rted loss by research, congratulated ourselves upon our
knowledge of the position of Fire Mountain--all in the hearing of the
self-effacing Ichi. We were only daunted by the prospect of searching
blindly through that cave-riddled mountain. Then, Ruth found the code."

"Yes, it was pure luck," interposed Ruth. "I was examining the book,
and I noticed a crack in the length of the cover. I looked more
closely and discovered that the cover had been slit lengthwise, and
that a piece of skin had been inserted."

"That is it--Exhibit A," said Little Billy. He pointed to the white
strip on the table. "We recognized it instantly as the piece of parka
lining Winters mentions using to write upon the secret of the cave. It
is a piece of the skin of an unborn reindeer. The Kamchatka tribes
line their fur garments with that skin, and Winters had evidently
obtained his parka from them. The writing, you see, is all numerals."

Martin picked up and inspected the skin curiously. Unborn reindeer
skin! He rubbed the glossy substance between his fingers. It felt
uncanny to his touch, this relic of a long-past tragedy, this message
from the world's end. And the message seemed to be no more than a
faded jumble of figures. He read them carefully, searching in vain for
some hint of meaning.

43344544536153314612151113236243361531153523113344
62315111464643441142123411421465224331454613115115
62635344244611313421446333442442361334423315426144
254613115115

[Transcriber's note: the first two rows of the above numbers in the
source book had been defaced to the point of being almost unreadable.
A best guess was made on some of them.]

"But how do you know this is a code?" Martin asked curiously.

"Three excellent reasons," said Little Billy. "First, John Winters
mentions writing down the secret of the treasure's location, and we
discover this skin; second, your genial former employer deciphered
these figures for the affable Ichi; third, Ruth and I proved the
correctness of the deciphering this morning.

"I guess I had better acquaint you with the method of this means of
communication. I don't know how a simple seaman, like John Winters
seems to have been, could have become familiar with the art of
cryptography--probably from reading, possibly devised the thing
himself. It is very simple once you have the key--quite useful, too.
Ruth and I talked to each other through a wall by this code, back there
in Bob Carew's