Part 16 (1/2)

or, subst.i.tuting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus:

the tree thr?3h the.

”Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank s.p.a.ces, or subst.i.tute dots, we read thus:

the tree thr . . . h the,

when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once. But this discovery gives us three new letters, _o, u_, and _g_, represented by ? and 3.

”Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement,

83(88, or egree,

which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us another letter, _d_, represented by .

”Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination

46(;88*

”Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, as before, we read thus:

th . rtee,

an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again furnis.h.i.+ng us with two new characters, _i_ and _n_, represented by 6 and *.

”Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the combination,

53 ,

”Translating as before, we obtain

good,

which a.s.sures us that the first letter is _A_, and that the first two words are 'A good.'

”To avoid confusion, it is now time that we arrange our key, as far as discovered, in a tabular form. It will stand thus:

5 represents a ” d 8 ” e 3 ” g 4 ” h 6 ” i * ” n ” o ( ” r ; ” t

”We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the rationale of their development. But be a.s.sured that the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the parchment, 5 as unriddled. Here it is:

”'_A good gla.s.s in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat twenty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'”

”But,” said I, ”the enigma seems still in as bad a condition as ever. How is it possible to extort a meaning from all this jargon about 'devil's seats,' 'death's-heads,' and 'bishop's hotels'?”

”I confess,” replied Legrand, ”that the matter still wears a serious aspect, when regarded with a casual glance. My first endeavor was to divide the sentence into the natural division intended by the cryptographist.”

”You mean, to punctuate it?”

”Something of that kind.”