"Here!" he called, thrusting a paper into Captain Hardy's hand. "The motor-car station just sent this message."
"The motor-car station!" exclaimed Captain Hardy, in astonishment. "Then Sanders can't be aboard the motor-boat. The Chief said he had him covered so closely that he could not escape—and evidently he couldn't." A moment later Captain Hardy stood frowning, trying to puzzle out the meaning of it. "I don't see how he could have sent a message," he continued, "if he is so closely watched that he couldn't get away."
"Perhaps the message will tell us," suggested Roy.
"Right again, Roy," said Captain Hardy. "We'll hurry to the office and decipher it."
On the run they made their way to the subway station at Bowling Green. They caught a north bound train and shortly afterward swarmed up out of the subway and made a rush for the secret service offices.
With hardly more than a word of greeting they drew up at a table and laid the paper with the message before them.
"Forty," said Captain Hardy, counting the letters. "If they use the same cipher they did last time, that'll make five columns of eight letters each." Rapidly he set down the letters in the order indicated, thus:
T T E N R
H A S E Y
G Y U R A
I L O E B
N T V R O
D C Z E H
I A E V C
M X D E E
Then slowly he read off the message: "ECHO—BAY—REVERE—RENDEZVOUS—EXACTLY—AT—MIDNIGHT."
With a cry of joy Captain Hardy leaped to his feet. "We've got another chance," he said. "Sanders must be going to meet them at Revere Rendezvous—wherever that is." Then, turning to a man at the next desk, he inquired, "Where is Echo Bay?"