“The very point that led me to a solution of the problem,” O’Shea returned. “I realized, of course, that the routine which you indicate would have been insane, and I do not look for insanity of this kind from members of the S Group. I recalled that we had been sitting by the statue of Peter Pan, and that I had drawn your attention to the presence of ‘Two London Bridges’ in the message. I noted that the double bridges were preceded by a reference to Bond Street--or, rather, by two references to Bond Street--and followed by another. I remembered that the hour was noon. “Treating the message as a cipher, I assumed, as a basis of investigation, that the various well-known spots mentioned represented letters and that all intervening words might be neglected. Now, I had two almost certain clues to work upon. “First, that our German friend clearly expected to meet Zara and someone called Wilson by the statue of Peter Pan. Second, that he expected to meet them there at noon. Think for a moment, and you will realize that this must have been the case.” “It is clear enough,” said I, “now that you point it out to me.” “His handing me a second message in the same cipher,” O’Shea went on, “suggested that the first related to the appointment which we, by bounty of the gods, had accidentally kept. I therefore assumed that the first message conveyed something of this sort: ‘Be at the statue of Peter Pan at midday.’ “I began to examine it with this idea in mind. Particularly, I was looking for a sequence to fit the name, Peter Pan. As you can see--” he spread the original messages on my table before me--“it appears unmistakably at the very beginning. Charing Cross is the first point mentioned; four other London landmarks occur, and then Charing Cross again. I assumed as a working theory that Charing Cross stood for the letter P. “This suggested that British Museum was E as it occurs next, is followed by Mansion House, and then occurs again. “Assuming Mansion House to be T, we get P-e-t-e. Calling Hyde Park R, we get Peter. Charing Cross then crops up in its correct place. Reading Piccadilly as A and Bond Street as N gives Peter Pan.” He laid his cigarette in an ash-tray and bent over the writing enthusiastically. “This enabled me to cross-check, for Bond Street occurs again immediately, with the two London Bridges which first attracted my attention, followed by another Bond Street. “Bond Street being N, it was reasonable to assume that London Bridge was O, making--Peter Pan, Noon.” “By gad!” I exclaimed. “It’s wonderful!”