h are joined together by
the sign of the treble clef is _C_. The dot on the space between that
and the first of the five lines is _D_. The dot on the first line is
_E_; on the next space is _F_, and so forth, in their alphabetical
order on the alternating lines and spaces. Do you see how easily, they
could be used as the letters of words in a cryptogram, by any one of
an ingenious turn of mind? Of course, each bar--that is, each section
enclosed by lines running straight up and down--represents a word. Now
for the rest of it:

"Leaving the script music idea aside, and taking the characters not so
represented in the cryptogram, we find that '3' when viewed from the
under side of the paper will look very much like an English _E_; 7
like _T_; 9 like _P_; 2 like _S_, and so forth.

"Try it. Here is the first note, the one you found. Puzzle out the
musical notes by their alphabetical nomenclature from the key I just
gave you on the scrap of paper there; then hold the note up to the
light, and read the other letters from the under side. Try it with
both notes, and tell me what you find."

Guy took the papers, and wonderingly spelled out the letters
represented by the musical notes, from the scale Blaine had given him.
Then turning the pages over, he held them up to the light, an
exclamation of absorbed interest escaping from him.

The great detective watched him in silence, until at last, with a
glowing sense of achievement, Guy read:

"'Beat it at once. You are suspected. Detective on trail. Rite old
address. I am sending funds as usual. If caught you get life sentence.
Pad.'"

Blaine nodded.

"Now, the other."

"'Patient still unconscious. Consultation necessary at once to save
life. Should he die advise Reddy what disposition to make of body.
Mac.'"

The last cryptogram proved the more easily decipherable, and when the
young operative had read it aloud, he looked up with a glowing face.

"By George, it's a world-beater! What put you on the right track?"

"The last one. I realized then that they were afraid the kidnaped man,
Ramon Hamilton, who had been grievously wounded, would die on their
hands, and that rather than face the results of such a contingency
they would attempt to obtain some obscure but experienced medical aid,
and in a way which would give the physician no inkling of his
patient's identity or whereabouts. I therefore sent out that circular
letter to every doctor in Illington, warning each one