“Then,” the captain went on, “comes the Board of Survey. This is a British ship, as you know; so as soon as the cable is sent I go to the British consul in San Juan and report that my ship has been stranded and ask him to appoint a board of survey. He does so, appointing generally three masters of vessels that happen to be lying in the harbor. They examine the ship and decide whether she is fit to proceed on her voyage or not. Their decision is law, too, and we have to obey it.” “Why!” Dick exclaimed, “I had no idea there was so much red tape about it. What is the use of all that fuss?” “Because the ship might be so badly injured as to be unseaworthy,” the captain replied; “and to take her to sea in that case would be to risk the lives of the crew. I couldn’t compel the crew to go another mile in her without a survey.” “Now here is the cable code,” the captain continued, handing Dick a small red-covered book. “You see there are single words to express most every sentence a shipmaster could want to send. Of course the owners in London have another copy of the book, so that they can decipher the dispatch. The single word ‘Refuse,’ for instance, means ‘No cargo to be had here,’ and saves five words in telegraphing. I will write out the dispatch I want to send, and you can translate it into the code for me.” The captain took a pencil and wrote his dispatch in plain English, in this way:-- Smith & Jones, London:-- Stranded at Arecibo. On the rocks forty minutes. Damage unknown. Proceeded to San Juan and requested Board of Survey. GODFREE. “Now, there are twenty-four words,” the captain continued, “for the cable company charges for the address and signature. You will find some word in the book that means a whole sentence, and that will reduce the number of words about one half.” Dick examined the book and soon mastered its principles. It might be hard work for a sea captain to prepare a cipher dispatch, but it was easy enough for a newspaper man. The word adjoins, he found, meant “stranded at”; forward meant “on the rocks forty minutes”; mystery meant “proceeded to”; and simply the word board stood for “requested Board of Survey.” For “damage unknown” he had to search some time, but at length he found that the word motion expressed that. So his cipher dispatch, when done in the code, read in this way: Smith & Jones, London:-- Adjoins, Arecibo, forward, motion, mystery, San Juan, board. GODFREE. “There,” he said as he finished it, “try that over with the book, captain, and see whether it doesn’t express what you want to say.” “That’s it exactly,” the captain declared, after a long struggle with the book. “You’ve got it into thirteen words--a saving to the company of over thirty dollars; and you did it in ten minutes. It would have taken me half the night to cipher that thing out, Sumner.”