The next morning I took out Scudder's note-book and began to work. The code was a difficult one, and I had to try many possible key-words. By noon I had found the spaces between the words but I could not discover the letters.
After dinner I tried again and worked hard until three o'clock. Then suddenly I had an idea. I was lying back in my chair when a woman's name came into my head. It was Julia Czechenyi. Scudder had told me that she was one of his worst enemies. Perhaps her name was the key-word. I tried it quickly on the code and it was right!
'Julia' has five letters, and Scudder had used these letters instead of a, e, i, o and u. J is the tenth letter in English, and so he used the number io instead of a. The letter e was the u of 'Julia', and u is the twenty-first letter. So Scudder had written 21 instead of e.
The name 'Czechenyi' gave me nine other numbers, and I could soon read Scudder's notes. I sat in my room working quietly for the rest of the afternoon.
The facts in Scudder's little book were terrible. Indeed, when the woman brought my tea, I was a very nervous man. My face looked pale, and I did not want to eat anything.
'Are you all right, sir?' she asked. 'You look very pale.'
'Oh, it's nothing,' I said. 'Please put the things on the table.'
There was a sudden noise outside the inn, and the woman left my room. I heard a motor-car stopping and then there were several voices.
A few minutes later the inn-keeper rushed into my room. 'Two men have just arrived,' he said, 'and they're looking for you. They described you very well.'
'What did you tell them?'
'I told them that you had stayed here last night but had left early this morning.'
'Can you describe them?'
'One is a thin fellow with dark eyes, and the other is rather fat.'
'Do they talk like Englishmen?'
He nodded. 'Oh, yes, I think so.'
I picked up a bit of paper and wrote quickly in German:
'. . . Black Stone. Scudder had heard about this., but, he could not do anything until June 15th. Karolides' plans are uncertain, and I may not be able to help. But if Mr. T. advises, I will try . . .'
When I had written the message, I tore the edges of the paper. It was like a part of a torn-up letter.
'Give this to them,' I said. 'Tell them that it was found in my room.'
Three minutes later the men drove away in the car. The inn-keeper appeared in great excitement.
'Your paper gave them a surprise,' he said. 'The dark fellow turned pale, and the fat one looked very ugly. They paid for their drinks and left at once.'
'Now I want you to do something for me,' I said. 'Get on your bicycle and go to the police at Newton-Stewart. Describe the two men and talk about the London murder. You can invent reasons. You can say that you heard a conversation between them. One man told the other that he had just been released from prison.. And say that you also heard Scudder's name. The hunt isn't over yet. Those two fellows will come back tomorrow morning, and the police must be here to arrest them.'
He went off at once, and I continued my work on Scudder's notes. It was six o'clock when he came back.
'It's all right,' he said. 'The police will be here at eight o'clock in the morning.'
We had a meal together, and I had to tell him my adventures again. He made notes about them during the meal. I could not sleep that night. I finished Scudder's book and then sat up in my chair until morning. I was thinking about Scudder's terrible story.
At eight o'clock three policemen arrived at the inn. The inn-keeper met them and showed them the garage. They left their car there and then came into the inn.
Twenty minutes later another car appeared and stopped two hundred yards from the inn. I was watching from a window above the front-door. The car was driven under some trees and left there. Two men got out of it and walked towards the inn.
The plan which I had made was not a very good one. I hoped that the police would arrest the men. If they did so, I should be quite safe.
But now I had a better idea. I wrote a note to the inn-keeper and left it in my room. Then I opened my window and dropped quietly into some bushes in the garden. I ran across the garden and along the edge of a field. A few minutes later I reached the trees.
I did not waste a moment. The car was standing there, and I got into it. I started the engine and drove away.
The wind carried the sound of angry voices to my ears. But soon I was travelling along that road at fifty miles an hour.