Writing out the letters of the alphabet in orderly rows, he gave each a number, thus:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
and on through the alphabet.
When this brought no solution he tried a second combination, starting with the number “2” instead of “1”.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
For the next twenty minutes he worked on, trying many combinations. Each time, he started off with a higher number for the letter “A,” working up as high as “7”.
“It’s no use,” he decided at last. “I may as well go home.”
On the pad before Dan was a string of unused alphabetical letters. Absently, with no hope of striking upon anything that would work, he wrote in corresponding numbers, starting with “8.”
A B C D E F G H I J K L
8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3
Referring to Jacques’ coded message, he then began to transfer the numbers into counterpart letters.