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Ep. 12 - The Double Code · True Tales of The Secret Service

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Chapter twelve, The Double Code. It was one night in early fall that
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Bill Quinn and I were browsing around the library in the house that he called
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home ever since a counterfeiter's bullet incapacitated him from further active work in the Secret
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Service. Prior to that time, he had lived, as he put it,
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wherever he hung his hat. But now there was a comfortable little house
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with a den where Quinn kept the more unusual and often gruesome relics which brought
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back memories of the past. There, hanging on the wall, with a
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dark brown stain still adorning the razor like edge, was a Chinese hatchet,
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which had doubtless figured in some tong war on the coast. Below was an
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ordinary twenty five cent piece attached to the wallpaper with chewing gum, just as
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at once aided in robbing the treasury of nearly a million dollars, Quinn assured
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me. In another part of the room was a frame containing what appeared to
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be a bit torn from the wrapping of a package, with the canceled stamp
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and a half obliterated postmark as the only clues to the murder of the man
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who had received it, and Beside the bookcases, which contained a wide range
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of detective literature, hung a larger frame in which were the fingerprints of more
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than a score of criminals, men bearing names practically unknown to the public,
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but whose exploits were by words in the various governmental detective services. It was
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while glancing over the contents of the bookcase that I noted one volume which appeared
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strangely out of place in this collection of the fictional romances of crime. What's
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this doing here, i inquired, taking down a volume of the Giant Raft
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by Jules Verne. Verned it write detective stories? Did he no, replied
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Quinn, And it's really out of place in the bookcase. If possible,
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I'd like to have it framed and put in the wall with the rest of
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the relics, for it's really more important than any of them from the standpoint
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of value to the nation. That quarter on the wall over there, the
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one which figured in the sugar fraud case cost the government in the neighborhood of
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a million dollars, But this book probably saved a score of millions and hundreds
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of lives as well, if it hadn't been for the fact that the Thurber
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of the Navy Department knew his Jewels Verne even better than he did his Bible.
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It's quite possible that well, there's no use telling the end of the
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story before the beginning. Make yourself comfortable, and I'll see if I can
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recall the details of the case. Remember, doctor Rick Albert Quinn inquired after
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we had both stretched out in front of the open fire. Theoretically, the
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air doctor was attached to the German embassy in Washington merely in advisory and financial
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capacity. He and Hanyell van Heimhausen, the same counselor that the present German
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government wanted to send over here as an ambassador after the signing of the peace
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treaty, were charged with the solution of many of the legal difficulties which arose
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in connection with the business of the big red brick dwelling on Massachusetts Avenue.
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But while von Heimhausen was occupied with the legal end of the game, doctor
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Albert attended to many of the underground details which went unsuspected for many years.
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It was he, for example, who managed the bidding for the wireless station
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in the Philippines, the plan which permitted the German government to dictate the location
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of the station, and to see to it that the towers were so placed
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where they would be most useful to Berlin. He undoubtedly worked with von Poppen
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and boy Ed during the early years of the war, years in which this
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precious trio, either with or without the knowledge of the Count von Bernsdorff,
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sought by every means to cripple American shipping, violate American neutrality, and to
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make a laughing stock of American diplomatic methods. What's more, they got away
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with it for months, not because the Secret Service and the Department of Justice
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weren't hot on their trail, but because the Germans were too cagy to be
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caught, and you can't arrest a diplomat just on suspicion. During the months
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which followed the first of August nineteen fourteen, practically every one of the government's
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detective services was called upon in some way to pry into the affairs of the
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embassy staff, but the brunt of the work naturally devolved upon the two organizations
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directly concerned with preventing flagrant breaches of neutrality, the Secret Service and the Department
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of Justice. Every time that Doctor Albert or any other official of the German
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government left Washington. He was trailed by anywhere from one to five men.
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Every move he made was noted and every reporter to headquarters, with the result
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that the State Department had a very good idea of the names of the men
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who were being used to forward Germany's ends, even though it knew comparatively little
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about what was actually planned. The attaches were entirely too clever to carry on
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compromising conversations in the open, and their appointments were made in such a manner
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as effectually to prevent the planting of a dictaphone or any other device by which
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they might be overheard. The directions to the men who were responsible for the
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working of the two services were every attache of the German embassy is to be
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guarded with extreme care. Day and night. Reports are to be made through
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the usual channels, and in the event that something unusual is observed, Divisional
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Headquarters is to be notified instantly, the information being transmitted to Washington before any
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final action is taken. This last clause, of course, was inserted to
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prevent some hot headed operative from going off half cocked and thus spoiling the State
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Department's plans. As long as Albert and his associates were merely guarded, they
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couldn't enter any formal complaint, but given half a chance, they would have
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gotten on their official dignity and demanded that the espionage cease. From the State
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Department's point of view, it was an excellent rule, but Jeane Barlow and
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the other secret servicemen assigned to follow Albert couldn't see it in that light.
