These papers bore penciled notations. Evidently they had been made in an effort to solve the code. They represented hours of work which had been halted and was now being resumed.
The hands produced a sheet of thin cardboard, its surface filled with carefully cut holes. The fingers moved the cardboard and placed it upon the photostatic copy of the code. Only certain characters showed through the holes in the cardboard.
The hands worked swiftly, changing the position of the cardboard in an effort to form new combinations of visible characters.
The code was now being submitted to a thorough test. The hands went from one sheet of paper to another, seeking some bit of information that might lead to the desired result.
At times the hands paused and remained motionless. When they did, the most unusual feature about them was a gem that glowed from a ring on the third finger of the left hand.
The stone was a girasol, that strange jewel sometimes called the fire opal. Its depths reflected a deep crimson light that glowed like a living coal.
The hands rested upon the table, so motionless that they resembled carved ivory. The brain that controlled those hands was thinking, puzzling over some problem that confronted it.
One hand disappeared and produced a watch. The timepiece, glittering on the table, registered five minutes after ten.
Time passed. The watch recorded midnight.
Then came a hollow laugh from the darkness above the hands. Soft and sinister, the laugh echoed from the invisible walls of the room until it became nothing more than a ghostly whisper.