The Rich Hill tribune. (Rich Hill, Mo.) 1903-1911, 1909-08-05

Of thia nature that his ramarkahle
stoiidity Of face stood him 10 such
Eood stead.
NJ. hines hesitaiod the mereat
tribe.
II fancy Il would not be violating a
confidence now ne said. IL is the
cost.mark used by my father when he
was IN business. and Charlie and I
made a cipher out OF Il Just for the
fun Of the thing, corresponding by
means OF Il at times since we were
boys together. We we're school
chums, you know"
Il seemed to the detective that the
nan was playing for time. A hunted.
lnsincere CLEAN Hiokered IN HE eyes,
and the voice and manner suggested
a man who. frightened az the near ap-
proach Of = calamity. Is weakly and
~confusedly trying to think up q way
OF escape.
"weng" said symonds. all the more
lnslstent by reason OF this fearful at
titude. He produced a pencil, wet Il
in his mouth. put the point against a
page Of his notebook and looked ex-
pectant Then Hines said In = faint
voice.
"The eost-mark is come hukinE.
The & is a repeater"
Yes" Symonds wrote Il down.
Now, how do you work It when you
write a letter."
Il was evident to both the doctor
and the detective that only a pressing
need to conciliate them and avoid all
appearance OF hesitancy prevented the
young fellow from taking a high air
over this question. refusing 10 answer
Il and ordering them. or at least the
detective. from the room. AS it was,
he attempted to conceal his anger
under a pretense OF careful thought.
Ard presently he said:
Il can illustrate. Suppose you wish
to write the word shall. The first
letter OF that word. s., is the nine
teenth letter OF the alphabet; the sec
ond is n the eighth OF the alphabet;
the third Is "a the first Of the alpha
bet; the last two are T. the twelfth Of
the alphabet. So that II you put
shall in these figures you have
1s-s-1-I2.12.' Now see what letters in
the eost.mark stand for these figures.
They are '~cikccoco. which means
shall There you have the key 10 the
simple cipher"
He threw his hand out carelessly.
as II to drop the note on the table and
have done with the matter. but an
open bottle OF ink stood in the way,
with a penholder protruding from It's
neck. and his fingers struck and
knocked It 70 the floor. The paper fell
with II and. reaching quickly to re
cover II. he succeeded only In pressing
II into the great blot Of ink that lay
thick on the rich carpet. There he
let Il remain. with an exclamation
against his clumsIness, but the detec.
tive hastily rescued Il. Then he saw
that the characters we're hoDelessly
blurred. II would be impossible 70
make them out with n certainty.
The expression OF relief that flashed
into Hines face when he realized this
amused symonds, seeing that n true
I copy OF the note, the key to which he
now possessed. lay sprawled over hall
a page OF the notebook he held In his
hand above that very key. Soon ht
would work out a solution Of Il him
self. He was not satisfied with thS
one given. and THIS desperate and sue
cessful attempt TO render the charac
tiers megible convinced him beyond al
doubt that the Interpretation had beer
a false one. II for no other reason
than that he must have n tina.
would be true.
well, it's gone up" he said. Blu
no matter. You've read Il to US, ant
that's enough. Give me this her
Charlie Mains address and III get
warrant for him
But when he had written down tn
street and number he did not hurT,
away for the warrant. Instead, h
slipped into the study and. with pape
and pencil. set to work on the cryptic
gram. After many blunders and era
sures, for he was no scribe, he hnall.
made the following arrangement o
the alphabet and cost-mark:
alb I'm n o p
123456s7s 10 IL IL IL IA Is 10 !
8 V
is 10 20 81 ~ 20 "a rs &c
c o m efluking
The hrst letter OF the cipher. Il,
was then easily seen TO be the mint
OF the cost.mark; therefore Il stoo
for the ninth letter OF the Rlphabe
which also was T." Working on thI
principle. be al length had the transit
{ ton before him. II read, with props
punctuation and capitals:
Il shall come On Monday AZ tire
bringing the papers and a check Il
ten thousand dollars. Send me yoJ
, pass key and have the way clear.
must not be seen"
+ "Ahal" he exclaimed, jumping d
exultantly. whoever IL wa that con
+ brought ten thousand. and didn't con
for ii What does that meaug'
3 As II 20 answer his question. n