Their friend, however, would vouchsafe no further reply than, "Come here out of the way, and I'll tell you." He dragged them along until they reached the deserted entrance to some of the classrooms; then, stopping and turning to them with an extraordinary look of mingled triumph, mystery, and excitement, exclaimed,-- "I've read the cipher!" "Pooh! what of that ?" answered Jack, rather annoyed at being taken so far out of his way for nothing.

"I expect it isn't anything particular after all." "It is, though," returned the other confidently; "and you'll say so too when you read it." "Well, tell us first how you managed to find it out." "That's just what I was going to do.

You know I found that G was T, S was H, and V was E; well, I tried and tried, and I couldn't get any further.

I wrote down the alphabet, and put V opposite E, and T opposite G, and S opposite H.

I stared at it and stared at it, and all of a sudden--I don't know how I came to think of it--I noticed that E is the fifth letter from the _beginning_ of the alphabet, and V is the fifth letter from the _end_.