For a moment he thought, perhaps, he had dreamed of obtaining the key to the hidden message. But one hurried glance at the words he had read convinced him the trick had been done.
On the back of the sheet he began at once to jot down the signs of which he felt most certain. The results, as he made them, were these:
The next word, according to his deductions, should be "Island." This, he felt, was indisputably confirmed by the fact it contained precisely the required number of "letters," with the sign for L, A, and D, already discovered, occupying their proper positions. He, therefore, added:
to his growing collection of letters, and promptly produced the following results by the process of substitution:
