The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1867-05-03

|
than an actual belief but do you know
that Jupiter's silly words, about the
bug being of solid gold, had remarl<a-
bic effect upon my fancy? And then
the series of accidents and condolences
these were so very extraordinary. DO
you observe how mere an accident it
was that these events should have oc-
cured upon the sole day of all the year
| in which it has been, or may be, sufli-
ciently cool for fire, and that without
the fire, or without the Intervention of
the dog at the precise moment in which
he appeared, should never have be-
come aware of the deaths head and 50
never the possessor of the treasurer
"But proceed-I am all Impotence"
"Well, you have heard, of course, the
many stories current-the thousand
vague rumors afloat about money bur-
ried, somewhere upon the Atlantic
coast, by Kidd and his associates. These
rumors must have had some foundation
in fact. And that the rumors have eX-
listed SO long and so continuous, could
have resulted, it appeared to me only
from the circumstances of the buried
treasure still remaining entombed. Had
Kidd concealed his plunder for time,
and afterwards reclaimed it, the rumors
would scarcely have reached us in their
present unvarying form. You will OBJ
serve that the stories told are all about
money-seekers, not about moncy-fnd
ers. Had the pirate recovered his
money, there the affair would have
accident-say the loss of momoran-
dunn indicating its locality-had de-
priVed him of the means of recovering
it, and that this accident had become
known to his followers, who otherwise
might never have heard that treasure
had been concealed at all, and who,
busying themselves in vain, because
unguided attempts, to regain it, had
given first birth, and then universal
currency, to the reports which are now
so common. Have you ever heard Of
any important treasure being unearthed
along the coast?"
"Never."
"But that Kidd's accumulations were
immense, is well known. | took it for
granted, therefore, that the earth still
held them and you will scarcely be
surprised when | tell you that l felt Il
hope, nearly amounting to certainty,
that the parchment so strangely found,
involved a lost record of the place of
deposit"
"But how did you proceed?'
81 held the vellum again to the fire,
after increasing the heat; but nothing
appeared. / now thought it possible
that the coating Of dirt might have
something to do with the failure; so l
carefully rinsed the parchment by pour
ing warm water over it, and, having
done this, placed it in tin pan, with
the skull downwards, and put the pan
upon furnace of lighted charcoal. In
a few minutes, the pan having become
thoroughly heated, l removed the slip,
and to my ineXpressible joy, found it
spotted, in several places, with what
appeared to be figures arranged in lines
Again | placed it in the pan, and suff-
cred it to remain another minute. Up
on taking it off, the whole was just as
you see it now"
Here Legrand having re-heated the
parchment, submitted it to my inspec-
ton. The following characters were
rudely traced, in red tint, between
the death's-head and the goat;
53tt+3O5O O6*; 1926 )4t );S0G# ;4StS'60))
Sj;1t(:t*S+S3 SS) 5*+ +;46l ;SS*96 *?;Sl l*S+(; IS
5);5*f2:* I'll ;495G*2 (5*--4)s' 'S*; ;40G92S5); y 81
S)ltt;1( (t9;l (f9;isOSl; SSH ;4S+S5;4 )lS5+52S
S0G#Sl (t9;4S; ssh 1894; S)4t;lGl;:lSS;t?;
"But," said l, returning him the slip
81 am as much in the dark as ever.
Were all the jewels of Golconda await
ing me upon my solution of this cnig-
ma, am quite sure that l should be
unable to earn them"
"And yet" said Legrand, "the solu-
ton is by no means so difficult as you
might be lead to imagine from the first
hasty inspection of the characters.
These characters, as any one might
readily guess, form cipher-that is to
say, they convey meaning; but then,
} from what is known of Kidd, | could
not suppose him capable Of constructing
any of the more abstruse cryptographs
l made up my mind, at once, that thi'
was of a simple species-such, however
as would appear, to the crude intellect
of the sailor, absolutely insoluble with.
out the key"
"And you really solved it?"
"Readily, have solved others of al
abstruseness enthousand times greater
Circumstances, and n certain bias o
mind, have led me to take interest il
such riddles, and it may well be doubt
ed whether ingenuity can construct ~
enigma of the kind that human ingenu
ity may not, by proper application
resolve. In fact, having once estab
lished connected and legible characters
scarcely gave a thought to the mer
, difficulty of developing their import.
I SIN the present case-indeed in al
| cases of secret writing-the first que;
tion regards the language of the cipher
for the principles of solution, so far, e.
, pecially, as the more simple ciphers al
/. concerned, depend upon, and are varie
: by, the genius of the particular idion
. In general, there is no alternative bl