"Fortuitously," I prompted.
"Yes, that's it; something like the 'fortuitous concourse of atoms' that the philosophers talk about. I remember the phrase from my school days.
"And yet the mix-up came to spoil everything. For what could any sensible person make of THANECOUICDD-FKL?
"I tried carrying on the series until my brain was positively dizzy, but I got nothing except incomprehensible rubbish. And yet I knew that I had found a real clue; how in the world had I lost it again? I used to work until I actually went fast to sleep at my desk, but nothing came of it. It was enough to drive one mad.
"The middle of May I went up to Stockbridge, and of course I carried my troubles with me. Wherever I looked I seemed to see that tantalizing key-sentence: Won—for—too—for—ate; it was as bad as the squaring of the circle. Just some little, insignificant error was keeping me from the solving of the puzzle, but for the life of me I couldn't put my finger on it. Honestly now, Hugh, do you think you would have been clever enough to have figured it out?"
I checked up Betty's "layout" and went over the decoding process with meticulous care. I got precisely the same result: THANECOU—and then chaos.
"It beats me," I confessed. "It's enough to make one dotty."
"I dare say that is what Aunt Alice Crew thought of me in her heart of hearts," laughed Betty, "although she was too polite to say so. And, really, it was getting on my nerves. I couldn't eat, and a nuit blanche was no uncommon thing with me. I couldn't get it out of my head, you understand, that the solving of the problem must be of immense importance. There was a mystery at the 'Hundred,' and so long as it remained a mystery there could be no enduring peace or happiness for us. If you had been willing to sell the 'Hundred' there might have been some chance of escaping the curse; hadn't poor Eunice said as much in that weird statement which she left behind her. But you would not consider the suggestion even."
"I suppose I was pig-headed and altogether in the wrong," I admitted humbly. "But it all seemed so fantastic and incredible—here in the twentieth century."
"Granting that the mystery had continued unsolved," said Betty, looking me straight in the eye. "What then?"