French Joe By W. Somerset Maugham CHARACTERS: • Captain Bartlett – pilot, bald, alcoholic, queer fish • Captain Cook – discovered the Thursday Island on a Thursday. • Woman – a red flannel dressing-gown; holding a paraffin lamp; hair - a little bit over her shoulders, long black wisps, a little stoutish, keen eyes, a red nose. • French Joe aka Josep de Paoli – 93Y, Corsican, a lietutenant of artillery, French army in 1851, later communist, started new life many times, black shining eyes, really thin and old. • Boswell Johnson – really famous author, the ancestor of Joe. • Napoleon Bonaparte – a relative of French Joe, lietutenant of artillery • Russians + Prussians – Joe fougth against them in French army
" "I know," he laughed quietly. I turned my head slightly... searching. He knew what I was after. His lips touched mine gently. "Thanks," I sighed. "Anytime." I wasn't really there at all anymore. But I fought against the stupor weakly. There was just one more thing I wanted to tell him. "Edward?" I struggled to pronounce his name clearly. "Yes?" "I'm betting on Alice," I mumbled. And then the night closed over me. EPILOGUE:AN OCCASION Edward helped me into his car, being very careful of the wisps of silk and chiffon, the flowers he'd just pinned into my elaborately styled curls, and my bulky walking cast. He ignored the angry set of my mouth. When he had me settled, he got in the driver's seat and headed back out the long, narrow drive. "At what point exactly are you going to tell me what's going on?" I asked grumpily. I really hated surprises. And he knew that. "I'm shocked that you haven't figured it out yet." He threw a mocking smile in my direction, and my breath caught in my throat
Berthold knew that the RGV of the short AN message meant "old." He did not know the meaning of KZD, but it seemed likely in view of what happened that it meant "Send in code," making the whole phrase "Send in old code." Could the Germans have been so stupid as to compromise their new code within an hour after putting it into service by sending the same message in both the old and the new systems? Berthold's blue eyes fairly snapped and the few pale wisps of hair that lay against his bald pate almost stood up with excitement as he decoded the second x2 message with his reconstructed KRU. It read: UYC REM KUL RHI KWZ RLF RNQ KRD RVJ UOB KUU An [?] Bn. 2 h i r sch w UQX UFQ RQK i tt e The KWZ and UOB appeared to be nulls, used—almost certainly in violation of regulations—as word dividers, and REM probably meant Kommandant. When Berthold checked this against the second message,
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