THE CIPHER CODE
On the morning of July 4 the sun rose in a cloudless sky above the
mountains, and the atmosphere was so clear that the most remote objects
were unusually distinct. The conditions were so favorable for
signaling that, after a hurried breakfast, the three soldiers hastened
to the point on the ridge which they had selected for a station.
Corporal Bromley took position with a red flag having a large white
square in the center, and this he waved slowly from right to left,
while Lieutenant Coleman adjusted his spy-glass, resting it upon a
crotched limb which he had driven into the ground; and at his left
Philip sat with a note-book and pencil in hand, ready to take down the
letters as Lieutenant Coleman called them off. There are but three
motions used in signaling. When the flag from an upright position is
dipped to the right, it signifies 1; to the left, 2; and forward, 3.
The last motion is used only to indicate that the end of the word is
reached. Twenty-six combinations of the figures 1 and 2 stand for the
letters of the alphabet.
[Illustration: "CORPORAL BROMLEY TOOK POSITION WITH A RED FLAG HAVING A
LARGE WHITE SQUARE IN THE CENTER."]
It is not an easy task to learn to send messages by these combinations
of the figures 1 and 2, and it is harder still to read the flags miles
away through the telescope. The three soldiers had had much practice,
however, and could read the funny wigwag motions like print. If any
two boys care to learn the code, they can telegraph to each other from
hill to hill, or from farm to farm, as well as George and Philip. You
will see that the vowels and the letters most used are made with the
fewest motions--as, one dip of the flag to the left (2) for I, and one
to the right (1) for T. Z is four motions to the right (1111); and
here is the alphabet as used in the signal-service:
A, 11, O, 12,
B, 1221, P, 2121,
C, 212, Q, 2122,
D, 111, R, 122,
E, 21, S, 121,
F, 1112, T, 1,
G, 1122, U, 221,
H, 211, V, 2111,
I, 2, W, 2212,
J, 2211, X, 1211,
K, 1212, Y, 222,
L, 112, Z, 1111,
M, 2112, &, 2222,
N, 22, ing, 1121,
tion, 2221.
When the flag stops at an upright position, it means the end of a
letter--as, twice to the right and stop (11) means A; one dip forward
(3) indicates the end of a word; 33, the end of a sentence; 333, the
end of a message. Thus 11-11-11-3 means "All right; we understand over
here; go ahead"; and 11-11-11-333 means "Stop signaling." Then
212-212-212-3 means "Repeat; we don't understand what you are
signaling"; while 12-12-12-3 means "We have made an error, and if you
will watch we will give the message to you correctly."
Now, if Lieutenant Coleman wanted to say to another signal-officer
"Send one man," the sentence would read in figures, "121, 21, 22, 111,
3, 12, 22, 21, 3, 2112, 11, 22, 33." But in time of war the signalmen
of the enemy could read such messages, and so each party makes a cipher
code of its own, more or less difficult; and the code is often changed.
So if Lieutenant Coleman's cipher code was simply to use for each
letter sent the fourth letter later in the alphabet, his figures would
have been quite different, and the letters they stood for would have
read:
W-i-r-h s-r-i q-e-r.
S-e-n-d o-n-e m-a-n.
So, after fifteen minutes of waiting, during which time the flag in
Corporal Bromley's hand made a great rustling and flapping in the wind,
moving from side to side, Lieutenant Coleman got his glass on the other
flag, ten miles away, and found it was waving 11-11-11-3--"All right."
Corporal Bromley then sent back the same signal, and sat down on the
bank to rest. What Lieutenant Coleman saw at that distance was a
little patch of red dancing about on the object-glass of his telescope;
he could not see even the man who waved it, or the trees behind him.
Promptly at Bromley's signal "All right," the little object came to a
rest; and when it presently began again, Lieutenant Coleman called off
the letters, which Philip repeated as he entered them in the book. For
an hour and a half the messages continued repeating all the mass of
figures which had come over the line during the last three days.
When the mountain of the nineteenth red pin had said its say as any
parrot might have done, for it was absolutely ignorant of the meaning
of the figures it received and passed on (for the reason that it had no
officer with the cipher), Lieutenant Coleman took from his pocket a
slip of paper on which he had already arranged his return message to
Chattanooga. When this had been despatched, the lieutenant took the
note-book from Philip, and went away to his tent to cipher out the
meaning of the still meaningless letters.
They were sufficiently eager to get the latest news, for they knew that
the army they had just left had been advancing its works and fighting
daily since the twenty-second day of June for the possession of Kenesaw
Mountain. The despatches were translated in the order in which they
came, so that it was a good half-hour before Lieutenant Coleman
appeared with a radiant face to say that General Sherman had taken
possession of Kenesaw Mountain on the day before. "And that is not
all," he cried, holding up his hand to restrain any premature outburst
of enthusiasm. "Listen to this! 'The "Alabama" was sunk by the United
States steamer "Kearsarge" on the nineteenth day of June, three miles
outside the harbor of Cherbourg, on the coast of France.'"
Corporal Bromley was not a demonstrative man, yet the blood rushed to
his face, and there was a glittering light in his eyes which told how
deeply the news touched him; but Philip, on the contrary, was wild with
delight, and danced and cheered and turned somersaults on the grass.