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What's the idea anyhow, Jean growled one night as his pet taxicab dashed down
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Massachusetts Avenue in the wake of the big touring car that was carrying the German
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attache to the Union station. Here, we have to be on the job
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at all hours just to watch this Dutchman and see what he does. And
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with a note of contempt, he never does anything worth reporting. Sees half
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a dozen people, lunches at the German American Club, drops in at two
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or three offices downtown, and then back here again. If they'd only let
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us waylay him and get hold of that black bag that he always carts around,
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there'd be nothing to it. Someday I'm going to do that little thing,
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just to see what happens. But Barlow took it out in threats.
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Secret servicemen find pleasure in stating what they are going to do someday, but
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the quality of implicit obedience has been drilled into them too thoroughly for them to
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forget it, which is possibly the reason why they take such a sheer and
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genuine delight in going ahead when the restrictions are finally lifted. It was in
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New York, more than two years after the war had commenced, that Barlow
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got his first opportunity to see what would happen. In the meantime, he
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had been assigned to half a dozen other cases, but always returned to the
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shadowing of doctor Albert because he was the one man who had been eminently successful
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in that work. The German had an almost uncanny habit of throwing his pursuers
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off the trail whenever he wanted to, and, in spite of the efforts
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of the cleverest men in the service, had disappeared from time to time.
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The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the delicacy of the diplomatic situation which ensued
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made it imperative that the man with the saber scar, as doctor Albert was
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known, be kept constantly under surveillance. Stick to him, Jean, and
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don't bother about reporting until you are certain that he will stay put long enough
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for you to phone. Were the instructions of the Barlow received. The doctor
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must be watched every moment that he's away from the embassy, and it's up
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to you to do it. Anything else beside watching him, inquired the operative,
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hopefully no, smiled the chief. There isn't to be any rough stuff.
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We're on the verge of an explosion as it is, and anyone who
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pulls the hair trigger will not only find himself out of a job, but
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will have the doubtful satisfaction of knowing that he's responsible for wrecking some very carefully
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laid plans. Where Albert goes, who he talks with, and if possible,
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a few details of what they discuss is all that's wanted. Wouldn't like
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to have a piece of the Kaiser's mustache or anything of that kind, would
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you, Chief Barlow retorted, I could get that for you a whole lot
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easier than I could find out what the man with the saber scars talks about.
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He's the original George be careful. Never was known to take a chance
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wouldn't better nickel against a hundred dollars that the sun would come up tomorrow,
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and always sees to it that his conferences are held behind bolted doors. They
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even pull down the shades so that no lip reader with a pair of field
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glasses can get a tip as to what they're talking about. That's the reason
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you were picked for this case, was the chief's reply. Any strong arm
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man could wail Albert over the head and throw him in the river. That
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wouldn't help any What we need is information concerning what his plans are, and
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it takes a clever man to get that. All bull and a yard wide,
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laughed Jeanne, but the compliment pleased him. Nevertheless, I'll watch him,
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but let me know when the lid comes off, and I can use
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other methods. The Chief promised that he would, and it was not more
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than three weeks later that he had an opportunity to make good. Barlow erected,
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speaking over the long distance phone to the operative in New York. The
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Department of Justice has just reported that doctor Albert is in receipt of a document
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of some kind, probably a letter of instruction from Berlin, which it is
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vital that we have at once. Our information is that the message is written
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on a slip of oiled paper carried inside a dummy lead pencil. It's possible
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that the doctor has destroyed it, but it isn't probable. Can you get
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it? How far am I allowed to go? Inquired Jeanne, hoping for
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permission to stage a kidnapping of the German attache, but fully expecting these instructions,
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which followed orders that he was to do nothing that would cause an open
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breach, nothing for which Doctor Albert could demand reparation or even an apology.
