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turning to his aides. All shook their heads. “Where does it say anything about the intended escape taking place on the twenty-sixth?”
    â€œIt doesn’t,” Webber replied. “My proposition simply states that Spangler will be coming to Concentration Camp Oranienburg to free Hilka Tolan. Now we know that the escape attempt will take place on the twenty-sixth. If this Council allows me to present my material as planned, we will have time enough to capture him. If the Gestapo prefers that I interrupt my presentation to meet their demands, then I feel they must take full responsibility if Spangler is not captured. Well, Herr Platt?”
    Platt glowered at Webber. His face grew a deep crimson. A vein in his forehead began to pulsate visibly.
    â€œStandartenfuehrer,” Otto Zieff of the Abwehr began, looking at his notes, “am I to understand that SD-Ausland contends that this Erik Spangler is planning an escape on the twenty-sixth of this month?”
    â€œThat is our contention.”
    â€œOn the assumption that the revised Spangler Dossier does represent the case history of one man, not five, I don’t seem to find any recorded instance where advance information of this nature was known.”
    â€œThere is no instance. The date of a Spangler escape has never before been known in advance. If I am able to make my presentation, the process by which the date was determined will be clearly illustrated.”
    â€œI see,” Zieff said, checking his notes once again. “On my reading through your revised dossier one item seems to have eluded me. Never has there been a report of Spangler having freed a female prisoner.”
    â€œTo my knowledge he never has,” Webber stated.
    â€œAnd what of political prisoners? I seem to find only one instance where he has ever freed a political prisoner.”
    â€œHe has freed only one political prisoner, Martin Vetter.”
    â€œBut still SD-Ausland definitely maintains that on the twenty-sixth of this month Spangler will be coming to Oranienburg to effect the escape of Hilka Tolan, a female political prisoner?”
    â€œWe so maintain,” Webber answered confidently.
    â€œCan SD-Ausland substantiate this claim?” asked Zieff.
    â€œWe can if I am allowed to make my original presentation.”
    Von Schleiben folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Is your presentation prepared for this session or is more time required?”
    â€œI am prepared at this session, Herr Obergruppenfuehrer.”
    â€œProceed.”
    Webber walked to the display table, where a tattered newspaper-wrapped package was resting. “An exhibit like this,” he explained, “was discovered hidden under the cooks’ barracks at Oranienburg less than ten days ago.” Webber opened the package and spread the contents—two beets, a turnip, half a bar of ersatz soap and an eroded razor blade—at intervals along the table top. He picked up a wooden pointer and bounced it slowly back and forth among the items. It finally came to rest on the crumpled newspaper wrapping.
    He nodded to the cryptologists. An eight-by-four-foot display card was unveiled.
    Webber’s pointer rapped against the card. “This completed crossword puzzle,” he announced, “was found on the newspaper page. It contains a secret message.”
    Platt of Gestapo motioned for the floor. “By any chance, Herr Standartenfuehrer, is the key for extracting this secret message to be found in the date of the edition, May 25, 1939?”
    â€œIt is,” Webber conceded.
    â€œCould it conceivably be possible,” Platt continued, “that you begin the deciphering by taking May, the fifth month of the year, and looking at either five down or five across?”
    â€œYes, that is how you begin.”
    â€œBravo!” shouted Platt. “Bravo for Standartenfuehrer Webber and all those brilliantly deductive minds at SD-Ausland! In