John le Carre, the bestselling author of espionage novels, eight featuring George Smiley, said, “Once you’ve lived the inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it. It’s a mentality, a double standard of existence.”

At the bridge table, it is tough to act like a secret agent because you must explain your methods to the opponents. There are no secret mail drops for partner only. But sometimes you can spring a surprise on the opponents, by which time it might be too late for them to reach their safe house.

In this deal, East opens one spade, South overcalls one no-trump (showing 15- plus to 18-minus points), West passes, and North raises to three no-trump. Just when everyone thinks the auction is over, East jumps out of his hiding place with a double. What does that mean?

It must be for penalty, but what else?

Some pairs play that it demands a spade lead, the suit bid by East. I think that is wrong, because what was West going to lead before the double? Right — a spade. The double is needed to ask partner to lead a different suit, one where East is hoping to defeat the contract.

In this auction, a heart lead should stand out. North-South did not try to locate a 4-4 or 5-3 heart fit, and it is West’s shortest suit.

Note that after a heart lead, East takes the first five tricks for down one. If West leads a spade, though, South wins 11 tricks.

Are you wondering about South’s running to four diamonds? Yes, he can make that (if North passes), but minus 130 is still a lot cheaper than minus 660.