Martin telephoned at six in the morning.
"I think we've misunderstood the numbering."
Eleanor sat up and reached for the lamp.
"In which message?"
"Both. Hale told us the numbers identified people. What if they identify bells?"
She found her notebook beside the bed.
"Four means the fourth bell."
"And eight the tenor, in a ring of eight."
"Which gives you another inscription."
"Another key. I've been checking Michael's papers against Bull's."
"What have you found?"
"Enough that I'd like you and Arthur to come and look."
By seven, they were in the ringing chamber.
Martin had laid out the transcriptions, Michael's photographs and copies of Bull's cipher groups.
He pointed to a sequence they had previously attempted with the tenor inscription. The result had been close enough to words that they had looked for copying errors.
"Try the fourth bell."
Eleanor followed his working.
The letters changed.
SAYER
Relf leaned across the table.
"Margaret."
"That's the reading," Martin said.
"And four told us which inscription to use?"
"It appears to."
Eleanor compared the sequence with the one from Bull's notebook.
"Then Hale's account of numbered members may have sent us away from the actual instructions."
"He may have used numbers for people too," Relf said. "We need to ask him. This gives us something we can check without him."
Martin moved the postcard to the centre of the table.
Their first reading remained beside it:
SUN 2340 / 8 / LAMB
"What happens if we apply the same idea here?" Eleanor asked.
"We go back to the original groups," Martin said. "Not the words we wrote down afterwards."
He pointed to the number eight.
"We need the eighth bell's inscription."
"Which tower?" Relf asked.
Martin spread his hands.
"That's the difficulty."
Eleanor picked up the postcard.
"The photograph."
"The Hong Kong cathedral?"
"It already told us where to begin the first decoding. Perhaps it identifies the tower for the next part too."
Martin drew Michael's photograph towards him.
"I checked the bell details. There's a ring of eight, and this is the tenor."
Beneath its inscription was the small plate Michael had photographed.
Eleanor placed the image beside Martin's transcription.
"Then let's try it."
They worked through the groups slowly.
Martin checked the ordering. Eleanor checked each reference against the transcription, marking uncertain letters rather than supplying what seemed likely.
Relf brought tea and kept the completed sheets apart from the abandoned attempts.
After forty minutes, Eleanor put down her pencil.
"Read that."
Martin went through the letters again.
CLOSE BRITISH LINE
Relf took the sheet.
"The Sunday time belongs to this?"
"That's how the groups fit," Martin said.
Eleanor looked at the earlier reading. They had treated it as an appointment with Eight at Lamb. Now they had an instruction to close the British route at eleven forty on Sunday.
Relf placed both readings side by side.
"Can you repeat it from the beginning?"
They did.
The result remained the same.
He looked at the note beneath it:
BRING THE DOCTOR.
"That still isn't explained," he said.
"No."
"And whoever sent this expected us to work it out."
"Or expected us to follow the first reading," Eleanor said.
Relf gathered the checked pages.
"If the closure order is genuine, what happens to the people who know the route?"
Eleanor looked at Margaret Sayer's name.
Weller had already given them a term for that.
"Loose ends."