"It is all right," agreed Tera, gravely; "you gave two thousand pounds for the pearls, and they belong to you." "Ah!" said the Hebrew, with relief, "that ith tho. Well, mith and mithter Finland, I give you one pieth of advith. Don't you thell such beautiful pearlth tho cheap again. And now," he added, trotting towards the dinner-table, "I can eat a morthel." While this matter was being settled. Chard was talking to Rachel about the cypher letter, and the cunning way in which Jacob Shackel had bamboozled him. "The old rascal wanted to make a fine effect in court, of course," said he, laughing, "for he might as well have told me at the time that the young lady was alive. I wish I had known the cypher myself. I must get Finland to show it to me." "I can do that," answered Rachel, fishing in her pocket for a pencil, "for it was I who taught Jack the cypher. He finds it useful in many ways in business. But as he is going to the South Seas, I can tell it to you. Do you know the game of noughts and crosses and criss-cross, Mr. Chard?" "What do you mean?" asked the inspector. "I'll show you. Here is a piece of paper. Observe now." And Rachel drew two diagrams, which she proceeded to fill up with letters. [Illustration: Key to the Code, page 202] "There is the key to the thing," she said. "You simply put an angle for each letter, with a dot for the right-hand one. Have you the letter?" "Here it is. I would not give it to Shackel." Rachel read it. "It means, 'Tell Tera to show up; arrested for her murder--Jack.' Now, the first word is 'tell,' and you write it this way;" and she proceeded to explain. "You see the _T_ is in the top angle of the criss-cross; and as it is the right-hand letter, you must place a dot so." She placed a dot in the top angle of the diagonal figure. "The _e_ is formed in the right-hand top angle of the noughts. Lastly, the two _l_'s are in the place under it on the right-hand side. Now look at the whole word, and write the rest of the message yourself." Chard took the word "Jack," and, gradually grasping the idea, wrote it down in the characters. "By Jove, it's very neat!" he said admiringly. "And quite simple," said Rachel, rising. "Now you'd really better have some dinner, Mr. Chard." "Thank you, I will. But this cypher reminds me of the arrow-headed Assyrian letters." "Rather more like Hebrew characters," said Carwell, joining them. "I wonder you did not know of it. Inspector. It is in common use." "It hasn't come my way, then," laughed Chard, drawing his chair to the table, where already Moss was making up for lost time. During the meal Zara's murder was the sole topic. It would seem that the whole case would have to be re-sifted. The old trial had ended in the discovery that Tera had not been murdered at all. The new one would have to start on fresh premises altogether; a fresh motive would, of course, have to be sought.