"Why don't you tell us what your system is?"

"No, you wait."

"How about fourteen now?" demanded Fred. "We decided that was a pretty common number, you know. What shall I do with that?"

"I'll tell you," said Grant and once again he appeared to calculate something 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 any more though, I'm perfectly willing to work it out by myself."

"No, you don't," exclaimed Fred. "If there's anything going to happen around here I want to be on hand."

"An' me too," said Sam eagerly. "Ah wants to be heah when dat treasah am discovahed. Ah'll fix dem n.i.g.g.e.rs 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 Ah wouldn'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. "I wish Grant would tell us what he's trying to do, but I'm going to stay by 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 certain number means a certain letter and wherever he sees it he subst.i.tutes the letter."

"We all know that much," cried John scornfully. "What we want to know is how he figures out what letter to put in place of a certain number. Can you 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 want 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_ in place of the figure eight," he said. "Eight seems to be a fairly common number."

Once again Fred copied the mysterious set of numbers, making the change that Grant had suggested.

CHAPTER XXIII

PROGRESS

When Fred had completed his task the following result appeared:

20-1-11-e-1-3-15-21-18-19-e-4-25-e-n-15-18-20-h-15-n-e-h-21-n-4-18-e- 4-6-e-e-20-6-18-15-13-2-h-e-19-15-21-20-h-e-18-n-e-24-20-18-e-13-9- 20-25-15-6-19-h-1-18-11-18-15-3-11-20-h-e-n-e-1-19-20-6-9-6-20-25-6- e-e-20-1-n-4-n-15-18-20-h-2-25-e-1-19-20-20-h-9-18-20-25-20-h-18-e- e-4-9-7.

"Is it coming out all right, Grant?" asked John. "It doesn't look like very much to me just yet."

"It doesn't spell any words yet," said Fred.

"Yes, indeed, it certainly does," exclaimed Grant. "There's _he_ a couple of times. That spells something, doesn't it!"

"Yes, that does," admitted Fred, "but what can _n-e-h_ be? I never heard of that word or _e-n-e_ either."

"You must remember that it isn't all done yet by a good deal," Grant protested. "You see we've subst.i.tuted only three letters so far and it spells two words already. I call that pretty good work."

"Yes, and in a minute you may run up against a snag and find that you're all wrong," said George.

"Quite right," admitted Grant. "If my system is wrong we'll find it out pretty soon, too. It seems to me to be worth trying though."

"Oh, I think so, too," exclaimed Fred readily. "Let's try another now."

"Why can't you subst.i.tute two at once?" said John. "That would save a lot of time."

"I know it would," admitted Grant. "It would also double the chances of mistakes and we don't want to make any if we can help it."

"We'll be careful," said George. "Go into another trance, Grant, and tell us two letters this time. You're a regular Hindoo fakir and for all I know you may have hypnotized the whole crowd of us."

"Come on, Pop! Be serious," exclaimed John.