The Press., 1893-04-27


 7 t
 "We have therefore no less than 10 of the most important letters repre- sented, and it will be unnecessary to pro- ceed with the details of the solution. l have said enough to convince you that c1phers Of this nature are readily solu- ble and to give you some insight into the rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the parchment as un- riddled. Here it is:
 "A good glass in the bishops hostel in the devils seat Al degrees and 13 minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the deaths head a bee line from the tree through the shot 50 feet out"
 But" said I, ''the enigma seems. still in as bad a condition as ever. How is it possible to extort a meaning from all this jargon about devils seats.' deaths heads and bishops hotels?' 5
 '1 confess" replied Legrand, that the matter still wears serious aspect when regarded with casual glance. My first endeavor was to divide the sen- tence into the natural division intended by the cryptographist.
 "You mean to punctuate it?'
 Something of that kind.' .,.
 ''But how was it possible to effect thisT'
 'I reflected that it had been poin. with the writer to run bis words to- gether without division so as to increase the difficulty of solution. Now, not overacute man. in pursuing such an ob- ject, would be nearly certain to overdo the matter. When in the course of his composition he arrived at break in his subject which would naturally require a pause or point, he would be exceeding ly apt to run his characters at this place more than usually close together. If you will observe the MS. in the present instance, you will easily detect five such cases of unusual crowding. Acting upon this hint, made the division thus:
 "'A good glass in the Bishops hostel in the devils seat-41 degrees and 13 minutes-northeast and by north-main branch seventh limb east side-shoot from the left eye of the deaths head-a bee line from the tree through the shot 90 feet out"
 ''Even this division" said I, 'sleaves me still in the dark"
 Ut left me also in the dark" replied Legrand, ''for a few days, during which I made diligent inquiry in the neighbor- hood of Sullivan's island for any build ing which went by the name of the Bishops hotel for of course I dropped the obsolete word hostel Gaining no information on the subject, was on the point of extending my sphere of search and proceeding in a more systematic manner when one morning it entered into my head quite suddenly that this Bishops hostel might have some refer ence to an old family of the name of Bessop, which time out of mind had held possession of an ancient manor house about four miles to the northward of the island.
 II accordingly went over to the plan tation and reinstituted my inquiries among the older negroes of the place. At length one of the most aged of the women said that she had heard of such a place as Bessop's castle and thought that she could guide me to it, but that it was not 8 castle nor 8 tavern, but a high rock.
 s'I offered to pay her we'll for her trou- ble, and after some demur she consented to accompany me to the spot. We found it without much difficulty, when. dismiss ing her, I proceeded to examine the place. The castle consisted of an ir- regular assemblage of cliffs and rocks one of the latter being quite remarkable for it's height as we'll as for it's insulated and artificial appearance. clambered to it's apex and then felt much at a loss as to what should be next done
 "While I was busted in reflection my eyes fell upon narrow ledge in the east ern face of the rock, perhaps yard be- low the summit upon which I stood This ledge projected about IS inches and was not more than foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it gave it 8 rude resemblance to one of the hollow backed chairs used by our ancestors. I made no doubt that here was the devils seat alluded to in the MS, and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle.
 '"The good glass; knew, could have reference to nothing but telescope, for the word glass is rarely employed in any other sense by seamen. Now here, l at once saw, was a telescope to be used, and definite point of view, ad- hitting no variation, from which to use it. Nor did hesitate to believe that the