olving Cipher Seeree

A cipher is secret writing.

The way to solve ciphers is
to experiment with substitute
letters until real words begin
to appear. In solving, notice
the frequency of certain letters. For instance, the letters e, t, a, o, n, i, are the
most used in our language.
So if the pussle maker has

QHAVSn

used X to represent e, X tvitt

probably appear very frequently. Combinations of letters will also give you clews.
Thus, the affixes -ing, -ion,
-ally are frequent. Read the
helpful hints at the beginning
of this department each week.
The first cryptogram each
week is the easiest.

HIS week's special, No. X-7 by Peter Campbell', is exactly like our regular cryptograms
except that divisions between words are
not shown in the cipher, the grouping by sixes
being merely an arbitrary arrangement. Answers
to this cipher will not be credited in our Solvers'
Club, but let us know what luck you have with
it! The solution will be given in two weeks.

Now for a few clews to this weeh's puzzles!

The subtraction E W = E will give the value
of W in the cryptic division by R. A. H. Follow
up with A X B = W. The lo-letter key word
is numbered from o up to g. In Joubert's ia8letter message symbol B occurs 47 times, and
symbol L occurs 25 times! Comparison oif BL,
BLLB, and BLB should get you started.
In Vedette's crypt the one-letter word X and
No. X-7. By Peter Campbell.
the ending -'L^ will check with the two-letter
word XL. Next, compare QXL, JTTO, and
BXTNFK PXSRVB KEOATR
EQT, and then try for the long second word.
The four-letter word OUBA and the ending
AVVSPA VGLZZA EUTFGA
-BOAU in Jove's contribution have the same
letters. Compare these with OU-, OB, and
HVAKDB X T N F K P XSNGLB
OFU'B. Word 8 will then drop into place; and
so on. .
RAFGKZ VGLVFK XTBKEF
Patterns offer some interesting possibilities in
Yesrik's construction I Note the frequency and
SLEVRS ETFGXL YYLEPV
finaUty of symbols S and P in connection with
group 7. Find your own clews in 0. B. Eezee's
FKXLAV KDVHBG R A W S P
Inner Circle cipher! A solution of the latter and
the answers to Nos. 265-70 will be given next
AVSEZF GALXVK YHFLKE
week. . The asterisks in cryptograms indicate
Low-frequency letters provided entry in last capitalized words.
week's Inner Circle No. 264, the pangramm^tic
message by Romeo. MFSYAUT (frequencies 1-7- No. 26sCryptic Division. By R. A. H.
S-4-2-S-2) identified itself as guickly-^the antepenultimate use (in groups S and 14) of symbolK C A ) E W I H E B ( EBS
S indicating i, and thus suggesting gu for MF,
TBWE
low? frequency components of the digraph YA
favoring cb, and finality marking symbol T as y.
Using this word as a lever, it was easy to pry
BHCE
out UFBASDE {lu-ki- -) as lurking. This, noting
ETKW
the repeated L, would lead to XLBKFEL
(.-r-ug-) as through. And so to UNXLPU
C S EB
(l-th-l), lethal; EFDRKPX (gun-oat), gunboat;
RKHR (bo-6) and VFRHNBENV (-ub-erge-),
CKKE
bomb' and submerges; etc. Second-position x in
explosive was another vulnerable spot in this
AH
message.
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SOLVING CIPHER SECRETS

143

No. 266^Nice Baby. By Joubert.

MY G *ALBBRUBLB BIBLE BGIOAB G *ALBBRUBLB BLB

BL BLLB RER BAR BLB KLIZN BLBBRE, LIOAB BAR BIBLE
ORB ALB MY BAR *ALBBRUBLB BLB ALLB GUN BLLB GB
BAR *ALBBRUBLB BIBLE?
No. 267Quite a Stir. By Vedette.

VSPPNB,

JXEESTNTOETZ

*XSYXEKXD,

OPA JTROV

FERSRDTZ XL X UTZTKXS HKRLPO, QXL XSKTXZB JTTO

YXSSTZ EQT " *XNTKRYXO -^ZTGRS'L *RLSXOZ."'
No. 268Provoking Problems. By Jove.

FACIOUS POETRY FRPYRBF OFU'B RDFGOB YRHJOYRP

OUBRUFOIR PAUPRUBYDBOAU.
PCRF

FAKRBOKRF

BRDFR

BTAFR *OUURY *POY-

KR OUBA

PYGOUS AJB,

"LDKUDBOAU!"
No. 269^Unmusical Moment. By Yesrik.

*LXTRSPDXS GUOB YEUAAP PHSSYAO, YNEUAAP FXAYUYXGSP,

ESVSUOSP

FQEUBG

RKKSEP.

LSBARXP

PXUYRE ZSVRFSP FBGGSTSG, VRFFUYP PXUVUGS.

