The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-11

worked over the phrase till he was in de-
spair Of solving the terrible riddle. He
leaned back in his chair, and closed his
tired eyes, with baffled, beaten look.
Those cabalistic words stood out before
his sight-purned upon his brain in let
ters Of fire. do not think he would
ever have construed them, but for the
blunder of which speak. It struck him
suddenly, now; he started forward and
looked. The second word of the four
was "TT." By the common assumption,
upon which he had worked all along,
tain character "TT" might, indeed,
not be word ut all; it might be a num-
Der or a contraction. But the p.esump-
tion was, that it represented word of
two letters. Then, if the common as
sumption applied, this underlying word
must be the double of some single letter.
That was absurd on its face; no such
combination, from double to double z,
forms any English word. Glenning
caught ut the suggestion with an eager
flash; he cursed his own blindness, for
not seeing it before. He saw that these
two Us could not stand for the same
thing-in other words, that the cipher
must have been formed upon n variable
plan; TINT q character might have differ
ent meanings, dependent upon its place
in the sentence, or other pre-arranged
relation. He saw how this might be
easily done in q hundred ways. He tried
the simplest possible from
the first letter one forward; from the
second, two; from the third, three-and
so on.
DE, Q-S, P.S, I-M-Essm.
No; out again, d-but stop. Is that
the simplest possible method? Hardly.
The writer would naturally count for
ward; we must count back.
DC, 90, PM, I-E-Come.
Ha! He counted out the letters with
fierce haste.
Come on-0U right.
1t was maddening. What could it
mean? 1t frightened him to think; some
devils work, lie felt sure. He tried the
next words. The cipher had changed
again; he saw what those numbers meant
now-saw it, and cursed them. "M-
with the part shredded off, These num-
bers meant four different ciphers pre-
arranged.
Just then Station-master Farley came
i'll and spoke to him something about
sick friend, and a request that Glenning
would attend to any business that should
come in for him. till he got back. Glen
ming tipped back in his chair, with his
head thrown back, and his eyes staring
up in the others face. But while his eyes
stared wide, his mind was all the while
working away at the clumsy puzzle that
yet had power to torment him intolera-
bly,. He nodded his head when Farley
had done; but, when he had gone out,
what semblance of an idea Glenning had
Of the whole was some dim notion that
Farley wanted him to answer messages
that might come in about the trains.
Farley had told him something of a train
| off time; but of that he remembered
nothing.
He worked on at the next four words.
His whole being seemed to centre upon
that one torn, crumplcd, mud stained
shred with its terrible hierogyphics. He
saw, knew, thought, felt, heard no other
thing. After while the familiar sound
OF message struck upon his ear, and
partly reused him. He took off the mes
sage mechanically:
"Where is the Lime Lake Mail?"
He read it over and over The words
conveyed no meaning to his brain. What
he did about it he knew not. The same
message might havo como many times,
for all he knew then What answer went
back, or whether any, he knew no more.
He tried the words of the cipher back
and forth, this way and that, over and
over again. But he got the key at last
stupid one straight forward,
counting four letters ahead.
CALL RIGuT-CoME ON. BE ON YOUR
GUARD"
What could it all mean? He worked
away at the rest, rs one might work
problem in nightmare dream. All else
seemed dim and strange, and far away;
mems voices, now and then; doors open
ing and closing again; once the hustle of
freight train going through. He heard
these sounds in strange jumble, with
out definite idea of their cause or mean
ing, and yet without surprise, like one
in real dream. There was little or no
work for the wires. What there was he
did without thought or understanding,
with the machine-like motions of long
acquired habit.
He missed the key of the cipher this
fInNn fro 90