object in their
arrangement, and, to be more exact, placed as follows:--

NVVGRMGSVTBNDSVMGSVUVOOLD
HKZHHLMGLHFKKVIGSVGDLXZM
HLUDZGVIZIGHGZMWRMTRMHRW
VGSVXFKYLZIWFMWVIGSVHGZRIH.

"Well, what is there funny about that?" asked Jack; "it looks to me as
if some one had been practising making capitals."

"Is it a puzzle?" inquired Mugford.

"No, but I'll tell you what I think it is," answered Diggory, sitting
down, and speaking in a low, mysterious tone: "it's a letter written in
cipher."

"A letter?" repeated Mugford, glancing at the paper. "Why, how could
any one read that rubbish--NVVG?"

"Of course they can, if they know the key. Didn't I say it was written
in cipher, you duffer? Every letter you see there stands for something
different."

"Then why didn't they write the proper letters at once, and have done
with it?" grumbled Mugford.

"Because, you prize ass," retorted Diggory, with pardonable asperity,
"they didn't want it read."

"Then if they didn't want it read, why did they write it at all?"
exclaimed Mugford triumphantly.

"Oh, shut up! you're cracked, you--"

"Look here," interrupted Jack Vance, "where did you find the thing?"

"Why, you know the window in the box-room that looks out on the 'quad;'
well, there's a little crack under the ledge between the wooden frame
and the wall, and this note was stuck in there. I should never have
seen it, only I was watching a spider crawling up the wall, and it ran
into the hole close to the end of the paper. Some fellows must be using
the place as a sort of post-office; don't you remember Fred Acton made
one in the wainscotting at The Birches? only these fellows have invented
a cipher. Well, I'm going to find it out, and read this note, just for
the lark."

"How are you going to do it, though? I don't see it's possible to read
a thing like this; you can't tell where one word ends and a fresh one
begins."

"There is a way of finding out a cipher," answered Diggory; "it tells
you how to do it in that book that we bought when Mug had his things
sold by auction at Chatford."

"What, in Poe's tales?" asked Mugford. "Yes; in one of the stories
called 'The Gold Bug.' Where is the book?"

"I lent it to Maxton, but I should think he's finished it by this time.
I'll go and see."

"All right," said Diggory, pocketing the slip of paper; "you get it, and
then I can show you what I mean. Come on, Jack