Part 17 (2/2)
”It's a long message,” whispered Willie, as Henry continued to fas.h.i.+on letter after letter.
”Something tells me it is important,” repeated Captain Hardy. ”What can it be? You don't suppose the secret service men have alarmed them, do you?”
Henry finished his writing and laid down his pencil. His chief picked up the sheet of paper and scanned the long line of letters Henry had made, like this:
EEANNRDBOEUNRYWSEUTTERONSNNFEEIAYWMNVTTASANXJULEIGOKWSNVATYIZLETK
”Sixty-five,” he said aloud, after counting the letters carefully.
A frown came over his face as he stood looking at the paper in his hand. ”Sixty-five,” he repeated. ”All their other cipher messages have made four even lines. You can't divide sixty-five evenly by four.
Boys, I believe--but we'll make sure first.”
He sank into a chair, laid the paper on the desk, and arranged the letters according to the old plan, thus:
EEANNRDBOEUNRYW SEUTTERONSNNFEE IAYWMNVTTASANXJ ULEIGOKWSNVATYI
”I don't know what to do with the five letters left over,” he said, as he laid down his pencil. Then as he ran his eye down column after column and across each line, he continued, ”But I guess it makes no difference. It is just as I thought. I feel more certain than ever that something of great importance is afoot. They've switched to another cipher.”
CHAPTER XVII
A CHANGE IN CIPHERS
For some moments there was a complete silence in the room. The members of the wireless patrol looked at one another in astonishment, questioning with their eyes the meaning of this new turn of events.
Captain Hardy sat staring at the message before him, his brow wrinkled, his eyelids drawn close together, trying to find some new clue to the puzzle before him. And until he spoke, the lads of the little patrol forbore to utter a sound. So for some time the room remained as silent as a tunnel.
At last the captain glanced up from his paper and noted the intent looks bent upon him, and the deep silence. He shook off his abstraction.
”It looks as though we were up against it,” he said. ”Every minute I feel more certain that something serious has happened. Why should they be sending radio messages at this hour, when they have never sent them before excepting after the transports sailed? And why should they now use a new cipher? Their plan evidently was to use radio communication as little as possible, lest they be detected. So they sent nothing by wireless but the most important news--the news of s.h.i.+p movements, which had to be got to Germany at once. All other messages they conveyed in some slower but safer way. We know they used the telephone, and sent messages by a boy, and wrote on dollars, and carried messages by motor-car, and probably sent code letters through the mails. For all ordinary correspondence they used these slower, safer methods. Only when they absolutely had to, did they employ the wireless. So we must a.s.sume that they had to now.”
He paused and glanced from face to face. ”But why the change of cipher?” he continued. ”It must be because they fear that the old cipher will be understood.”
Again the captain fell silent. ”What can have happened?” he inquired soberly, ”that makes the use of wireless so imperative? What can it be? Only something new and unforeseen. And what could there be new and unforeseen except the detection of their plot? More and more I am convinced that these plotters have been alarmed.”
He fell into a brown study for a moment. ”This message can mean nothing else,” he said after a little. ”It is imperative that we learn what it is at the earliest possible moment. Make four copies of the message you took, Henry.”
Captain Hardy's first lieutenant took the paper from his leader's hand and on four sheets of paper copied the string of letters he had picked from the air.
”Now, boys,” said the leader of the patrol, when the copies were complete, ”put your thinking caps on. Each of you take one of these copies and see what you can make of it. You know how we deciphered the other cipher.”
In another moment four boys were wrinkling their foreheads as they bent over the cryptic strings of letters. And over the room came a hush deep as midnight's.
For a few moments n.o.body broke the silence. Each boy was busy with his own thoughts.
Henry was scowling at his paper. Willie was studying the letters before him, as in earlier days he had studied the landscapes about Camp Brady and the Elk City reservoir. Lew already had a hopeless look on his face. At threading the forest he was second to none in skill; but at untangling mental puzzles, he had small ability. The nimble-witted Roy was already setting about his task with that keenness so characteristic of him.
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