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appeared to be figures arranged in lines。 Again I placed it in the 
pan; and suffered it to remain another minute。 Upon taking it off; 
the whole was just as you see it now。〃 Here Legrand; having re…heated 
the parchment; submitted it to my inspection。 The following 
characters were rudely traced; in a red tint; between the 
death's…head and the goat:

〃53噰?05))6*;4826)4?4?806*;48??0))85;1…(;:*8…83(88)5*?

;46(;88*96*?;8)*?;485);5*?:*?;4956*2(5*… 4)8?*;40692

85);)6?)4;1(?;48081;8:8?;48?5;4)485?28806*81(?;48;

(88;4(?34;48)4?161;:188;?;〃

    〃But;〃 said I; returning him the slip; 〃I am as much in the dark 
as ever。 Were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me upon my solution 
of this enigma; I am quite sure that I should be unable to earn 
them。〃

    〃And yet;〃 said Legrand; 〃the solution is by no means so 
difficult as you might be lead to imagine from the first hasty 
inspection of the characters。 These characters; as any one might 
readily guess; form a cipher … that is to say; they convey a meaning; 
but then; from what is known of Kidd; I could not suppose him capable 
of constructing any of the more abstruse cryptographs。 I made up my 
mind; at once; that this was of a simple species … such; however; as 
would appear; to the crude intellect of the sailor; absolutely 
insoluble without the key。〃

    〃And you really solved it?〃

    〃Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand 
times greater。 Circumstances; and a certain bias of mind; have led me 
to take interest in such riddles; and it may well be doubted whether 
human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human 
ingenuity may not; by proper application; resolve。 In fact; having 
once established connected and legible characters; I scarcely gave a 
thought to the mere difficulty of developing their import。

    〃In the present case … indeed in all cases of secret writing … 
the first question regards the language of the cipher; for the 
principles of solution; so far; especially; as the more simple 
ciphers are concerned; depend upon; and are varied by; the genius of 
the particular idiom。 In general; there is no alternative but 
experiment (directed by probabilities) of every tongue known to him 
who attempts the solution; until the true one be attained。 But; with 
the cipher now before us; all difficulty was removed by the 
signature。 The pun upon the word 'Kidd' is appreciable in no other 
language than the English。 But for this consideration I should have 
begun my attempts with the Spanish and French; as the tongues in 
which a secret of this kind would most naturally have been written by 
a pirate of the Spanish main。 As it was; I assumed the cryptograph to 
be English。

    〃You observe there are no divisions between the words。 Had there 
been divisions; the task would have been comparatively easy。 In such 
case I should have commenced with a collation and analysis of the 
shorter words; and; had a word of a single letter occurred; as is 
most likely; (a or I; for example;) I should have considered the 
solution as assured。 But; there being no division; my first step was 
to ascertain the predominant letters; as well as the least frequent。 
Counting all; I constructed a table; thus:

    Of the character          8 there are    33。

                              ;        〃     26。

                              4        〃     19。

                            ?)        〃     16。

                              *        〃     13。

                              5        〃     12。

                              6        〃     11。

                            ?1        〃      8。

                              0        〃      6。

                           9 2         〃      5。

                            : 3        〃      4。

                              ?        〃      3。

                              ?       〃      2。

                              …。       〃      1。

    〃Now; in English; the letter which most frequently occurs is e。 
Afterwards; succession runs thus: _a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m w 
b k p q x z_。 _E_ predominates so remarkably that an individual 
sentence of any length is rarely seen; in which it is not the 
prevailing character。

    〃Here; then; we leave; in the very beginning; the groundwork for 
something more than a mere guess。 The general use which may be made 
of the table is obvious … but; in this particular cipher; we shall 
only very partially require its aid。 As our predominant character is 
8; we will commence by assuming it as the _e_ of the natural 
alphabet。 To verify the supposition; let us observe if the 8 be seen 
often in couples … for _e_ is doubled with great frequency in English 
… in such words; for example; as 'meet;' '。fleet;' 'speed;' 'seen;' 
been;' 'agree;' &c。 In the present instance we see it doubled no less 
than five times; although the cryptograph is brief。

    〃Let us assume 8; then; as _e_。 Now; of all _words_ in the 
language; 'the' is most usual; let us see; therefore; whether there 
are not repetitions of any three characters; in the same order of 
collocation; the last of them being 8。 If we discover repetitions of 
such letters; so arranged; they will most probably represent the word 
'the。' Upon inspection; we find no less than seven such arrangements; 
the characters being ;48。 We may; therefore; assume that ; represents 
_t_; 4 represents _h_; and 8 represents _e_ … the last being now well 
confirmed。 Thus a great step has been taken。

    〃But; having established a single word; we are enabled to 
establish a vastly important point; that is to say; several 
commencements and terminations of other words。 Let us refer; for 
example; to the last instance but one; in which the combination ;48 
occurs … not far from the end of the cipher。 We know that the ; 
immediately ensuing is the commencement of a word; and; of the six 
characters succeeding this 'the;' we are cognizant of no less than 
five。 Let us set these characters down; thus; by the letters we know 
them to represent; leaving a space for the unknown …

t eeth。

    〃Here we are enabled; at once; to discard the 'th;' as forming no 
portion of the word commencing with the first t; since; by experiment 
of the entire alphabet for a letter adapted to the vacancy; we 
perceive that no word can be formed of which this _th_ can be a part。 
We are thus narrowed into

t ee;

and; going through the alphabet; if necessary; as before; we arrive 
at the word 'tree;' as the sole possible reading。 We thus gain 
another letter; _r_; represented by (; with the words 'the tree' in 
juxtaposition。

    〃Looking beyond these words; for a short distance; we again see 
the combination ;48; and employ it by way of _termination_ to what 
immediately precedes。 We have thus this arrangement:

the tree ;4(?34 the;

or; substituting the natural letters; where known; it reads thus:

the tree thr?3h the。

    〃Now; if; in place of the unknown characters; we leave blank 
spaces; or substitute dots; we read thus:

the tree thr。。。h the;

when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once。 But this 
discovery gives us three new letters; _o_; _u_ and _g_; represented 
by ?? and 3。

    〃Looking now; narrowly; through the cipher for combinations of 
known characters; we find; not very far from the beginning; this 
arrangement;

83(88; or egree;

which; plainly; is the conclusion of the word 'degree;' and gives us 
another letter; _d_; represented by ?

    〃Four letters beyond the word 'degree;' we perceive the 
combination

;46(;88。

    〃Translating the known characters; and representing the unknown 
by dots; as before; we read thus: th rtee。 an arrangement immediately 
suggestive of the word 'thirteen;' and again furnishing us with two 
new characters; _i_ and _n_; represented by 6 and *。

    〃Referring; now; to the beginning of the cryptograph; we find the 
combination;

53噰?

    〃Translating; as before; we obtain

good;

which assures us that the first letter is _A_; and that the first two 
words are 'A good。'

    〃It is now time that we arrange our key; as far as discovered; in 
a tabular form; to avoid confusion。 It will stand thus:

                    5 represents      a

                    ?      〃         d

                    8       〃         e

                    3       〃         g

                    4       〃         h

                    6       〃         i

                    *       〃         n

                    ?      〃         o

                    (        〃         r

                    ;        〃         t

    〃We have; therefore; no less than ten of the most important 
letters represented; and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the 
details of the solution。 I have said enough to convince you that 
ciphers of this nature are readily soluble; and to give you some 
insight into the rationale of their development。 But be assured that 
the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest species of 
cryptograph。 It now only remains to give you the full translation of 
the characters upon t

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