CHAPTER XIX

“ZAGAZIG” Fully two weeks elapsed ere Nayland Smith’s arduous labours at last met with a slight reward. For a moment, the curtain of mystery surrounding the Si-Fan was lifted, and we had a glimpse of that organization’s elaborate mechanism. I cannot better commence my relation of the episodes associated with the Zagazig cryptogram than from the moment when I found myself bending over a prostrate form extended upon the table in the Inspector’s room at the River Police Depôt. It was that of a man who looked like a la…