The Washington herald., 1915-02-21


text. coming by a roundabout way.
Is there anything to report?"
asked Burke eagerly.
They seem to be talking about a
ransom. / heard the man say some-
thing about two hundred and fifty
Thousand dollars"
Burke gave a low whistle. "A ran
som for Castillo" he cried. That's IL.
Garrick. They are negotiating. Did
you hear the woman say anything.
Charley"
| No. l couldn't catch what she said
Eut she seemed to be pleading with
him
II say Charley cut in Garrick rs the
| waiter passed again with A tray of fresh
glasses. rub off those glasses carefully
Here. let me do it. Don't touch them:
| or. better yet. get the captain of the
walters. He can handle them carefully
with Gloved hands. And that will not
excite suspicion. either. When they are
| through with the glasses, have them
brought back here to me. Only tell him
/" handle them carefully-with gloves
and only with the thumb and forefinCer"
several minutes later the empty glasses
were IN the possession of GarriCk
| rs there anywhere | can take these
and not be disturbed?" asked the young
detective.
Il have a room of my own-a sort of
roSu"S' callery-On the roof smiled
| Burke. No one will disturb US there"
Good, Leave some one here to watch
them and tip Off Charley to keep his
ears OPEN.
Up in Burke's room on the top floor,
Garrick took the glasses and deity shook
over them some ordinary talcum powder
which one of the bell-hOps brought him.
Then he blew the powder off with 4 few
gentle puffs of his breath
There on the smooth. crystal surface
clear and distinct, came out series of
finger prints.
Not as good as l could WISH he re-
marked thoughtfully. regarding the
smudGes on the glass. But we'll have
to 90 our best
| Hastily he ran over them, endeavoring
| to arrange them in their correct Sc
| quence. He was doing an elaborate cal
! culation with figures on piece of paper.
| Police headquarters-burcau of identf-
| tiCatiOn?" asked Garrck over the tele-
phone a few minutes later. when he had
| finished his calculation. Hello. captain
this is Garrick. Have you a pencil
handy: Well. take this. Twenty-seven
over twenty-nine. Yes. Here's the rest
| of il | can't he sure They are very
| poor prints. But if you'll look up what
YOU have in the files I'll he eternally in
your debt Call me at the Vanderveer-
ask for the house man-Burke.''
Good idea, GarriCk" complimented
| Burke. as the receiver dropped hack on
! its hook.
Good if it works out replied Gar
rick
He had spread out the cipher message
again.
! AS long as your man downstairs is
watching them. We may as we'll try TO
| figure this out" he rema rked
! For long time he studied over the
| thing. trying all sorts of combinations
and using every method he could think
of in order to unravel the mystery it
! contained.
.. "Of course he said. half to himself.
almost any cipher is readable II you go
| at the thing scientifically. But l want
TO get at il quickly
He was studying the message as he
had reversed it. Suddenly his face
| lighted up.
Il think have it," he cried without
all the elaborate calculation had feared
Take those last letters. EMOAEY. 1t
suggests to me MONEY-that Is what
| they are after. The E probably was
added from the previous word. If it is
EMONEY, that gives us AN. E=E. of
course. and the other letters are the
| same in both the cipher and the original,
| Nm. 90. and Y=Y.'
''Humph," exclaimed Burke: that's
too simple
ITS not so simple at that" urged
| Garrick, but little scientific common
sense goes A long way in this business
| Burke. The two things that interested
them were money and Castillo. Well.
| take the first word. rms TILLOV. The
letters STILI.O suggest something II
| &c and N=A. then the other letters re-
main the same-S=S, TT. I=B, and
LII. This is luck. Let me see how 1t
works out
Garrick was thoughtfully tapping on
the table with the pencil, mentally try
| ing TO fit in what he had discovered with
what had so far been hidden.
An idea seemed to flash over him all at
once. He wrote the message out in the
dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet
without any authorizations. To Burke ii
meant nothing. But Garrick ran his eye
| over 1t again. then paused moment and
began tapping on the table with the
pencil
BY George. that's it. Burke" he cried
| excitedly. Listen. 1 am tapping it
out"
Clearly clicked out the letters of the
original message:
"YEAOME & IESU ANIL NRsEM
ESDY NUCET SEYT EPNR SEUCND
WTEVIC VOLLIT ENR.'
Now he cried. Il reverse it
Instead of the meaningless COileCtlOn
of letters. when ii was reversed the dots
and dashcs actually made words. some
letters which were formed by symmetri-
cal combinations of dots and dashes be
ing the same. others formed by reversed
combinations being transposed.
The message read: Castillo hrihed
guard. escaped yesterday. Use mescal
and seize money.
Use mescal and seize money. repeat
II 1nnE Ing af ~
"MesCaI-that's that Mexican brandy"
Garrick was palpabiy excited by his
discovery "No-not the brandy. III
don't believe that is what is meant.
No there is another kind of mescal.
the mescal button, the peyote bean.
CaStillo's estate was in the northern
part of Mexico. That is where the
mescaI bean grows. Castillo has es-
capped
But the money" interrupted
Burke. what money"
The telephone rang. Garrick an
sw-- il quickly.
Police headquarters" he explained
rs he replaced the receiver. They
have something on - over 29-which |
means really the twenty-sevcnth divi- |
sion of the twenty ninth row. as they |
ella ssify finger prints, theoretically in
thirty-two rows of thirty-two pigeon |
holes each There was just enough in
hat 81, l..s,