Baeza commended him to God and went out of the restaurant on to the lighted footway.
Hillyard read through the two creased letters again, though he knew them by heart.

They had reached him from William Lloyd, an English merchant at Barcelona, at two different dates.

The first, written six weeks ago, related how Pontiana Tabor, a servant of the firm, had come into Lloyd's private office and informed him that on the night of the 27th June a German submarine had entered a deep cove at the lonely north-east point of the island of Mallorca, and had there been provisioned by Jose Medina's men, with Jose Medina's supplies, and that Jose Medina had driven out of Palma de Mallorca in his motor-car, and travelling by little-known tracks, had been present when the operation was in process.
The name of a shoemaker in a street of Palma was given as corroboration.
The second letter, which had brought Hillyard post-haste off the sea into Barcelona, was only three days old.

Once more Pontiana Tabor had been the bearer of bad news.

Jose Medina had been seen entering the German Consulate in Barcelona, between eleven and twelve o'clock of the morning of August 22nd.
Hillyard was greatly troubled by these two letters.
"We can put Jose Medina out of business, of course," he reflected.