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In other words, Barlowe said to himself, as he hung up the phone,
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I'm to accomplish the impossible, blindfolded and with my hands tied. Wonder
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whether Paula would have a hunt. Paula was Barlow's sweetheart, a pretty little
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brunette who earned a very good salary as private secretary to one of the leading
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lights of Wall Street, which accounted for the fact that the operative had learned
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to rely upon her quick flashes of intuitive judgment for help in a number of
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situations which had required tact as well as action. They were to be married
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whenever Jeanne's professional activities subsided sufficiently to allow him to remain home at least one
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night a month. But meanwhile, Paula maintained that she would as soon be
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the wife of an African explorer, because at least I would know that he
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wouldn't be back for six months, while I haven't any idea whether you'll be
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out of town two days or two years. After they had talked the Albert
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matter over from all angles, Paula inquired, where would your friend with the
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saber scar be likely to carry the paper? Either in his pocket or in
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the black bag that he invariably has with him. Hum she mused, If
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it's in his pocket, I don't see that there is anything you can do
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short of knocking him down and taking it away from him, and that's barred
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by the rules of the game. But if it is in the mysterious black
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bag, it's the doctor in town. Now. Yes, he's at the
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astor probably for two or three days. I left Dwyer and French on guard
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there while I presumably snatched a little sleep. But I'd rather have your advice
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than any amount of rest. Thanks, was the girl's only comment, for
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her mind was busy with the problem. There's apparently no time to lose,
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So I'll inform the office the first thing in the morning that I won't be
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down. Meet you in front of the astor and we'll see what happens.
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Just let me stick with you inconspicuously, and I think that I can guarantee
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at least an opportunity to lift the bag without giving the German a chance to
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raise a row. Thus it was that early the next day Jean Barlow was
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joined by a distinctly personable young woman, who, after a moment's conversation,
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strolled up and down Broadway in front of the hotel. Some twenty minutes later,
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a man whose face had been disfigured by a saber slash received at Heidelberg,
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came down the steps and asked for a taxi. But Barlow, acting
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under directions from Paula, had seen that there were no taxis to be had
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a flash of his badge and some coin in the realm had fixed that.
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So Doctor Heinrich Albert of the German embassy was forced to take a Plebeian surface
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car, as Paula had intended that he should. The secret Service operative and
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his pretty companion boarded the same car a block farther down two other government agents,
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having held it sufficiently long at forty fourth Street to permit of this move.
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Worming their way through the crowd, when their prey changed to the sixth
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Avenue elevated, Jeanne and Paula soon reached points of vantage on either side of
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the German, who carried his black bag tightly grasped in his right hand,
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and the trio kept this information until they reached fiftieth Street, when the girl
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apparently started to make her way toward the door. Something caused her to stumble,
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however, and she pitched forward right into the arms of the German,
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who by that time had secured a seat and had placed his bag beside him,
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still guarding it with a protecting arm. Before the foreigner had time to
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gather his wits, he found himself with a pretty girl literally in his lap,
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a girl who was manifestly a lady, and who blushed to the tips
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of her ears as she apologized for her awkwardness. Even if the German had
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been a woman hater, there would have been nothing for him to do but
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to assist her to her feet, and that necessarily required the use of both
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hands, as it happened. Doctor Albert was distinctly susceptible to feminine charms,
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and there was something about this girl's smile which was friendly, though embarrassed,
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so he spent longer than was strictly essential in helping her to the door.
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She appeared to have turned her ankle, and then returned to his seat,
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only to find that his portfolio was missing. Reclamations and threats were useless.
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A score of people had left the car, and as the guard heartlessly refused
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to stop the train before the next station, there was naturally not a trace
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of the girl or the man who had accompanied her. By that time.
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In fact, Barlow and Paula had slipped into the shelter of a neighboring hotel
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lobby and were busy inspecting the contents of doctor Albert's precious briefcase. Even if
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there's nothing in it, laughed the girl. We've had the satisfaction of scaring
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him to death. Jeanne said nothing, but pawed through the papers in frantic
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haste. A slip of oiled paper, he muttered, by the Lord Harry,
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here it is, and he produced a pencil, which his trained fingers
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told him was lighter than it should be. With a wrench, he broke
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off the metal tip that held the eraser, and from within the wooden spindle
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removed a tightly wrapped roll of very thin, almost transparent paper covered with unintelligible
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lettering. What's on it, demanded Paula. I'll never tell you, was
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Barlow's reply. It would take a better man than I am to decipher this,
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and he read off, I I I T F B B T t
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x O code interrupted the girl. Sure it is and apparently a peach.
