"It looks a little more pronounceable, but hanged if I can make any
sense of it. There's a French look about it. Why, what a dolt I am! If
it's Fronsac who's signaling from the Folly, of course the message will
be in French. Not that that helps matters!" he thought dolefully. "The
French alphabet's the same as the English till you get to W, and W is
number 23, which doesn't come in. Confound the thing!"
It was not until he had pondered and puzzled for more than an hour that
Jack got any fresh light. Then it occurred to him that some of the
less-used of the letters might have been dropped. After some thought, he
left out K, Q, and all the letters after V, and renumbered those that
were left. The first result of this change gave him a thrill. He spelt
out the word "RISE."
"Now I'm on the scent!" he said to himself.
Next came the word "ARRIVE," then two initials--P, H, after them the
word "NAVIRE."
"I can't make any sense of it at present. Let's go on."