For a moment Dave stared in astonishment. He knew von Schellen for a truly heartless brute. The idea that any woman could love this fellow came almost as a shock. And that Schellen could have any tender feelings! Wonders would never cease.
"Of what are you thinking, if I may ask?" the German went on.
"After information coming to you," Darrin hinted, "it almost goes without saying that you receive your orders."
"Surely we receive them," nodded the German, "if we happen to need any. But in our line of professional work, after we have received information we do not often need orders. We know how to use our information."
"Of course," Dave went on, "any other radio operator who is within hearing distance can pick up your messages, so you do not send them in open German but use a code, or rather, a series of codes."
"If your radio men have ever picked up any of our messages," retorted the young German, "you must know that you were not able to decipher their meaning."
"We could not always decipher them," Darrin admitted.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Why, it is possible, of course, that sometimes we and our Allies have some keys to the German use of code messages."
"You assert that?" questioned von Schellen, rather eagerly.