Herrick shrugged his shoulders. "I should not care to take Santiago's word myself," he said, "still amongst his lies there may be some grain of truth. But where the real truth will be found is in that secret writing which Bess gave to me." "Bess!" cried Marsh-Carr with a smile. Dr. Jim coloured and apologised. "A slip of the tongue," he said, "I hear you talk of Bess so frequently that I am apt to fall into the same habit. But this writing," he added hurriedly to avoid further explanation, "as you know, we can make nothing of it. Yet if we could read it, something tangible might be discovered." "I really do not see why I should trouble at all about my uncle's villainies," said Marsh-Carr rather impatiently, "the estate is mine now, and I want to enjoy it without worrying my conscience. Of course I do worry. As to the writing, there is a cryptogram in the 'Telegraph' which resembles the paper you showed me. Here it is, in the Agony Column." Herrick took the newspaper, and looked at the paragraph indicated by Stephen. The jumble of letters did indeed resemble that on the piece of Chinese paper. In print the cryptogram was as follows:--Eqhrbn: Gxcd: Ozqj: Bnqmdq; 15, Nbsnadq: Rodzj: Sn: Aktd: Bknsgdr: Vghsd: Gzs: Fknur: Rgndr: Dzqqr: Lnmdx. Dr. Jim read this over twice, then took out the Chinese paper and compared the two cryptograms. "I believe the secret writing is the same," he said with some excitement. "See Stephen, in each there are figures, and in each the figures are the same. Fifteen. I believe that this was inserted by some one who knew Carr. It may be from Frisco communicating with a third person about the murder." "True enough;" replied Stephen, "yet it might merely be a coincidence." "If the figures were not the same I might think so. But that in both there should be fifteen is strange, to say the least of it." "Perhaps thirty is the key to the cipher." "It might be so," said Herrick studying the 'Telegraph,' "but I am hanged if I can see how to apply it. Oh, that Edgar Allen Poe were at hand! He could unravel any cipher in ten minutes. The man had a marvellous gift in that way." "I once read a book on cipher-writing," said Marsh-Carr after a pause, "it said that to unravel a line of secret writing, it was best to search for the character that represented 'E,' since that letter is used more frequently than any other in the English language." "There you lay a finger on the weak spot," said Jim quickly, "This cipher may be written in Spanish for all I know." "Why in Spanish particularly?" "Because if it applied to Colonel Carr and his doings, that is the most likely language he would use, other than English. He was mostly in Mexico and Peru, if Manuel is to be believed, and there Spanish is spoken as you know, Stephen. This may be a writing in that tongue." "Well Herrick, you know Spanish, so you might,--"