CHAPTER XXII
A CLUE
Grant's companions sat and looked at him in amazement not unmixed withalarm. They could see no reason for his strange behavior and were at acomplete loss what to make of it. They watched their comrade execute awar dance around the entrance to the cave for some moments and finallydisappear within, uttering one last triumphant whoop.
"What struck him?" exclaimed John in perplexity.
"He's gone crazy I guess," said Fred. "I can't think of anything else."
"Ah believe yo' am right," said Sam in a hollow voice. "Ef he try tomess me up Ah sho' gwine use dis knife."
"Put that away, Sam," said John, sharply. "Don't be silly."
"But ef he's crazy," protested Sam, "Ah suttinly boun' proteck mahself."
"He's not crazy," exclaimed George. "He'll be out in a minute and tellus just what is wrong with him."
"Go and see what he's doing, Pop," urged Fred.
"I will not. He said he'd got it and he might get me, too. What do yousuppose he was talking about anyway?"
"Here he comes now. Ask him."
Grant emerged from the cave, his manner showing how excited he was. Hewalked rapidly and his hands shook with nervousness. He carried thepiece of parchment that had become so familiar to the four boys.
"He must have meant the code," whispered Fred to George.
"He couldn't have solved it," said George in a low voice. "How couldhe?"
"I don't know. At any rate he may have had an idea."
Grant advanced rapidly towards the spot where his companions weregrouped and seated himself in front of them.
"What's going on, Grant?" demanded John curiously.
"Just a minute and I'll show you something," and he spread the code outon the ground while the rest of the little party peered eagerly over hisshoulder.
"Now, first of all," began Grant, "you all know what this is."
"It's a combination to a safe," said George readily.
"Keep quiet, Pop," exclaimed Fred. "Give him a chance."
"It's a code," said Grant, ignoring George's facetious remark.
"We know that," agreed Fred. "Don't be so mysterious."
"What's the highest number in it?" demanded Grant.
"He sounds like a trick man," laughed George jeeringly.
"No treasure for Pop," said Grant shortly. "What's the highest number init?"
"I guess we'll have to do it this way," said John with a sigh. "Let mesee," he added. "I guess twenty-five is the highest number."
"All right. How many letters are there in the alphabet?"
"Twenty-six."
"But, Grant," Fred protested, "I don't see what you're getting at?"
"You will soon enough. Just have a little patience."
"But why don't you tell us what your idea is right now?"
"Because I don't want to. At any rate it's only an idea and I don't knowwhether it's right or not and I haven't worked it out myself. That'swhat we are doing now and I want you all to help me. The whole thing maybe wrong, but it sounds pretty good to me. John's remark about thenumber of letters in the alphabet gave me the idea."
"Then I ought to get the credit if we solve the code," exclaimed John.
"You'll be lucky if you don't get shot," said George. "You ought to be."
"Go ahead with your explanation, Grant," urged Fred. "Everybody keepquiet and give him a chance."
"All right," said Grant. "We've noticed that the highest number istwenty-five and that there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet,haven't we?"
"We have," said John so solemnly that George giggled outright. Hisfriends, however, were in a very serious mood and he quickly realizedthat his hilarity was decidedly out of place.
"What number appears most frequently?"
"I guess fourteen does," said Fred after a hasty survey of the figuresspread out on the ground before them.
"No, five," exclaimed John. "There are a good many more fives than thereare fourteens."
"Perhaps there are," Fred admitted. "Go ahead, Grant."
Grant made some calculations that his comrades could not follow beforehe replied to Fred's remark. His friends eyed him curiously.
"Suppose we put the letter _e_ wherever the number five occurs," hesaid at length.
"What are you going to do that for?" demanded George, now very muchinterested in the experiment Grant was conducting.
"Never mind why," exclaimed Grant. "Do as I say."
"Give me a sheet out of your diary, Pop," said Fred. "I'll do thefiguring."
"Are you going to write it all down?" inquired George.
"Shall I, Grant?"
