One of his snowy
spats was missing; his hat was dripping, still, from its early
immersion. He entered the building, after a cautious survey of
the deserted street, with a stiff and exhausted gait.
Shirley was satisfied with this new knot in the string. He
returned to his rooms at the club, to gain fresh strength for the
trailing on the morrow. And this time, he felt that he deserved
his rest!
Next morning, after his usual plunge and rub-down, he ordered
breakfast in his rooms. He instructed the clerk to send up a
Remwood typewriter, and began his experiments with the code of
the diary.
From an old note-book, in which were tabulated the order of
letter recurrences according to their frequency in ordinary
English words, he freshened his memory. This was the natural
sequence, in direct ratio to the use of the letters: "E: T: A: O:
N: I: S: B: M, etc." The use of "E" was double that of any
other. Yet on the pages of the book he found that the most
frequently recurring symbol was "R" which was, ordinarily, one of
the least used in the alphabet.
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