They made discoveries at which we are astonished.

Has not this Saknussemm concealed under his cryptogram some surprising invention?
It is so; it must be so!" The Professor's imagination took fire at this hypothesis.
"No doubt," I ventured to reply, "but what interest would he have in thus hiding so marvellous a discovery ?" "Why?
Why?
How can I tell?
Did not Galileo do the same by Saturn?
We shall see.

I will get at the secret of this document, and I will neither sleep nor eat until I have found it out." My comment on this was a half-suppressed "Oh!" "Nor you either, Axel," he added.
"The deuce!" said I to myself; "then it is lucky I have eaten two dinners to-day!" "First of all we must find out the key to this cipher; that cannot be difficult." At these words I quickly raised my head; but my uncle went on soliloquising.
"There's nothing easier.

In this document there are a hundred and thirty-two letters, viz., seventy-seven consonants and fifty-five vowels.

This is the proportion found in southern languages, whilst northern tongues are much richer in consonants; therefore this is in a southern language." These were very fair conclusions, I thought.
"But what language is it ?" Here I looked for a display of learning, but I met instead with profound analysis.
"This Saknussemm," he went on, "was a very well-informed man; now since he was not writing in his own mother tongue, he would naturally select that which was currently adopted by the choice spirits of the sixteenth century; I mean Latin.