Read the excerpt from "Tools of the Spymaster." Which statement best expresses the central idea of the
excerpt?
General Clinton, concerned about what General Howe
was planning and doing, made use of a mask to write a
secret message in a letter to General Burgoyne.
Before writing the letter, Clinton had placed an
hourglass-shaped mask on a piece of paper and then
had formed the secret message within that shape.
O Generals were able to send secret messages to
each other using a mask.
O General Howe failed to help the other generals
defeat the Americans.
O The British were better at using codes than the
Americans
O False information in a letter could cause problems
for the Americans
The unmasked letter had enough false information in it
to fool any American who happened to see it. But when
Burgoyne viewed the letter with the mask, he read
Clinton's view of the real situation: Howe has made a
bad move; I don't have enough men to do anything
about it