in deciphering the document. And therefore I am
mentioning it--so that we need not come back to it."

Beautrelet pressed his hand on M. Filleul's and whispered:

"Don't speak--there's some one listening--outside--"

The gravel creaked. Beautrelet ran to the window and leaned out:

"There's no one there--but the border has been trodden down--we can
easily identify the footprints--"

He closed the window and sat down again:

"You see, Monsieur le Juge d'Instruction, the enemy has even ceased to
take the most ordinary precautions--he has not time left--he too feels
that the hour is urgent. Let us be quick, therefore, and speak, since
they do not wish us to speak."

He laid the document on the table and held it in position, unfolded:

"One observation, Monsieur le Juge d'Instruction, to begin with. The
paper consists almost entirely of dots and figures. And in the first
three lines and the fifth--the only ones with which we have to do at
present, for the fourth seems to present an entirely different
character--not one of those figures is higher than the figure 5. There
is, therefore, a great chance that each of these figures represents one
of the five vowels, taken in alphabetical order. Let us put down the
result."

He wrote on a separate piece of paper:

E . A . A . . E . . E . A . . A . .
A . . . E . E . . E OI . E . . E .
. OU . . E . O . . . E . . E . O . . E
AI . UI . . E . . EU . E

Then he continued:

"As you see, this does not give us much to go upon. The key is, at the
same time, very easy, because the inventor has contented himself with
replacing the vowels by figures and the consonants by dots, and very
difficult, if not impossible, because he has taken no further trouble
to complicate the problem."

"It is certainly pretty obscure."

"Let us try to throw some light upon it. The second line is divided
into two parts; and the second part appears in such a way that it
probably forms one word. If we now seek to replace the intermediary
dots by consonants, we arrive at the conclusion, after searching and
casting about, that the only consonants which are logically able to
support the vowels are also logically able to produce only one word,
the word DEMOISELLES."

"That would refer to Mlle. de Gesvres and Mlle. de Saint-Veran."

"Undoubtedly."

"And do you see nothing more?"

"Yes. I also note an hiatus in the middle of the last line; and, if I
apply a similar oper