Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1916-04-20
A Cryptogram
By +. A. Mitchell
By F. A. mitchell

war" Whether or not the adaSe Is
true. this story is an Illustration of it.
lmogcnc Blair. a comely llsSle Of
eighteen and the idol of her parents,
must needs be debating whether she
should accept Frank S~hackelford as
IL husband. The only reason why she
hcsitated was because Frank was
worthless except for IL purpose-that
was to lead cotillions. When Imogene
saw him m%arshaling the dancers, his
breast covered with favors and look.
ing for all the world like a much dec
Grated generalisSimo, she admired him
immensely, and when he stood in the
middle of the ballroom and gave his
orders by clapping his hands she
thought him Il god.
Imogenc, notwithstanding her par
ents' serious objections, accepted Mr..
Shackelford. and there was before her
the honor of being the wife OF Il prom
incnt society man and cotllilon leader
Her father. Il hard headed man., who
had made a fortune by practical at.
tcntion to business. was much dlSGrun-
| tied by his daughters choice. His
| chief clerk, John Stebbins. had been
| attentive to lmogcne, and MI. Blair
had hoped she would marry him. John
was Mr.. Bluir's financial man and as
steady as a church. But it was not to
be expected that Il man who did not
even dance could compete with q tcrl'-
sichorean captain-gencral with his
breast plastered over With decorations.
John knew that he Was the fayoritc
of the parents of the girl he loved, but
disdained to avail himself of this adj
vantage. One day Mrs. Blair came to
him after her daughters engagement
and showed him 4 piece OF paper on
which was written 20. l.. q. K. y. Il.
IL" and asked him his opinion as to
what it all meant. John suspected what
it was. but he was considerable OF a
wag, Il great %fuyorite with the lady
who showed it to him. and, Withal,
quite apt at invention. After studying
it awhile he said:
Il think its Il love message. The
first two letters. O. L., probably stand
for Q, Laura. |. is the ninth letter III
the alphabet. SO we have O. Laura. |.
The meaning of the next letter, r..
we must ill in after we have finished.
L. is the twenty-tirst letter of the al
phabet, or you. The whole may
read, %, Laura, l - YOU Quite
likely the letter Il. is the initial letter
for the word love in some other lam
guagc than English"
Just what ! thought" said Mrs.
Blair. and without stopping To give the
young man Il chance to confess that
he was chatting her she whiskcd out
of the room.
Now, when S~hackclford had visited
Imogene one evening he had taken a
bunch of letters from his pocket in or
der to read one of them to her and Il
bit of paper had Slipped from among
them and fallen on the floor, slantinY
as it fell, so that it lay under the sofa
on which the couple were sitting. y
maid had picked it up the next morn,
in@ and handed it to the young lady.
The most easily excited emotion III
; the breast of Il young lover is jealousy,
) Imogcnc felt sure that her fiance had
dropped the paper on which were the
letters and figures given above. an(
I these she feared was a cipher message
| to Il rival. She showed them to hcl
! mother. who found it convenient tl
agree with her. Mrs. Blair promised
1 to deciphcr the c~ryptogram and callet
in John StebbinS to help her. Whether
y or no she believed his tlimSy interpre
. tation to be correct. she certainly pre-
fnl.rn,1 tD ,nycilnr IL S, 'TI1,;Ir th,
Z paper back to her daughter she CAV,
the meaning John had put upon it.
I ImOgenc was much affected. Sh
told her mother that she would charg
her fiancc with being in clandcstin
correspondence with another Girl an
if he did not make a satisfactory eS
{ planation she would break her el
gagelncnt. Mrs. Blair told her tina
Shackelford would doubtless trump u
q an explanation and begged Imogen
to act without consulting him.. .Afte
Il long struggle, in which the mothe
strove to convince the daughter til;
Shackelford wanted her only for til
~ wealth she would inherit, Imoger
- was prevailed upon and wrote him
note Dle;lklilS WllH MN WITHOUT VIII
out giving any reason.
SO thin was the evidence on WhiC
20 this conspiracy was based that MI
w Blair COL advantage Of the sc
4 son, February, TO whisk her daught'
off to Florida and kept her there t.
the hot weather drove them home. I
their return they found Shackelfol
= engaged to Il girl whose first nan
% happened to be Laura, With Il fortul
III her W right.
y This was conclusive proof to I'm
n gene that the paper she had discover
m was q cipher love letter. Partly
20 show the %recrcant Shacilelford tn
she did not love him and partly fro
the dawn of common sense within n
n she accepted John Stebbins.
10 Some time after their marriage Jol
twitted his wife as to her affair WI
RI Shackelford. She produced b cry
nj togram. John looked at it curious
forroftipr tbot no had oyar cnan IT. I