Presently he turned toward Harren, smiling.
"Well ?" inquired the younger man impatiently; "do those scratches representing Solomon's Seal mean anything ?" "It's the strangest cipher I ever encountered," said Mr.Keen--"the strangest I ever heard of.

I have seen hundreds of ciphers--hundreds--secret codes of the State Department, secret military codes, elaborate Oriental ciphers, symbols used in commercial transactions, symbols used by criminals and every species of malefactor.
And every one of them can be solved with time and patience and a little knowledge of the subject.

But this"-- he sat looking at it with eyes half closed--"this is _too_ simple." "Simple!" "Very.

It's so simple that it's baffling." "Do you mean to say you are going to be able to find a meaning in squares and crosses ?" "I--I don't believe it is going to be so very difficult to translate them." "Great guns!" said the Captain.

"Do you mean to say that you can ultimately translate that cipher ?" The Tracer smiled.