He had now two words, un and six. The chances were that he was somewhere on the right track and he fell to work with a concentration and ardour which left him oblivious to everything else—to time and place, and to the silent, motionless little figure huddled over the pillows beside him.
A Fragment from Guild's Notebook
At the end of an hour—checked twice—but finally overcoming apparent defeat, and always following the same method of deduction, he came to an end of his symbols, and he found the leaf from his notebook was covered with the following words in order of symbol:
Un, six douze cinq cinq vingt, douze quinz' vingt-un sept eight, nineteen vingt trois nine douze douze twenty-five, eight cinq trois eight vingt, six quinze douze douze quinze vingt-trois, deux nine eighteen quatre nineteen.
For these numerals spelled out capriciously in either abbreviated French or English he substituted numbers in the sequence given:
"1—6—12—5—5—20—12—15—21—7—8—19
—23—9—12—12—25—8—5—3—8—20—6—15
—12—12—15—23—2—9—18—4—19."
Then for the figure 1 he wrote the first letter of the alphabet—A. For the number six he wrote the sixth letter of the alphabet F. For the number 12, the twelfth letter of the alphabet L.
And when he had written letters for every figure in order given he had on his sheet of paper
A FLEETLOUGHSWILLYHECHTFOLLOW
BIRDS