It worked. The five letters of “Julia” gave me the position of the vowels. A was J , the tenth letter of the alphabet, and so represented by X in the cipher. E was XXI , and so on. “Czechenyi” gave me the numerals for the principal consonants. I scribbled that scheme on a bit of paper and sat down to read Scudder’s pages.

In half an hour I was reading with a whitish face and fingers that drummed on the table.

I glanced out of the window and saw a big touring-car coming up the glen towards the inn. It drew up at the door, and there was the sound of people alighting. There seemed to be two of them, men in aquascutums and tweed caps.