He unfolded the sheet and glanced over the advertisement pages in search of a marked paragraph.
“Ingenious devil, Inspector,” he went on. “The other advertisement was in the Courier, this is a copy of to-day's Gazette. That makes sure that no one reading down a column of advertisements would be struck by a resemblance and start comparisons. I begin to like Mr. Justice. He's thorough, anyhow. . . . Ah, here we are! Marked like the other one. Listen, Inspector:
“CLINTON: Take the letters in the following order.
55. 16. 30. 17. 1. 9. 2. 4. 5. 10. 38. 39. 43. 31.
18. 56. 32. 40. 6. 21. 26. 11. 3. 44. 45. 19. 12. 7.
36. 33. 15. 46. 47. 20. 34. 37. 27. 48. 35. 28. 22.
29. 41. 49. 23. 50. 53. 51. 13. 25. 54. 42. 52.
24. 8. 14.
Now that was why he split up his letters into groups of five in the first advertisement—to make it easy for us to count. I really like this fellow more and more. A most thoughtful cove.”
He placed the two advertisements side by side on the table.
“Just run over this with me, Inspector. Call the first A number 1, the second A number 2, and so on. There are fifty-six letters in all, so number 55 is the W. Number 16 is the first letter in the fourth quintette—H. Number 30 is the last letter in the sixth quintette—O. So that spells WHO. Just go through the lot and check them please.”
Flamborough ploughed through the whole series and ended with the same solution as Sir Clinton had obtained earlier in the morning: “WHO HAD ACCESS TO HYOSCINE AT THE CROFT-THORNTON INSTITUTE?”
“Well, it's pleasant to hit the mark,” the Chief Constable confessed. “By the way, you had better send someone down to the Courier and Gazette Offices to pick up the originals of these advertisements. But I'm sure it'll be just the same old telegram stunt; and the address which has to be given as a guarantee of good faith will be a fake one.”
Chapter XII.
The Silverdale Wills
“This is Mr. Renard, sir.”