When the last card joined the pile, Hugh stacked the deck, turned the nicked side of the pack toward him, and brushed graphite from his fingerprint kit into the indentations made by a nail file or manicure scissors on the serrated surface thus provided. This was a method of communication used by secret agents in World War I days; North had heard of its being employed recently only in the direst emergencies' the code was too cumbersome, too weak in the key, to warrant a place in the G-2 man's bag of tricks.

1960.