The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1878-12-10

servants one Dy one, out cOulu ma no
clue to justify the slightest suspicion of
completely In the affair on their part.
The work had evidently been done by
scientific burglars, and they had worked
at their leisure.
inquired into the antecedenis of
Edward, the footman; but Mr.. Dayton
averred that he would allow no suspicion
to rest on so faithful servant to the
family. I resolved to inquire more
about him, however; but found moth
ing against the man, and temporarily
dismissed him from my mind as having
no connection with the case
=" You heard no noise on the night
of the robbery 1 inquired of Mr..
Dayton.
6 None, slept unusually sound last
night"
went away thoughtfully, for 1 had
found in the library an empty bottle
which, from the scent, knew to have
contained chloroform, and had noticed
the marks of muddy boots leading from
the apartment, while around the win
dow none were to be seen. The glass,
too, had been broken by quick blow,
not cut out. Altogether, it was most
mysterious piece of business.
watched all dens frequented by the
cracksmen of the city, and worked like
beaver. l could not obtain a clue to
the perpetrators of the daring burglary,
aft Iax, xNf
toll, was considering if it would not
be as well to call in professional assis-
tance, when the advertisement in the
Herald, at the head of this story, at
tracted my attention. Instinctively l
OWNED some connection with the
crooked" business, and whether it re-
ferred to my case or not, / resolved to
ascertain its meaning.
went down to the Herald office that
morning, and, introducing myself, at
tempted to obtain some description of
the person who had handed in the ad-
vertisement. The clerk stated that it
had been received by mail, in letter
enclosing the amount requisite for its
insertion in the paper Gould / see
the original copy p'' He would see; and
message was sent to the composing
room. Luckily, the copy had been pre-
served. 1t was written i'm disguised
hand on little scrap Of paper. 1 asked
leave to retain it, and, permission being
granted to me, returned to my room
at once.
pored over the cipher for a long
time, and, discouraged at my inability
to make out one word of it, was finally
about to abandon, when, 1 chanced to
look at the reverse side of the paper.
There were figures and read, United
States bonds, 10000, and other memo
randa, indicating that it had been a loose
wrapper for the valuable papers.
Then I knew that the advertisement
bore an important relation to the rob-
berry.
And so until the day upon which the
story opens was unable to make head
or tail of the secret enigma.
So wearied was / that l fell asleep
with my head upon my desk, and did
not awaken until noon time. It's Won
derful how brief repose will clear the
mind. took up the paper with re-
newed energy, and bright idea flashed
over me.
Simple as it was, L. had not thought
of it before. The entire message was
written on the substitution of letters,
based on the reversal of the alphabet.
Instead of a, 2, the last letter, was sub
stituted instead of b, y was used; the
alphabet reversed was the key to the
solution of the puzzle.
l gave utterance to shout of joy,
for following out the theory, it read
" Larry, meet me Saturday night at
127 Fire street. NED"
And "Ned," or Edward, was the
name of Dayton's footman. L began to
see very large mice. But Fire street
there was no such thoroughfare in the
city, and was 6 floored'' again.
Gradually, the thought occurred to
me on the basis of reversal and OPP
posites adopted by the sender of the
message, why should not g fire" mean
"water," its direct reverse?
I dashed down the stairs, and, hailing
a cab, (for did not forget that it was
Saturday, and that evening was the APP
pointed time for meeting of the two
burglars, if such they were,) soon had
reached Water street.
Vacant! Number 127 was an empty
lOf