“Quite. But mightn’t the operator have been ignorant or misled as to the values?”
“Of course he might, and no doubt was. But even allowing for that, he’s had a rum notion of stock exchange business. Then these small items are unusual. What does ‘balances’ mean? And why are ‘telegrams’ shown as a sale and not a purchase? I don’t mind admitting, French, that the thing beats me. It’s the sort of business you’d expect to be done on the stock exchange in Bedlam, if there is one.”
“I tried to get at the operator through the secretaries of some of those companies, but that was no good.”
“Which ones?”
“The Daily Looking Glass, James Barker, and the Picardie Hotel.”
“And they couldn’t help you?”
“They said no transactions of those exact figures had been carried out. The nearest were within a few pounds of what I wanted. I wondered would the amounts include brokers’ fees or stamp duty or taxes of any kind which would account for the difference?”
“I don’t think so.” Hewett pored in silence over the paper for some seconds, then he turned and faced his visitor. “Look here,” he went on deliberately, “do you want to know what I think?”
“That’s what I came for,” French reminded him.
“Very well, I’ll tell you. I think the whole thing is just a blooming fraud. And do you know what makes me sure of it?”
French shook his head.
“Well, it’s a thing you might have found out for yourself. It doesn’t add. Those figures at the bottom are not the sum of the lines. The thing’s just a blooming fraud.”
French cursed himself for his oversight, then suddenly a startling idea flashed into his mind. Suppose this list of sales and purchases had nothing whatever to do with finance. Suppose it conveyed a hidden message by means of some secret code or cipher. Was that a possibility? His voice trembled slightly, as with a haste verging on something very different from his usual Soapy Joe politeness he took his leave.
He hurried back to the Yard, eagerly anxious to get to work on his new inspiration, and reaching his office, he spread the list on his desk and sat down to study it. It read:
STOCK AND SHARE LIST
Bought
Sold
£ s. d. £ s. d.
1. War Loan 5 p.c. - - 328 4 2
2. Australia 6 p.c. - - 568 5 0
3. Great Western Ord. - 1039 1 3
4. Associated News Ord. - 936 6 3
5. Aerated Bread - - 713 9 2
6. Barclay’s Bank - - 991 18 1
7. Alliance Assurance - 394 19 10
8. Lyons - - - - 463 17 5
9. Picardie Hotel - - 205 14 11
10. Anglo-American Oil - 748 3 9
11. War Loan 4 p.c. - - 403 18 10
12. British East Africa 6 p.c. 401 3 9
13. L. & N. E. - - - 292 1 1
14. Brit. American Tobacco 898 5 7
15. Army & Navy Stores - 1039 0 4
16. Lloyd’s Bank - - 586 10 10
17. Atlas Insurance - - 922 4 5
18. Telegrams - - - 16 7
19. Maple - - - - 90 19 6
20. Mappin & Webb - - 463 4 5
21. Amalgamated Oils - 748 5 7
22. War Loan 4½ p.c. - 568 2 3
23. Canadian Govt. 3½ p.c. 958 5 6
24. Balances - - - 17 3
25. Metropolitan Railway - 812 10 4
26. Daily Looking Glass Ord. 895 19 8
27. J. Barker - - - 371 18 11
* * *
* * *
£6935 12 1 £9127 18 2
6935 12 1
* * *
£2192 6 1
The first question which occurred to French was whether, assuming the list did contain some secret message, this was hidden in the names of the stocks or in the money, or in both?
Taking the former idea first, he began trying to form words out of certain letters of the names, selected on various plans. The initials, W, A, G, A, A,… were not promising, even when read bottom upwards, J, D, M, B, C. … Nor were the final letters, downwards and upwards, any better. Those next the initials and the penultimates were equally hopeless, nor did diagonal arrangements promise better.
