"I'll not," agreed Allen.
He took the paper from Mr. Nelson's hand. The others looked over his shoulder at it.
"Oh, what do you suppose it means?" marveled Grace. "Do hurry and translate it, Allen."
CHAPTER XII
THE FALSE BOTTOM
For a moment the queer box itself was forgotten in the wonderment over the cipher. That it would prove a solution to the mystery, if such there was, and that it was not a joke, was believed by all. Even Allen, calm as he usually was, displayed some excitement. The girls themselves could not conceal their eagerness.
"How are you going to make sense out of that?" asked Roy, who did not like to spend much time over anything. "It's worse than Greek."
"Most ciphers are," agreed Allen. "The only way to translate it is to go at it with some sort of system. I'll need plenty of paper, and some pencils."
"I'll tell you what to do," said Mr. Nelson. "Make several copies of the cipher, and we can all work on it at once. It will be a sort of game."