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‡‡†.

    “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 the parchment, as unriddled.  Here it is: