Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1871-05-18
THURSDAY, MAY Is, 1871.

There is little change to be observed in him
mot as much as you would expect. Come
to us on Friday. Yours very aft,
| ELINoR B.
My uncle read this out aloud
from beginning to end and then
he said, DO. you see anything sus.
picious in that? 1t seems to me
veryainnocent." III
ls''.Hum! Itmay be. Was there
anything else in the desk 2 said
he, addressing Parker. eul9
oF'You may go and look" growled
the potentate. And he lead the
way. the expert following mo-
The desk was quite empty,
with the exception OF two or three
scraps of waste paper. On one of
these the expert pounced, and re-
turned with an air Of elation to
| 1.-The other room. 8 He then unfold
ed this scrap. of paper and dis
closed a halfsheet, exactly the
size Of the paper on which Elinor
Beaumont's letters were written,
in;which oblong holes at intervals
had been cut. Isl tlia,gs
He then placed this half-sheet
over the letter, and handed both,
thus placed, TO my uncle, whose
astonished eyes read the following
words, which the holes left visi.
BILE :yae3 saa se.t saf a..
"Fleet wind-bound. Fifty sail
ofthe line. 25 smaller. Should the
Wind change, expectus on Friday"
js7"The Devil!" said my uncle !;
Sand Nelson ordered off to the
West Indies !" #tn ~
Then was there, as you may
suppose, hurrying and scurrying,
and 9Iunnihg and chasing, and
despatching of government couri-
ers, and semaphose telegraphs,
and carrier pigeons, and all the
old-world means of communica-
ton then, in fashion. The key,
thus obtained, disclosed the whole
correspondence, which turned out
to be a, connected series OF letters
from the French government,
.smuggled into Jersey. The result
history knows /; the intended In
vasion was abandoned, and Napo-
leon went elsewhere.
.'r ''But what put you on the
scents2'' asked my uncle afterward,
with many apologies to the expert.
b. 81 suspected the trick from the
first, although it was very good
specimen of-lit. The letters were
too innocent, and had too little
point in them. But they were
done with admirable skill. The
grammar was complete; and the
little dots or marHs which bunglers
use to guide them in writing the
words which are to be read were
entirely absent. The way in which
thee deception is. effected is this
The correspondents, before CON-
mencing, take a sheet of paper
and cut uholes in it, which, of
course, in two half-sheets exactly
correspond. They each take one
half,sheet; and when a letter is to-
be written, the writer so arranges
the words that those intended to
sbe read shall appear in the holes
when the half-sheet is placed over
the paper, which is of the same
size. When his correspondent re-
ceives the letter, he places his
half sheet over it, and reads off
the words, as you did. The diff
Guilty, which was SO well conquered
in this case, is to make the sense
run fluently, and to prevent any
visible break tina the writing.
Without the half-sheet with the
holes in it, no one can have the
slightest clue to the real meaning.
"My suspicious, once aroused!
were confirmed by the inquiries
which ] made. The whole story
about the sister was fabrication.
The letters did come from Jersey /;
the answers went to- Fleet Street,
to the charge of very notorious
agents, But if our friend had not
been fool CROUCH to leave his half
sheet in his desk, we might have
groped in vain for the mystery" !
Beaumont disappeared that
night, and was never heard OF "a
gain at the Admiralty. 1t trans
pired afterwards that some accom-
plice had warned him of the ex-
pert's visit to the Admiralty, and
his inquiries in Jersey. He had
made an attempt to get admit
tance to hisrooms, but was scared by
tile sounds he heard, and con-
trived to escape to France. The
lady who acted the sister, and
who visited the Admiralty, part
Iy to put the authorities off their
guard, and probably also to inter-
change the key to the cipher, was
a Partisan celebrity, who, both be-