"_D.C. improving shall settle all soon.--Dusky Fowl._"
"Still, I wasn't much the wiser, and it never for a moment occurred to me that D.C. stood for Dulcie Challoner--"
"Good heavens, Dick!" I cried, "you don't mean to tell me that Dulcie--"
"Do be patient, brother-in-law, and let me go through the whole thing before you interrupt with your ejaculations," Dick said calmly. "Well, four days went by, and then in the _Morning Post_ of February 7th the second advertisement appeared:
"Rlxt. ex. sroehnel. 28. Zcokk. zbpl. qc. Ptfrd. Avnsp. Hvfbl. Ucaqkoggwx.--DUSKY FOWL."
"The code was the same as the first, and I deciphered it quite easily. Here it is," and he read from a bit of paper he held in his hand:
"_Date is February 28. Shall stay at Mount Royal Hotel, Bedlington.--Dusky Fowl_."
There was nothing more after that until February 12th, when the third advertisement appeared, same code,--here it is deciphered:
"_Car will be at Clun Cross two day February 28.--Dusky Fowl_."
"That 'Dusky Fowl' bothered me a lot. I couldn't think what it meant. Several times I had gone through the names of all the 'dusky birds' I could think of--blackbird, rook, crow, raven, and so on, but nothing struck me, nothing seemed to make sense. Then the next day--yesterday--an advertisement in the same code appeared which startled me a lot because your name and Mr. Osborne's were in it, and it didn't take me long then to get at the meaning of 'Dusky Fowl.' Here is the advertisement from yesterday's _Morning Post_, and directly I had read it I wrote that letter asking you to come to see me at once, or to let me come to you."
"_Osborne and Berrington suspect. Take precautions. D.C. with me Hampstead.--Dusky Fowl_"
"'Dusky Fowl' evidently stands for 'rook,' and 'rook' for 'Rook Hotel,' and 'Rook Hotel' for 'Mrs. Stapleton.' And that being the case, who else can 'D.C.' stand for but 'Dulcie Challoner'? It's as plain as a pike-staff."
"By Jove, Dick," I said after a few moments' pause, "I believe you are right!"
"I am sure I am," he answered with complete self-assurance.
This clearly was a most important discovery. I decided to take the cuttings and their solutions to Osborne the moment I got back to town, and I intended to go back directly after delivering Dick safely back at his school.