Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Password Letter

Two days later, Sarkani arrived at Zatmar's house.After Duolongta's introduction and his self-recommendation, the Earl accepted him.In this way, the banker and his agent colluded and started the conspiracy.Its purpose is to explore the secrets, put the leader of the rebellion to death, and make a fortune by the reward of the informer; till.At this point, it was empty and the banking business could no longer be maintained. Obviously, the secret agreement between Duolongta and Sakani has been established, and the interests will be shared.The banker promised to give Saccani a sum of money for his and Zirona's board and lodging and activities in Trieste.In exchange, the bankers were given Sarkani's copy of the ciphered letter which was - unquestionably - the secret of the uprising.

Perhaps people will accuse Count Sandov of negligence.On the eve of the uprising, when the secret order may be issued at any time, it can be said that it is extremely rare to introduce a stranger into this life-and-death residence.However, it was not without reason for the Earl to act in this way. First of all, he risked his life, or at least the risk of exile, to join this national independence movement, and he was anxious to put his personal affairs in order first, so that if he failed, he would flee alone.Furthermore, he believed that introducing a stranger into the Zatmar family would confuse people and avoid suspicion.For several days he believed he saw—he was not mistaken—spies prowling the Via d'Akdoto.In fact, the spies were none other than Sakani and Zirona.Have the Trieste police started to follow him and his friends?Count Sandov thought it was very possible, so he was worried.The meeting place of the uprising leaders, which had been strictly off-limits to outsiders, now seems to have aroused suspicion.Then, in order to avoid suspicion, it is the best way to open the door and introduce a staff member who is only responsible for accounting work.Under no circumstances would this individual pose a threat to Zatmar or his guests.Because the coded communication between Trieste and other cities in the Kingdom of Hungary has been terminated, all documents concerning the national uprising have been destroyed, leaving nothing written.All necessary precautions had been taken, and when the time was ripe, the uprising would take place at the order of Count Sandorf.Therefore, when the government is alerted, it is better to avoid suspicion by bringing an employee into the house.

If the employee is not Sarkani and the introducer is not Duolongta, the Earl's judgment and precautionary measures must be foolproof! Sakani is a man who has a lot of gold and jade, but a lot of bad things. He can say all kinds of good things and do all kinds of bad things.His appearance is honest, sincere, and extremely deceiving.Count Sandov and his friends were deluded by this appearance.The young accountant is active, enthusiastic, and diligent. Cleaning up accounts is his specialty.If Sarkani hadn't known about it in advance, he would never have suspected that his master was the leader of the uprising.They are ready to lead the Hungarian people to rise up against Germany.When Sandov, Bathory, and Zatmar met, they seemed to deal only with matters of art and science.Secret communication, secret communication centered around this residence has ceased.But Sakani is good at persistence, the time he is looking for will definitely come, and he is waiting.

When he came to Zatmar's house, Sarkani had only one goal, which was to get the code square and decipher the code letter.So far, not a single coded letter has arrived in Trieste.He wondered if the code grid had been destroyed out of caution.He was apprehensive, afraid of failing, because all his schemes were based on deciphering the coded letter brought by the carrier pigeon (the copy was in his hands).Therefore, while cleaning up the accounts for Sandov, he observed and spied on, in order to succeed in the conspiracy.He was allowed free access to the office where Zatmar's pals met, and often even worked in it alone.When he was alone, his eyes and fingers were not occupied with counting and writing accounts, but were rummaging here and there, opening drawers with a skeleton key made by Zirona, who was quite adept at it. capable.However, Sarkani was very careful in case Paulik saw it, because Paulik didn't seem to like him very much.

For the first five days, Sarkani found nothing. Every morning, he came here with the hope of success; at night, he returned to the hotel empty-handed.Seeing that this criminal activity was about to fail, he couldn't help feeling a little afraid.Because, this uprising, - there is no doubt that it exists, - may break out someday, that is to say, before Sarkani reveals and finally informs. "Although there is no conclusive evidence to rely on, it is better to inform the police station first and give them a copy of the encrypted letter than to miss the opportunity." Zirona told Sakani.

"Okay!" Sakani replied, "I have to, I'll do it!" Of course, he told Duolongta all about the search, and it took him a lot of talking to calm the banker from his impatience. God help Sarkani.Last time, let the coded letter fall into his hands; this time, also help him figure out the meaning of the letter. On the last day of May, it was close to four o'clock in the afternoon. According to the custom, Sarkani would leave Earl Zatmar's house at five o'clock.He was dismayed. Things were going nowhere as they had been on the first day, and the work that Count Sandorf had entrusted to him was drawing to a close.Apparently, as soon as the job was done, he would have to take his commissions and rewards, be thrown out of the house, and have no reason to be here again.