French tried every plan he could think of, working steadily and methodically through the various cases of each, and not leaving it until he was satisfied that he was on the wrong track. He came on no solution, but he did make one discovery which seemed to indicate that the message, if such existed, was contained in the money columns rather than in the names. He noticed that in the majority of cases the names of the various stocks began with one of the earlier letters of the alphabet, and where this did not obtain, the stock in question was one of the first of that kind of stock to be quoted. He picked up a Daily Mail and looked at the financial page. The stocks were divided under various headings, British Stocks, Overseas Dominions, Home Railways, Canadian and Foreign Railways, and such like. The first division was British Stocks, and the first item in it was War Loan 5 per cent. But the first item on Mrs. Vane’s list was War Loan 5 per cent.
The second item on the list was Australia 6 per cent., and referring to the Daily Mail once more, French saw that Australia 6 per cent’s was the first item on the second division. This was sufficiently interesting, but when he found that the next five items, Great Western, Associated News, Aerated Bread, Barclay’s Bank, and Alliance Assurance were each the first of their respective divisions, he felt he had stumbled upon something more than a coincidence.
He re-examined the list on this new basis, only to find his conclusions verified. Apparently the person writing it had simply copied down the stocks given in some paper—probably the Daily Mail. In order to obtain variety and to make an unsuspicious-looking list, he had not simply copied them consecutively; he had taken the first out of each division. Then he had gone over the divisions again, using the second name in each case, and so on until he had obtained the whole twenty-five names that he had required. It had not been done with absolute accuracy, but there was no doubt of the general method. From this it followed that any message which the list might convey was contained in the money columns, and French accordingly transferred his attention to the latter.
and varied surprisingly between these extremes. There were none in the £100’s or the £600’s, but all the other hundreds were represented. Speaking broadly, there were more of the £800’s and £900’s than of the lower numbers. But he could not see where any of these facts tended.
There being no obvious line of research, he began a laborious and detailed investigation into the possibilities of substitution, that is, one of those ciphers in which a number or other sign is used to denote a letter. It was clear that single numbers were insufficient for this purpose, as in that case only ten letters of the alphabet could be used. Some combination was therefore involved, and French tried various schemes of addition to meet the case. But though he got three men to assist him in the details of his various tests, he could not find anything which gave the least suggestion of an intelligible combination.
While engaged in this manner, he noticed that so far as the pounds were concerned there were no less than three similar pairs, numbers 2 and 22, 3 and 15, and 10 and 21. He examined these pairs for some time, and then he suddenly made a discovery which seemed to show that at last he was on the right track. He had put the figures down beside each other, so:
£ s. d.
No. 2 - - - - - 568 5 0
No. 22 - - - - - 568 2 3
when suddenly he noticed that if the shilling and pence of each item were added the result would be the same: 5 + 0 = 5; 2 + 3 = 5. Eagerly he turned to the other pairs and wrote them out similarly:
£ s. d.
No. 3 - - - - - 1039 1 3
No. 15 - - - - - 1039 0 4
and:
£ s. d.
No. 10 - - - - - 748 3 9
No. 21 - - - - - 748 5 7
Here he saw at a glance that the same thing obtained, the pounds a
lone, and the pence and shillings added together, making two similar pairs, and therefore presumably standing for the same word.
This discovery restored all his eager interest. It seemed definitely to prove three things, each several one of which afforded him the liveliest satisfaction. First, these combinations of figures proved that there really was some underlying scheme, and that in its turn involved the hidden message; secondly, they showed that he, French, was on the direct road towards a solution and thirdly, they indicated a code or cipher built up of pairs of numbers, a frequent combination embracing many well-known varieties of cryptogram.
His next step was, therefore, to rewrite the list in dual column, the pounds in front, the pence and shillings added together behind. This gave him a new jumping-off place in the following:
328—6
568—5
1039—4
936—9
713—11, and so on.
