When Clifford Vaux arrived at a certain huge building now mostly devoted to Government work connected with the war, he found upon his desk a dictionary camouflaged to represent a cook-book; and also Miss Erith's complete report. And he lost no time in opening and reading the latter document: "CLIFFORD VAUX, ESQ., "D. C. of the E. C. D., "P. I. Service. (Confidential) "Sir: "I home the honour to report that the matter with which you have entrusted me is now entirely cleared up.
"This short preliminary memorandum is merely to refresh your memory concerning the particular case herewith submitted in detail.
"In re Herman Laufer: "The code-book, as you recollect, is Stormonth's English Dictionary, XIII Edition, published by Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London, MDCCCXCVI. This book I herewith return to you.
"The entire cipher is, as we guessed, arbitrary and stupidly capricious. Phonetic spelling is indulged in occasionally--I should almost say humorously--were it not a Teuton mind which evolved the phonetic combinations which represent proper names not found in that dictionary--names like Holzminden and New York, for example.
"As for the symbols and numbers, they are not at all obscure. Reference to the dictionary makes the cipher perfectly clear.
"In Stormonth's Dictionary you will notice that each page has two columns; each column a varying number of paragraphs; some of the paragraphs contain more than one word to be defined.
"In the cipher letter the first number of any of the groups of figures which are connected by dashes (--) and separated by vertical (|) represents the page in Stormonth's Dictionary on which the word is to be found.
"The second number represents the column (1 or 2) in which the word is to be found.
"The third number indicates the position of the word, counting from the bottom of the page upward, in the proper column.
"Roman numerals which sometimes follow, enclosed in a circle, give the position of the word in the paragraph, if it does not, as usual, begin the paragraph.
"The phonetic spelling of Holzminden is marked by an asterisk when first employed. Afterward only the asterisk (*) is used, instead of the cumbersome phonetic symbol.
"Minus and plus signs are namely used to subtract or to add letters or to connect syllables. Reference to the code-book makes all this clear enough.
"In the description of the escaped prisoner, Roman numerals give his age; Roman and Arabic his height in feet and inches.
"Arabic numerals enclosed in circles represent capital letters as they occur in the middle of a page in the dictionary--as S, for example, is printed in the middle of the page; and all words beginning with S follow in proper sequence.