The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1916-03-02
A Cryptogran
BY r. A. Mitchell

true. this story is an illustration OF II.
Imogene Blair. comedy lassie OF
eighteen and the idol OF her parents.
must needs be debating whether she
should accept Frank shackelford as
a husband. The only reason why she
besitated was because Frank was
worthless except for one purpose-that
was to lead cotillions. When Imogene
saw him marshaling the dancers, his
/ reast covered with favors and look.
| Ing for all the world like q much dec
GRATED eneralissimo, 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 n god.
Imogene, Notwithstanding her par
ents' serious objections, accepted Mr..
shackelford. and there was before her
the honor Of being the wife Of q prom.
inent society man and cotillion leader
Her father. a hard headed man, who
had made a fortune by practical at.
tention to business, was much disgrun-
tied by his daughters choice. His
chief clerk. John Stebbins, had been
attentive to Imogene, and Mr.. Blair
had hoped she would marry him. John
was Mr. Blair's financial man and as
steady as a church. But It was not to
be expected that man who did not
even dance could compete with terp-
sichorean captain-general with his
breast plastered over with decorations.
John knew that he was the favorite
Of the parents of the girl he loved, but
disdained to avail himself Of this ad-
vantage. One day Mrs. Blair came to
him after her daughters engagement
which was written 20. L. 9. X. 8. l..
H." and asked him his opinion as to
what 1t all meant John suspected what
It was, but he was considerable Of a
wag. a great favorite with the lady
who showed 1t to him, and, withal,
quite apt at invention. After studying
It awhile he said:
FIRST two letters. o. L.. probably stand
for o, Laura. I. Is the ninth letter IN
the alphabet. So we have o, Laura. l.
The meaning of the next letter, R.,
we must All In after we have finished.
U. is the twenty-first letter Of the al
phabet, or you. The whole may
read, o. Laura, - you Quite
likely the letter r. is the initial letter
for the word love In some other Ian
guage than English"
Just what ! thought" said Mrs.
Blair. and without stopping to give the
young man q chance to confess that
be was chatting her she whisked out
Of the room.
Now, when Shackelford 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 a
bit Of paper had slipped from among
them and fallen on the floor. slanting
as 1t fell. so that 1t lay under the sofa
on which the couple were sitting. A
maid had picked it up the next morn
ing and handed It to the young lady.
The most easily excited emotion In
the breast Of young lover IL jealousy.
Imogene felt sure that her fiance had
dropped the paper on which were the
letters and figures given above. and
these she feared was cipher message
to a rival. She showed them to her
mother. who found It convenient to
agree with her. Mrs. Blair promised
to decipher the cryptogram and called
I'm John StebbinSto help her. Whether
or no she believed his fiimsy interpre
tation to be correct, she certainly pre-
ferred to consider II SO. Taking the
paper back to her daughter she gave
the meaning John had put upon It.
Imogene was much affected She
told her mother that she would charge
her iance with being In clandestine
correspondence with another girl and
IL he did not make satisfactory ex
PLANTATION she would break her en-
gagement. Mrs. Blair told her that
Shackelford would doubtless trump up
an explanation and begged Imogene
to act without consulting him. After
long struggle. In which the mother
strove to convince the daughter that
Shackelford wanted her only for the
wealth she would inherit. Imogene
was prevailed upon and wrote him a
note breaking with him without with
out giving any reason.
So thin was the evidence on which
this conspiracy was based that Mrs.
Blair took advantage Of the sea
son. February. to whisk her daughter
of to Florida and kept her there TIL
the hot weather drove them home. On
their return they found Shackelford
engaged to a girl whose first name
happened to be Laura. with a fortune
In her own right.
This was conclusive proof to limo
gene that the paper she had discovered
was a cipher love letter. Partly to
show the recreant Shackelford that
she did not love him and partly from
the dawn OF common sense within her
she accepted John Stebbins.
Some time after their marriage John
twittcd his wife as to her affair with
shackelfdrd. She produced the cryp;
togram. John looked at II curiously.
forgetting that he had ever seen II be-
| fore.
what Is itf' asked his wife.
The combination Of safe lock-"