The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_—-— ee ee 26 are therofore now silently at work, and no general intimation will be given until we are upon the track of the principal offender.”” “ ] have every reason to approve of your sagacity, Mr. Gowan; and this is not the first time we have been compelled to have recourse to you in pursuing —_ — I a these measures. To you, therefore, I shall still entrust the task of thwarting and exterminating the aims and instruments of this atrocious confederation; but, tell me, has the code of private signals I suggested yet been adopted for your telegraphic communications ?” “ It was last night, sir, tried for the first time, and found to answer the purpose admirably,” rejoined the commissioner. “Here is the message sent to me by the Liverpool superintendent of police in answer to my inquiry ; and as the key to the cipher is only known to ourselves, we have the satisfaction of knowing that it is morally impossible, any person can guess at the a nature of the informati transmitted.” With this, a_ slip ‘hie the eleven numerical and alphabetical characters men- tioned in the first chapter, Was ¥ morocco pocket-book, an his ins on. “Take the middle number, which is 5, for the key, and translate it, Harlowe,” said the secretary, handing it over to the clerk, after a cursory glance, and await- ing the result of his elucidation. ¢ The official rose from his seat, and, unlocking with a small patent key. the private drawer of a substantial bureau opposite, @ took out a Jarge sheet of parch- ment from the ease, in which it, was enfolded, and spread it open on the baize. It was a mere, transcript of the letters of the alphabe ranged with Arabic numerals in parallel tines; but, though apparently a document of simple and intelligible construction, the plan devised by its means Was a mode of secret com- munication, so intricate ane Incomprehensible to the uninitiated, that it might have safely defied the closest investigation to discover the principle on which it was formed. (ruck ot ahd r “ Words or letters?” asked the clerk, hesitating and looking towards the commissioner, . . ..: “ Words,” said the functionary of police; and. the clerk, then fitting from ancther case a corresponding | BR index to the letters, was enabled by that process to arrive at the following signification of the symbols:— “3rd class.—Tall man—dark complexion—black whiskers—unknown—suspicious— watch /” . The facility with which this could be read off, from letters apparently having no connection with each other, may be thus explained: The characteristics of height, form, and complexion were noted dewn in successive columns, answering to certain alphabetical signs; the adjectives, indicative of his being either familiar to the provincial police or amenable to their suspicions, had corresponding nu- merals, and the figure placed in the middle of the sentence formaed the clue by which the descriptive index, as it might be called, was fixed to the adjoining cipher. Thus the symbols were susceptible of innu- merable combinations, and as the sender and receiver each possessed the medium of carrying on this private code of correspondence, it could be easily varied at pleasure without others deciphering the means emp “ Such was the exact manner in which I interpreted it last night,” said the commissioner approvingly, as he heard the expositio: given; “I had written for the description of a person who I understood would arrive in the train that reaches town by nine P.M., oll aper, having written upon it ithdrawn from a black anded to the secretary for ee ee ee THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON. having furnished special information for the purpose that I had gathered from my own agents. The superintendent. was scoring at the Liverpool sta- tion in readiness, marking és through the office, and the letter applied was the one ; nger as he went fr y one to whom the red to in this message.” bh ' a wey were your suspicions t this man was leagued with the persons of whom we @re in search, found to be correct ?” inquired the secretary. “So far as circumstances @nable me de, have reason to believe that atlast, we are on the right track,” purstied the other, .“ de i {que and obscuré public-hons passed the night; a th been seen in ec i long mf ted | wiovem eth art : the detectives ir vee that. in a few days I s details worth Enews s | . * flammatory, Speeches seem to oduced some dangerous aymptong sone the ple And. gnorant classes, wre a he has ‘oused,—is he being still subjected to yo vigilance?” gaits “He is, Yesterday he was hei mob in, Bethnal Green, and, as ust poppe? take up arms against, the iving on the subscriptions of the poor ha: people, whom he so ernelly deludea by bis pre interest in, welfare, you ged y po! will not cease to purse his career for seditiom.”. | «I can ple these men are working upon the multitude witl view to braticke UBF Ghia infhmon plata ob PObla With nothing to lose, they hobs by the terror whic their revolutionary attack would inspire, | prof the result of evén oné hour’s tumult, The idea of bringing temethes assemblage of one hundred thousand armet Hels n Kennington Common is a chimera undeserving of serious attention; and they who have asserted its possibility know it to be false, ut still, as such designs, wild and absurd as they are, must beefficiently checked, I am glad to find the measures you have taken for the purpose are so ad-- mirably calculated to preserve inviolate the majesty of the law.” “JT am. to, understand, then, that you Will leave to me the further management of this affair,” said the commissioner, bowing his consciousness of thé implied compliment. a gk 3 ag “Certainly,” responded the represeiitative of the crown, “and of course I will Poa care in certain uarters to defend the legality of amy further pr datctlats you may think it néceisary t6 saopt_-duch as employing spies who thay make themselves con- spicuous athong them by exhortations to violence, and far exceed in their rebellious denunciations the most furious of the mob-orators themselves.” = 91 “Such an arrangement will be duly considered by me,” returned the functionary, now rising to d “and indeed it formed 4 portion of my intentions; t0- morrow, information of what further events may have transpired in the interim shall be forwarded as usual.” Afier some further business had been discussed, unnecessary now to detail, the commiésioner retired, the clerk replaced in the bureau the papers hé had brought forth, with thé additional documents that had that morning been furnished, and the Home Secré- (C(O) MnIiGIOOKS.cOomM