_h_ = 23 --
_i_ = 4 --
_j_ = 8 --
_k_ = 9 --
_l_ = 9 --
_m_ = 9 --
_n_ = 9 --
_o_ = 12 --
_p_ = 16 --
_q_ = 16 --
_r_ = 12 --
_s_ = 10 --
_t_ = 8 --
_u_ = 17 --
_v_ = 13 --
_x_ = 12 --
_y_ = 19 --
_z_ = 12 --
----------------
Total... 276 times.

"Ah, ah!" he exclaimed. "One thing strikes me at once, and that is that
in this paragraph all the letters of the alphabet are not used. That is
very strange. If we take up a book and open it by chance it will be
very seldom that we shall hit upon two hundred and seventy-six letters
without all the signs of the alphabet figuring among them. After all, it
may be chance," and then he passed to a different train of thought.
"One important point is to see if the vowels and consonants are in their
normal proportion."

And so he seized his pen, counted up the vowels, and obtained the
following result:

_a_ = 3 times
_e_ = 9 --
_i_ = 4 --
_o_ = 12 --
_u_ = 17 --
_y_ = 19 --
----------------
Total... 276 times.

"And thus there are in this paragraph, after we have done our
subtraction, sixty-four vowels and two hundred and twelve consonants.
Good! that is the normal proportion. That is about a fifth, as in the
alphabet, where there are six vowels among twenty-six letters. It is
possible, therefore, that the document is written in the language of our
country, and that only the signification of each letter is changed. If
it has been modified in regular order, and a _b_ is always represented
by an _l,_ and _o_ by a _v,_ a _g_ by a _k,_ an _u_ by an _r,_ etc., I
will give up my judgeship if I do not read it. What can I do better than
follow the method of that great analytical genius, Edgar Allan Poe?"

Judge Jarriquez herein alluded to a story by the great American
romancer, which is a masterpiece. Who has not read the "Gold Bug?" In
this novel a cryptogram, composed of ciphers, letters, algebraic signs,
asterisks, full-stops, and commas, is submitted to a truly mathematical
analysis, and is deciphered under extraordinary conditions, which the
admirers of that strange genius can never forget. On the reading of the
American document depended only a treasure, while on that of this
one depended a man's life. Its