The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1941-07-24


situation.
What I can't understand" Bar
Wer told Camilla, ''is how people
aboard the ship found out that
l was expected. You see," he went
on more deliberately, least of
Suez l am not generally known
as Ronald Barker, but someone
quite different"
He paused and she waited, but
he said nothing more for a while.
Evidently he thought that he had
sufficiently gratified her curiosi-
ty.
''The name of Barker was the
one they used,'' she said expert
mentally.
TITS quite extraordinary, be-
cause left England at few
hours notice and flew direct to
Marseilles just in time to catch
the Orizaba.
"Only a wireless from London
could have preceded you," she
suggested. "Your enemies must
. have received a message before
the ship reached Marseilles."
Excellent. I shall have to give
you letter to Scotland Yard or,
better still, take you on as my as
sistant in this particular job" He
laughed.
Glow thrilling! Will you?"
cat any rate you can help me
find from the purser the list of
those who came aboard at Mar
settles. I'll have to get permits
sion about private wireless mes
sages."
The conversation with Mr.. Dis
ston, the purser, who examined
the list of passengers for them,
revealed little. The people who
had come aboard at Marseilles
were party of three American
tourists. a Spanish Assyriologist
bound for Beirut, and an Armen-
ian rug dealer of Paris and Da-
mascus. The latter, the purser
said, was an old man named Te-
moyan, utterly respectable, who
Travelled on the Orizaba back and
forth twice a year.
well have a talk with Mon
sieur Temoyan," Barker said.
SGVN0o'& x1NJ1 lot mn ~
secret if you find anything in the
wireless room?"
He laughed. give always said
that the only requirements for
good detective or secret service
operator were devouring curio-
sity and considerable amount of
impudence."
''Of which do you think I have
the most?"
cts difficult to say"
He wanted to be polite to her,
for the sheer force of her mag
netic interest had made him say
a lot of things he had had no in
tention of saying about himself.
She had been a great help to him,
put him on his guard against men
who were bent on mischief, and
he was very grateful to her. On
his way down from the wireless
room he decided to take her still
further into his confidence.
And so, when he joined her
again on deck. he brought out the
wireless messages. "The East has
taught me fatalism, Camilla Dean.
I wonder if you'd care to look at
these wireless codes I've picked
out"
"Thrilled!"
''This one is to the Spanish AS
syriologist Jose Serrano and bears
the London mark" He handed
her a typed message and she
moved to the light of the smok-
ing room window. "Dog. Orizaba.
Sagauche." Three words, that was
all.
"Can't make a thing out of it, ;"
he said. "Can your"
Camilla puzzled. Rather clev-
er, if it means anything. Have you
any ideas?"
'None. It's too short unless it's
in twisting the letters"
She squinted at it up and down
and sideways. "No good. Do you
know who Serrano ISL"
eyes. He was pointed out to me
by my steward. Small man, stub
by brown beard and bald head
walks with a stick"
''And the other message? To
whom was it Addressed"
"A man named Mohammed Ali.
But the queer thing about it is
that there is no such person as
Mohammed Ali aboard the Oriza-