http://www.und.nodak.edu/org/crypto/crypto/general.crypt.info/sherlock.cipher

From RREYNARD@aol.com Sun Mar 21 18:44:30 1999
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 16:57:34 EST
From: Bob Reynard <RREYNARD@aol.com>
Reply-To: ACA-L <ACA-L@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU>
To: ACA-L@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU
Subject: Ciphers in fiction

Krewe,

I believe some Krewe members are interested in the solving of ciphers that
appear in fiction. One of the most well known of these ciphers appeared in a
Sherlock Holmes' short story, 'The Adventure of the Dancing Men.'

With the expiration of the copyrights to these stories, there were a number of
pseudo Sherlock Holmes adventures written under the pretense that they were
'lost' accounts that had only recently be discovered.

Among those is a story written by L.B. Greenwood (Beth), a Canadian and avid
fan of Sherlock, titled 'The Case of the Last Battle.' Central to this story
is a cipher. I have included it here for those of you interested in such
things.

P M B F D R C S T C N
R W N T D H S T V S N
C Y C R S S S G N R R
F N T W H D R L S L B
D R T G T H C T K F M
R M T N H N N T T P H
R S M C P N T T R N P
N L T Y N V W T N L T
B N C C D N F C G V H
D J K N L M L N P B Q
R S R T T V Y W X W W

This was how the cipher was shown in the text of the story. Each letter was
written into a square formed by drawing a large table (matrix) 11 squares by
11 squares.

I don't want to spoil the 'fun' and give too many clues, yet I want to be fair
and reasonable. Therefore, I will initially provide only a minimum and respond
to any requests for additional ones.

This is a message from American President Woodrow Wilson to German Chancellor
Prince Max of Baden on 9 November, 1918. It was in reply to Prince Max's
request for the terms of surrender to which Germany must agree for any
armistice.

Hence the PM at the beginning and the WW at the end. There is a 'key' for the
deciphering of this message, which Prince Max had written down and which had
been stolen. Prince Max was very ill and collapsed unconscious when he
discovered that the 'key' was missing. Sherlock worked through the night to
decipher the message, without aid of the 'key' or any clues from Prince Max.
He solved the cipher and was able to inform the Kaiser of the terms in time
for the negotiation of the armistice the following day.

Regards,

FOX

Here is the Frequency Count of the Sherlock Puzzle. -DAW

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