The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 245: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

228 REYNOLDS’ WORKS hysterical fits. The Amazonian lady promised to follow this advice, but so soon as the surgeon and his assistant had taken their leave, she sat down to an excellent luncheon with the Marshalls, and heartily did they all laugh at the discom- fiture of the busthng Mr. Marlow. Before we conclude this chapter, we must give a few requisite explanations. The scrap of paper, written by Lady Bess, and sent by the carrier-pigeon, contained the following lines: ‘Stations, horses. ‘* Dover, do something to prove I was at your house this night. ‘Twenty minutes to two.”’ The first ine was a command merely referring to the two stations of Gravesend and Boughton Hill; the second, by having the word Dover prefixed, showed that this portion of the message was intended for the Marshalls; the third in- dicated the exact time when the bird was despatched. At Gravesend Rebecca Patch made a cross on the billet, to show that the bird had halted at one station; at Boughton Hill Joe Dean did the same thing, as an indication that the second station had been touched at. If, for instance, the bird had reached Boughton Hill without proof that it had stopped at Gravesend, Joe Dean would have still let it proceed on to Dover, but would have at once despatched a carrier dove of his own to Gravesend to give the order for the relay-horse that was needed; and if the bird had reached Dover without the proofs (indicated by the two marks on the scrap of paper) of having stopped at the intermediate stations, then Kate Marshall would have sent the bird back with another note conveying the requisite orders for the relays. With regard to the secret of the writing, the clue to the reading thereof depended, as a matter of course, upon a preconcerted arrangement and understanding known to all the parties concerned; and the clue to the mystery lay in the possession of the key to a certain transposition of the alpha- bet. Hach day in the year 1844 had its particular initial letter thus definitely settled, and we have seen that on the present occasion the letter L served that purpose. ‘This letter, then, became for the occasion the first in the alphabet. Gomicbooks! co