The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-02-26

Inc servants were roSS-QueStfoned,
but none of them had heard of such q
place. The stable-bOy threw a light
upon the matter by remembering that
4 farmer of that name lived some
miles off, in the direction of East
| RuSton.
Us it a lonely farm"
Very lonely, sir
Perhaps they have not heard yet
of all that happened here during the
night"
Maybe not, sir"
H. Holmes,8though for a. little. and
Ithen a curious smile played over his
Eface.
Saddle a horse. my lad" said he.
Il shall wish you to take a note TO
Elridge's Farm
He took from his pocket the various
slips of the dancing men, With these
in front of him, he worked for some
time at the study-table. Finally he
handed note to the boy, with direc-
tons to put it into the hands of the
person TO whom it was addressed,
and especially to answer no questions
of any sort which might be put to
him. / saw the outside of the note,
addressed in Struggling, irregular
| characters, very unlike Holmes usual
precise hand. 1t was consigned to Mr..
Abe Slaney ElrigGs Farm, East Rus
ton Norfolk.
Il think, Inspector" Holmes re-
marked. that you would do well TO
telegraph for an escort as, il my cal
| culations prove TO be- correct, you
may have n particularly dangerous
| prisoner 20 convey TO the county gaol.
The boy who takes this note could
no doubt forward your telegram. II
| there is an afternoon train to town,
! Watson, / think we should do well
to take it, as l have q chemical analy-
sis OF some interest to finish, and this
| Investigation draws rapidly to q close"
When the youth had been disA
| patched with the note. Sherlock
| Holmes gave his instructions TO the
! servants. If any visitor were to call
| asking for Mrs. Hilton Cubitt, no in
| formation should be given as TO her
J condition, but he was TO be shown
| at once into the drawing room. He
! impressed these points upon them
| with the utmost earnestness. Finally
| he led the way to the drawing-room.
with the remark that the business was
now out of our hands, and that we
| must while away the time as best we
| might until we could see what was
| in store for us. The doctor had de-
! parted to his patients. and only the
| inspector and myself remained.
| l lnllk lQdI CHI netI you 10 pass
| an hour in an interesting and profit
able manner" said Holmes, drawing
his chair up to the table. and spread
! ing out in front of him the various
papers upon which were recorded the
antics of the dancing men. AS to
| you, friend Watson Lowe you every
atonement for having allowed your
natural curiosity to remain so long
unsatisfed. TO yOd, Inspector, the
! whole incident may appeal as a re-
markable professional study / must
| tell you. first of all, the interesting
| circumstances connected with the pre-.
Vious consultations with Mr.. Hilton
Cubitt has had with me in Baker
| Street He then shortly Tecapitulat-
ed the facts which have already been
recorded. Il have here in front Of
me these singular productions, at
/ which one might smile, had they not
| proved themselves to be the fore
! runners of so terrible n tragedy | am
! fairly familiar with all forms of Sc.
| cret monograph upon the subject, in.
/ which / analvse one hundred and six
! ty separate ciphers. but l confess that
| this is entirely new to me. The object
| of those who invented the system has.
/ apparently been to conceal that these
| characters convey q message, and to
/ give the idea that they are the mere
/ random sketches of children.
! Having once recognised. however,
| that the symbols stood for letters. and
! having applied the rules which guide
/ us in all forms OF secret writings, the
1 solution was easy enough. The first
/ message submitted to me was so short
! that it was impossible for me to do
| more than to say. with some confi9
| dence, that the symbol (---------1
stood for T.. AS you are aware, T.. is
the most common letter in the Eng
| fish alphabet, and it predominates to
| so marked an extent that even in
short sentence one would expect TO
! find it most often Out of fifteen
symbols in the first message four
were the same, so it was reasonable
to set this down as Il, 1t is true that
in some cases the, figure was bearing
a flag, and in some cases not, but iCi
was probable from the way in which
the flags were distributed that they
were used to break the sentence up
into words. accepted this as a
hypothesis, and noted that e was
represented by (-------) f -
but now came the real difficulty
of the inquiry. The order of the
English letters after Il is by no means
well marked, and any preponderance
which may be shown in an average
of a printed sheet may be reversed
in Il single short sentence. Speaking
roughly, +. a, O, l. N, s. Fl. r., ID, ana
are the numerical order in which
the letters occur; but Z, A, O. and /
are very nearly abreast of each other
and 1t would be an endless task TO try |
each combination until a meaning was
arrived at. / therefore waited for !
fresh material. In my second inter-
view With Mr.. Hilton Cubitt he was
able to give me TWO other short sem
fences and one message, which APP
peared-since there was no fiag--to |
be single word. Here are the SYM
bols. Now, in the single word | have
already got the two Els coming second |
and fourth in a word of five letters.
1t might be sever or lever, or
never There can be no question
that the latter as a reply to an appeal
is far from the most probable, and the |
circumstances pointed TO it's being a |
reply written by the lady. Accepting |
it as correct, we are now able TO say
that the symbols stand |
respectively for n, V, and r.
Even now / was in considerable |
difficulty, but happy thought put me |
in possession of several other letters. |