Moriarty

LsLsL LLsLL sLsLs LLLLL sLLLL LsLss LsLss sLsLs LLsLL ssLsL

sLsLs LLsLL LLsss sssss LLsLL sLsLL LsssL ssLsL sLLLL sLLLL sLsLL

ssLsL sLLLL sssss sLsLL sLsLL LLLss sLLLL sssLL sssss LLLLL sLLLL

LLsLL sLsLs LsssL sssss LLLsL LLLsL sLsLs LLsLs ssLLL sLsLs LLsLs

sLsLs LLsLs sLLLL sLsLs sssLL LLLsL sLsLs sssLL sssLs ssLsL sssss

LsssL sLsLL LLLss sLLLL sLsLL LsLLs sLLLL LLLsL LLLLL sLsLL

LLLss LsLLs sLLLL sssss LLsLL sssss LLsLL sLLLL ssLLL sLsLL sLLsL

LLLsL LLsss LsLsL

Jones had carefully written the groups of letters across the page. I stared at them. ‘It’s the electrical telegraph system!’ I exclaimed.

‘It is something very similar,’ the detective agreed. ‘Morse code, with each group representing a single letter! And you will see, Chase, that certain groups repeat themselves. “sLLLL”, for example, appears no fewer than eleven times.’

‘A vowel?’ I suggested.

‘Almost certainly, and “sssss” might be another, appearing seven times. But set out this way, the groups are confusing. My next step was to assign each one of them a number, making it simpler to see what it was in fact we had before us. We are helped by the fact that only nineteen of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet have actually been used.’

He withdrew a third sheet of paper. On this, he had written as follows:

1 2 3 4 5 6 6 3 2 7 3 2 8 9 2 10 11 7 5 5 10 7 5

9 10 10 12 5 13 9 4 5 2 3 11 9 14 14 3 15 16 3 15

3 15 5 3 13 14 3 13 17 7 9 11 10 12 5 10 18 5 14 4

10 12 18 5 9 2 9 2 5 16 10 19 14 8 1

‘You understand,’ he explained, ‘that each number merely stands for a group. So one equals LsLsL, two equals LLsLL and so on …’

‘I see that. Yes.’

‘And what does it tell you?’ This was a very different Athelney Jones from the one I had seen earlier, exhausted after the walk from the church. There was no escaping the energy and the sense of excitement that glimmered in his eyes.

‘Each number now stands for a single letter,’ I said. ‘But there are a lot of numbers — nineteen, as you correctly say — and we are not helped by the fact that there are no spaces. We have no way of telling where one word ends and the next begins.’

‘That is indeed the case,’ Jones agreed. ‘However, at the very least we can see now which numbers — 3, 5 and 10, for example — crop up the most frequently. These must be vowels or perhaps the more commonly used letters such as T, R or S. Unfortunately, you are correct in saying that without spaces, we cannot spot the shapes of common English words such as “the” or “a”. That is very much to our disadvantage.’

‘So how were you able to continue?’

‘With a combination of diligence and good luck: I began by asking myself if there might be a single word appearing in this communication which I would be able to recognise simply from its shape. Several came to mind. SHERLOCK HOLMES, for example, was one. PINKERTONS was another. But in the end I settled on MORIARTY. If it was he for whom the message was intended, then it was surely not unreasonable to suppose that his name might appear. I therefore searched for a sequence of eight digits in which one — and only one — was repeated in the third and sixth position as is the case with the R in MORIARTY. For example, at the very beginning of the message we come upon 6 6 3 2 7 3 2 8 where the 3 might be an R. But that cannot be MORIARTY because of the double 6 and the repeated 2. Later on in the text we see 5 3 13 14 3 13 17 7 where the figure 13 might stand for R. But this time it is the repeated 3 that defeats us.

‘In fact, in the entire message, the correct formulation appears only once — near the beginning of the first line we have 7 3 2 8 9 2 10 11. In this instance, the number 2 stands for R and — as in the name itself — no other letter is repeated. And if we assume that this stands for MORIARTY, something very interesting happens. For if we then examine the letters that appear before it, this is what we read …’

1 R O 4 5 6 6 O R

‘It could be more than one word,’ I said.

‘But I do not think it is more than one word,’ returned he. ‘Look at the repeated R, the repeated O — and whatever letter is represented by the repeated 6. As far as I can tell, there is only one word in the English language with a shape like that. And consider also the context. This is a salutation to the receiver of the message.’

‘Professor!’ I exclaimed.