The Professor-Commander Hurley Stories: Four Short Tales of Deduction

Professor-Commander Hurley is twice a citizen: professor of English at Segregansett College and a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He appears content to teach classes and scribble red ink on student papers until Petros, a spy behind the Communist lines in East Berlin, sends out a distress signal using an impromptu code.

Intelligence officials are baffled; half a billion dollars worth of crypto equipment can't break the codfe, which appears somehow connected to literature.

Enter Colonel Cordwinter, setting his helicopter down on the campus green at the college and barging into Professor Hurley's office. "You're on active duty, commander."

"Why me?"

"Because the computer spit you out as one of two commissioned officers in the Ready Reserve with a military specialty in crypto and a civilian expertise in literature. After that, you won because you're two thousand miles closer to Washington."

That was the first case...and then there were three more.