Mammoth Books Presents The Case of the Last Battle by L. B. Greenwood

Author:L. B. Greenwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472100740
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

“Whether or not the count knew that the prince had, moments before, received this page from the president I do not know, thought I should think it highly likely. Certainly he used the prince’s near delirium to remove the paper from wherever the prince had hastily shoved it – child’s play for a man like the count.”

I looked again at the page I held, with no more enlightenment than before. “What on earth would the key to this be like?”

“A page of lightly transparent paper of the same size and shape and with the same squares ruled on it, but with the random letters that are added as mere disguise blacked out. By placing that page over this, one can see at once the letters that form the true message.”

“There are no vowels,” I pointed out.

“Not necessary.” Holmes scribbled on a notepad and handed it to me. “Can you read that?”

He had written HLMSNDWTSN. “Holmes and Watson,” I said.

“Precisely.”

I stared back at the page of filled squares. “Without the key is it hopeless?”

“I won’t concede that, doctor. It is only the pressure of time that worries me. At least we do start with some advantages.”

“I can see none, Holmes, absolutely none.”

Holmes tapped the top left and bottom right of the page. “We know that this is a personal message from the American president to the German chancellor. Since the first two letters here are PM and the last WW, surely it is probable that these stand for Prince Max and Woodrow Wilson.”

“That is not much.”

“There are other assumptions that we can, I think, safely make. For instance, since the prince is fluent in English and the president not in German, almost surely the language used is English. Also, though the two are naturally of the highest political status, they are amateurs in the employment of codes. Therefore the device selected is apt to be simple.

“Further, even sending such pages as this between them is becoming increasingly difficult to arrange safely: Count Hoffenstein will not be the only spy on the watch along the route. Therefore the same code will most probably have been meant for all their covert communications, meaning that ample space will have been allowed. You will note that the last three lines of the squares on this page have the consonants interspersed in regular alphabetical order, from B to X. That almost surely indicates that the message is contained in only the first eight lines.

“We’re not beaten yet, doctor. Not while we both have work to do.”

With that I certainly agreed, though heaving a deep sigh at our chances of success. I returned to the prince, who was struggling to get out of bed, and administered a small dose of morphine.

Though this quickly quietened him, he still had periods in which his whole body jerked, his eyes fluttered uneasily, and he would cry out thickly, “Where … where … where …” as long as he could find breath. These symptoms ceased after the second injection, but his breathing became increasingly strained, his face even more flushed, his skin burning.

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