“Very well, I’ll tell you. I think the whole thing is just a blooming fraud. And do you know what makes me sure of it?”
French shook his head.
“Well, it’s a thing you might have found out for yourself. It doesn’t add. Those figures at the bottom are not the sum of the lines. The thing’s just a blooming fraud.”
French cursed himself for his oversight, then suddenly a startling idea flashed into his mind. Suppose this list of sales and purchases had nothing whatever to do with finance. Suppose it conveyed a hidden message by means of some secret code or cipher. Was that a possibility? His voice trembled slightly, as with a haste verging on something very different from his usual Soapy Joe politeness he took his leave.
He hurried back to the Yard, eagerly anxious to get to work on his new inspiration, and reaching his office he spread the list on his desk and sat down to study it. It read:
Stock and Share List
| Bought | Sold | ||||||
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||
| 1. | War Loan 5% | 328 | 4 | 2 | |||
| 2. | Australia 6% | 568 | 5 | 0 | |||
| 3. | Great Western Ord. | 1039 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 4. | Associated News Ord. | 936 | 6 | 3 | |||
| 5. | Aerated Bread | 713 | 9 | 2 | |||
| 6. | Barclay’s Bank | 991 | 18 | 1 | |||
| 7. | Alliance Assurance | 394 | 10 | 19 | |||
| 8. | Lyons | 463 | 17 | 5 | |||
| 9. | Picardie Hotel | 205 | 14 | 11 | |||
| 10. | Anglo-American Oil | 748 | 3 | 9 | |||
| 11. | War Loan 4% | 403 | 18 | 10 | |||
| 12. | British East Africa 6% | 401 | 3 | 9 | |||
| 13. | L. & N. E. | 292 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 14. | Brit. American Tobacco | 898 | 5 | 7 | |||
| 15. | Army & Navy Stores | 1039 | 0 | 4 | |||
| 16. | Lloyd’s Bank | 586 | 10 | 10 | |||
| 17. | Atlas Assurance | 922 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 18. | Telegrams | 16 | 7 | ||||
| 19. | Maple | 90 | 19 | 6 | |||
| 20. | Mappin & Webb | 463 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 21. | Amalgamated Oils | 748 | 5 | 7 | |||
| 22. | War Loan 4½% | 568 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 23. | Canadian Govt. 3½% | 958 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 24. | Balances | 17 | 3 | ||||
| 25. | Metropolitan Railway | 812 | 10 | 4 | |||
| 26. | Daily Looking Glass Ord. | 895 | 19 | 8 | |||
| 27. | J. Barker | 371 | 18 | 11 | |||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ||
| £6935 | 12 | 1 | £9127 | 18 | 2 | ||
| 6935 | 12 | 1 | |||||
| --- | --- | --- | |||||
| £2192 | 6 | 1 | |||||
The first question which occurred to French was whether, assuming the list did contain some secret message, this was hidden in the names of the stocks or in the money, or in both?
Taking the former idea first, he began trying to form words out of certain letters of the names, selected on various plans. The initials, W, A, G, A, A, . . . were not promising, even when read bottom upwards, J, D, M, B, C. . . . Nor were the final letters, downwards and upwards, any better. Those next the initials and the penultimates were equally hopeless, nor did diagonal arrangements promise better.
French tried every plan he could think of, working steadily and methodically through the various cases of each, and not leaving it until he was satisfied that he was on the wrong track. He came on no solution, but he did make one discovery which seemed to indicate that the message, if such existed, was contained in the money columns rather than in the names. He noticed that in the majority of cases the names of the various stocks began with one of the earlier letters of the alphabet, and where this did not obtain, the stock in question was one of the first of that kind of stock to be quoted. He picked up a Daily Mail and looked at the financial page. The stocks were divided under various headings, British Stocks, Overseas Dominions, Home Railways, Canadian and Foreign Railways, and such like. The first division was British Stocks, and the first item in it was War Loan 5%. But the first item on Mrs. Vane’s list was War Loan 5%.