The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book Read Online Free Page B

practice.
     
    Sex
Ethnicity
Age
Height
Weight
Build
Hair
Eyes
Nose
Ears
Shape of head
Shape of face
Glasses
Complexion
Scars or marks
Tattoos
Any peculiarities

CHAPTER IV
    THE HIDDEN INHERITANCE
    Codes

    NANCY brought her three-legged childhood blackboard from the attic and set it up in the living room. She took a piece of chalk from a box, consulted a slip of paper in her left hand, then wrote:
    WECANCERTAINLYN
OTEACOTEBY
THECOOING
    A few minutes later, the members of her Detective Club began to arrive. In turn, each one asked, “What’s that?”
    “A code for you to figure out,” Nancy replied. “Buried in a sentence is a name you know well. What does the sentence say, and what is the name hidden inside?”
    The girls stared at the blackboard for several minutes. Each one finally said, “I give up.”
    Nancy smiled. “A good detective absolutely never gives up.”
    She asked the girls to take their notebooks and work on the puzzle. “Most codes are based on the transposition of letters or numbers,” she said. “This one is based on letters.”
    She left the room for ten minutes. When the young detective returned, she asked, “Any luck?”
    “A little,” Peg spoke up. “The first line says, ‘We can certainly,’ but what’s the N for?”
    Nancy laughed. “How about hooking it to the beginning of the next line?”
    Peg did. “The next word could be note.”
    “Good. Keep going.”
    Presently, Sue called out, “Note a cote. A cote’s where you keep pigeons, isn’t it?”
    Nancy nodded. “So far you have, ‘We can certainly note a cote.‘ What’s next?”
    “Ah, I know,” Karen exclaimed. “Pigeons coo. The sentence is, ‘We can certainly note a cote by the cooing. ’”
    The others clapped, then Peg asked, “How do we find the hidden name?”
    Nancy suggested that the girls try using numerical relationships in the sentence this time, like perhaps the first letter in each word. “But that isn’t the answer in this case, so try something else.”

    “How do we find the hidden name? ” Peg asked.
    At once the Detective Club members began to count on their fingers. After a while, Peg held up five fingers, and Nancy nodded.
    “Girls,” said Peg, “try every fifth letter.”
    They did, and called out in unison, “It’s Nancy! The hidden name is Nancy!”
    There was much laughter, and the girls remarked, “Well, what do you know?” “Pretty clever and tricky,” and “How come we couldn’t figure it out ourselves?”
    When the noise subsided, Nancy said, “You just aren’t used to codes, but don’t worry—there’s plenty more where that came from. This was just a teaser. Karen and I have a mystery for all of us to solve. She will tell you about it.”
    Karen stood up and showed the others a paper that looked as if words on it might be a sentence, but the message made no sense.
    “This is a copy of a piece of paper my father found at the bank in the safe-deposit box of a Mr. Carvello who died. Dad is an executor and is trying to settle the estate. In the will, Mr. Carvello left everything to a children’s home, but nothing of value has been found in his house except a few pieces of furniture. Since Mr. Carvello was reputed to be wealthy, this seems strange. But Dad did tell me the man was an eccentric.”
    Nancy asked, “Does your dad think this paper may contain a clue to something of value that’s hidden?”
    “He does,” Karen replied. “He planned to take the message to a specialist in breaking codes, but he said if the members of our Detective Club wanted to work on it, he’d wait a couple of days.”
    “We’ll certainly try,” Nancy replied, and the other girls said, “You bet.”
    Nancy took the paper and copied the strange words on the blackboard.

FSSU CSI KZFPZAFX IXOZIB VG CZFQX CFSSI
    Peg called out, “It looks like some foreign language!”
    “It sure does,” Martie agreed. “Nancy, how do we tackle this?”
    “First, look for double letters. Then,