“Of course we do.”
Grant picked up the code and studied it attentively for some moments. Finally he put it down again. “Suppose we put the letter h in place of the figure eight,” he said. “Eight seems to be a fairly common number.”
Once again Fred copied the mysterious set of numbers, making the change that Grant had suggested.
CHAPTER XXIII
PROGRESS
When Fred had completed his task the following result appeared:
20 - 1 - 11 - e - 1 - 3 - 15 - 21 - 18 - 19 - e - 4 - 25 - e - n - 15 - 18 - 20 - h - 15 - n - e - h - 21 - n - 4 - 18 - e - 4 - 6 - e - e - 20 - 6 - 18 - 15 - 13 - 2 - h - e - 19 - 15 - 21 - 20 - h - e - 18 - n - e - 24 - 20 - 18 - e - 13 - 9 - 20 - 25 - 15 - 6 - 19 - h - 1 - 18 - 11 - 18 - 15 - 3 - 11 - 20 - h - e - n - e - 1 - 19 - 20 - 6 - 9 - 6 - 20 - 25 - 6 - e - e - 20 - 1 - n - 4 - n - 15 - 18 - 20 - h - 2 - 25 - e - 1 - 19 - 20 - 20 - h - 9 - 18 - 20 - 25 - 20 - h - 18 - e - e - 4 - 9 - 7.
“Is it coming out all right, Grant?” asked John. “It doesn’t look like very much to me just yet.”
“It doesn’t spell any words yet,” said Fred.
“Yes, indeed, it certainly does,” exclaimed Grant. “There’s he a couple of times. That spells something, doesn’t it!”