“As if she were playing a piano,” thought Johnny.
“There!” She put down a figure. “And there!” she set down a sign.
So at last she filled the back of the sheet with figures and signs.
“Now we can do it,” she said at last. “It’s all quite simple.”
“It would seem so,” said Johnny skeptically.
“It really is, only you must know the position of numbers, letters and signs on your typewriter keyboard. If you had studied it out before your typewriter it would have been simple in the extreme.
“Your typewriter has three shifts; one for letters, one for capitals and one for figures and signs. The thing Pant did was to lock his machine for figures and signs, then write his note as if the machine were set for letters. Now I have worked out the location of letters, figures and signs by memory and the touch system, it will be very simple. The figure 5 stands for t, the percent sign for d, and so on.”
For a little time longer she studied. Then on a second scrap of paper she wrote the following, which was Pant’s note to Johnny, written many days previous:
Johnny:
The map is gone. The Spaniards have it. I am going into the jungle after it. I will get it, never fear. Look out for a Spaniard named Diaz. He is a Devil. Never trust nor believe him for a moment.
Good Luck,
Pant.
“So that was it,” Johnny said thoughtfully. “They stole his chart. I only hope he got it back.”