THE CIPHER LETTER.
The reading-room row, as it was called, had pretty well blown over, when
one morning Diggory accosted Jack Vance and Mugford, who were both
seated at the latter's desk, sharpening their knives on an oil-stone.
"I say, you fellows, look what I've found." As he spoke, he laid on the
desk a slip of paper; it was evidently a scrap torn out of some
exercise-book, and inscribed upon it were several lines of capital
letters, all jumbled together without any apparent object in their
arrangement, and, to be more exact, placed as follows:--
NVVGRMGSVTBNDSVMGSVUVOOLD
HKZHHLMGLHFKKVIGSVGDLXZM
HLUDZGVIZIGHGZMWRMTRMHRW
VGSVXFKYLZIWFMWVIGSVHGZRIH.
"Well, what is there funny about that?" asked Jack; "it looks to me as
if some one had been practising making capitals."
"Is it a puzzle?" inquired Mugford.
"No, but I'll tell you what I think it is," answered Diggory, sitting
down, and speaking in a low, mysterious tone: "it's a letter written in
cipher."
"A letter?" repeated Mugford, glancing at the paper. "Why, how could
any one read that rubbish--NVVG?"
"Of course they can, if they know the key. Didn't I say it was written
in cipher, you duffer? Every letter you see there stands for something
different."
"Then why didn't they write the proper letters at once, and have done
with it?" grumbled Mugford.
"Because, you prize ass," retorted Diggory, with pardonable asperity,
"they didn't want it read."
"Then if they didn't want it read, why did they write it at all?"
exclaimed Mugford triumphantly.
"Oh, shut up! you're cracked, you--"
"Look here," interrupted Jack Vance, "where did you find the thing?"
"Why, you know the window in the box-room that looks out on the 'quad;'
well, there's a little crack under the ledge between the wooden frame
and the wall, and this note was stuck in there. I should never have
seen it, only I was watching a spider crawling up the wall, and it ran
into the hole close to the end of the paper. Some fellows must be using
the place as a sort of post-office; don't you remember Fred Acton made
one in the wainscotting at The Birches? only these fellows have invented
a cipher. Well, I'm going to find it out, and read this note, just for
the lark."
"How are you going to do it, though? I don't see it's possible to read
a thing like this; you can't tell where one word ends and a fresh one
begins."
"There is a way of finding out a cipher," answered Diggory; "it tells
you how to do it in that book that we bought when Mug had his things
sold by auction at Chatford."
"What, in Poe's tales?" asked Mugford. "Yes; in one of the stories
called 'The Gold Bug.' Where is the book?"
"I lent it to Maxton, but I should think he's finished it by this time.
I'll go and see."
"All right," said Diggory, pocketing the slip of paper; "you get it, and
then I can show you what I mean. Come on, Jack; let's go out."
The two friends were just rising from the form on which they had been
sitting, when they were accosted by Browse, who, strolling up with a
pair of dilapidated slippers on his feet, which caused him to walk as
though he were skating, inquired in drawling tones, "I say, have either
of you kids got a watch-key?"
Jack Vance handed him the required article, which happened to be of the
kind which fit all watches.
The Sixth Form "sap" was very short-sighted, and proceeded to wind up
his timepiece, holding it close to his spectacles throughout the
operation.
"I can't think how it is," he continued, in his sing-song tone,
"I'm always losing my key. I've had two new ones already this term.
I always stick them in a place where I think they're sure not to get
lost, and then I forget where I put them. Thanks awfully."
"What a queer old codger Browse is!" remarked Diggory, as the big fellow
moved away; "no one would ever think he was so clever."
"No," answered Jack Vance. "By-the-bye, did you hear that he had
another row with 'Thirsty' last night?"
"No; what about?"
"Oh, the same thing as before. Some fellows were making a beastly row
in Thurston's study, and Browse couldn't work, so he threatened if they
weren't quiet he'd report them to the doctor. 'Thirsty' came out
in an awful wax, and said for two pins he'd knock Browse down; and young
Collis, who was standing at the top of the stairs, says he believes he'd
have done it if some of the other fellows in the Sixth hadn't come out
and interfered."
In the course of the afternoon Diggory secured Mugford's copy of Poe's
tales, and (sad to relate) spent a good part of that evening's
preparation in trying to unravel the secret of the mysterious missive
which he had found in the box-room. So intent was he on solving the
problem that, instead of going down to supper with the majority of his
companions, he remained seated at his desk, poring over the experiments
which he was making according to directions given in the famous story of
"The Gold Bug."