"Put it all down. We'll go slowly, but we'll do it right."
"All right," exclaimed Fred. "Here goes," and he wrote as follows,substituting the letter for the number every time he came to it:
20-1-11-e-1-3-15-21-18-19-e-4-21-e-14-15-18-20-8-15-14-e-8-21-14-18-e-4-6-e-e-20-6-18-15-13-20-8-e-19-15-21-20-8-e-18-14-e-24-20-18-e-13-9-20-25-15-6-19-8-1-18-11-18-15-3-11-20-8-e-14-e-1-19-20-6-9-6-e-e-20-1-14-4-14-15-18-20-8-2-25-e-1-19-20-20-8-9-18-20-25-20-8-18-e-e-4-9-7.
"Well," exclaimed George when Fred had finished, "it may be very simpleand all that, but it doesn't mean anything to me."
"Of course, not yet," said Grant. "Have a little patience."
"Why don't you tell us what your system is?"
"No, you wait."
"How about fourteen now?" demanded Fred. "We decided that was a prettycommon number, you know. What shall I do with that?"
"I'll tell you," said Grant and once again he appeared to calculatesomething in his head. "In place of fourteen put the letter _n_,"he directed, "and use the copy you just made."
"What do you mean by the copy I just made?"
"I mean leave the letter _e_ where you put it in the last time."
"Here we go," exclaimed Fred and this is what he wrote:
20-1-11-e-1-3-15-21-18-19-e-4-21-e-n-15-18-20-8-15-n-e-8-21-n-4-18-e-4-6-e-e-20-6-18-15-13-20-8-e-19-15-21-20-8-e-18-n-e-24-20-18-e-13-9-20-25-15-6-19-8-l-18-11-18-15-3-11-20-8-e-n-e-1-19-20-6-9-6-20-25-6-e-e-20-1-n-4-n-15-18-20-8-2-25-e-1-19-20-20-8-9-18-20-25-20-8-18-e-e-4-9-7.
"Clear as mud," cried George, slapping Fred heartily on the back."You're a wonder, Peewee, my boy."
"I must confess I don't understand all this business," exclaimed Fred."Why don't you tell us what you are trying to do, Grant?"
"Because I'm not sure that I know myself."
"Tell us what you think anyway," urged John. "There's no harm in that."
"I'd rather not," said Grant. "If you fellows don't want to help me anymore though, I'm perfectly willing to work it out by myself."
"No, you don't," exclaimed Fred. "If there's anything going to happenaround here I want to be on hand."
"An' me too," said Sam eagerly. "Ah wants to be heah when dat treasah amdiscovahed. Ah'll fix dem niggers in Richmond yet."
"Good boy, Sam," exclaimed Grant. "You and I will work it out together."
"Ah cain't read nor write," said Sam disconsolately. "Ah's afraid Ahwouldn't be ob bery much help to yo'. Ah can suttingly do some diggin'dough."
"Oh, I'm going to stay along; don't worry about that," said Fred. "Iwish Grant would tell us what he's trying to do, but I'm going to stayby him whether he tells or not."
"I know what he's trying to do," said George. "It's simple enough."
"What is it then?" demanded Grant.
"Why, he thinks these numbers are used in place of letters. A certainnumber means a certain letter and wherever he sees it he substitutes theletter."
"We all know that much," cried John scornfully. "What we want to know ishow he figures out what letter to put in place of a certain number. Canyou tell us that?"
"No, I can't," George admitted ruefully.
"Then you don't know how he does it, do you?"
"No, I don't. That is, not yet."
"Go ahead then, Grant," exclaimed John. "We're wasting time here."
"You wan
t to go on with it, do you?"
"Of course we do."
Grant picked up the code and studied it attentively for some moments.Finally he put it down again. "Suppose we put the letter _h_ inplace of the figure eight," he said. "Eight seems to be a fairly commonnumber."
Once again Fred copied the mysterious set of numbers, making the changethat Grant had suggested.