/443 8; & 8;3
--31/41/2743 1/23:3; "335 31/41/25.5@3; "1/4/3 L843/5 ;945@3/4L41/42 1/4;95@34 &8;3 1/45
48?@5 1/4;?&31/2 59 5@3 043:8971/2 9;33/43)53;L8;? " 94 523&:3 "335.L8? 5@3;,"
he said, stumbling every now and then at the unfamiliar expressions.

"What do you make of it?" I asked.

He looked up at me with just the flicker of a smile about the corners of
his mouth. "I can't say just yet," he replied. "All these things take
time. You can't solve them in an instant."

"I thought we might," I said, with just the least hint of offensiveness
in my tone. I don't know whether or not he noticed it, but if he did he
was gentleman enough to ignore it.

"All right," I ran on, "I'll type this out if one of you'll read it to
me. Go slowly, as I don't want to have any mistakes. It's bad enough to
have to do it once without having to do it again."

"I'll read it," Cumshaw volunteered. I nodded to show my agreement. I
then threaded the paper through and said, "I'm ready."

He began to read it very slowly and carefully, and I typed away as he
spoke. I had just got the first four or five combinations down when
Moira interrupted me.

"I knew you'd make a mess of it," she said coldly. "I told you so at the
beginning." As a matter of fact she had said no such thing, but I let it
pass.

"What's wrong?" I queried, looking up at her.

"I've been watching you," said she, "and you haven't depressed your
figure lever once. You must have it all wrong. It'll just be simple
letters instead of the signs."

I had been typing all the time with my eyes on the keyboard, and I
hadn't once glanced at the finished work. Now I looked at it I saw that
she was right. I had been typing letters all along when I should have
been printing figures. And then something queer about the letters struck
me. My heart gave a jump.

"Go on," I said huskily to Cumshaw. "Give me a few more."

He read out two or three more combinations and then I leaned back in the
chair. "Look," I said triumphantly, "look what I've done!"

Two heads bobbed down over my work, stared at it for a moment, and then
two pairs of eyes smiled at me.

"You've solved it by accident," said Cumshaw.

"I'm sorry for what I said," Moira said simply.

"It's just the simplest cypher in existence," I said. "You've got a
keyboard with letters and figures on it. When you want letters you type
straight out, and when you want figures you just depress the lever. Now
look at this. That 5 is