me back--and, Colonel, won't you give
special orders that her house is not to be disturbed? She is an old
school friend."

The Colonel stared at her incredulously.

"I'm afraid you still have your doubts about that leak, sir."

"Yes, I have."

She dismounted wearily; an orderly took her horse, and without a word
she and the Colonel entered the tent.

"They used bees for messengers," she said; "that was the leak."

"Bees?"

"Honey bees, Colonel."

For a whole minute he was silent, then burst out:

"Good God! _Bees!_ And if such a--an extraordinary performance were
possible how did _you_ guess it?"

"Oh," she said patiently, "I used them that way when I was a little
girl. Bees, like pigeons, go back to their homes. Look, sir! Here, in
order, are the dispatches, each traced in cipher on a tiny roll of
tissue. They were tied to the bees' thighs."

[Transcriber's Note: in the following cyphers, subscripted numerals
and special symbols are contained in curly brackets, like this: {3}]

And she spread them out in order under his amazed eyes; and this is what
he saw when she pieced them together for him:

EIO{2}W{2} x I{8}W{3} {triangle} NI{7}W{3} x
OII{6}I{5}W{3} x ENI{7}I{7}I{4}I{8}I{5}O{2}
N x I{7}IE x I{4}O{2}I{2} x
N x HI{5} x IO{2}E x
N x O x E x WNW{3} x
W x I{8}E{3}XHN {crescent} x
L x I{3} O{2}XW{3}I{5}W{3}NW{2} x

I{4}I{2} x I{8}W{3}I{7}I{4}LI x NW{3}x
I{5}O{2}HI x O{2}I{4}EI{3}W{3} x
HNI{7}I{7} {circle+} W{2}

"That's all very well," he said, "but how about this hieroglyphic? Do
you think anybody on earth is capable of reading such a thing?"

"Why not?"

"Can _you_?"

"All such ciphers are solved by the same method.... Yes, Colonel, I can
read it very easily."

"Well, would you mind doing so?"

"Not in the slightest, sir. The key is extremely simple. I will show
you." And she picked up pencil and paper and wrote:

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty

"Now," she said, "taking the second letter in each word, we can parallel
that column thus:

N equals the letter A
W equals the letter B
H equals the letter C
O equals the letter D
I equals the letter E

"Then, in the word _six_ we have the letter _I_ again as the second
letter, so we