"Well, how are you getting on ?" inquired Jack Vance, as the crowd came
straggling back from the dining-hall.
"Oh, pretty well," answered the other. "The first thing you have to do
is to find E; it's the letter which occurs most frequently. Well, in
this case V is the letter which comes oftenest--there are fourteen of
them--so V is E. Then, when you know what E is, you search for the word
'the.' There are certain to be several 'the's' in the piece; so you
look for instances in which the same two letters come before E, or, in
this case, before V. Well, here it is, G S V, five times; so you are
pretty certain that G S V is 'the,' or, in other words, that G is T, S
is H, and V is E. That's as far as I've got at present; but I mean to
worry out the rest of it to-morrow."
While Diggory was holding forth in the big schoolroom on his methods of
reading a cipher, a conversation of a very different character, and on a
matter of grave importance, was taking place in the study of the school
captain.
Allingford and John Acton were seated in front of the former's little
fireplace talking over matters connected with the football club.
Suddenly there was a sound of hurrying feet in the passage; the next
instant the door burst open, and in bounced Browse. The two prefects
gazed at him for a moment in open-mouthed astonishment; then Acton broke
the silence, exclaiming, "Why, Browse, what's the matter?"
The "sap" certainly presented an extraordinary appearance.
His spectacles were gone; his hair was pasted all over his face, as
though he had just come up from a long dive; his clothes were torn, and
in a state of the wildest disorder; while the strangest part of all was
that from head to foot he seemed soaking wet, drenched through and
through with water, which dripped from his garments as he stood.
"Why, man alive!" cried Allingford, "what have you been up to?"
"It's those blackguards!" gasped Browse, choking with rage, and shaken
for once in a way out of his usual drawl; "it's that Thurston and his
crew--I know it was!"
"But what was? what's the matter?"
With some little difficulty the two prefects at length succeeded in
extracting from their excited comrade an account of his wrongs; even
then such an amount of cross-questioning was necessary that it will be
best to make no attempt at a verbatim report, but rather to give the
reader a more concise version of the story.
From Browse's statement it appeared that just before supper some one had
come to his study, saying: "Smeaton wants you in the 'lab;' look sharp!"
The door had only been opened about a couple of inches, and then closed
again. From the few words thus spoken Browse did not recognize the
voice; but thinking that his particular friend Smeaton (another
tremendous worker) was engaged in some important experiments, and needed
his assistance, he hurried away, never dreaming but that the message he
had received was genuine.
In order to reach the laboratory, it was necessary to traverse the
box-room and the gymnasium, both of which were in darkness, the lights
being turned out by the prefect on duty when the boys assembled for
preparation.
Across the first of these chambers Browse groped his way in safety.
Hardly, however, had he crossed the threshold of the second, when he was
suddenly seized and held fast by several strong pairs of hands.
His indignant expostulations were met with a titter of suppressed
laughter; he was roughly forced down upon his knees, and while in this
position what seemed like two buckets of cold water were emptied over
his devoted head. This having been done, he was dragged to his feet,
thrust back into the box-room, and the door leading into the gymnasium
was slammed to and locked on the inside. From first to last not a word
had been spoken, and at the very commencement of the struggle Browse's
spectacles had been knocked off. These two circumstances had entirely
prevented him from recognizing the shadowy figures of his assailants.
He made one attempt to force the door open, but finding it securely
fastened, had come straight away to the captain's study.
"It's that Thurston and some of his gang," he repeated in conclusion;
"they did it to pay me out for interfering with their noisy meetings."
Allingford and John Acton sprang to their feet. The idea that the rowdy
element should be so powerful in Ronleigh that a Sixth Form boy could
with impunity be seized and drenched with cold water, was not very
pleasing to one who was largely responsible for the order of the school,
and the captain's face was as black as thunder.
"All right!" he exclaimed; "leave this to me. Go and change your
clothes."
The two prefects hurried down the passage.
"Wait a minute," said Allingford. "Which is Thurston's study?"
Acton knocked at the door; and receiving no answer, pushed it open and
looked in. The room was empty.
"Come on," cried Allingford; "the 'gym!' They may be there still."
