e me. Why not
employ it in an endeavor to pick out the meaning of those odd Hebraic
characters? I had in a way received her sanction to do so--if I could;
and if I should succeed, what shadows might it not clear from the path
of the good man whose interests it was my chief duty to consult?

Ciphers have always possessed a fascination for me. This one, from the
variety of its symbols, offered a study of unusual interest. Collecting
the stray specimens which I had picked up, I sat down in my cozy little
room and laid them all out before me, with the following result:

__________________________

[transcriber's note: the symbols cannot be converted to ASCII so I have
shown them as follows:]

[] is a Square

[-] is sides and bottom of a square,

C is top, bottom and left side of a square,

L is left side and bottom of a square,,

V is two lines forming a V shape

. appearing before a symbol should be inside the symbol

) appearing before a symbol means the mirror image of that symbol

^ appearing before a symbol means the inverted symbol

? is a curve inside the symbol

all other preceding symbols are my best approximation for shapes shown
inside that symbol.

; is used to separate each symbol __________________________

1. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <;

2. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; L; ).L; <; )7;.7;

3. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; ).L;.C;[];.L; >;,C; [];.<; ^[-]; ^[-];.<;

4. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; <; L; >; ^V; L; V; []; )L; ^V; [-]; []; V;
).C; ^[-]; >; )C; ),C; V; <; C; ^V; ^[-];.>; [-]; <;

5. *>; []; V; []; *V; []; ~7; )C;.>; ^[o]; )L; ^V; []; Lo; ^V; )C; )7*;
V; )C?; L; )L; 7;.>;.^[-]; )L; >; <;:[-], [-]; Lo;.<;?[-]; )7; [-]; )C;
[];.C; [-]; *7; L;.7; ^V; )o7; *>; C; ^V;.C;.<; [-]; []; 7;.C; )L;:7;
[-]; )*L; C; ^V;.L;.>; ^[%]; C; 7; *L; 7; ):L; )7; ^.V; []; [-];.L;[-]

No. 1: My copy of the characters, as I remember seeing them on the
envelope which Mrs. Packard had offered to Mr. Steele and afterward
thrown into the fire.

Nos. 2, 3 and 4: The discarded scraps I had taken from the waste-basket
in her room.

No. 5: The lengthy communication in another hand, which Mrs. Packard had
found pinned on the baby's cloak, and at my intercession had handed over
to me.

A goodly array, if the latter was a specimen of the same cipher as
the first, a fact which its general appearance seemed to establish,
notwithstanding the few added complexities observable in it, and one
which a remembrance of her extre