“What do you mean?� she asked. “What have his glasses got to do with the cipher-key?�
“That, I don’t know. All I do know is, there’s something rotten in Holland or Denmark when a man can do what he did with those glasses on. He knew every card. He trimmed a gull without half trying. There’s a connection between the smoked-glasses and the cipher. I’m sure of that now. Will you go with me to Stavanger and help look up Harry Raymond? We can get in a game with him and try to find out how he does it. He’s clever enough to think of most everything.�
“You should have mentioned that before,� she said, grasping his arm. “It is a clue, Chester. I’ll go to Stavanger.�
The road led through a patch of marshy ground, over a stile, across a rising lea-land, and then upon
a railroad embankment which stretched north and south as straight as a ruler.
Fay studied the rails, then led the way toward the switch-points and an empty goods train which had been shunted from the main line. The tarpaulins of this train were dripping with moisture. The train crew had gone up the metals to the low, stone-built station. A green light gleamed from a signal-arm.
“Looks like a way station in Kansas,� said Fay as he helped the girl climb to a high platform. “We ought to see a tin-star marshal standing round chewing on a straw.�
A sleepy-eyed operator was in the office. He raised the tiny frosted window as Fay knocked with his knuckles on the glass. Two of a train crew stirred from the benches in the waiting-room. They sat erect and stared across the gloom.
“I want to go to Delfzijl,� said Fay to the operator and clerk. “I think you pronounce it that way,� he added keenly. “This lady and I must go!�
A guard lumbered across the room and spoke rapidly in Dutch to the operator. He turned to Fay.