They rushed down the stairs, scattering a group of small boys who were
roasting chestnuts at the gas-jet in the passage, and on through the
box-room, but only to find the door on the other side standing
wide open, and the gymnasium itself silent and deserted--two empty
water-cans, lying in a big pool of wet on the cement floor, being the
only remaining traces of the recent outrage.
"They're gone," said Acton. "What shall we do?"
"We'll find one of them, at all events," replied his companion; and
returning once more to the neighbourhood of the studies, he shouted,--
"_Thurston!_"
There was a faint "Hullo!" and a moment later a door opened half-way
down the passage.
"Well, what d'you want?"
Allingford walked quickly forward. "Look here," he demanded sternly,
"where have you been? What have you been doing?"
"Doing!" echoed Thurston; "why, I've been sitting here for the last two
hours with old Smeaton. I asked him to let me come and work in his
study to-night. There's some of this Ovid I can't get on with, and he
promised he'd help me out with it if I'd tell him what it was I didn't
understand."
The captain hesitated a moment, rather nonplussed by this unexpected
reply. "I believe you know something about this affair with Browse," he
continued. "Who did it?"
"Who did what?" demanded Thurston snappishly. "If you mean when he came
banging at my study door last night--"
"No, I don't mean that," interrupted Allingford. "I mean this
blackguard's trick that was played on him to-night."
"I don't know what you're talking about," retorted Thurston angrily.
"Look here, Allingford, I'll thank you not to call me a blackguard for
nothing, for I suppose that's what you're driving at. If you don't
think I'm speaking the truth, ask Smeaton. I suppose you'll take his
word, if you won't take mine."
Smeaton, whose veracity it was impossible to doubt, confirmed the last
speaker's assertions, and Allingford and Acton were forced to beat a
retreat, feeling that they had certainly been worsted in the
encounter.
"What's to be done?" asked Acton, as they re-entered the captain's
study.
"I don't know," answered the other, flinging himself into a chair.
"The only thing I can see is to report it to the doctor."
"Oh, I shouldn't do that; it's more a piece of personal spite than any
disorder and breach of rule, like that reading-room affair. I think
it's a thing which ought to be put down by the fellows themselves.
Who was in Thurston's study last night?"
"I don't know. It may have been those fellows Gull and Hawley, but you
can't accuse them without some evidence; you see what I got just now for
tackling Thurston. Ever since the elections there seem to be a lot of
fellows bent on bringing the place to the dogs. Thurston's hand and
glove with the whole lot of them, and it's hard to say who did this
thing to Browse."
A report of what had happened was rapidly spreading all over the school.
One by one the other prefects dropped in to the captain's study to talk
the matter over. Most of them were inclined to agree with Acton in
considering it a thing to be taken up by the boys themselves, and the
discussion was continued till bedtime.
"Well, I'll tell you what I think I'd better do," said Allingford,
preparing to wish his companions good-night. "I'll report it to the
doctor, and ask him not to take any steps in the matter until we've
had a chance of inquiring into it ourselves."
The story of Browse's mishap, as we have just said, soon passed from
mouth to mouth, until it was common property throughout the college.
The remarks which the news elicited were often of an entirely opposite
nature, according to the character of the boys who made them. Noaks and
Mouler laughed aloud, declaring it a rare good joke; but to the credit
of the Ronleians of that generation be it said, the majority shook their
heads, and muttered, "Beastly shame!" "What'll be done?" was the
question asked on all sides. "Will it be reported to the doctor?"
"If it is," said "Rats," "we shall lose another half-holiday. Confound
those fellows, whoever they are! I should like to see them all jolly
well kicked."
On the following day the first assembly for morning school passed
without anything happening, though every one looked rather anxiously
towards the head-master's throne as Dr. Denson took his seat.
The brazen voice of the bell had just proclaimed the eleven o'clock
interval, when the Triple Alliance, hurrying with their companions of
the Lower Fourth along the main corridor leading to the schoolroom,
found that the passage was nearly blocked by a large crowd of boys
standing round the notice-board.
"Hullo!" said Diggory, "another rhyme?"
This time, however, the placard was in good plain prose, and ran as
follows:--
"NOTICE.
"A meeting of the whole school will take place
directly after dinner in the gymnasium. A full
attendance is urgently requested, as the matter for
consideration is of great importance.
"A. R. ALLINGFORD."
"Humph," muttered Fletcher senior to himself, as he turned on his heel
after reading the notice, "the fat's in the fire now, and no mistake."