r the governess of his children,
who had a number of English relations moving about Spain, and was
accustomed to receive their letters for them, and in any case, five
pesetas would be paid for each of them. Shortly after, letters had begun
to arrive addressed to English nonexistent people in the quiet little
Calle Alfredo Menandez, sometimes from Allied countries, sometimes from
Holland, or from Port-Bou over against Cerbere in Spain; and every one
of these found its natural way to the house of the German official. The
choice of English names had a certain small ingenuity in that, when
passing through the censorship of Allied countries, they were a little
more likely to be taken at their face value than letters addressed to
foreigners.

So far so good. But the German high official was a very busy person; and
letters might find their way into his hands which were really intended
for English persons and not for him at all. Accordingly, to make all
clear, to warn him that here indeed was a letter deserving his kind
attention, that little trifling alteration in the date was adopted; as
though a man writing on the 28th had mislaid the calendar or newspaper
and assigned the 27th to the day of writing, and afterwards had
discovered his mistake. It was no wonder accordingly that hope ran high
in both Fairbairn and Hillyard as they read through this letter;
although, upon the face of it, it was nothing but a sentimental effusion
from a sister to a brother.

"We have got to clear all this nonsense away first," said Hillyard.

Fairbairn took the letter, and placing it on one of the developing
dishes, poured over it a liquid from a bottle.

"That won't take very long," he said.

Meanwhile Hillyard busied himself with the second of the two white
porcelain dishes. He brought out a cruet stand from a cupboard at the
side of the stove and filled the dish half full of vinegar. He added
water until the liquid rose within half an inch of the rim, and rocked
the dish that the dilution might be complete. Next he took a new
copying-pencil from the pen-tray on his bureau and stripping the wood
away with his knife, dropped the blue lead into the vinegar and water.
This lead he carefully dissolved with the help of a glass pestle.

"There! It's ready," he said.

"I, too," added Fairbairn.

He lifted out of the developing dish a wet sheet of writing paper which
was absolutely blank. Not one drop of the black ink which had recorded
those