THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
Whittaker brightened up. "It's a chance," he said. "Let's go over to the Admiralty."
We got into two of the waiting motor-cars—all but Sir Walter, who went off to Scotland Yard—to "mobilise MacGillivray," so he said.
We marched through empty corridors and big bare chambers where the charwomen were busy, till we reached a little room lined with books and maps. A resident clerk was unearthed, who presently fetched from the library the Admiralty Tide Tables. I sat at the desk and the others stood round, for somehow or other I had got charge of this outfit.
It was no good. There were hundreds of entries, and as far as I could see 10.17 cover fifty places. We had to find some of narrowing the possibilities.
I took my head in my hands and though, There must be some way of reading this riddle. What did Scudder mean by steps? I thought of dock steps, but if he had meant that I didn't think he would have mentioned
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