Show I 1 THE NIHILISTS TSI NEW NEV CIPHER explanation ax OF A KIND OF SECRET correspondence IS 18 absolutely gase SAFE the nihilists nihilisms lists have just lust hit up upon on a new and formidable cipher much to the mystification and alarm of the secret correspondence department of the third section out ont outwardly the device seems the simplest imaginable a harmless row or series of single and double figures separated from each other by dots doi s and promising e easy s resolution into the letters of wh which ick lck they stand in the place A closer examination however soon shows the uselessness of all ordin ordinary iry dry methods of cipher reading the numbers often go much higher than the thirty six letters of the russian hussian alphabet this makes it clear that there has been no simple substitution of figures for letters the same numbers frequently recur occasionally sio nally in sequences of three and four this shows that the cipher is not consistent with itself that a figure means one thing in one part of a phrase and another thing in another and that therefore no clew can be had to the secret message by simply simpi divining lor eor certain letters I 1 vowels for example from their frequency of occurrence the following example illustrates the task upon which aboh the decipherers of the third section are now engaged in examining the new nihilistic correspondence for convenience the cipher is supposed to be in n english A messa message e to st petersburg from the provinces for instance might ruu thus 16 9 38 43 30 26 29 27 21 33 41 39 16 28 17 1711 itil 1122 22 45 49 13 22 1125 11 25 23 40 40 23 2318 18 7 vil vii 11 24 f this tills sentence rea really ly consists of two the in message asage itse itself if and a keyword key word previously 0 81 a agreed eed u upon pon between the sender an and t the e rece receiver ver the letters of the alphabet contained in each are replaced by figures a being one b 2 c 3 and so on to the end the ylie numbers as they appear above are obtained by the figures of the keyword key word being continuous IS A added to the nig fig figures mires reFes representing enting the message nes sage sun being the keyword key word for example the nu numbers a bers 19 21 14 representing the letters sun s u n would woula be e added to the sequence given to the first arst three numbers in the message and in the same way to every succeeding three to the end erd ench in the example the keyword key word is I 1 liberty I 1 and by subtracting tin the numbers which corres correspond poud to tills this word namely 12 2 20 25 for the combined figures of the message sa e and word continuing the process until the end is reached the real message sa we will he be disclose disclosed in the form send bend twenty five pounds of dynamite to kieff kleff in this sentence no fewer than seven letters are repeated from one ane to three times yet in t the he numbers there are only two cases where repetition of figures corr cory corresponds esPo ads with repetition of letters f appear I 1 j ug ig g toylee as 11 and a twig as 89 80 higo times |