"But my brother never returned. In all these years I have neither seen him nor heard of him, and I know beyond doubt that he is long since dead. And I have remained here by myself like a hermit, because I feel that the shame of it all has hung about me and enveloped me, and I cannot get away from it. Once, a number of years ago, an old village gossip here, now long since gone, said to me, 'There was something queer about your father and brother, now was n't there, Miss Camilla? I 've heard tell as how they were "Rebs" on the quiet, during the big war awhile back. Is that so?' Of course, the chance remark only served to confirm the suspicious in my mind, though I denied it firmly to her when she said it.
"I also found to my amazement, when I went over the house after all was over, that many things I had loved and valued had strangely disappeared. All the family silver, of which we had had a valuable set inherited from Revolutionary forefathers, was gone. Some antique jewelry that I had picked up abroad and prized highly was also missing. But chief of all, my whole collection of precious porcelains and pottery was nowhere to be found. I searched in every conceivable nook and cranny in vain. And at last the disagreeable truth was forced on me that my father and brother had sold or disposed of them, for what ends I could not guess. But it only added to my bitterness to think they could do such a despicable thing without so much as consulting me.
"But now, at last, I come to the notebook. I found it among some papers in my father's study desk, a while after his death, and I frankly confess I could make nothing of it whatever. It seemed to be filled with figures, added and subtracted, and, as my father had always been rather fond of dabbling with figures and mathematics, I put it down as being some quiet calculations of his own that had no bearing on anything concerning me. I laid it carefully away with his other papers, however, and there it has been, in an old trunk in the attic of the unused part of all these years. When you spoke of a 'secret code,' however, it suddenly occurred to me that the notebook might be concerned in the matter. Here it is."
She held it out to them and they crowded about her eagerly. But as she laid it open and they examined its pages, a disappointed look crept into Sally's eyes.
"Why, there 's nothing here but numbers!" she exclaimed, and
it was even so. The first few lines were as follows:
56 + 14 - 63 + 43 + 34 + 54 + 64 + 43 +
16 - 52 + 66 + 52 + 15 + 23 - 66 + 24 -
15 + 44 + 43 - 43 + 64 + 43 + 24 + 15 -
61 + 53 - 36 + 24 + 14 - 51 + 15 + 53 +
54 + 43 + 52 + 43 + 43 + 15 - 16 + 66 +
52 + 36 + 52 + 15 + 43 + 23 -
サリーとドーリスが洞窟で発見した符号の紙をみたい場合はここをクリック
And all the rest were exactly like them in character.
But Doris, who had been quietly examining it, with a copy of the code in her other hand, suddenly uttered a delighted cry:
"I have it! At least, I think I 'm on the right track. Just examine this code a moment, Miss Camilla. If you notice, leaving out the line of figures at the top and and right of the whole square, the rest is just the letters of the alphabet and the figures one to nine and another 'o' that probably stands for 'naught.' There are six squares across and six squares down, and those numbers on the outside are just one to six, only all mixed up. Don't you see how it could be worked? Suppose one wanted to write the letter 't.' It could be indicated by the number '5' (meaning the square it comes under according to the top line of figures) and '1' (the number according to the side line). Then '51' would stand for letter 'T,' would n't it?"
"Great!" interrupted Sally, enthusiastically, who had seen the method even quicker than Miss Camilla. "But suppose it worked the other way, reading the side line first? Then 'T' would be '15.'"
"Of course, that 's true, admitted Doris. "I suppose there must have been some understanding between those who invented this code about which line to read first. The only way we discover it is to puzzle it out both ways, and see which makes sense. One will and the other won't."
It all seemed as simple as rolling off a log, now that Doris had discovered the explanation. Even Miss Camilla was impressed with the value of the discovery.
"But what is the meaning of these plus and minus signs?" she queried. "I suppose they stand for something."
"I think that 's easy," answered Doris. "In looking over it, I see there are a great many more plus than minus signs. Now, I think the plus signs must be intended to divide the numbers in groups of two, so that each group stands for a letter. Otherwise they 'd be all hopelessly mixed up. And the minus signs divide the words. And every once in a while, if you notice, there 's a multiplication sign. I imagine those as the periods at the end of sentences."
They all sat silent a moment after this, marveling at the simplicity of it. But at length Doris suggested:
"Suppose we try to puzzle out a little of it and see if we are really on the right track? Have you a piece of paper and a pencil, Miss Camilla?" Miss Camilla went indoors and brought them out, quivering with the excitement of the new discovery.
"Now, let 's see," began Doris. "Suppose we try reading the top line first. '56' would be '1' and '14' would be '2.' Now '12' may mean a word or it may not. It hardly seems as if a note would begin with that. Let 's try it the other way. Side line first. Then '56' is 'm,' and '14' is 'y.' 'My' is a word, anyway, so perhaps we 're on the right track. Let 's go on."
From the next series of letters she spelled the word "beloved" and after that "sister." It was plain beyond all doubting that last they had stumbled on a wonderful discovery.
But she got no further than the words, "my beloved sister," for, no sooner had Miss Camilla taken in their meaning than she huddled back in her chair and, very quietly, fainted away.
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