Lost Empire (Fargo Adventures 2)

Sam and Remi and the others returned to the work space. Sitting on the table, amid dividers, pencils, flexible measuring tapes, and a pad covered in scribbles, was a sketch:

As though playing a slow-motion game of musical chairs, the group walked around the table, eyes fixed on the drawing, heads tilting this way and that, until finally Sam said, “You’ve stumped us.”

“Do you see the tr notation in the upper right-hand corner and the numerals near the curve at the bottom left?”

“Yes,” Sam said.

“That’s my handwriting, of course, but they were also inscribed on the inside of the bell. I suspect it means ‘top right.’”

Sam and Remi looked at him in surprise. “We missed that,” Remi said.

“Don’t feel bad. They were minuscule. Without my magnifying glass, I would have overlooked them, too. The tr notations were on the very edge of the bell’s mouth.”

“You said ‘notations,’” Remi replied. “As in plural.”

“There were two. I have a second sketch, but aside from the order of the symbols, each is identical to the other. When I saw the two tr notations, I assumed they were intended as both orientation points and end points for a pair of spirals. As to why there are two spirals . . . I suspect that answer is hidden in the rest of that poem of his. As you can see, each X mark is accompanied by a designator; each represents a different glyph. I have a legend with all this written down.”

“Amazing,” Sam said. “Imagine the patience all this took.”

Milhaupt smiled and rubbed his hands together. “And now I’d be happy to tackle Mr. Blaylock’s poem.”

Selma read it aloud.

“Well, I agree with your assessment of the first two lines,” Milhaupt said. “As for the other lines . . . I may have some ideas. First of all, this fellow’s a very abstract thinker—which is especially strange for a mathematician.”

“He was a character,” Sam agreed. “We also think he may have been a few sandwiches shy of a picnic.”

“Ah, I see. That puts things into perspective. Well, the third line—‘From above, the earth squared’—suggests to me a pair of spirals that are to be viewed from overhead. The notations I found within the bell tend to validate that. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded.

“The fourth line—‘From praying hands my day is quartered, the gyrare once, twice’—is a bit trickier, but as we’re fairly certain about the overhead view issue, the ‘praying hands’ may represent two hands of a clock, pointing toward midnight. I suspect the words ‘my day is quartered’ mean Mr. Blaylock has divided his ‘clock’ into four sections—midnight, three, six, and nine. And finally, following this logic, the line ‘the gyrare once, twice’ probably means we’re to rotate our first spiral to the three o’clock position and the second spiral to the six o’clock position.”

Milhaupt demonstrated, rotating his sketches, the first on top with the open end of the spiral pointing to the right; the second below that, the open end of the spiral pointing downward. He looked at each member of the group in turn. “Thoughts?”

No one spoke up.

“Me neither,” he said. “How about the last line of the poem?”

Selma recited it:

Words of Ancients, words of Father Algarismo

Remi said, “As for the first part—‘Words of Ancients’—we have a hunch what Blaylock means.”

“You’re referring to those Aztec glyphs inside the bell?” Milhaupt asked with a Cheshire smile. “I have no idea of their translation, of course. I assume you do?”

Sam nodded. “They’re from the Aztec calendar—thirteen months, thirteen corresponding symbols.”

“Clearly Mr. Blaylock was absorbed with the Aztecs, yes?”

“‘Absorbed’ isn’t the word we’ve been using,” Remi said.

Sam said, “The second part of the line—‘words of Father Algarismo’—has us stumped.”

“I am happy to say I have your answer. At last, my love of obscure mathematical history has come in handy. There is no Father Algarismo, you see. It’s another one of Mr. Blaylock’s tricks. Algarismo is the Portuguese derivation of the word ‘algorithm.’ Quite simply, it means digit.”

Remi said, “Then, translated, the last line reads, ‘Words of the Aztecs combined with numbers.’ Sam, you’re the cryptography guy. Is any of this ringing any bells?”