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The next moment, he had slipped the paper carefully into an inside pocket,
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crammed the rest of the papers back into the brief case, and was disappearing
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into a phone booth. Better get down to work, dear, he called
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over his shoulder. I'm going to report to the office here and then take
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this stuff down to Washington. And that was the last that Paula saw of
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him for a week. Six hours later, Barlow entered the Chief's office in
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the Treasury Department and reported that he had secured the code. Message so New
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York phoned was the only comment from the man who directed the destinies of the
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Secret Service. Take it right up to the Navy department and turn it over
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to Thurber, the librarian. He'll be able to read it if anybody can.
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Thurber, Jean Knew, was the man who was recognizedly the leading authoritily
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on military codes and ciphers in the United States, the man who had made
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a hobby as well as a business, of decoding mysterious messages, and who
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had finally deciphered the famous square letter code, though it took him months to
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do it. He'll have to work faster than that this time, thought Barlow,
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as he made his way toward the librarian's office on the fourth floor of
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the big gray stone building. Times at a premium, and Germany moves too
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fast to waste any of it. But Thurber was fully cognizant of the necessity
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for quick action. He had been warned that Barlow was bringing the dispatch,
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and the attire office was cleared for work. Spreading the oiled paper on a
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tabletop made of clear glass, the librarian turned on a battery of strong electric
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lights underneath, so that any water mark or secret writing would have been at
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once apparent. But there was nothing on the sheet except line after line of
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meaningless letters. It's possible, of course, that there may be some writing
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and invisible ink on the sheet, admitted the cipher expert. But the fact
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that oiled paper is used would seem to preclude that the code itself may be
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any one of a several varieties, and it's a matter of trying them all
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until you hit upon the right one. I thought that Poe's story of the
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Goldbug claimed that any cipher could be read if you selected the letter that appeared
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most frequently and substitute it for the letter E, which is used most often
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in English, and so on down the list, stated Barlow. So it
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did, but there are lots of things that Poe didn't know about code's thurber
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retort, His eyes rivetted to the sheet before him. Besides, that was
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fiction, and the author knew just how the code was constructed, while this
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is fact, and we have to depend upon hard work and blind luck.
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There are any number of arbitrary systems which might have been used in writing this
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message, he continued. The Army clock code is one of them, the
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one in which a number is added to every letter figure dependent upon the hour
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at which the message is written. But I don't think that applies in this
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case. The cipher doesn't look like it, although I'll have to admit that
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it doesn't look like any that I've come across before. Let's put it on
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the blackboard and study it from across the room. That often helps in concentrating.
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You're not going to write the whole thing on the board, queried the
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operative. No, only the first fifteen letters or so, and Thurber put
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down this line I I I T F B B T t x O r
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q W S b B translated into what we call letter figures. He went
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on, that would be nine nine nine, twenty six, two two,
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twenty, twenty, twenty four, fifteen, eighteen, seventeen, twenty three,
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nineteen two two, the system where A is denoted by one, B
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by two and so on. Now that's still meaningless. That repetition of the
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letter I at the beginning of the message is what makes it particularly puzzling.
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If you don't mind, I'll lock the door and get to work on this
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in earnest Where can I reach you by phone? Barlow smiled at this polite
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dismissal, and stating that he would be at headquarters for the rest of the
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evening and that they would know where to reach him after that left the office
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decidedly doubtful as to Thurber's ability to read the message. Long after midnight,
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Jean answered a ring from the phone beside his bed, and, through a
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haze of sleep, heard the voice of the Navy librarian inquiring if he still
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had the other papers which had been in doctor Albert's bag. No, replied
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the operative, but I can get them. They are on top of the
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chief's desk. Nothing in them, though went over them with a microscope just
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the same, directed Thurber. I'd like to have them right away. I
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think I'm on the trail. But the message is impossible to decipher unless we
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get the code word. It may be in some of the other papers.
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Barlow found the librarian red eyed from his lack of sleep and the strain of
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concentration over the code letter. But when they had gone over the papers found
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in the black bag, even Thurber had to admit that he was checkmated.
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Somewhere, he maintained, is the one word which will solve the whole thing.
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I know the type of cipher. It's one that is very seldom used.
