short, scary Ghost Stories home | Classic Ghost Stories
WANTED short, scary ghost stories - fiction or factual - for publication on this site.If published, we will be happy to list author's biographical details and a link back to your Web site.Copyright will remain with authors. Send submissions/outlines to abracad.
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Raven Edition Volume 1
THE GOLD-BUG
page 21 of 24 | page 1 | The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume 1
 |
the tree thr...h the,
when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once. But this discovery gives us three new letters, _o_, _u_ and _g_, represented by ‡ ? and 3.
"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement,
83(88, or egree,
which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us another letter, _d_, represented by †.
"Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination
;46(;88.
"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, as before, we read thus: th rtee. an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again furnishing us with two new characters, _i_ and _n_, represented by 6 and *.
"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the combination,
53‡‡†.
"Translating, as before, we obtain
good,
which assures us that the first letter is _A_, and that the first two words are 'A good.'
"It is now time that we arrange our key, as far as discovered, in a tabular form, to avoid confusion. It will stand thus:
5 represents a
† " d
8 " e
3 " g
4 " h
6 " i
* " n
‡ " o
( " r
; " t
"We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the parchment, as unriddled. Here it is: