These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a
cipher, that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is
known of Kidd, I could not suppose him capable of constructing any of
the more abstruse cryptographs[21]. I made up my mind, at once, that
this was of a simple species--such, however, as would appear, to the
crude intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key."
"And you really solved it?"
"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times
greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to
take interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether
human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human
ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having
once established connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a
thought to the mere difficulty of developing their import.
"In the present case--indeed, in all cases of secret writing--the
first question regards the _language_ of the cipher; for the
principles of solution, so far especially as the more simple ciphers
are concerned, depend upon, and are varied by, the genius of the
particular idiom. In general, there is no alternative but experiment
(directed by probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts
the solution, until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now
before us, all difficulty was removed by the signature.
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