h the skull downward, and put the pan upon a
furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes, the pan having become
thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and, to my inexpressible joy,
found it spotted, in several places, with what appeared to be figures
arranged in lines. Again I placed it in the pan, and suffered it to
remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was just as you
see it now."

Here Legrand, having reheated the parchment, submitted it to my
inspection. The following characters were rudely traced in a red tint,
between the death's-head and the goat:

"53[dd][dd]t3o5))6*;4826)4[dd])4[dd].;8o6*;48[d]8[pilcrow]6o))85
;1[dd](;:[dd]*8[d]83(88)5*[d];46(;88*96e*?;8)*[dd](;485);5*[d]2:*
[dd](;4956*2(5*--4)8[pilcrow]8*;4o69285);)6[d]8)4tt;1([dd]9;48o81
;8:8[dd]1;48t85;4)485[d]5288o6*81([dd]9;48;(88;4([dd]
?34;48)4[dd];161;:188:188;[dd]?;"

[Transcriber's note: "[d]" indicates the dagger symbol, "[dd]"
indicates the double-dagger symbol, and "[pilcrow]" indicates the
pilcrow symbol.]

"But," said I, returning him the slip, "I am as much in the dark as
ever. Were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me upon my solution of
this enigma, I am quite sure that I should be unable to earn them."

"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as
you might be led to imagine from the first hasty inspection of the
characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a
cipher--that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then from what is
known of Kidd, I could not suppose him capable of constructing any of
the more abstruse cryptographs, I made up my mind, at once, that this
was of a simple species--such, however, as would appear, to the crude
intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key."

"And you really solved it?"

"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times
greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to
take interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human
ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may
not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established
connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere
difficulty of developing their import.

"In the present case--indeed, in all cases of secret writing--the first
question regards the _language_ of the cipher; for the principles of
solution, so far, especially, as t