The daily Alaskan., 1914-05-12
"A CIPHER
 DISPATCH By WILLIAM CHANDLER

U By WILLIAM N-tANDLEN ].
 We were hemmcd in between two different Confederate forces, and if they should make a simultaneous ot-
 tack upon Us they would crush us. But communication between the two was difficult since We were in valley with high mountains on either sidc land. realizing that We must keep our enemies apurt. We threw out o line of pickets on either side of us extending as fur up the mountain as a passage
 was possible.
 l was in command of about 500 men. Nv information was that the force 1 southwest of Us consisted of about 602, land that on the northeast of us nun
 bered about 1000 men. It was evil
 dent that if compelled to fight one of these forces in our front and another l In our rear there would be nothing left | Of us. If the Confederate commander south of us. Colonel B.. had been as l enterprising as he should have been and attacked Us doubtless the force to ] the north, hearing his guns, would have joined in the fight But the cg.'- nel seemed to prefer a certainty and sent one courier after another to lLaJ"r l L., ordering him to attack us oa d specified day and hour Every one of these courfprs We captured. One bore
 a message in writing. The others g.- ] ther carried no messages OF. if they did, managed to get away with them
 without our knowing it
 Finally We we're reduced to our llr. ratlon-we had ou'n three d1ys' rat.'as | to start with-and even iG not attacked we must soon surrender. Whom ! was contemplatug asking for terms my pickets sent in to me negro who had been caught trying to steal through the lines far up on the mountain. He was as stupid looking man as ! ever saw, and my surmise that he was not sbQmminC proved correct. Indeed, iJ
 was probable that he had been select 1 ed to do the work be was intrusgnd with because he was so stupid that he 1 would not likely be taken for the bear
 CT of an Important message from one officer to another.
 l l directed that he be searched and ! anything found on him be brought to
 me. My orderly, who did the soarch- Ing, brought me a pockctkuife, a sma. | piece of tobacco and a dirty piece ul ! paper that proved to be a receipt for l27 cents paid for chicken feed. )
 threw the paper down as unworthy of
 attention, but took it up again and. getting more light on it. noticed cer- tuln marks on 1t in pencil that looked ss if newly matched chicken had been walking over it. These tracks
 were on two lines on the back 0E the
 receipt. the one on the upper edge Of
 the paper, the other lower down. ]
 confess I was much puzzled by them I called in several of my officers ann"
 asked f they could make anything out of them. Lieutenant Budd sug.
 gested that they might be parts of let-
 ters. This view was soon voted cor
 rect by the rest of US. But of what , letters they were parts we Gtd not know and made no headway in discoT- , erIng.
 Budd said that if ] would let him IL. take the paper to his tent he would
 trv to study the matter out. gave
 him permission. and in an hcur he re-
 turned with the puzzle solved. The
 paper had been wrapped about a round stick, probably a ruler for line mak- - ing and a message had been written l where the upper edge had overIaDDed. , half of each letter being on the edge , and half on the paper over which tGe
 edge Tapped. When adjusted on a stick like the one on which the mes . sage had been written it was perfect lv plain. When the paper was un- % rolled the upper parts of the letters were separated from the lower parts. The message was addressed to Major L. and read thus:
 Attack the force south of you at dawn
 on Tuesday next When I hear your guns Q I will take the enemy in rear
 ; was delighted with the information I had received, and it occurred to me
 that might turn 1t to account Nigh, ,, not rub out the message and write
 another one in its place? The negro ' had undoubtedly been given the mes sage and shown how it was to he de- r clphered. but probably he couldn't read @ if himself and did not know what i. p was. directed Budd to test the mans P capacity to read and he reported that
 he didn't know one letter from anoth
 CT. This decided me. resolved tc
 send Major L. orders of my own choos y Ing in Colonel B's name. Rolling tho
 message on the stick, wrote the fol