The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-03-30
chair up to the table. and spreading
out In front of him the various panera

Win II previous consultations whic
Mr.. Hilton Cubitt has had with me il
Baker street" He then shortly re
c~apitulated the facts which have al
ready been recorded. y have here il
front of me these singular productions
at which one might smile, had they no
proved themselves to be the f%orerunner
OF so terrible a tragedy. 1 am fairl,
familiar with all forms of secret writ
lngs, and am myself the author CT
triillag monograph upon the subject
IN which / analyze one hundre anc
sixty separate ciphers, but l comics.
that this is entirely new to me. The
object of those who invented the sys.
tenn has apparently been to concea
thai these characters convey a mes.
sage. and to give the idea that they
are the mere random sketches of chill
dren.
Having once recognized. however
that the symbols stood for letters, anG
having applied the rules which guide
US in all forms of secret writing. this
solution was easy enough. The first
message submitted to me was sc
short that it was impossible for
me to do more than to say. with
some confidence, that the symbol -.
stood for e. AS you are aware, "
- is the most common letter in
the English alphabet, aud it pre- N.
dominates to so marked an eN-
tent hat even in a short sentence
one would expect to find it most often.
Out OF fifteen symbols in the first mes
sage. -four We're the same, so it was
reasonable to set this down as Z. 1t is
true that in some cases the figure was
bearing a flag, and in some cases not,
but 1T was probable. from the way in
which the flags were distributed. that
they were used to break the sentence up
INTO words. 1 accepted this as q hypothe-
sis,and noted Ewas represented by -.
But now came the real diff Y
hculty of the inquiry. The order
OF the English letters after E N
IS by no means we'll marked,
and any preponderance which may
printed sheet may be reversed in a
single short sentence. Speaking rough
ly, L, A, O, 1, n. S, II, r, d and l. are
the numerical order in which letters
occur; but I, A, o and 1 are very near
~ abreast of each other, and it would
pc an endless task to try each combin-
atlon until a meaning was arrived at.
l therefore waited for fresh material.
IN my second interview with Mr.. Hilton
CGb1tt he was able to Civ me two
otber short sentences nj one message,
which appeared-since there was no
the symbols. 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
mat the latter as a reply to an appeal
IS lar the most probable. and the cir
cumstances pointed to it's being a re-
ply written by a lady. Accepting
it as correct, we are now able to
say that the symbols
N, v and r. -
in "Hy s5z,s s9H i. s WAS 8
Cl1lfV h1lt q norru fh0,rht ,.,t $50
In the possession of several other
letters. 1t occurred to me that if .these
appeals came, as 1 expected, from
someone who had been Intimate with
the lady in her early life. a combination
which contained two Els with three
for the name ELSIE On examination
1 found hat such a combination
formed the termination Of the message
which was three times repeated. 1t
was certainly some appeal to Elsie
But what appeal could it be? There
We're only Jour letters in the word
which preceded Elsie and it ended
in e. Surely the word must be GOMEZ
l tried all other -four letters ending in
-. but could find none to fit the case.
So now 1 was in possession orc, o and
NJ. and 1 was in a position to attack
the first message once more, dividing
it into words and putting dots for each
symbol which was still unknown. So
treated, it worked out in his fash
ion:
M ERE ..E ST. NE.
Nov the first letter can only be A,
which is a most useful discovery, since
1t occurs no fewer than three times in
this short sentence, and the II is also
apparent in the second word. Now 1t
becomes:
AM HERE A. E SLANE.
Or. filling in h obvious vacancies in
the Names:
AM HERE ABE sLANEY.
1 had so many letters now that ! could
proceed with considerable confidence
to the second message, which worked
out in this fashion:
A. ELRI Els.
Here I could only make sense by put
ting T and G for the missing letters,
and supposing that the name was that
Of some house or inn at which the
was staying"
Inspector Martin and I had listened
with the utmost interest to the full
and clear account Of how my friend
had produced results which had led to
SO complete a command over our diff
What did you do then. sir?" asked
the Inspector.
II had every reason to Suppose that
Abe Slaney was ans American,
since ADe is an American contraction,
and since a letter from America had
been the starting point of all the trou-
BILE. l had also every cause to think
there was some criminal secret
in the matter. The lady's illusions to
her past, and her refusal to take her
husband into her confidence. both
in that direction. I therefore
to my friend, Wilson Hargreave,
of the New York police bureau, who
has more than once made use of my
Of London crime. I asked
him whether the name of Abe Slaney
known to him. Here is his reply:
most dangerous crook in. Chicago
On the every evening upon which I had /.
his answer. Hilton Cubitt sent me the
message from Slaney. Working
with known letters. it took this form:
ELSIE . RE ARE TO MEET THY |
The addition of a P and a d completed
a message which showed me that the
rascal was proceeding from persuasion
to threats. and my knowledge Of the ,
o,.Nn ,r = INIfon va ,,.o~., 49, c-1 \