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Post, Melville Davisson, 1871?-1930

"The Sleuth of St. James's Square"

"
"Well," said the American, "did you find out?"
"My word," he cried, "old Arnold laughed in my face. 'Ach,
monsieur,' he cried, mixing up several languages, `it is Heidel's
cipher! It is explained in the seventeenth Criminal Archive at
Gratz. Attend and I will explain it, monsieur. It is always
written in two paragraphs. The first paragraph contains the
secret message, and the second paragraph contains the key to it.
Voila! This message is in two paragraphs:
"'"P.L.A. shipped nine hundred horses on freight steamer Don
Carlos from N. Y.
"'"Have the bill of lading handed over to our agent to check up"
"'The hidden message is made up of certain words and capital
letters contained in the first paragraph, while the presence of
the letter t in the second paragraph indicates the words or
capital letters that count in the first. One has only to note the
numerical position of the letter t in the second paragraph in
order to know what capital letter or word counts in the first
paragraph.'"
The Baronet took out a pencil and underscored the words in the
second paragraph of the printed cipher: "Have the bill of lading
handed over to our agent to check up.


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