"No. I wrote the letter myself, and dropped it into a box with my own hand."
"But of course I was seen to come here. If Mustushimi's system is anything like as perfect as it was before, he already knows that I am here."
"That, Mr. Carter, is why I showed some surprise when you came here so openly."
"I did it purposely, Mr. President."
"Why?"
"Because I guessed at once why you wished to see me, although you did not mention it in your letter--and because, now that I see I was right, I want Mustushimi to know that I am on his trail."
"That strikes me as being a new method of pursuing a secret investigation."
"It is, in one sense. But this case is different from any other."
"How so?"
"If Mustushimi has remained here, and we are practically certain that he has done so, he has hedged himself around with safeguards so perfectly that it would be difficult, if not next to impossible, to get a trace of him by ordinary methods. If he did not suspect that I was hereafter him, he would simply remain under cover as he is doing now, taking no extra precautions. But if he believes that I am after him, he will undertake some extra precautions at once, for he holds me in wholesome respect, and it is by those very precautions that I will be able to get first trace of him."