In such a case the two would meet at 2am at the underground car park in Rosslyn, a Washington suburb across the river from Georgetown.If, on the other hand, Mr Felt wanted to meet Woodward, he would circle page 20 of the reporter's copy of The New York Times and draw the hands of a clock showing what time they should meet at the same garage. He reminded me how he disliked phone calls at the office but said the Watergate burglary case was going to 'heat up' for reasons he could not explain. He then hung up abruptly."In the coming weeks Woodward would speak with Mr Felt many times, but the FBI official grew wary of talking on the phone Instead he drew up an elaborate plan.

11/11 - 12/11 Score some Minnesota Vikings Tickets performing in Fedex Field, Ford Field. Minnesota Vikings is performing in Landover, Detroit and Atlanta. Minnesota Vikings tickets

11/11 - 12/11 Buy Detroit Red Wings Tickets playing in Pepsi Center, Scottrade Center. Detroit Red Wings is playing in Denver, Saint Louis and Los Angeles. Detroit Red Wings tickets

11/11 Shop for Back To Bass Tour Tickets playing in The Wiltern, Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie. Back To Bass Tour is playing in Los Angeles, Grand Prairie and Houston. Back To Bass Tour tickets

Woodward obeyed and his discretion paid off.The phone call that would change everything came at 9am on 17 June 1972. The Post's news desk informed Woodward that five men in suits carrying electronic eavesdropping equipment, their pockets stuffed with $100 bills, had been arrested trying to break in to the office of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building close to the Potomac river. The authorities said that it appeared to be an elaborate plot to bug the office and one of the men was a former CIA employee."The next day Carl Bernstein and I wrote our first article together, identifying one of the burglars, James McCord, as the salaried security co-ordinator for Nixon's re-election committee," wrote Woodward.

If Woodward urgently wanted to meet him, he should signal using a plant pot, in which was stuck a red flag, on his balcony. "This was the moment when a source or friend in the investigative agencies of government is invaluable I called Felt at the FBI It would be our first talk about Watergate. He was the mentor, keeping me from toilet- paper investigations and I kept asking him for advice," Woodward wrote yesterday.On several stories, including the investigation into the gunman who shot and wounded presidential candidate George Wallace in May 1972, Woodward was able to contact Mr Felt who provided him with crucial information. The only stipulation was that the information should be used without attribution and no one should know that he had a source within the FBI. He rang him often and on one occasion drove out to his home in Fairfax, Virginia, to meet him and his wife, Audrey "We were becoming friends of a sort. At some point I called him, first at the FBI and then at his home in Virginia. I was a little desperate and I'm sure I poured my heart out."During the following months, Woodward, who took a job on a weekly newspaper before joining the Post's Metro section, deliberately cultivated Mr Felt.

"I asked Felt for his phone number and he gave me the direct line to his office. I believe I encountered him only one more time at the White House, but I had set the hook. He was going to be one of the people I consulted in depth about my future ... "He showed no interest in striking up a conversation but I was intent on it.