"Then, too," the Justice man said, "Felt could have gone out at all hours of the morning to meet Woodward without arousing any suspicion. Felt's wife would have thought nothing of it. Felt could have had a trusted FBI aide helping him too—marking the newspaper and the like."

And Felt's FBI position could have strengthened Woodward's desire to protect Deep Throat--by all accounts, he has been extraordinarily careful not to give any clues as to who his source was. An editor at the Post  told us: 'Woodward disguised Deep Throat. Woodward tried not to lie, but he tried to keep people off the track as much as possible. For instance, Woodward made a lot of Deep Throat smoking cigarettes, but I had the feeling that Deep Throat doesn't smoke." Obviously Woodward had plenty of reason to disguise a Felt-type Deep Throat—if the FBI source for the Post's Watergate investigation were revealed, it could look like the FBI was using the Post and it also would detract from the picture of two young reporters out knocking on doors to find out all by themselves who was behind Watergate.

So you can see how we might have thought we had solved the mystery of Deep Throat. But we asked Mark Felt and he said no. Actually, Felt said: "I don't think it will ever be resolved whether it was an actual person or a composite. . . . Very few people had access to all this information—some of it was available only at the FBI, some only at very high levels in the White House . . . . I don't see that even the White House had all that information. Though possibly an Attorney General, possibly Kleindienst."

Kleindienst? Richard Kleindienst? Watch this space for further details.