Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1909-08-04


contingency as refusal were the last
thought in his mind 1t was in cases
of this nature that his remarkable
stolidity of face stood him in such
good stead
Mr.. Hines hesitated the merest
rifle.
Il fancy it would not be violating a
confidence now" he said. 1T is the
cost-mark used by my father when he
was in business, and Charlie and /
made cipher out of it just for the
fun of the thing, corresponding by
means of it at times since we were
boys together We were school
chums, you know"
1t seemed to the detective that the
man was playing for time A hunted,
insincere CLEAN f1ickered in his eyes,
and the voice and manner suggested
man who, frightened at the near ap-
preach Of calamity, is weakly and
confusedly trying to think up a way
Of escape.
.Well?" said Symonds, all the more
insistent by reason of this fearful at
titude. He produced a pencil, wet it
in his mouth, put the point against a
page of his notebook and looked ex-
pectant. Then Hines said in a faint
voice:
THE cost-mark is come fluking'
The g is repeater"
Yes" Symonds wrote it down.
Nov, how do you work it when you
write a letter."
1t was evident to both the doctor
and the detective that only pressing
need to conciliate them and avoid all
appearance of hesitancy prevented the
young fellow from taking high air
over this question, refusing to answer
it and ordering them, or at least the
detective, from the room. AS it was,
he attempted to conceal his anger
under pretense of careful. thought.
And 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 H. the eighth of the alphabet;
the third is a. the first of the alpha
bet; the last two are 81 the twelfth of
the alphabet. So that if you put
shall in these figures you have
'19-S-1-12-12.' Now see what letters in
the cost-mark stand for these figures.
They are 'cikccoco, which means
shall There you have the key to the
simple cipher"
He threw his hand out cafelessly,
as if to drop the note on the table and
open bottle of ink stood in the way,
with penholder protruding from it's
neck, and his fingers struck and
knocked it to the floor. The paper fell
with it and, reaching quickly to re-
cover it, he succeeded only in pressing
it into the great blot of ink that lay
thick en- the rich carpet There he
let it remain, with an exclamation
against his clumsiness, but the detec-
tive hastily rescued it. Then he saw
that the characters were hopelessly
blurred. 1t would be impossible to
make them out with any certainty.
The expression of relief that flashed
into Hines face when he realized this
amused Symonds, seeing that true
copy of the note, the key to which he
now possessed, lay sprawled over half
page of the notebook he held in his
hand above that very key. Soon he
would work out a solution of it him
self. He was not satisfied with the
one given, and this desperate and sue
cessful attempt to render the charac-
tiers illegible convinced him beyond all
false one, if for no other reason
than that he must have one that
would be true.
We'll, it's gone up" he said. "But
no matter. You've read it to us, and
that's enough. Give me this here
Charlie Mains address and I'll get a
warrant for him"
But when he had written down the
street and number he did not hurry
away for the warrant. Instead, he
slipped into the study and, with paper
and pencil, set to work on the cryptic
gram. After many blunders and era
sures, for he was no scribe, he finally
made the following arrangement of
the alphabet and cost-mark:
b c d g h j k / m op q
34567 9 10 IL IL Is IA Is 16 II
s u V W x z
IS 10 20 81 s21 % "a 25 &c
C m / u k n g
The first letter of the cipher, a."
was then easily seen to be the ninth
of the cost-mark; therefore it stood
for the ninth letter of the alphabet,
which also was 81" Working on this
principle, he at length had the transla-
ton before him. 1t read, with proper
punctuation and capitals:
Il shall come on Monday at three,
bringing the papers and check for.
ten thousand dollars. Send me your
pass key and have the way clear.
must not be SEEM
"Aha!" he exclaimed, jumping up
exultantly, whoever it was that come
brought ten thousand, and didn't come
A. o.