Rocky Ford enterprise., 1909-08-06

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
trifle H. -
III fancy 1t would not be violating a
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"
u 1t seemed to the detective that the
man was playing for time. A hunted.
insincere CLEAN flickered in his eyes.
and the voice and manner suggested
a man who. frightened at the near ap-
proach of a calamity, is weakly and
confusedly trying to think up way
Of escape.
"'Well?" said Symonds. all the more
titude. He produced a pencil, wet 1t
In his mouth. put the point against a
page of his notebook and looked ex-
pectant. Then Hines said in faint
voice: ...--,,. D.. ..,,.., ......
THE cost-mark is come fiuking.
The e is repeater"
Yes" Symonds wrote It down.
"Now. how do you work 1t when you
write a letter." .7 r" t.r .a.'l-9.
81 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 u high air
over this question. refusing to answer
1t and ordering them. or at least the
detective. from the room. As 1t was.
he attempted to conceal his anger
under a 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 T. the twelfth OF
the alphabet. So that II you put
shall In these figures you have
19-S-l-l2-12' 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 carelessly.
as II to drop the note on the table and
have done with the matter. but an
hot ~f I'M gtn in tho wAy
with a penholder protruding from Its
neck. and his fingers struck and
knocked II to the floor. The paper fell
with It 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 II remain. with an exclamation
against his clumsiness. but the detec-
tive hastily rescued It. Then he saw
that the characters were hopclessly
blurred. It would be impossible to
make them out with any certainty.
D. The expression Of relief that flashed
into Hines face when he realized this
amused Symonds. seeing that true
copy OF the note, the key 10 which he
now possessed. lay sprawled over half
a page OF the notebook he held In his
hand above that very key. Soon he
would work out a solution OF II 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
doubt that the Interpretation had been
a false one. II 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 n
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:
a b cd eff fghi k m op q
10 IL i. l3 II Is lG II
st Nv W "
IS 10 20 81 81 90 "a Is &c
O m eflukin
The first letter of the cipher. a."
was then easily seen to be the ninth
of the cost.mark; therefore IL stood
for the ninth letter of the alphabet,
which also was a." 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 seen"
"Aha!" he exclaimed, jumping up
exulfantly, whoever IL was that come