The Stratagem and Other Stories

value is calculated to twenty-eight places of decimals. “But hardly had he laid down these bold outlines of his scheme when interruption came. On the fourth day of our intercourse he signalled only ‘Wait. Watch me!’ again and again. “In the evening he manoeuvred to get to the rear of the line of convicts, and only then dragged out ‘There is a traitor, a spy. Henceforth I must find a new means of communicating the details of my plan. I have thought it all out. I shall speak in a sort of rebus, which not even you will be able to understand unless you have all the pieces—and the key. Mind you engrave upon your memory every word I say.’ “The following day: ‘Do you remember the taking of the old mill by the Prussians in ‘70? My difficulty is that I must give you the skeleton of the puzzle, which I can’t do in words. But watch the line of my spade and my heelmarks, and take a copy.’ “I did this with the utmost minuteness of accuracy and obtained this figure. At my autopsy,” said Dugues- clin, dramatically, “this should be found engraved upon my heart.” He drew a notebook from his pocket, and rapidly sketched the subjoined figure for the now interested Bevan. “You will note that the figure has eight sides, and that twenty-seven crosses are disposed in groups of