crewe and marsland sat at a table in sir george granville’s library with the cryptogram before them. the detective was absorbed in examining it through a magnifying glass, but marsland kept glancing from the paper to his companion’s face, as though he expected to see there some indication of an immediate solution. finally he remarked in a tone which suggested he was unable to control his impatience any longer:
“well, what do you make of it?”
“not very much as yet,” replied crewe, putting down the magnifying glass, “but there are one or two points of interest. in the first place, the paper has been cut with a pair of scissors from the fly leaf or title page of an old book—an expensive book of its period, of the late fifties, i should say—but the writing is of much later date. these facts are obvious, and do not help us much towards a solution of the contents.”
“they may be obvious to you, but they are not so obvious to me,” said marsland, taking the paper into his hands and looking at it thoughtfully. “i suppose you judge the sheet to have been taken from an old book, because it is yellow with age, but why an expensive one of the fifties? and how do you know it was cut out with a pair of scissors? again, how do you know the writing is of a much later date than the book? the ink is completely faded.”
“the smooth yellow, and glossy surface of the blank side of the paper indicates conclusively that it is the title-page or fly-leaf of a good class book of the fifties. you will not find that peculiar yellow colour—which is not the effect of age—and velvety ‘feel’ in books of a much later date. the unevenness of the cut proves that the sheet was taken from the book with a pair of scissors; haven’t you ever noticed that nobody—except, perhaps, a paperhanger—can cut straight with a pair of scissors? if it had been cut with a knife it might have slanted a little, but it would have been straighter: a knife cut is always straighter than the wavering cut of a pair of scissors directed by the eye. the faded ink proves nothing: inferior ink such as is sold in small village shops—from where the ink at cliff farm was probably procured—will fade in a few days; it is only the best ink that retains its original colour for any length of time. but the character of this writing indicates to me that it was written with a particular kind of fine nib, which was not invented till after 1900.”
“can you make anything of the figures and letters on the paper?” asked marsland.
“that is where our difficulties commence. we have to ascertain the connection between the figures and the letters and the circle; to find out whether the former explain the latter or whether the circle explains the figures and the letters. if the figures and the letters are a cryptogram we ought to be able to find the solution without much difficulty. the circle, however, is a remarkable device, and it is difficult to fathom its meaning without something to guide us. i thought at first it might have been capable of some masonic interpretation, but now i doubt it. the most likely assumption is that the circle and the lines in some way indicate the hiding place of the money.”
“by geometry?” suggested marsland, closely examining the circle on the paper.
“i think not. it is hardly likely that the old farmer who concealed the treasure would be versed in the science of geometry. he may have drawn the circle to indicate a certain place where he had concealed the money, and added the two lines to indicate the radius or point where it was to be found.”
“local gossip declares that the old man hid his money somewhere in the landing-place or old boat-house, where it is covered at high tide, and that his ghost watches over it at low tide to prevent anybody stealing it. there are stories of treasure-seekers having been chased along the sands almost to ashlingsea by the old man’s ghost. the villagers give the landing place and that part of the coast road a wide berth at night in consequence.”
“i do not think the old man hid his money in the boat-house or landing-place,” said crewe. “he would have known that the action of weather and tide would make such a hiding-place unsafe. he would look for a safer place. he has almost certainly hidden it somewhere about the farm, and the circle and the letters and figures will tell us where, when we discover their meaning.”
crewe opened his notebook and commenced to make some calculations in figures. marsland meantime occupied himself by looking at the circle through the magnifying glass, and in counting the figures in its circumference.
“perhaps these marks in the circle represent paces,” he said, struck by a new thought. “suppose, for instance, that the old man measured off a piece of ground with a tape measure fastened to some point which would represent the pivot or centre of his circle. he may have fastened the end of his tape measure to the well pump in the bricked yard, and walked round in a circle holding the other end in his hand, sticking in pegs as he walked. the top figure inside the circle—150—may mean that the circle is 150 yards in circumference. within the radius of the circle he buries his money, makes a drawing of the circle of figures and the remaining figures to indicate its whereabouts, and then removes the cord and pegs.”
“ingenious, but unlikely,” commented crewe. “for one thing, such a plan would need compass points to enable the searchers to take their bearings.”
“north or south may be indicated in the cryptogram—when we discover it,” said marsland.
“no, no,” said crewe, shaking his head. “your idea is based on treasure-hunt charts in novels. my experience
is that in real life people do not go to much
trouble in hiding money or valuables; they put them away in some chance place or odd receptacle which happens to appeal to them, and where i think they really have a better chance of remaining undiscovered for years than in a more elaborately contrived hiding-place. in the farndon missing will case, involving one of the largest estates in england, the will was found after the lapse of ten years concealed in the back of a book, where the deceased lord farndon had placed it in his latter days, when he imagined himself surrounded by thieves. if you open a large book about the middle it discloses an aperture at the back sufficiently large to conceal a paper, and when the book is closed there will be no sign. lord farndon concealed his will in one of the estate ledgers which was in constant use for some time after his death, and yet the will would probably have never been discovered if a mouse had not eaten through the leather back long afterwards, disclosing the hidden parchment.
