For instance: What language is the
key-word--French, Italian, Spanish, English? The message is written on
French paper, enclosed in an English envelope.--However, the facts you
have may clear up that phase of the matter."
"Here are the facts, as I know them," said Harleston.
Carpenter leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and listened.
* * * * *
"The message is, I should confidently say, written in English or French,
with the chances much in favour of the latter," he said, when Harleston
had concluded. "Everyone concerned is English or American; the men who
descended upon you so peculiarly and foolishly, and who showed their
inexperience in every move, were Americans, I take it, as was also the
woman who telephoned you. Moreover, she is fighting them."
"Then your idea is that the United States is not concerned in the
matter?" the Secretary asked.
"Not directly, yet it may be very much concerned in the result. We will
know more about it after Mr. Harleston has had his interview with the
lady."
"That's so!" the Secretary reflected. "We shall trust you, Harleston, to
find out something definite from her. Keep me advised if anything turns
up. It seems peculiar, and it may be only a personal matter and not an
_affaire d'etat_.
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