"
"But this one--d'you see it?"
"Milk for babes, Mark."
Mr. Ganns turned to his notebook, wrote swiftly into it, tore out
the page, and handed the solution to his companion.
Brendon read:
G O D
Omega Alph A
D O G
"If you know Knut Hamsun's stories, then you guess it instantly. If
not, you might possibly be bothered," he said, while Brendon stared.
"There are two ways with acrostics," continued Peter, full of
animation, "the first is to make lights so difficult that they turn
your hair grey till you've got them, the second--just traps--perhaps
three perfectly sound answers to the same light, but the second just
a shade sounder than the first, and the third a shade sounder than
either of the others."
"Who makes acrostics like that?"
"Nobody. Life's too short; but if I devoted a year to a perfect
acrostic, you bet your life it would take my fellow creatures a year
to guess it. The same with cryptography, which we've both run up
against, no doubt, in course of business.
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