"No; but I tried to find a way where a date would apply, but I can't think figures are needed, it's a word we must have."
"Words on dimes are all alike," suggested Lucille.
"Yes, but suppose a word had been engraved on this particular dime as these letters are engraved on the pin."
"Aunt Ursula would have been quite capable of such a scheme," Iris averred, "for she had most ingenious notions about puzzles and ciphers. Sometimes she would offer me a bill of large denomination, or a check for a goodly sum, if I could guess from the data she gave me what the figures were."
"And did you?"
"Never! I have no head for that sort of thing. It made my brain swim when she finally explained it to me."
"And yet I can't think the dime is necessary for the solution of this cryptogram," Stone went on, "or Young would have tried to get that also. However, now we have the man himself, he must be made to give up whatever knowledge he possesses."
"He won't," Iris said, positively.
Fibsy was poring over the string of letters, which he had copied from Stone's paper.
"That's so, F. S." he said, blinking thoughtfully, "there aren't enough duplicates of any letter to mean E. This is a square alphabet with a key word, sure."