“Damn!” said he.
He was persuaded that the key-word was in the sentence before him; the code-book, Crenshaw’s slip of paper, and his own hunch were convincing, yet the combination was slow in coming.
Du jour à l’aube was the next arrangement. He wrote it under the printed words and began to apply the Square.
The D and the A yielded A; the U and the B yielded V; the J and the C yielded E; the O and the D yielded R; the U and the E yielded T; the R and the F yielded I.
“Averti!”
Carpenter gave a soft whistle of satisfaction. French, it was—his hunch had not deceived him. The key-word was found!
Swiftly he worked out the rest of the cipher, setting down the letters of the translation without regard to words. “Averti” was evident because it was the first word. At the end, he had this result:
AVERTIQUELALLEMAGNEAENGAG
EUNOFFICIERADECELERLAFORM
ULESECRETEDESETATSUNISEMP