The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-08-04

She gave him the letter, and after a
l0hg. tender farewell he took his de-
parture. Going straight to his room
at Mrs. Quinlan's, he lighted the lamp.
so that If Emily CHANGED to look over
the way, she would fancy him at work
upon the cryptogram. Morrow waited
until the little house opposite was
plunged in darkness; then very
stealthily he crept down the stairs and
let himself out, the precious letter
carefully tucked into an inside pocket.
Morrow proceeded at once to
Blaine's office and found his chief
awaiting him.
Here's the letter, sir" he announc-
ed. as he placed the single sheet of
paper on the desk before the detective.
II can't make anything out of 1t, but
you probably will. It's curious, isn't
It! Why, for instance. are those little
dots placed near some Of the crazy
figures, and not others?"
Blaine picked the letter up, and
examined 1t with eager interest.
Its comparatively simple" he re-
marked, as he spread it flat upon the
desk, and taking up pen and paper,
copied it rapidly Symbolic cryptic
grams are usually decipherable, with
the expenditure of little time and ef-
fort. There is method which is uni.
versally followed, and has been for
ages. For instance, the letter e is
recognized as being the most frequent
ly used, in ordinary English, of the
whole alphabet; after that the vowels
and consonants in an accepted rota-
ton which l will not take up our valu-
able time in discussing with you now.
since we will not even need to use it,
In this case. Here, take this copy,
and see II you can follow me.
He passed the sheet Of paper across
to his operative ard Morrow gazed
again upon the curiously shaped char
acters which from close scrutiny had
become familiar. yet still remained
maddeningly battling to him.
Now" resumed Blaine, "presuppos-
posing that In an ostensibly friendly
message beginning with word of four
letters, that word is dear, and we've
two important vowels to start with.
We know the letter was addressed to
Brunell. from an old partner in crime.
We will assume, therefore, that the
two words OF three letters each, fol-
lowing dear are either old Jim, old
man, or old boy. Let us see how it
works out
The detective scrubbed hastily on a
pad for several minutes, then leaned
back in his chair, with sigh Of salts
faction
1T can only be boy" he announced.
THAT gives us working start of eight
letters Add to that the fact that this
character is printed twice consecu-
lively in three different place"
pointed to the figure [. as he spoke
(which confirms the supposition that
IL is J. and you have this result i'm
mediately."
Blaine handed the pad across to
Morrow, who read eagerly:
Dear old boy,
B. -o-ey o. % yo- -ro- old lore
L. a-d "a. y ARE or
yo.-o - IL all o. yo---r-day
a. OR e..
The operative started to speak, but
checked himself, and listened while
Henry Blaine went on slowly but
steadily.
Each letter gained helps us to
others. you see, Guy. For instance
-o-ey must be money; tho character
following 70 three times in different
places must be u; the word ---r-day can
only be Thursday; all is call; a Is
at; and OR is four. That gives us
eight more letters, and makes the mes
sage read like this. Blaine wrote 1t
down and handed the result to Nor
row, who read:
Dear Old Boy
B. money comm TO you from old
score left un-a-d hat S my share for