Applying his rule (which compelled him to go to the end of the alphabet, when, for instance, the letter “a” demanded to be represented by a preceding letter), Ben Mayberry very readily translated the cipher as follows:
“That suits exactly. Will be ready.
“G. R. Burkhill.”
CHAPTER XVII
DECIDEDLY MIXED
During the summer succeeding the carrying away of the bridge which connected Damietta with Moorestown, it was built in a more substantial manner than before. It was an easy matter, therefore, to cross from one place to another, and carriages and pedestrians went back and forth between the two States at almost every hour of the day. Damietta was a large city, while Moorestown was only a small town; but the latter was pleasantly located and had a large and excellent hotel, where quite a number of guests spent the most sultry months of summer.
In Damietta were three banks, and the cipher telegrams which I have laid before the reader, beyond a doubt referred to one of them, but it was impossible to fix with certainty upon the right one. As a matter of prudence, therefore, it was determined to keep the three under surveillance. The Mechanics’ Bank, as it was called before it adopted the national system, stood on the corner, and the general impression prevailed that this was the institution referred to, as it will be remembered that the word “corner” occurred in one of the telegrams.