“No,” replied Francis promptly, “I did not.  But the arrangement was that, if none of us four men had turned up at Head-quarters by May 15th, a fifth man should come in and be at a given rendezvous near the frontier on June 15th.  I went to the place on June 15th, but he never showed up and, though I waited about for a couple of days, I saw no sign of him.  I made my final attempt to get out and it failed, so, when I fled to Berlin, I knew that I had cut off all means of communication with home.  As a last hope, I dashed off that cipher on the spur of the moment and tucked it into old van U’s invoice.”

“But why ‘Achilles’ with one ’l’?” I asked.

“They knew all about Kore’s agency at Head-quarters, but I didn’t dare mention Kore’s name for fear the parcel might be opened.  So I purposely spelt ‘Achilles’ with one ‘l’ to draw attention to the code word, so that they should know where news of me was to be found.  It was devilish smart of you to decipher that, Des!”

Francis smiled at me.

“I meant to stay quietly in Berlin, going daily between Haase’s and the factory and wait, for a month or two, in case that message got home.  But Kore began to give trouble.  At the beginning of July he came to see me and hinted that the renewal of my permis de sejour would cost money.  I paid him, but I realized then that I was absolutely in his power and I had no intention of being blackmailed.  So I made use of his cupidity to leave a message for the man who, I hoped, would be coming after me, wrote that line on the wall under the Boonekamp poster in that filthy hovel where we slept and came up here after a job I had heard of at the Cafe Regina.

“And now, Des, old man,” said my brother, “you know all that I know!”

“And Clubfoot?”

“Ah!” said Francis, shaking his head, “there I think I recognize the hand that has been against us from the start, though who the man is, and what his power, I, like you, only know from what he told you himself.  The Germans are clever enough, as we know from their communiques, to tell the truth when it suits their book.  I believe that Clubfoot was telling you the truth in what he said about his mission that night at the Esplanade.

“You and I know now that the Kaiser wrote that letter ... we also know that it was addressed to an influential English friend of William II.  You have seen the date ...  Berlin, July 31st, 1914 ... the eve of the outbreak of the world war.  Even from this half in my pocket ... and you who have seen both halves of the letter will confirm what I say ...  I can imagine what an effect on the international situation this letter would have had if it had reached the man for whom it was destined.  But it did not ... why, we don’t know.  We do know, however, that the Emperor is keenly anxious to regain possession of his letter ... you yourself were a witness of his anxiety and you know that he put the matter into the hands of the man Clubfoot.”