I beg your reply by Clery, my faithful companion and servant.

I am known here as "RICHARD DREW FOSTER." I laid the letter down without remark.

Ray had filled his pipe whilst I had been reading, and was sitting now on the arm of his easy chair, facing me.
"I understood the letter and its meaning," he continued.

"I knew that the whole neighbourhood was under the observation of the French Secret Service, and the man who signed himself Richard Drew Foster saw in you an excellent tool ready to his hand.

It is very certain also that the matter would probably have presented itself to you in a wholly different light.