“They used bees for messengers,” she said; “that was the leak.”
“Bees?”
“Honey bees, Colonel.”
For a whole minute he was silent, then burst out:
“Good God! Bees! And if such a—an extraordinary performance were possible how did you guess it?”
“Oh,” she said patiently, “I used them that way when I was a little girl. Bees, like pigeons, go back to their homes. Look, sir! Here, in order, are the dispatches, each traced in cipher on a tiny roll of tissue. They were tied to the bees’ thighs.”
And she spread them out in order under his amazed eyes; and this is what he saw when she pieced them together for him:
E I O2 W2 x I8 W3 [triangle] N I7 W3 x
O I I6 I5 W3 x E N I7 I7 I4 I8 I5 O2
N x I7 I E x I4 O2 I2 x
N x H I5 x I O2E x
N x O x E x W N W3 x
W x I8 E3 X H N [crescent] x
L x I3 [triangle] O2 X W3 I5 W3 N W2 x
I4 I2 x I8 W3 I7 I4 L I x N W3 x
I5 O2 H I x O2 I4 E I3 W3 x
H N I7 I7 [circle+] W2