me agitation on opening it would have
settled in my mind, even if these complexities had been greater and
the differences even more pronounced than they were. Lines entirely
unsuggestive of meaning to her might have aroused her wonder and
possibly her anger, but not her fear; and the emotion which I chiefly
observed in her at that moment had been fear.

So! out of these one hundred and fifty characters, many of them mere
repetitions, it remained for me to discover a key whereby their meaning
might be rendered intelligible.

To begin, then, what peculiarities were first observable in them?

Several.

First: The symbols followed one after the other without breaks, whether
the communication was limited to one word or to many.

Second: Nos. 2, 3 and 4 started with the identical characters which made
up No. 1.

Third: While certain lines in Nos. 2, 3 and 4 were heavier than others,
no such distinction was observable in the characters forming No. 1.

Fourth: This distinction was even more marked in the longer specimen
written by another hand, viz.: No. 5.

Fifth: This distinction, which we will call shading, occurred
intermittently, sometimes in two consecutive characters, but never in
three.

Sixth: This shading was to be seen now on one limb of the character it
apparently emphasized and now on another.

Seventh: In the three specimens of the seven similar characters
commencing Nos. 2, 3 and 4, the exact part shaded was not always the
same as for instance, it was the left arm of the second character in No.
2 which showed the heavy line, while the shading was on the right-hand
arm of the corresponding character in No. 3.

Eighth: These variations of emphasis in No. 4 coincided sometimes with
those seen in No. 2 and again with those in No. 3.

Ninth: Each one of these specimens, saving the first, ended in a shaded
character.

Tenth: While some of the characters were squares or parts of a square,
others were in the shape of a Y turned now this way and now that.

Eleventh: These characters were varied by the introduction of dots, and,
in some cases, by the insertion of minute sketches of animals, birds,
arrows, signs of the zodiac, etc., with here and there one of a
humorous, possibly sarcastic, nature.

Twelfth: Dots and dots only were to be found in the specimen emanating
from Mrs. Packard's hand; birds, arrows, skipping boys and hanging men,
etc., being confined to No. 5, the product of another brain and ha