Kastle Krags Part 23

The more I looked at them the more they seemed to be "dragged in by the heels." I didn't think that one with knowledge of hidden treasure, conveying its hiding place to some one else, would have taken the trouble to declare the truth of his statement by oath. Nor was such a pious beginning, on the part of that iniquitous murderer and cut-throat, Jason, quite in character. He would have been more likely to have begun with a sentence of piratical profanity. He had some reason for bringing in the "Book"--and when I knew what it was, I believed I would know the key to the cryptogram.

The "Book" was the Bible of course--a name still in wide use. And the whole volume of my blood seemed to spurt through the veins when I remembered what an important place the Bible had taken in the events of the past few days!

Nealman had had a Bible, wide open, in his room. Edith had been seen to carry it to him through the corridor--and this business with it had been of such a character that he had ordered Edith's silence in regard to the errand. Whether or not Florey had possessed a copy I wasn't able to remember for certain.

It must have been a grim old joke to Jason--to use the Holy Word to transmit the record of his iniquity! In an instant I was burrowing, not a little excited, into the bottom of my bag for a small copy of the Bible that I carried with me on every journey.

Apart from religious reasons, there is no better traveling companion for a knowledge-loving man than King James' Bible. The font of all literature, the mighty well of inspiration, the record of the ages--it was beloved not only of the scientist and historian, but the literati and the esthete. Hardly a week had pa.s.sed that I hadn't referred to it, in one capacity or another. And now I felt that I was on the right track at last.

There is no book in such common usage, published with such fidelity as to the position of every word, so easily procured in any place or time, as the Holy Bible. It would be the perfect code-book. Certainly it could be used to the greatest advantage as the key to a cryptogram.

But what had been the method of its use? In what way could these four-letter words, none of which were intelligible, be made through the agency of the Bible to present an intelligent meaning? Again I found myself relying on inductive reasoning. I worked backward, just as I had done before, trying to see some way to convey a secret meaning through the agency of this universally read book.

All at once I saw the way. The Bible contained almost every word in the present English vocabulary. In all probability each one of the words in the column represented some English word to be found somewhere in the Bible, and the column of them, written out, would be the message in full.

How to find that word was the only problem that remained. True, it looked formidable enough at first. Yet I saw in a moment that the four-letter words could not represent the words of the message themselves, but only their _position_ in the Bible.

My mind was working clearly now, leaping from one conclusion to another; and reasoning deductively I tried to work out some method of secret writing whereby I could reveal to another person the position of a certain word I wanted him to know. Suppose, for instance, that Jason wished to use the word "feet" in his message. Looking through the Bible he found the word--say on page 86, third line, fourth word. It was conceivable that he might send the numbers "86-3-4" to some other person; and the latter, aware that the Bible acted as the key, looked up the place in the Book and learned what the word was.

The number of pages vary, however, in Bibles of different size. It was natural that the location must be a constant in order that the recipient of the note could always find it. So I began again:

Suppose Jason, looking through his Bible, found the word "feet" in the book of Genesis, the first chapter, the third verse, and the fourth word of the verse. If he should send the symbols "Gen. 1, 3, 4" to his friend, the man could easily look up the place and see what he meant.

And in this case he wouldn't have to have any certain edition of the Bible. The fourth word of the third verse of the first chapter of Genesis is the same in all copies of King James' Bible over all the world.

Now I was working on sure ground. I had no doubt but that "dqbo"

represented a certain point in the Bible--the letter "d" probably representing the book, "q" the chapter, "b" the verse and "o" the word.

Once more my attention was called, with particular vividness, to the fact that all the words in the column were of four letters, proving in my mind that this last contention was true.

My heart was racing as I moved to the next step in working out the cryptogram. It was simply that of finding what method had been used to transform such a symbol as "Gen. 1, 3, 4" into such a sign as "dqbo." If instead of four-letter words I was working with sequences of numbers such as "1, 1, 3, 4" I would have felt that the problem was solved. "1, 1, 3, 4" would have plainly meant the first book, the first chapter, the third verse, and the fourth word.

To transform letters into numbers--that was all that remained. Again I went back to "dqbo" and took the simplest method of transformation. "D"

was the fourth letter in the alphabet. "Q" was the seventeenth letter in the alphabet. "B" was the second letter in the alphabet. "O" was the fifteenth letter in the alphabet. I wrote down the numbers:

4-17-2-15

And I felt sure that they meant the fourth book, the seventeenth chapter, the second verse and the fifteenth word in the Holy Bible.

Shaken, so nervous I could hardly hold my hands still, I stopped a moment to rest. This was the crisis. I was either at the verge of absolute success or hopeless failure. If when I looked up the place I found some word that couldn't possibly be used in such a message I wouldn't have the spirit to seek further. And it would be a real blow to all my hopes.