On this he started his three men, making them try to work out keys on squares and parallelograms, as well as in other well-established ways. Then the pounds figure proving too large for this, he tried adding the various digits of these figures together. In this way, 328 became 3 + 2 + 8 or 13, and so he compiled a second list beginning:
13—6
19—5
13—4
But in spite of all his own and his men’s efforts he was unable to find any clue to the key. They worked until long after the usual quitting time, and at length he had to agree to an adjournment for the night.
Next day he again attacked the problem, but it was not until well on in the afternoon that he made an advance. Tired and dispirited, he had sent for a cup of coffee to clear his brain, and after it he had, contrary to his custom, lighted his pipe, while he leaned comfortably back in his chair still turning the matter over in his mind. He was beginning to think the puzzle insoluble, when suddenly an idea flashed into his mind, and he sat up sharply, wondering if he had hit on the solution.
He had been considering numerical ciphers of which the key is some book. These consist usually of sets of three numbers, the first representing the page, the second the line on that page, and the third the word on that line. But he recognised that one of these latter numbers might be a constant, that is, that the word should always be on, say the fifth line of the page, or that it should be the first or second of the line. In this way the cipher could be worked with pairs of numbers. The difficulty in these cases was of course to find the book which each of the communicating parties used.
So far had he progressed when he got his great idea. Where had he seen a book which seemed strangely out of keeping with its fellows? Of course! That was it at last! The Concise Oxford Dictionary in Mrs. Vane’s sitting-room!
As he thought over this he felt more and more certain that he had reached the explanation. Not only was there the fact of the book being there, but a dictionary was obviously not only the kind of book best suited for the purpose, but also that best suited for a dual number system. The first number would represent the page and the second the word on that page. The idea, further, was confirmed by the fact that while the figure for the pounds—or pages—ran from 1 to about 1000, that for the shillings and pence—or words on the page—never rose above 30. There was no doubt, French thought, that he had got it at last.
At Scotland Yard all things are procurable at short notice. He rang up a subordinate and gave urgent instructions that a Concise Oxford Dictionary was to be obtained immediately and sent up to him.
Five minutes later he was eagerly turning over the leaves. It took but a second or two to find page 328, and another second to count down to the sixth word. It was “French.”
Without waiting to consider whether this might refer to himself, in which case he had found the solution, or merely be a coincidence, in which case he hadn’t, he hastily went on to the next number. Page 568, word 5, was “On.”
“French on.” Still it might make sense or it might not. He looked up No. 3.
The fourth word on the 1039th page was “Your.” “French on your” was going all right, but when he turned up No. 4 and found that the ninth word on page 936 was “Track,” all doubt was at an end. “French on your track.” He had got it with a vengeance!
The remaining words came easily until he came to number 17, Atlas Assurance £922 4s. 5d. The ninth word on page 922 did not make sense. But he had gone so far that this further problem could not long hold him up. After a very few seconds he saw that if he added the shillings and pence of the following line—which showed no figure in the pounds column—to those of the £922, he found the word he wanted. It simply meant that there were more than thirty words preceding that in question on that page of the dictionary. 19 and 11, or 30, was the largest number one line of shillings and pence would show, therefore a larger number than 30 required two lines of shillings and pence to one of pounds. The word “telegrams” had evidently been written as a blind, and he soon saw that the item “balance” was wanted for a similar purpose. After this a few minutes sufficed to turn up all the words, and presently he sat back and looked at the completed result of his work.
“French on your track rendezvous victory hotel lee d s if I fail take your ticket boat leave s on twenty six t h.”
This as it stood was clear, but he rewrote it, putting in stops and capitals, and joining the broken words.
“French on your track. Rendezvous Victory Hotel, Leeds. If I fail take your own ticket. Boat leaves on twenty-sixth.”
