Have His Carcase

‘That’s right. So your coded message stands now: SP SM FA TC MX SK PV NP TU DR. To make it look prettier and not give the method away, you can break it up into any lengths you like. For instance. SPSM FAT CMXS KPV NPTUDR. Or you can embellish it with punctuation at hapazard. S.P. SMFA. TCMXS, KPVN, PT! UDR It doesn’t matter. The man who gets it will ignore all that. He will simply break it up into pairs of letters again and read it with the help of the code diagram. Taking the diagonals as before, and the next letter above, where they come on the same vertical line, and the next to the left where they come on the same horizontal.’

The two policemen pored over the diagram. Then Umpelty said:

‘I see, my lord. — It’s very ingenious. You can’t guess it by way of the most frequent letter, because you get a different letter for it each time, according as it’s grouped to the next letter. And you can’t guess individual words, because you don’t know where the words begin and end. Is it at all possible to decode it without the key-’word?’

‘Oh dear, yes,’ said Wimsey. ‘Any code ever coded can be decoded with pains and patience — except possibly some of the book codes. I know a man who spent years doing nothing else. The code diagram got so bitten into him that when he caught: measles he came out in checks instead of spots.’

‘Then he could decode this,’ said Glaisher, eagerly.

‘On his head. We’ll send him a copy if you like. I don’t know where he is, but I know those that do. Shall I bung it off? It would save us a lot of time.’

‘I wish you would, my lord.’

Wimsey took a copy of the letter, pushed it into an envelope and enclosed a brief note.

‘DEAR CLUMPS, — Here’s a cipher message. Probably Playfair, but old Bungo will know. Can you push it off to him and say I’d ‘ be grateful for a construe? Said to hail from Central Europe, but ten to one it’s in English. How goes?

‘Yours,

‘WIMBLES.’

‘Seen’ anything of Trotters lately?’

He addressed the envelope to an official at the Foreign Office, and picked up another copy of the cipher.

‘I’ll take this if I may. We’ll try it out with some of Alexis’ selected words. It’ll be a nice job for Miss Vane, and a healthy change from crosswords. Now, what’s the next item?’

‘Nothing very much yet, my lord. We haven’t found anybody who saw Perkins pass through Darley at any time, but we’ve found the chemist who served him in Wilvercombe. He says Perkins was there at eleven o’clock, which gives him ample time to be at Darley by 1.15. And Perkins has had a bad relapse and can’t be interrogated. And we’ve seen Newcombe, the farmer, who corroborates finding the mare wandering, on the shore on Friday morning. He says, too, that she was in the field O.K. when his man was down there on the Wednesday, and that he is quite sure she couldn’t have got through the gap in the hedge by herself. But then, naturally, nobody ever believes his own neglect is to blame for anything.’

‘Naturally not. I think I’ll run over and see Farmer Newcombe. In the meantime, Miss Vane is going to do her damnedest; with the cipher — trying out all the marked words on it. Aren’t you?’

‘If you like.’

‘Noble woman! It would be fun if we got ahead of the official interpreter. I suppose the Weldons show no signs of moving.

‘Not the slightest. But I haven’t seen much of them since the funeral. Henry seems a bit stand-offish — can’t get over the snake episode, I suppose. And his mother—’

‘Well?’

‘Oh, nothing. But she seems to be trying to get fresh information out of Antoine.’

‘Indeed?’

‘Yes. Antoine is being very sympathetic.’ ‘Good luck to him. Well, cheerio!’