Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1874-05-14

bed for hours. while With locked doors
and shaded windows he tried TO decipher
sone such sentence ~. II do % long to
zee you." II vas only when mistakes
were made in the uss Of this cipher that il
became 1t all difficult Of comprehension to
an ordinsry reader. Poor Pennington
had not devoted much attention TO tho
subject Of cryp,osrsphy. or be would have
known that there is nothing moro trans
parent thsn cipher which merely consists
Of the substitution Of one letter for ano,h-
er. He was. however. soon to learn this
taaE-in~a very sspleasant way.
One evening Mary dropped note which
she had received By mail. and il was
picked np by her father. The old gen.
tlcman vas Wild With horror. There vas
his trusted daughter actually correspond
ing with some unknown villain in cipher.
Obviously the cipher must. have some
shameful secret. He sat In his arm-ehs:r
with the open note in his hand. and seri-
ous thonghts Of immediate apoplexy in
his mind. when his son Tom. young fcl-
low just home from college, entered, and,
frightened At bis fathers expression of face,
asked and received an explanation.
Tom was bright young fellow. and he
at once remarked that it vas hardly
worth while to take to apoplexy until it
was really apparent that the mysterious
note contained something wrong. He
suspected that it vas written by the mys-
tery-loving Smythe. and he did not doubt
his ability to read it. The note ran as
follows:
CRSM PSMX: II TEDS XBC SYC
STFSXN FHTr. OSYYHYDUBY Mp
XULS.
In less than ten minutes Tom had trans
lated this innocent mystery into the
words. " Dear Mary. l love you and
always will. Pennington Suythe." aud
thus banished bis fathers doubt and
wrctcbedness. However. the old man
was angry enough to desire to give the
unfortunate Pennington lesson which he
might remember. So when the young
man made his usual evening call he was
awaited in the parlor by the incensed faith
er and his greatly amused son. and ad-
dressed in the following stern and cruel
words:
''Mr. Smythe. what do you mean by
writing to my innocent daughter in such
infamous style as this. sir 2" and hc shook
Pennington's letter before bis astonishej
eyes.
"Sir." replied the youth. "it is not in
famous. 1t is an entirely proper note
All the world might sec it."
"Theu Why the devil did you write Il
in this oqtlandiah lingo 7" returned the
father.
'.She is not to blame" hastily urged
Pennington. judiciously sinking the
main question. I assure you she never
can read them without my help. aud when
she writes them she makes 20 many mis-
takes that often can't make head or tail
Of them"
"By them I suppose sou moan the let.
ters written in cipher" replied Mr.. Nor.
ris. "Well. l won't add to your trouble
Only let me advise you not to write any
more cipher notes. my boy. Tom. here
read your note almost as easy as If it had
been written in print. There, 60 along.
now. and don't be silly again-at least
any more than you can help. you know.
And the old man. quite recovered from
his anger. went laughing'y away.
Pennington fingered. ''Is it really true
Tom. that you could read it without 4
key 7" he doub,fully asked.
"Oe course I could. Why, Pen. ther,
is nothing easier to read thar that sort o
cipher. If you will write in cipher-ant
I don't see why you shouldn't If you wan
to. though you'll fiud it beastly tiresom,
Il can tell you Of q cipher that no on
can possibly translate"
IF you woul6 be SO very kind" nur
INJURED Pennington.
why" continued Tom, "you selcc
some book. Then out of the words il
this book you make your cipher. For in
stance. you want to write dear as pre-
sumo you do, and you End it, say. on th'
twelfth page Of the book. in the secont
line from the top. aud the third word il
the line. You then represent it by tn,
numbers IL. 2. 3. And so with the RESI-
Of your note. You see. no human bein,
could possibly read it unlesss they hap
pencd to guess what book you used.
! Pennington Was ovcrjoycd Mt this de
lighiful plan. and. thanking Tom warm
ly. FASTENED to unfold the new cipher Il
Mary. He fel, at perfect liberty to dis
regard Mr. Morris advice not to write il
cipher. for he now decided that Mary
father would be jus,iGably regarded as
hoary headed tyrant. bent upon serara
ting two loving hearts. and only 6t to b
circumvented BY careful strategy. So b,
selected novel Of which he knew tha
both Mary and himself possessed copies
explained the new cipher with the utn,os
care. and after be reached home pu. il il
immediate practice BY writing brief not
aud sending it by post. as he would b
unable to see her next evening. This
what he wrote:
$50 5-s3 = 3-454 4-69 5 9-65
45-5l l.4-!7l1-s5 l9
9-s342-S3 s.6-S9. 5 . 80 &c
lii 6-7l17S
i Now the book upon which this ciphe
was based was printed in double columns
Unfortunately Pennington forgot to ex
plain which of these columns he intendcs
to use. However. he decided to use tn
outer column trusting that the other heart
which. as be frequently remarked. Va
one Of two (which beat ~ one" woul,
instinesively divine his selection.
Two nights afterwards he reached tn
Morris door. full Of delightful an,ieipa
tons. He vas met BY old Mr.. Morris