So they were trying to escape by sea, Mrs. Vane and the person who had sent her the warning! Who that person was, French had but little doubt. Almost certainly it was Mr. Vane, and if so, it seemed to him also beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Vane was the murderer. At all events, whether or not, the person who had sent cipher directions to Mrs. Vane regarding their joint flight was the person he wanted. He chuckled to himself as he thought that he would soon know all about it now. He would soon find the boat they were sailing in, and then he would have them in the hollow of his hand.
But would he? As his eye fell on the almanac hanging above the chimney-piece he swore. Inexorably it reminded him that this was the twenty-sixth. The steamer had left on that very day!
But be that as it might, his procedure was clear. He must find the boat. For a moment he sat considering ways and means, and then his attention was attracted to the wording of the last phrase of the message: “Boat leaves on twenty-sixth.” This surely suggested a clue—that the service was other than daily. Had the latter obtained, the phrase would have been, “Take next Thursday’s boat,” or words to that effect. If his deduction was correct, it meant that the steamer was a seagoing ship, not merely a cross-Channel packet. This view, moreover, was to some extent supported by the probability that the fugitives would almost certainly make for a distant rather than an adjacent country.
From where, then, in the neighbourhood of Leeds, did steamers start to distant lands? Liverpool was, of course, the obvious answer, but it need not necessarily be Liverpool. From Hull and Grimsby, or even Manchester and Goole, ships left for foreign ports. It would be necessary to make a list of all the ocean-going steamers which left all the ports near Leeds on the current date.
Late though it was, French stuck to his task. A study of the shipping news revealed the fact that seven steamers were booked to leave Liverpool and Hull and the ports adjoining. From Liverpool there was a White Star liner to Boston and Philadelphia, a Lamport & Holt boat to Buenos Aires and Rosario, a Booth liner to Para and Manáos, and a Bibby liner to Egypt, Colombo and Rangoon. From Hull, a Finland liner sailed to Helsingfors and a Wilson boat to Copenhagen, while another Wilson liner left Grimsby for Christiansand. Besides these, there were doubtless numbers of cargo boats, some of which might take passengers, but these were the only regular liners, and French determined to try them first.
He called up the head office of each of the lines in question and asked had any person named Vane booked passages on their ships leaving on that day,
and if not, could they tell him if a couple answering the description which he gave had done so. There was a considerable delay in getting replies, but when he received that from the Booth Line he did not grudge the loss of time. It stated that a Mr. and Mrs. Vane, of Crewe Lodge, St. John’s Wood Road, had booked passages to Manáos by the Enoch, which left Liverpool at 3.00 p.m. that afternoon; further, these persons had gone on board at Liverpool, and as far as the head office knew, had actually sailed.
French was a trifle hazy about the Booth Line. He knew that Manáos was in South America—Brazil, he imagined, but whether the steamer sailed there direct or made intermediate calls at which it might be overtaken and at which an arrest might be made, he did not know.
He telephoned to have the information sent up to him. “The last lap!” he thought contentedly, as he pictured the arrival of the steamer at Manáos and the descent of the fugitives on to the wharf into the clutches of the waiting police. And for him it would mean not only the completion of a peculiarly worrying and difficult case, but undoubted kudos, if not actual promotion.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE S.S. “ENOCH”
In the vast organisation of Scotland Yard the indexing of information on every available subject has been brought to something more than a fine art. If French had wished to know the number of inhabitants of Prague, the favourite recreations of the Elder Brethren of Trinity House, or the width of the Ganges at Allahabad, some notes or books of reference would immediately have been forthcoming which would have fully supplied the desired information. How much more when the question was merely one of trains and steamers. He had not long to wait for an answer to his telephone, and this revealed the fact that the Booth liner Enoch, which had left Liverpool on the previous afternoon, called at Havre, Oporto, Lisbon, Madeira, and Para, before completing her voyage to Manáos by a sail of a thousand miles up the Amazon. Moreover, she awaited at Havre the arrival of the Southampton boat, the connection of which left Waterloo at 9.30 on the night of the 27th.
Inspector French's Greatest Case Page 21