I suppose this cipher message is an important
one?" he added, suspiciously.
"Don't know what it is," Jack answered, truthfully.
The clerk evidently did not believe the boy for he stood at the desk
gazing after him with a look of distrust on his face. The lads were
no sooner out of the office than a thin, angular gentleman, dusky of
face and very black and bright of eye, entered and walked up to the
clerk.
"I sent a message here by a couple of boys," he said, "and I wish to
withdraw it."
"You'll have to find the boys, then, and have them withdraw it,"
replied the clerk.
"But can't I recall the dispatch--my own dispatch?" demanded the
other, exposing a $100 banknote in his palm. "It is worth something
to me to get it back."
The clerk was angry at the plain attempt at bribery, so he turned
back to a table and took up the message the boys had left.
"We have a message here," he said, "which may be recalled under
proper conditions. Kindly tell me what your dispatch says."
"Which one did they file?" asked the other. "The one to Washington or
the one to New York?"
The clerk laid the paper back on the desk.
"Give me the address you sent your message to at Washington," he
said.
"It was the secretary of state," was the reply.
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