In official circles it was known—known indeed to the public at large—that the Zeppelin menace was a real and serious one. Teddy and I had, in secret, striven our best to discover a means by which to combat these sinister attacks upon our non-combatants.
Yet upon that leather-covered table before me lay that puzzling cryptic message found among the belongings of my missing beloved.
The whole affair was, indeed, a mystery. After a few moments of silence I raised my head and, looking again at Pollock, said:
'All this is, of course, very interesting from the point of view of a police problem, but the hard, real fact remains.'
'What fact?' he asked.
'That I, with my friend Ashton, am in possession of certain discoveries by which we can, under given conditions, bring Zeppelins to the ground.'
The red-tabbed captain curled his lip in a rather supercilious smile.
He was evidently one of those persons imported into the Department after the outbreak of war and, in comparison with Barton as an investigator, was a nonentity.
True, a piece of paper bearing a message in the enemy's cipher had been found secreted in Roseye's card-case.
But I argued that before the owner of the card-case could be condemned, she must be found, and an explanation demanded of her.
'You surely cannot condemn an accused person in her absence!' I argued.
