Chapter 5 A
Dinner With the EnemyReaders of that prince of romancers,
Poe, will recollect a celebrated story in which he describes the
device employed by a man of uncommon shrewdness to conceal a stolen
letter from the perquisitions of the police, and the elaborate
argument by which the writer proves that the highest art of
concealment is to thrust the object to be hidden under the very
nose of the searcher.
But that argument is one of the many mystifications in which the
weird genius of Poe delighted. It is easy to see, in short, that
the theory was invented to suit the story, and not the story to
suit the theory. I now had before me the practical problem of
concealing a document of surpassing importance, from enemies who
were already on my scent, and keeping it concealed dur
