"Oh Mr. Hunter, Marjory tells me that she intends to ride on her bicycledown to Aberdeen from Braemar where we are going on Friday. I am todrive from Braemar to Ballater and then go on by train so that I shallbe in before her, though I am to leave later. But I am fearful about thegirl riding such a journey by herself. We have no gentleman friend here,and it would be so good of you to take charge of her, if you happenedto be anywhere about there. I know I can trust you to take care of her,you have been so good to her, and to me, already."
My heart leaped. Here was an unexpected chance come my way. Time wasshowing himself to be my friend already.
"Be quite assured," I said as calmly as I could "I shall be truly gladto be of the least service. And indeed it will just suit my plans, as Ihoped to go to Braemar on my bicycle one day very soon and can arrangeto go just as may suit you. But of course you understand that I must notgo unless Miss Anita wishes it. I could not presume to thrust myselfupon her."
"Oh that is all right!" she answered quickly, so quickly that I took itthat she had already considered the matter and was satisfied about it."Marjory will not object." Just then the young lady entered the room andMrs. Jack turning to her said:
"I have asked Mr. Hunter my dear to ride down with you from Braemar; andhe says that as it just suits his plans as he was going there he will bevery happy if you ask him." She smiled as she said:
"Oh since you asked him and he had said yes I need not ask him too; butI shall be very glad!" I bowed. When Mrs. Jack went out, Marjory turningto me said:
"When did you plan to go to Braemar?"
"When Mrs. Jack told me you were going" I answered boldly.
"Oh! I didn't mean that," she said with a slight blush "but at what timeyou were to be there." To which I said:
"That will be just to suit your convenience. Will you write and let meknow?" She saw through my ruse of getting a letter, and smilingly heldup a warning finger.
As we strolled up the road, waiting for the dog-cart to be got ready,she said to me:
"Now you can be a good comrade I know; and you said that, amongst otherthings, I was a good comrade. So I am; and between Braemar and Aberdeenwe must both be good comrades. That and nothing more! Whatever may comeafter, for good or ill, that time must be kept apart."
"Agreed!" I said and felt a secret exultation as we joined Mrs. Jack.Before they started Marjory said:
"Mrs. Jack I also have asked Mr. Hunter to come on the ride fromBraemar. I thought it would please him if we both asked him, since he isso diffident and unimpulsive!"
With a smile she said good-bye and waved it with her whip as theystarted.
CHAPTER XII
THE CIPHER
I went straight to my own room and commenced to work afresh on thebiliteral cipher. More than ever had I the conviction upon me that thereading of the secret writing would be the first step to the attainmentof my wishes regarding Marjory. It would have been strange therefore ifI had not first attempted the method which she had herself suggested,the reducing the Baconian cipher to its lowest elements.
For many hours I laboured at this work, and finally when I had reducedthe Baconian five symbols to three I felt that I had accomplished allthat was possible in that way.[2]
[2] See Appendix B.
When I had arrived at this result, and had tested its accuracy inworking, I felt in a position to experiment with my new knowledge on theold number cipher. First I wrote out my method of reduction as a sort ofaddendum to the paper which I had prepared for Marjory. Then I made akey to cipher and one to de-cipher.[3] By this time the night was wellon and the grey of early morning was beginning to steal in by the edgesof the blinds; I was not sleepy, however; I was too much excited tothink of sleep, for the solving of the problem seemed almost within mygrasp. Excited to a state which almost frightened me by its intensity, Igot ready my copy of the number cipher and my newly prepared key. Withan effort which took me all my resolution I went on steadily writingits proper letter under each combination without once looking back; forI knew that even should some of the letters be misplaced in the keythe chance of recognising the right ones would be largely increased byseeing a considerable number of letters together.
[3] See Appendix C.
Then I glanced over the whole and found that many of the symbols made upletters. With such a basis to work on, the rest was only labour. A fewtentative efforts and I had corrected the key to agreement with some ofthe combinations in the cipher.
I found, however, that only here and there were letters revealed; tryhow I would, I could not piece out the intervening symbols. At last itoccurred to me that there might be in the paper two or more ciphers. Ontrying to follow out the idea, it became apparent that there were atleast a quantity of impeding numbers scattered through the cipher. Thesemight be only put in to baffle pursuit, as I had surmised might be donewhen I made the cipher; or they might have a more definite purpose. Atany rate they hampered my work, so I struck them out as I went along.That I continued till I had exhausted the whole list of numbers in thescript.
When I looked back over the letters translated from the cipher thusdepleted, I found to my inexpressible joy that the sequence and sensewere almost complete. The translation read as follows:
"To read the history of the Trust use cipher of Fr. Bacon. The sensesand the figures are less worthy than the Trinity B. de E."
One step more and my work was done. I set the discarded numbers insequence on another sheet of paper, and found to my intense satisfactionthey formed an inner record readable by the same key. The "encloased"words, to use Bacon's phrase, were:
"Treasure Cave cliff one and half degree Northe of East from outerrock."
Then and then only did I feel tired. The sun was well up but I tumbledinto bed and was asleep in a moment.
The gong was sounding for breakfast when I awoke. After breakfast whenI resumed my work I set myself to construct a variant of my number keyto suit the dotted letters, for my best chance, now that I was on thetrack was to construct rather than to decipher. After some hard work Iat last constructed a cipher on this plan.[4]