Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 235: what you’re looking at

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

Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. 229 duct that I had no choice but to explain the case to her, and produce the passage as evi- dence of my story. At once with the quick, if not always logical, perception of a woman she observed the significance of a detail which had escaped me. She pointed out the extraordinary way in which the capitals were scattered about, and suggested that it might be a cipher. **Zounds !”-I exclaimed, ‘‘ what a dizzard I must be, never to have thought of that.” The first attempt was disheartening. On writing down the capitals, as she read them out, I found that there were eighteen con- sonants, and only three vowels. It was obvi- ously impossible to construct a sentence from such a proportion as that. ‘““Never mind,” said she, as I sank back in despair. ‘‘ Let ns try the words.” I took up my pen and wrote, ‘Goths— Divert—The—Stream—Calabria.’ . ** But, my sweetest May,” I cried, ‘this is mere rubbish. Goths and Calabria! It is folly.” “Patience, patience, you fiery creature,” el comichbooks.com