Page:The Viaduct Murder (1926).pdf/119

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?"

"Oh, I don't know . . . No, of course; that's it. But, as Gordon says, it doesn't seem to get us much further."

"Not in itself," agreed Carmichael. "But meanwhile it has incidentally provided us with an extra clue."

"What's that?" asked Gordon.

"I'll tell you some other time. I say, it's time for luncheon. Let's go down."