He arose hurriedly and struck a light. He seized the letter in search of the momentous something that had dawned upon him with wonderful intensity.
"Company Thirteen," he remarked with deliberate emphasis. "That must be the key."
And seizing a paper he wrote the order of letters which he had copied from the note a few hours before.
HVANLADERIIG
He stopped at the thirteenth, and began a second line immediately under the line he had just written.
AERODIRCUTN
It inserted perfectly when read up and down beginning with the letter "H". He completed the sentence.
HAVE ARNOLD AID RECRUITING
He could not believe his eyes. What did it all mean? What regiment was this? Why should this be sent from a British officer to Peggy Shippen? There were mixed considerations here.
There was a satisfaction, a very great satisfaction, in the knowledge that he was not entirely mistaken in his suspicions concerning Peggy. She was in communication with the British and perhaps had been for some time. This fact in itself was perfectly plain. The proof of it lay in his hand. Whether or not His Excellency was involved in the nefarious work was another question quite. The mere fact of the note being in his possession signified nothing, or if anything, no more than a coincidence. He might have read the note and, at the same time, have been entirely ignorant of the cipher, or he might have received this hidden information from the lips of Peggy herself, who undoubtedly had deciphered it at once.