"Well?" he asked, repeating his question.
"I don't see why I should reveal to anyone--even to you--what I have
been doing in the interests of the defence of our country," I protested.
"Except that by doing so we should both be able to carry our
investigations farther--and, I hope, to a satisfactory issue."
I had given my word to Teddy and to Roseye, and they had given their
words to me, to disclose nothing. This I recollected and, therefore, I
hesitated.
The captain, seeing my reluctance, said:
"In this inquiry we ought, surely, to assist each other, Mr Munro!
Miss Lethmere is missing, and it is for us to unite in our efforts to
elucidate the mystery."
"But how can answers to the questions you have put to me serve, in any
way whatever, to bring us nearer to the truth of what has happened to
Miss Lethmere?" I queried.
"They do. I merely ask you, yes or no. Your reply will at once place
us in a far better position to conduct this most important inquiry," he
said. "I may tell you that at present the gravest suspicion rests upon
Miss Lethmere."
"Suspicion!" I echoed angrily. "Of what, pray?"
The captain drew a long breath and, once more looking me straight in the
face, replied:
"Well, of being a secret agent of the German Government--or to put it
very bluntly, of being a spy!"
"Roseye a spy!" I shouted, starting up from my chair. "A most foul and
abominable lie! How dare you cast any such imputation upon her?"
"It is, unfortunately, no imputation, Mr Munro," replied the captain.
"You naturally doubt the truth, but we have documentary evidence that
the missing lady is not exactly the purely patriotic young person whom
you have so long believed her to be. Since the war lots of men who have
trusted pretty women have had many rude awakenings, I assure you."
"I'll believe nothing against Roseye!"
"Well," answered Pollock, taking from his pocket an official envelope,
"perhaps you will look at this!" and from the envelope he took a half
sheet of dark-blue notepaper of a type and size used by ladies, and
handed it across to me, saying:
"This was found in her card-case here. From Scotland Yard they sent it
over to us this afternoon, and its real import we very quickly
discovered."
My eyes fell upon the paper, and I saw that it was covered with lines of
puzzling figures in groups of seven, all written neatly in a distinctly
feminine hand.
"Well," I asked in surprise, "what does all this mean?"
"Only one thing," was the hard reply. "This paper, folded small and
secreted, was found in this card-case. Those figures you see convey a
message in the secret code of the Intelligence Department of the German
Naval War Staff--a seven-figure code. A couple of hours ago we
succeeded in deciphering the message, which is to the effect that you
and Ashton have made an astounding discovery and have succeeded in
directing a powerful electric wave by which you can charge metals at a
distance, and cause sparking across any intervening spaces of those
metals. By this means you are hoping to defeat Zeppelins by exploding
the gas inside their ballonets, and as you are both highly dangerous to
the success of the enemy's plans for the wholesale destruction of life
and property by airships, it is here suggested that you should both meet
sudden ends at the hands of certain paid hired assassins of the Berlin
secret police."
Then, after a pause, the captain again looked at me, and said very
slowly:
"Mr Munro. This document found in Miss Lethmere's purse is nothing
else but your own death-warrant! Miss Lethmere is a spy and, though she
may be your friend, she is plotting your death!"