CHAPTER XVI

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

“Now!” said Hillyard.

Fairbairn fetched a couple of white porcelain developing dishes to the table.  Hillyard unlocked a drawer in his bureau.  They were in the deck-saloon of the Dragonfly, steaming southwards from Valencia.  Outside the open windows the brown hill-sides, the uplands of olive trees and the sun-flecked waves slipped by in a magical clear light; and the hiss of the beaded water against the ship’s planks filled the cabin with a rustle as of silk.  Hillyard drew a deep breath of excitement as he took out from the drawer the letters he had carried off from M. de Cassaud.  He had travelled straight through Barcelona to Valencia with the letters in his pocket, picking up Fairbairn at the Estacion de Francia on the way, and now, in the sunlight and in the secrecy of the open sea, they were to appraise the value of their catch.

They sat at the table and examined them, opening the envelopes with the skill and the care which experience had taught them.  For, even though this post-road was henceforth closed it might possibly be worth while to send forward these letters.  One or two were apparently family letters for German soldiers, interned at Pampluna; one or two were business communications from firms in Berlin to their agents in Spain; and these seemed genuine enough.

“They may be of value to the War Trade Board,” said Fairbairn; and he put them aside for dispatch to London.  As he turned back Hillyard cried suddenly: 

“Here we are!”

He had come to the last letter of the little heap.  He was holding the envelope in front of him and he read out the address: 

"Mr. Jack Williams,
"Alfredo Menandez, 6,
"Madrid."

Fairbairn started up, and tugging at his moustache, stared at the envelope over Hillyard’s shoulder.

“By Jove!” he said.  “We may have got something.”

“Let us see!” returned Hillyard, and he opened the envelope.

As he spread out the letter both men laughed.  The date of the month had been corrected by the writer—­thus: 

              8
     “July 27th, 1916.”

[Transcriber’s note:  The original text has a slash through the 7.]

There was no doubt any longer in either of these two men’s minds that hidden away under the commonplaces of a letter of affection was a message of grave importance.

“They are full of clever tricks in Berlin,” said Hillyard cheerfully.  He could afford to contemplate that cleverness with complacency, for it was now to serve his ends.