“One observation, Monsieur le Juge d’Instruction, to begin with. The paper consists almost entirely of dots and figures. And in the first three lines and the fifth—the only ones with which we have to do at present, for the fourth seems to present an entirely different character—not one of those figures is higher than the figure 5. There is, therefore, a great chance that each of these figures represents one of the five vowels, taken in alphabetical order. Let us put down the result.” He wrote on a separate piece of paper: e . a . a . . e . . e . a . . a . . a . . . e . e . . e oi . e . . e . . ou . . e . o . . . e . . e . o . . e ai . ui . . e . . eu . e Then he continued: “As you see, this does not give us much to go upon. The key is, at the same time, very easy, because the inventor has contented himself with replacing the vowels by figures and the consonants by dots, and very difficult, if not impossible, because he has taken no further trouble to complicate the problem.” “It is certainly pretty obscure.” “Let us try to throw some light upon it. The second line is divided into two parts; and the second part appears in such a way that it probably forms one word. If we now seek to replace the intermediary dots by consonants, we arrive at the conclusion, after searching and casting about, that the only consonants which are logically able to support the vowels are also logically able to produce only one word, the word _demoiselles_.” “That would refer to Mlle. de Gesvres and Mlle. de Saint-Véran.” “Undoubtedly.” “And do you see nothing more?” “Yes. I also note an hiatus in the middle of the last line; and, if I apply a similar operation to the beginning of the line, I at once see that the only consonant able to take the place of the dot between the diphthongs _fai_ and _ui_ is the letter _g_ and that, when I have thus formed the first five letters of the word, _aigui_, it is natural and inevitable that, with the two next dots and the final _e_, I should arrive at the word _aiguille_.” “Yes, the word _aiguille_ forces itself upon us.” “Finally, for the last word, I have three vowels and three consonants. I cast about again, I try all the letters, one after the other, and, starting with the principle that the two first letters are necessary consonants, I find that three words apply: _fleuve_, _preuve_ and _creuse_. I eliminate the words _fleuve_ and _preuve_, as possessing no possible relation to a needle, and I keep the word _creuse_.” “Making ‘hollow needle’! By jove! I admit that your solution is correct, because it needs must be; but how does it help us?”