“I know. Many might be, but none are. However, I saw what was up. The porter, by a train of thought which I find myself unable to follow, had taken the book home to his wife: and it was no surprise to me when she produced a copy of Momerie’s _Immortality_. It had been a disappointment to her, it seemed, and she made no difficulty about parting with it.” “But have you any reason for thinking it’s the book we’re looking for?” “Yes. There are a lot of lines down the side, queries and shriek-marks occasionally, which convince me that the thing was in Brotherhood’s hands. Only, of course, we want your copy of the cipher to read it from.” “Excellent man. Let’s come up at once. I ought to be able to lay my hands on it, though I can never be certain. I play a perpetual game with the maid who does my rooms; she always seems to think that documents are more easy to deal with if they’re piled up in a great heap, instead of lying scattered about. Every morning I disarrange them, and the next morning, as sure as fate, they are piled up again.” They had reached Reeves’ room by now. “Let’s see; that’s the Income Tax, and that’s my aunt, and that’s that man . . . Ha! what’s this? No . . . No . . . this can’t be it . . . well, I’m dashed! The thing seems to have gone.” “You’re sure you didn’t keep it in your pocket?” “I don’t think so . . . No, it’s not there. Look here, I’ll go through them again . . . You know, it’s a very rum thing, because I took another look at that cipher only last night.” “And now it’s gone. Anything else missing?” “Not that I can see. Oh, I say, this is the limit! First of all I got the cipher without the key, and then I get the key without the cipher.” “How like life,” suggested Gordon. “What’s this? ‘Hold it and thoughts with the . . .’ oh, splendid! Look here, I worked the cipher out all wrong in this beastly _Formation of Character_ book. But when I did that, I turned down all the pages I wanted, and underlined the significant words. So old Watson will come in useful after all. Hang on one moment—yes, here it is. Now, ready? The word ‘hold’ is the fifth word on the seventh line of page 8. What’s that in Momerie?” “That’s ‘you.’ It sounds all right for the beginning of a message.” And so they worked it out, this time more fruitfully. When the process was complete, Carmichael had a half-sheet in front of him on which the words appeared, “You will perish if you go back upon your faith.” “Yes,” said Gordon meditatively. “That’s too good to be mere coincidence. That was the message—was it a threat or a warning?—which was sent to Brotherhood, and old Brotherhood worked it out, presumably, in his Momerie, but wasn’t in time to profit by it. The only thing is, now we’ve got it, it doesn’t seem to get us much further.” “It means, I suppose,” said Carmichael, “that Brotherhood had promised to do something, and was trying to back out of it.” “Possibly that,” said Reeves. “Why possibly? What else could it mean?”