on of letters which Poe says occurs so often in our
language that they can easily be picked out in a cipher of this length.
How many times can a conjunction of two similar characters be found in
the lines before us..>.[-] occurs three times, which is often enough,
perhaps, to establish the fact that they stand for th. Do I find them
joined with a third character in the list of possible thes? Yes..> [-]
which would seem to fix both the th and the e.

But I have grown wary and must make myself sure. Do I find a word in
which this combination of. >.[-] occurs twice, as sometimes happens with
the th we are considering? No, but I find two other instances in which
like contiguous symbols do appear twice in one word; the.<.[-] in No. 3
and the.V.)C in No. 4--a discovery the most embarrassing of all, since
in both cases the symbols which begin the word are reversed at its end,
as witness:.V.)C - - - )C .V --.<.[-] - - -.[-].<. For, if.V )C stands
for th, and the whole word showed in letters th- - -ht, which to any eye
suggests the word thought, what does.<.[-] stand for, concerning which
the same conditions are observable?

I could not answer. I had run on a snag.

Rules which applied to one part of the cipher failed in another. Could
it be that a key was necessary to its proper solution? I began to think
so, and, moreover, that Mrs. Packard had made use of some such help as
I watched her puzzling in the window over these symbols. I recalled her
movements, the length of time which elapsed before the cry of miserable
understanding escaped her lips, the fact that her dress was torn apart
at the throat when she came out, and decided that she had not only drawn
some paper from her bosom helpful to the elucidation of these symbols,
but that this paper was the one which had been the object of her frantic
search the night I watched her shadow on the wall.

So convinced was I by these thoughts that any further attempt to solve
the cryptogram without such aid as I have mentioned would end by leaving
me where I was at present,--that is, in the fog,--that I allowed the
lateness of the hour to influence me; and, putting aside my papers, I
went to bed. If I had sat over them another hour, should I have been
more fortunate? Make the attempt yourself and see.

CHAPTER XXII. MERCY

"Where is my wife?"

"Sleeping, sir, after a day of exhausting emotion."

"She didn't wire me?"

"No, sir."

"Perhaps she wasn't able?"

"She