The old man was staring at the document with a puzzled air, for it was apparently not so easy to decipher as he had believed.
“Dictate it to me, and I will write,” I urged quickly, holding up my pencil ready. The suspense was irritating. We both of us were impatient to get at the truth.
Slowly, and not without a good deal of difficulty, Staffurth reversed each three letters of the cipher, three by three, and then reading them by aid of the alphabet I had compiled, gave down the beginning of the document to me as follows —
SP HXWE HQOPHWRABEH LCWO SR MCWO AP WO
On thys twenty-first daye of Maye in ye
RSKBO CPL HXABHAOHX WOBO SR WO BCAUPO SR
foure and thirtieth yere of ye raigne of
SKB ESKNBAUPO JCLAO OJAZCFOHX YKOPO SR
our souvrigne Ladie Elizabeth Quene of
OPUJCPLO RRBCPIO CPL ABOJCPLO LOROPLOB SR WO