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In fact, the only reference to it that I know of is in
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Jules Verne's novel The Giant raft. It's a question of taking a key word,
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using the letter figures which denote this, and adding these to the letter
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figures of the original letter. That will give you a series of numbers which
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it is impossible to decipher unless you know the key word. I feel certain
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that this is a variation of that system, for the fact that two letters
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appear together so frequently would seem to indicate that the numbers which they represent are
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higher than twenty six, the number of letters in the alphabet. One word,
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muttered Barlow. Then, seizing what was apparently a memorandum sheet from the
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pile of Albert's papers, he exclaimed, here is a list that neither the
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chief nor I could make anything of. C It has twelve numbers, which
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might be the months of the year, with a name or word behind each
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one. Yes, replied Thurber, disconsolately. I saw that the first thing,
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but this is October and the word corresponding to the number ten is Wilhelmstrasse.
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And that doesn't help at all. I tried it. Then try Hohenzallen
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the September word, snapped Barlow. This message was presumably written in Berlin and
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therefore took some time to get over here by George. That's so a variation
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of the clock code as well as Verne's idea. Here, read off the
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letters and I'll put them on the board with the figures representing Hohenzallen underneath.
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Take the first fifteen as before. When they had finished the blackboard bore the
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following, the first line being the original code letters, the second the letter
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figures of these, and the third the figures of the word Hohenzallen, with
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the first H repeated for the fifteenth letter I I I t f b b
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tt x o r q w s b b I ii t f b b
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t t x o r q w s b b nine thirty five, twenty
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six, twenty eight, forty six, twenty four, fifteen, eighteen,
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seventeen, twenty three, nineteen twenty eight, eight, fifteen, eight five,
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fourteen, twenty six, fifteen twelve, twelve five, eighteen fourteen eight
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y thirty five for that double I, and twenty eight for the double B's
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asked Borrow, add twenty six the total number of letters in the alphabet to
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get the letter figure for the letter itself, said Thurber. That's the one
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beauty of this code. One of the things which helps to throw you off
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the scent. Now subtracting the two lines, we have one twenty twelve,
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one, fourteen, twenty nine, three, six twelve, five, five
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twenty. We've got it, he cried an instant later, as he stepped
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back to look at the figures and read off Atlantic Fleet. It was a
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double code, after all, Thurber stated, when he had deciphered the entire
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message by the same procedure and had reported his discovery to the Secretary of the
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Navy over the phone. Practically infallible too, save for the fact that I,
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as well as doctor Albert, happened to be familiar with Jules Verne.
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That plus the doctor's inability to rely on his memory and therefore leaving his key
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words in his briefcase, rendered the whole thing pretty easy. Yes, thought
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Jean. Plus my suggestion of the September word rather than the October one,
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and plus Paula's quick wit, That's really all there was to it. But
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he kept his thoughts to himself, preferring to allow Thurber to reap all the
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rewards that were coming to him for the solution of the double code. Do
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you know what the whole message was? I inquired, as Quinn stopped his
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narrative. You'll find it pasted on the back of that copy of the Giant
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Raft, replied the former operative. That's why I claim that the book ought
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to be preserved as a souvenir of an incident that saved millions of dollars and
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hundreds of lives. Turning to the back of the Verne book, I saw
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pasted there the following significant lines. Atlantic Fleet sails from Hampton Roads at six
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o'clock morning of seventeenth eight U boats will be waiting, advise necessary parties,
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and be ready to seek safety. Success of attack inevitable. That means that
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if Thurber hadn't been able to decipher that code, the greater part of our
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fleet would have been sunk by an unexpected submarine attack launched by a nation with
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whom we weren't even at war, I demanded even when I had finished the
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message precisely agreed Quinn. But if you'll look up the right you'll find that
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the fleet did not sail on schedule. While doctor Heinrich Albert and the entire
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staff from the house on Massachusetts Avenue were deported before many more weeks had passed,
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there was no sense in raising a fuss about the incident at the time,
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for von Bernsdorff would have denied any knowledge of the message and probably would
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have charged that the whole thing was a plant designed to embroil the United States
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in the war. So it was allowed to rest for the time being,
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and merely jotted down as another score to be wiped off the slate later on.
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But you have to admit that a knowledge of Jules Verne came in very
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handy, quite as much so, in fact, as did a knowledge of
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the habits and disposition of white mice. In another case, which one was
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that Quinn merely pointed to the top of his bookcase, where there reposed a
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stuffed white mouse, apparently asleep. That's a memento of the case, replied
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the former operative. I'll tell you of it the next time you drop in.
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End of chapter twelve,