I opened the Bible. The fourth book proved to be "Numbers." I turned to the seventeenth chapter, the second verse. And there I read as follows:

Speak unto the children of Israel and take one of them a _rod_ according to the house of their fathers.

The fifteenth word was _rod_--used as a staff in this case but undoubtedly used as a term of measurement in the script.

From then on my fingers flew through the pages of the Book. "Aned," the very first word in the column, represented--finding the alphabetical position of each letter--the numbers 1-14-5-4. It was a simple matter to look up the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the fourteenth chapter, the fifth verse, and the fourth word. The verse in this case began:

"And in the _fourteenth_ year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him."

The fourth word of the verse was _fourteenth_--and the first word of the finished script.

It was easy to find the other words. I worked them all out in fifteen minutes. "Aqcd," the third in the column, proved to be the first, seventeenth, third, and fourth letters of the alphabet, respectively, and 1-17-3-4 meant first book, seventeenth chapter, third verse, fourth word, as plain as could be. The word proved to be "on." Swiftly I went down the list. And at last I had the whole column translated:

fourteen rod on wall three rod straight right fastened white rock

Writing it out, I had:

Fourteen rod on wall three rod straight right fastened white rock.

In clearer language, it meant simply and unmistakably, that to find the missing object--unquestionably Jason's treasure--go fourteen rods out on the natural rock wall, turn straight right into the lagoon for three rods, and there I would find it--fastened to a white rock.

The thing was done. I came to myself to find my fingers toying with the pencil, and my thoughts soaring far away. In spite of the grim record of death already made, the deadly precedent that had been set, in spite of all the dictates of ordinary intelligence, I knew what my future course would be. The lure of gold had hold of me. As soon as the opportunity offered, I was going to follow the thing through to its end, and see with my own eyes that which lay hidden in the depths of the lagoon.

CHAPTER XXII

Just before the dinner hour I met Slatterly on the lower floor, and we had a moment's talk together. "You've been in on most everything that's happened around here," he said. "You might as well be with us to-night.

We're going to watch the lagoon."

The truth was I had made other plans for this evening--plans that included Edith Nealman--so I made no immediate answer. The official noticed my hesitancy, and of course misunderstood.

"Speak right up, if you don't want to do it," he said, not unkindly. The sheriff was a man of human sympathies, after all. "I wouldn't hold it against any man living if he didn't want to sit out there in the dark watching--after what's happened the last three nights. I don't know that I'd do it myself if it wasn't in line of duty."

"I don't think I'd be afraid," I told him.

"It isn't a question of being afraid. It's simply a matter of human make-up. To tell the truth, I'm afraid myself--and I'm not ashamed of it. More than once I've had to conquer fear in my work. A man who ain't afraid, one time or another, hasn't any imagination. Some men are cold as ice, I've had deputies that were--and they wouldn't mind this a bit.

I know, Killdare, that you'd come in a pinch. Any man here, I think--any white man--would be down there with me to-night if something vital--some one's life or something--depended on it. But I don't want to take any one that it will be hard for, that--that is any one to whom it would be a real ordeal. I'm picking my bunch with some care."

"Who is going?"

"Weldon, Nopp, you and myself--if you want to come. If not, don't mind saying so."

"I want to come!" We smiled at each other, in the hall. After all, no other decision could be made. The high plans I had made for an evening with Edith would have to be given over. In the first place the night might solve the mystery into which I had been drawn. In the second it was the kind of offer that most men, over the earth, find it impossible to refuse. Human beings, as a whole, are not particularly brave. They are still too close to the caves and the witch-doctors of the young world. They are inordinately, incredibly shy, also, and like little children, sometimes, in their dreads and superst.i.tions. Yet through some blessing they have a high-born capacity to conquer the fear that emburdens them.

No white man in the manor house would have refused Slatterly's offer.

Mostly, when men see that they are up against a certain hard deal, some proposition that stirs the deep-buried, inherent instinct that is nothing more or less than a sense of duty--that deep-lying sense of obligation that makes the whole world beautiful and justifiable--they simply stand up and face it. No normal young man likes war. Yet they all go. And of course this work to-night promised excitement--and the love of excitement is a siren that has drawn many a good man to his doom.

"Good," the sheriff told me simply, not in the least surprised. "What kind of a gun can you scare up?"

"I can get a gun, all right. I've got a pistol of my own."

Nopp came up then, and he and the sheriff exchanged significant glances.

And the northern man suddenly turned to me, about to speak.

Until that instant I hadn't observed the record that the events of the past three nights had written in his face. Nopp had nerves of steel; but the house and its mystery had got to him, just the same. The sunset rays slanted in over the veranda, poured through the big windows, and showed his face in startling detail. The inroads that had been made upon it struck me with a sudden sense of shock.