to do it. He had observed perfectly and so
carefully noted what he saw that even in the darkness he could find his
way.

So now he examined his long rows of letters until he knew everything
about them; and he was certain they told no story. When he was
certain, he rearranged the letters, as Roy had done, in rows of five
each. Then he laid down his pencil and began another careful search.
He read the topmost line from left to right, and from right to left.
It made no sense. He took the second and found no meaning in it.
Another boy might have skipped the others, but not Willie. Each of the
thirteen rows he studied forward and backward.

Then he ran his eye down the first column, just as Roy had done. It
spelled nothing. But when he began at the bottom and came upward, an
eager light leaped into his eyes. He could make nothing of the lowest
five letters; but the eight above certainly spelled two words: "nine
sure." If the message was in English, Willie knew he had found
something definite to work on. He could make nothing of the second
column, either upward or downward. But the third column gave him
distinctly the words "twenty four." The next column yielded more
words: "Six twenty."

By this time Willie's eyes were flashing. He turned to the bottom of
the last column and began to read upward. A single glance confirmed
his suspicion.

"Captain Hardy," he cried, jumping over to his chief, and laying his
paper on the captain's desk, "begin at the bottom of the last column
and read upward. I believe this cipher is exactly the opposite of the
other."

Willie's fellows dropped their pencils and gathered eagerly about their
leader as he slowly read the letters, beginning at the bottom of the
last column and reading upward and backward in the exact opposite of
the way the former messages had been deciphered.

"K," he read, "I-N-G-J-A-M-E-S-T-W-E-N-T-Y-S-I-X-T-W-E-N-T-Y-
O-N-E-T-W-E-N-T-Y-F-O-U-R-B-A-L-A-K-L-A-V-A-N-R-E-N-D-E-Z-V-
O-U-S-N-I-N-E-S-U-R-E."

"Hurrah for Willie!" cried Roy, who had been putting down the letters
as Captain Hardy read them off. "He's solved the problem. Who says
boys aren't any good? I'll bet you----"

But Roy was interrupted by his mates. "Read it to us," they demanded.

"It's a funny message," said Roy, and slowly he read the following:
"King James twenty six twenty one twenty four----" Then he stopped.
"I can't read the next words," he said.

Captain Hardy took the