In order to appreciate the above cryptic conversation, the reader should
be permitted to sit in at a conference taking place in a suite almost
directly under that of Count Markowski at the Waldorf. The rooms in
question had been temporarily transformed into a headquarters from which
Wilbur Gaylord was directing the search for his daughter and her
abductors.
With him at the moment was his chief aid, John Keller, deputy chief of
the United States Secret Service. And no more astute man hunter than Mr.
Keller ever tapped a wanted criminal’s shoulder.
Gaylord was walking up and down the room, chewing fiercely at an
unlighted cigar and scowling at a sheaf of papers that lay on the table
in front of the detective.
“Of all the dog-goned nerve!” Gaylord was grumbling. “Of all the damned
insolence! The others were bad enough, but this one takes the bun!”
The papers which Keller fingered and frowned at were messages sent from
an unknown point and received at the private radio station atop the
Gaylord Building in Philadelphia. Moreover, they had been sent in the
intricate private code known only to Gaylord and one or two trusted
employees.
Which was accounted for by the fact that, on the night of Eve Gaylord’s
abduction, the personal code book of Wilbur Gaylord had been taken from
his desk at his home.
The first message was picked up on the day following Eve’s
disappearance, the second four days later, and the last had been
received that afternoon. In other words, directly following the arrival
of Count Markowski in America. Gaylord leaned over Keller’s shoulder now
and scanned them in the order of their arrival. Decoded, they were as
follows: