you insist ..." he remarked. "But I think it is scarcely fair on our friend Dulkinghorn. The letter is in the safe in my office next door. If you come along I will get it out and show it to you ..."
Euan MacTavish had, on the previous evening, seen her to her hotel and had then very reluctantly, as it seemed to Mary departed to continue his journey to The Hague, his taxi piled high with white-and-green Foreign Office bags, heavily sealed with scarlet wax. Mary Trevert approached the woman, her letter of introduction, which Dulkinghorn, being an unusual person, had fastened down, in her hand.
He eagerly took the letter, spread it out on the table, and read it through whilst Herr Schulz looked over his shoulder. "Code, eh?" commented the big man, shaking his head humorously. "If it beats Dulkinghorn, it beats me!" From his note-case Robin now drew a folded square of paper identical in colour with the letter spread out before them.
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