“in the case of the stolen trimarden diamond, the thief—a servant in the house—escaped detection by hiding the jewel in a common wooden match-box in a candlestick in his bedroom. the police searched his room, but never thought of looking into the matchbox, and he got away with the diamond. if he had not bragged of the trick in a tavern he would never have been caught. as regards hidden money, people of miserly proclivities who are frightened to put their money into banks prefer a hiding-place under cover to one in the open. a hiding-place in the house seems safer to them, and, moreover, it enables them to look at their money whenever they feel inclined. i knew one miser who used to hide sovereigns in a bar of yellow soap—thrusting them in till they were hidden from view. the treasure of cliff farm is hidden somewhere in the farm, and the circle and the cryptogram are the keys. the explanation is hidden in the cryptogram, and i have no doubt that there is a very simple explanation of the circle—when we discover the cryptogram.”
“i remember as a boy at school that we used to have endless fun solving cryptograms which appeared in a boys’ magazine,” said marsland. “figures were substituted for letters, and the interpretation of the cryptogram depended largely on hitting on the book from which the figures had been taken. the system was to put down the number of the page, then the number of the line, then the number of letters in the line which would form a word. the key book happened
to be a bound volume of the magazine in
question: i guessed that, and won a prize. another form of cryptogram for competition in the same journal was a transposition of the letters of the alphabet. but that was easily guessed, from the repeated occurrence of certain letters used to represent the vowels.”
“i remember those boyish devices,” said crewe, with a smile. “but true cryptography is more scientifically based than that. systems of secret writing are practically unlimited in number and variety—and so are solutions. human nature hates being baffled, and the human brain has performed some really wonderful achievements—at the expense of much effort and patience—in solving systems of cryptography which the inventors deemed to be insoluble. i have a weakness for cryptograms myself, and at one time collected quite a small library on secret writing, from the earlier works by bacon and trithemius, to the more modern works by german cryptographists, who have devised some remarkably complicated systems which, no doubt, were largely used by the germans before and during the war for secret service work. it is astonishing the number of books which have been written on the subject by men who believed they had discovered insoluble systems of secret writing, and by men who have set out to prove that no system of secret writing is insoluble. even the ancient hebraic prophets used cryptography at times to veil their attacks on the wicked kings of israel.”
“how long do cryptograms—the more scientific, i mean—usually take to solve?”
“some cryptograms can be solved in an hour; others may take months.”
“do you think that this one will prove very difficult?” asked marsland, pointing to the cliff farm plan as he spoke.
“i cannot say until i have studied it more closely. the solution of any cryptogram depends first on whether you have any knowledge of the particular system used, and then on finding the key. it is quite possible, and frequently happens, that one is able to reconstruct the particular system of secret writing from which a cryptogram has been constructed, and then fail to find the key. a really scientific cryptogram never leaves the key to guesswork, but gives a carefully hidden clue for the finder to work upon; because most cryptograms are intended to be solved, and if the composer of the message left its discovery to guesswork he would be defeating his own ends. this particular cryptogram looks to me to be scientifically constructed; i cannot say yet whether it is possible to reconstruct it and solve it.”
crewe resumed his scrutiny of the plan, making occasional entries in his notebook as he did so.
marsland leaned back in an easy chair, lit a cigar, and watched him in silence. the detective’s remark convinced him that there was a wide difference between serious cryptography and the puzzle diversions of his schoolboy days, and he felt that he would be more of a hindrance than a help if he attempted to assist crewe in his task of unravelling the secret of the hidden wealth whose hiding-place had been indicated by its deceased owner in the symbols and hieroglyphics on the faded sheet of paper. he reclined comfortably in his chair, watching languidly through half-closed eyes and a mist of cigar smoke the detective’s intellectual face bent over the plan in intense concentration. after a while crewe’s face seemed to grow shadowy and indistinct, and finally it disappeared behind the tobacco smoke. marsland had fallen fast asleep in his chair.
he was awakened by a hand on his shoulder, and struggled back to consciousness to find crewe standing beside him, his dark eyes smiling down at him.
“i am afraid i fell into a doze,” marsland murmured apologetically, as the room and its surroundings came back to him.
“you’ve been sleeping soundly for nearly two hours,” said crewe, with a smile.
“impossible!” exclaimed marsland. he took out his watch and looked at it in astonishment. “by jove, it’s actually six o’clock. why didn’t you wake me?”
“what for? i became so absorbed in the old man’s secret that i had no idea of the flight of time till i looked at my watch a few minutes ago. he has evolved a very neat cryptogram—very neat and work-manlike.
it was quite a pleasure to try and decipher
it.”
“have you found out anything about it?”
“i believe i have solved it.”
“and what is the solution?” asked marsland, now thoroughly awake. “where is the money hidden?”
“now you are going too fast,” said crewe. “i said i believed i have solved the secret. in other words, i believe i have hit on the old man’s cryptogram, and the key which solves it, but i have deferred applying the key till i awakened you, as i thought you would like to share in it.”
