New Britain herald., 1922-06-30
The Reason Maige Felt the Joys
 of Triumph

of Triumph
 For the first time in our long asso ciation, I heartily wished Lillian any where but in my room.
 l was wild to start working on tn, queer characters which had hafflec Allen Drake, and I could do nothing until l was alone, with the door SC. curely locked against interruption But unconscious of my dilemma or my irritation. she stood chatting for sev. eral minutes after her return from Dickys room with the crayons, while forced myself 10 answers which despite my best efforts, sounded me chanical.
 You're sleepy" Lillian announced suddenly at last, and have work to do, so I'll run along, Better get to bed right away. You look tired to death"
 T am tired" I admitted. and l think shall follow your advice"
 See that you do," she retorted as she went down the corridor
 I looked after her dismayed. for I had said that I was going to sleep. Suppose that later in the evening she saw the eleam of my light Would she not suspect me of the very deceit l was practcing'
 There was but one thing to do. and I did 1t, feeling like the third act Of a cheap melodrama the while hung a piece of cloth over the keyhole, rolled up small rug, and laid it against the lower port of the door and arranged two tail screens around the table where stood my reading lamp Then pushing the folded rug softly to one side. I opened my door. stepped into the corridor with a nasty glance around. closed the door and to my great satisfaction detected no glimmer of light
 Entering my room again and lock ing the door, l changed to my most comfortable dressing gown and slip pers. and with swiftly beating pulses. and cheeks flushing as though I were going to a tryst. opened my trunk, unpacked the notebooks upon early cuneiform inscriptions which I had treasured for so long, and set to work.
 Time, space, recollection of any thing in the world save those puzzling characters vanished from me, and when at last. after hours of labor, wrote into Allen Drake's second list the names which I was sure had been meant by the cryptic signs, and with a queer choking sensation, went to the window for air, l found when I had thrust aside the curtain that dawn had come.
 A Problem Solved.
 had worked through the whole night without stopping.
 Yet I was not conscious of physical or mental lassitude. Indeed I was in such state of excited exaltation that l felt as though I would never need to sleep again.
 I had solved the problem which had baffled Allen Drake. For a pulls ing second or two, l receled in the joy of the thought. Then a sober sec ond thought told me that though I had achieved a really credtable feat, yet my triumph over him rested only upon my peculiar knowledge of Sum- erian and other inscriptions, and upon my peculiar power of memory which Ildu e1ld pleQ Ins tO recall lTt appear ance of those inscriptions after so long a period of absence from them. l knew full well that, armed with the same knowledge, Allen Drake would | have solved in 10 minutes the secret of the code which it had taken me hours of painstaking, perspiring pod- ding to accomplish,
 The maker of the code was familiar with the Sumerian syllable writing | That was very clear, and he had hit upon the clever device of dividing the in halves. By doing this the lines upon his paper would appear meaningless scrawls to any one not familiar with the cuneiform writing That was the only reason why Allen Drake had not been able to solve the problem Had the whole characters been used, his own scholar ship would have placed them nearly enough for him to have sought the aid of some student of the old records, and no one would ever have known that he had had any difficulty with them.
 Madge Is Fatirued.
 That my success would be bitter blow to his vanity, l was afraid, and l knew that his chaerin would be in- creased when he realized how simple a thing the code in reality was Even my inexperience could tell that it's de-