THE GOLD BUG
“Looking beyond these words, for a short distance, we again see the combination ;48, and employ it by way of termination to what immediately precedes. We have thus this arrangement:
“Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, or substitute dots, we read thus:
when the word ‘through’ makes itself evident at once. But this discovery gives us three new letters, o, u, and g, represented by ++ ? and 3.
“Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement:
which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word ‘degree,’ and gives us another letter, d, represented by †.
“Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, as before, we read thus:
an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word ‘thirteen,’ and again furnishing us with two new characters, i and n represented by 6 and *.
“Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the combination
“Translating as before, we obtain
which assures us that the first letter is A, and that the first two words are ‘A good.’
the tree ;4(++?34 the
or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus:
the tree thr++?3h the
the tree thr...h the
83(88, or egree
“Four letters beyond the word ‘degree’ we perceive the combination
;46(;88*
th.rtee.
53++++†
.good
155
