After some thought he decided he would put his problem before a stockbroker friend of his own. George Hewett was junior partner of a small firm with offices in Norfolk Street off the Strand, and French, having made an appointment for fifteen minutes later, put the list in his pocket and set off to walk along the Embankment.
His friend greeted him as a long-lost brother, and after lighting up cigars, they discussed old times as well as the testamentary affairs of one Bolsover, deceased, which had involved a Chancery action in which Hewett had given evidence. That subject exhausted, French turned to his immediate business. He handed his list to the other, and telling his story, ended up by asking for an expert opinion on the whole affair.
The stockbroker took the paper and glanced rapidly down it; then he began to reread it more slowly. French sat watching him, puffing the while at his cigar. Finally the other made his pronouncement.
“Hanged if I know, French. It is evidently a statement of someone’s dealings in the money market, but it’s not in the form a professional man would use. In fact, I never saw anything quite like it before.”
“Yes?” French prompted. “In what way is it different from what you’re accustomed to?”
Hewett shrugged his shoulders.
“I suppose if I said in every way, I shouldn’t be far wrong. First place, there are no dates for the transactions. Of course if the statement was only intended to show the net result of the deals the dates wouldn’t so much matter, but a stockbroker would have put them in. Then it’s impossible to get at any idea back of the sales. You see here that 4% War Loan was sold and 5% War Loan was bought; Great Westerns were sold and North-Easterns bought, while Australian 6% was sold and British East Africa 6% bought. These stocks are all pretty much the same in value, and there was nothing to be gained by selling one and buying another. Same way no sensible man would sell Alliance Assurance and buy Amalgamated Oils. You get what I mean?”
“Quite. But mightn’t the operator have been ignorant or misled as to the values?”
“Of course he might, and no doubt was. But even allowing for that, he’s had a rum notion of stock exchange business. Then these small items are unusual. What does ‘balances’ mean? And why are ‘telegrams’ shown as a sale and not a purchase? I don’t mind admitting, French, that the thing beats me. It’s the sort of business you’d expect to be done on the stock exchange in Bedlam, if there is one.”
“I tried to get at the operator through the secretaries of some of those companies, but that was no good.”
“Which ones?”
“The Daily Looking Glass, James Barker, and the Picardie Hotel.”
“And they couldn’t help you?”
“They said no transactions of those exact figures had been carried out. The nearest were within a few pounds of what I wanted. I wondered would the amounts include brokers’ fees or stamp duty or taxes of any kind which would account for the difference?”
“I don’t think so.” Hewett pored in silence over the paper for some seconds, then he turned and faced his visitor. “Look here,” he went on deliberately, “do you want to know what I think?”
“That’s what I came for,” French reminded him.
“Very well, I’ll tell you. I think the whole thing is just a blooming fraud. And do you know what makes me sure of it?”
French shook his head.
“Well, it’s a thing you might have found out for yourself. It doesn’t add. Those figures at the bottom are not the sum of the lines. The thing’s just a blooming fraud.”
French cursed himself for his oversight, then suddenly a startling idea flashed into his mind. Suppose this list of sales and purchases had nothing whatever to do with finance. Suppose it conveyed a hidden message by means of some secret code or cipher. Was that a possibility? His voice trembled slightly, as with a haste verging on something very different from his usual Soapy Joe politeness he took his leave.
He hurried back to the Yard, eagerly anxious to get to work on his new inspiration, and reaching his office he spread the list on his desk and sat down to study it. It read:
| Bought | Sold | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| 1. War Loan 5% | 328 | 4 | 2 | |||
| 2. Australia 6% | 568 | 5 | 0 | |||
| 3. Great Western Ord. | 1,039 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 4. Associated News Ord. | 936 | 6 | 3 | |||
| 5. Aerated Bread | 713 | 9 | 2 | |||
| 6. Barclay’s Bank | 991 | 18 | 1 | |||
| 7. Alliance Assurance | 394 | 10 | 19 | |||
| 8. Lyons | 463 | 17 | 5 | |||
| 9. Picardie Hotel | 205 | 14 | 11 | |||
| 10. Anglo-American Oil | 748 | 3 | 9 | |||
| 11. War Loan 4% | 403 | 18 | 10 | |||
| 12. British East Africa 6% | 401 | 3 | 9 | |||
| 13. L. & N.E. | 292 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 14. Brit. American Tobacco | 898 | 5 | 7 | |||
| 15. Army & Navy Stores | 1,039 | 0 | 4 | |||
| 16. Lloyd’s Bank | 586 | 10 | 10 | |||
| 17. Atlas Assurance | 922 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 18. Telegrams | 16 | 7 | ||||
| 19. Maple | 90 | 19 | 6 | |||
| 20. Mappin & Webb | 463 | 4 | 5 | |||
| 21. Amalgamated Oils | 748 | 5 | 7 | |||
| 22. War Loan 4½% | 568 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 23. Canadian Govt. 3½% | 958 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 24. Balances | 17 | 3 | ||||
| 25. Metropolitan Railway | 812 | 10 | 4 | |||
| 26. Daily Looking Glass Ord. | 895 | 19 | 8 | |||
| 27. J. Barker | 371 | 18 | 11 | |||
| £6,935 | 12 | 1 | £9,127 | 18 | 2 | |
| 6,935 | 12 | 1 | ||||
| £2,192 | 6 | 1 | ||||
The first question which occurred to French was whether, assuming the list did contain some secret message, this was hidden in the names of the stocks or in the money, or in both?
Taking the former idea first, he began trying to form words out of certain letters of the names, selected on various plans. The initials, W, A, G, A, A, … were not promising, even when read bottom upwards, J, D, M, B, C. … Nor were the final letters, downwards and upwards, any better. Those next the initials and the penultimates were equally hopeless, nor did diagonal arrangements promise better.
French tried every plan he could think of, working steadily and methodically through the various cases of each, and not leaving it until he was satisfied that he was on the wrong track. He came