No. 270^Fun at the Factory. By O. B. Eezee.

MUDPUDCLEKOR,

YEODCLD

*MUDUYZUD

MUDDLER,

YZRMFUEBLY, GEUHX UGKOP RUXNKD PFLA MUD MUD;

ELROXP, WUZX. DLHR FLUYXZDLE HEZPLR: " MUDDLY
MUDDLER MUDDLYUXRK WOBBLY!"
LAST W E E K ' S A N S W E R S
8S9Key:

0 1 8 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
DI S COURAGE
^ ,
,
,
, , .
26a-On Hallowe'en, great owls and bats,
and funny-looking old black cats, are out to
frighten girls and boys, who know not how
to stop their noise I
261DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY is packed
full of thrilling fiction, facts, and features
including this fine cipher department!
262Coronado, Spanish explorer, sought
the golden treasure of the "Seven Cities oi

263^Unsubduable murmur'echoes through

canyon like susurration of muted saxaphone.
Musing poet attempts subtile verse redolent
^ ( h nuance of natural charm,
264-Gunboat submerges deep-sea bomb,
Lurking espionage craft perceives manoeuvre
through hare, escapes lethal explosive, quickly
journeys homeward.
' T- ,
^, ,
,
, ^,
" Enroll in our Cipher Solvers' Club for November by sending us your answers to one or
more of this week's puzzles! Address: M. E.

Cibola " in Colorado, but found only mis-

Ohaver, DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, aSo Broad-

fortune,

way, New York, N. Y.

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COMING NEXT

WEEK!

H E Patent Leather Kid stepped from the car. The pistol of the holdup man jabbed against his back. He was slated to be the fall-guy
in a series of million dollar robberies. He would be arrested, exposed,
ridiculed. Yet he dared not resist until
Only the Patent Leather Kid and Erie Stanley Gardner could have
figured the next, the amazing move which left the Kid in possession of a
huge star sapphire. -That gem was the key to the million dollar jewel robberies and a murder! Once he had it the Kid knew how safes protected by
the most modem burglar alarm systems could be opened as though by magic.
Read how the Kid solved the riddle of the five ferocious fall-guys, and the
cat that yowled when murder was to be done. Don't miss

A Novelette by Erie St
" i r O R R O R haunted that beautiful girl who locked herself in a hotel
I suite. Her face was veiled. She refused to open her door, to admit
any one but the waiter. For a murderer sought hera killer who
had left one girl, a headless corpse. The fiend -slipped through the locked
doors. In darkness his fingers clutched the girl's throat.
" Lovely little head!" whispered a gruesome voice. " Too beautiful to
be lost . . . Well, it shan't be . . ."
And in the morning a second headless corpse mocked detectives^until
Toby Lane, the reporter whose keen wits could fit a face to those headless
bodies, faced the killer in a barricaded room far underground beneath the
streets of New York.

Four with One Face

Also stories by HOWARD McLELLAN, RICHARD HOWELLS
WATKINS, MADELEINE SHARPS BUCHANAN, TOM ROAN and
others, and another installment of FRED M A C I S A A C ' S great serial!

7 mm (i
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6Dlo

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j,..msitdii>t:i FOR A REALLY FINE GIN TRY SILVER WSDD5N

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rhe

ere- a r e M'^fisw
..' "<

10

about
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strong that shocks the system
that weakens you!
Don't take a laxative that is
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for'a thousand ills!
'.
Don't take a -laxative where you
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to get results!
TAKE EX-tAX-^
-.:.
THE LAXATIVE THAT DOES NOT
FORM A HABIT
You take Ex-Lax just when you
need a laxative it won't form a
habit. You don't, have to keep on
increasing , the dose to get results.
Ex-Lax is effective but it is mild.
It acts gently yet thoroughly. I t
works over-night without over-action.
Children like to t a k e Ex-Lax
-/^because they love its delicious chocolate flavor. Grown-ups, too, prefer

f.
to take Ex-Lax because they have
found' it to be thoroughly effective-^
without the disagreeable aftereffects of harsh, nasty-tastitig laxatives.
/
< '
For 28 years, Ex-Lax has had the
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gists and the general public alike,^ ,.
because it is everything a laxativf"'"'' j.-^
, should be.
/
""''.'^iOver 50,000 druggists sell Ex-Lax 'r...
in 10c and 25c boxes.

WATCH OUT FOR IMITATIONS!

Ex-Lax has stood tlie test of time.
It has been Arheri'ea's favorite
laxative for ,28; years. Insist on
g e n u i n e Ex-',Lax s p e l l e d
E-X-L-A-X to make sure of
getting Ex-Lax results.
H

f
THE CHOCOLATED L A X A T I V E

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