Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

130 “T’ve unraveled a lot of cryptograms in my time,” said Wise, “but this isn’t a cryptogram. I mean it isn’t in cipher code—there’s some other way of getting at it.” We all studied it. Olive, Zizi, Wise, and I bent our heads over the table where it lay, while Mrs. Vail looked on from a little distance, and babbled about some man she knew once, who could solve secret writings. Suddenly Zizi jumped up, and running around the table, viewed the paper from the other side. She cocked her funny little head sidewise, and then wagged it knowingly, as she took a few steps farther and looked at the paper from another angle. All round the table she went, and finally, with a murmur of apology took up the paper, and held it laterally in frent of her eager eyes. “Whee!” she crowed in an ecstasy of satisfaction, ‘I’ve got it! You have to have a pattern to read it by.” ‘“‘ A pattern!” I repeated blankly. “Yep! A paper with holes in it—a key paper.” “‘Oh!” and Wise looked as if a light had burst upon him. ‘ That’s it, Ziz! You're the wonder-child after all! Stoo-pid! Stoo-pid!” and he beat his forehead in self-abasement. ‘‘ And, oh! I say, Brice, what did you tell me once about Swiss cheese ?”’ “‘ Swiss cheese?” “Yes; don’t you remember? A carriage- call check—with holes in it.” ‘“‘Oh, that thing. Yes, it was on Mr. Gately’s desk—Hudson, the foxy detective took it.” “Can we get it?” “Of course, by sending for it.” “ T'll go!” cried Zizi. ‘‘ Where? Head- quarters?” and she was already flinging on her coat. : “Let her go,” said Wise, giving the girl a quick, appreciative glance. “ She'll beat any other messenger, and she'll find it.” We heard Zizi’s imperative little voice de- manding a cab from the telephone, and a bit later heard the street door close be- hind her. THE ARGOSY. “You see,” and Wise explained it to us, ‘‘ Zizi noticed—and then I did—these letters. At first glance they seem to be perfectly regular, but noted closely there are some, here and there, that are a micro- scopic fraction of space nearer or farther away than some others. And that shows what kind of a cipher it is. We may be mistaken about the carriage check, but I truly believe when we get it we can read the message this paper carried. We cer- tainly can’t without it.” This was so true that we laid the paper aside until the return of the winged Mercury. She came soon, and waved triumphantly the perforated card she had gone for. ‘Here you are!” she cried. ‘Let me try it as a reward for getting it.” “All right, go to it,” said Wise, and flinging off her cape, Zizi bent over the puzzle. “Tt’s it! It’s it!” she cried exultantly; ‘ see, O, wise one!” The detective took the paper and the card. : | ‘You see,” he said, generously sharing the first sight of the solution with us, “ this card has seven holes, at irregular distances. By placing it in the right position on this solid bank of letters, certain ones show through the holes, and these—I hope—will spell the message.” And it did. After readjusting the key card several times, Wise finally got it right, and the letters that could be seen through the holes in the card, as he moved it along spelled coherent words and sen- tences. Of course, the other letters were not to be used. He read the message aloud, and as we had suspected, it was information concern- ing ‘the shipment of munitions, and told of certain sailing dates. “Spy work of the cleverest type,” Wise exclaimed; ‘“ you see, the Link got her information from stolen telegrams and re- corded it in this way, so it would be un- intelligible to any one not having this card, or a duplicate of it.” I scrutinized with interest the letters as they showed clearly through the little round holes. — 7 GOMIIG OOO SS Eo