The famous scientist, who looked like an older version of his son, greeted them with a smile. "What is this, a meeting of the Silent Three? I can't ever remember finding you all together when one of you wasn't talking." Rick handed him the cable. "What do you make of that, Dad?" Hartson Brant scanned it quickly. "From Chahda, in Singapore, and in cipher. Am I supposed to gather that you don't have the key to the cipher?" "That's right," Scotty said. He held up a heavy volume called _Cryptography for the Student_. It was the only book on the subject in the scientist's library. "We've been going through this, trying to find some kind of clue. Honest, it's impossible." "There are so many codes and ciphers," Barby added. "Dozens. And it says some of them can only be broken by days of work, by experts." "There's not an expert in the house, either," Rick concluded. "I didn't think, when Bill called us up about it, that Chahda would use a code we couldn't figure out, but I didn't expect a page like that." Hartson Brant read through the cable again. "How do you know you can't figure it out? Perhaps a little reasoning will clear the air. Chahda must have put a key in the message somewhere. How about this 'L' in front of his name?" "That's right," Barby said excitedly. "That must mean something, because his name is Chahda Sundararaman. There isn't an L in it anywhere." The scientist handed the cable back to Rick. "I'm about as curious as I can get," he said, "but I refuse to think any more about it until you hand me the clear version. I agree that Chahda wouldn't send a code you couldn't solve, so my advice is put the code book away. You won't need it, I'm sure. This isn't any code you'll find in there." He started out of the room, then paused at the door, his eyes twinkling. "Will you have dinner at the table with us, or shall I ask mother to break out some emergency rations so you can stay on the job?" "We'll eat with the family," Scotty replied. "We can keep on thinking while we eat, can't we?" Rick watched his father wink at Barby, then walk toward the kitchen. "Dad's right," he announced. "He must be. So let's put the book back and start figuring this out. The answer probably is easy as pie once we find the key." "How about starting with that odd letter?" Scotty asked. "That has to mean something." "L is the twelfth letter in the alphabet," Barby offered. "Does that mean anything?" Rick shook his head. "Not to me. But let's start from there, anyway. Maybe the twelfth group of numbers has a clue." He counted rapidly across the number groups. "That group is 4399693. Now what?" Scotty suggested, "Substitute letters for the numbers. That would make it DCIIFIC. That doesn't mean anything." "Maybe you counted the wrong way," Barby said thoughtfully. "Count down the columns instead of across." Rick did so. "That's 8337373. Substitute and it comes out ... let's see ... HCCGCGC. Nothing there, either."