At this moment, however, Count Zatmar went out with two of his friends.Only Paulik was left at home, busy in the living room on the first floor.Sarkani's movements were completely free, and he decided to sneak into Zatmal's bedroom, which he had not set foot in so far, and conduct a careful search. The door was locked, and Sarkani unlocked it with a master key and walked into the room. Between the two street windows, there is a quaint desk in a style that will delight lovers of antique furniture.The shutters of the drawers were locked so that it was impossible to see inside. For Sakani, this is the first opportunity to see this table and must not be missed.To search a drawer, the only way is to open the shutter.With the master key, all this is done cleanly without leaving any traces.

Sarkani searched all the way to the fourth drawer, opened a stack of documents, and found a piece of cardboard with irregular square holes underneath, which immediately caught his attention. "Password grid!" he decided. That's exactly what happened. His first thought was to take away the cardboard, but after thinking about it for a while, he felt that it was not appropriate. If Earl Zatmar found out, he might be suspicious. "Okay!" he thought, "just like copying the coded letter, I will trace the coded square, then Duolongta and I can read the coded letter with confidence!"

The password checkered board is a very ordinary piece of cardboard, each side is six centimeters long, divided into thirty-six squares of the same size, each one centimeter square.These thirty-six squares have six rows horizontally and vertically, like Pythagoras' six-number multiplication table.Twenty-six solid squares and nine empty squares—that is to say, the positions of these nine squares are hollowed out along the sidelines. Essential to Saccani, one is the exact size of the cardboard; the other is the position of the nine spaces. Saccani traced the edges of the cardboard with a pencil on a blank sheet of paper, carefully marking where the “+” was drawn in ink—it signifies upwards.He took the white paper on which the borderline had just been drawn together with the password cardboard to a bright place, and the positions of the opening squares were clear: three spaces in the first line above, positions 2, 4, and 6; one space in the second line, positions Five; one in the third row, position three; two in the fourth row, positions two and five; one in the fifth row, position six; one in the sixth row, position four.

This is the cipher graph paper traced as it is.Before long, Sarkani will conspire with Duolongta and use it to commit crimes. It took just a few minutes for Sarkani to come up with the replica below.With this graphic, it is easy to make a code square from a piece of cardboard.And with the password grid, the password letter in Duolongta's hand will definitely be deciphered.Sarkani put the original cipher grids back in the drawer under the papers, left Zatmar's house, and hurried back to the hotel. A quarter of an hour later, Zirona saw Saccani enter the room excitedly as if he had won a battle, and couldn't help shouting:

"Hey! How's it going, buddy? Be careful, you're good at hiding your sadness, but you can't suppress your happiness. Don't be too happy..." "Stop talking nonsense, Zirona," Saccani said, "get to work, don't waste time!" "before dinner?……" "before dinner." After all, Sarkani took a piece of thin cardboard, cut it into a square according to the size of the drawing, and marked "+" on it, then took out a ruler, divided the square into thirty-six equal small grids, and cut it into squares according to the drawing. Determine the position of nine spaces, and use the tip of a knife to carve a square hole.Like this, the cardboard of perforation is placed on the cipher letter, just reveal word, letter or other what symbol in the square hole. Zirona stood opposite Saccani, watching him busy, his eyes widened, and he was almost carried away with excitement.Zironer was intrigued by the work, especially since he already knew the cryptosystem used in this communication. "Brilliant, terrific," he said, "it's sure to work for me: just think of it, and each slot holds a million..." "There are more!" Sakani continued. When he was done, Saccani put the perforated cardboard into his wallet and stood up: "Tomorrow, early in the morning, I will go to Duolong Tower." "Watch out for his cash box." "Although he has the password letter, the password square is in my hands!" "This time, we must make him admit defeat!" "He will admit defeat!" "Then shall we have dinner?" "Okay." "Dinner!" As usual, Zirona had a good appetite and satiated a well-ordered meal. The next day, June 1, Saccani arrived at the bank just after eight o'clock in the morning, and Silas Dronta immediately had him brought into the office. "Look, the code grid," Saccani said triumphantly, handing over the cardboard he had carved the night before. The banker took the cardboard, turned it over, and shook his head, as if he had no confidence in his partner. "Anyway, try it," Sakani said. "Then try it." Duolongta took out the copied cipher letter from a drawer and put it on the table. It will be recalled that the letter consisted of eighteen words of six letters each--completely devoid of literal meaning.Obviously, each letter of these words should correspond to six squares, whether solid or empty, so that by using thirty-six squares, thirty-six letters must be gradually obtained to form the first six squares. Character. It is not difficult for everyone to find that the spaces on this cardboard are arranged very cleverly, so that the cardboard rotates 90 degrees clockwise each time, and four times make a circle. As you will see shortly, this is indeed the case.For example, you put the password grid cardboard on a piece of white paper, write the numbers 1 to 9 in each space in sequence; turn 90 degrees, and write 10 to 18; turn 90 degrees again, write Nineteen to twenty-seven; turn it around one last time and write twenty-eight to thirty-six. As a result, the thirty-six squares on the white paper are occupied by numbers one to thirty-six. Naturally, Sarkani started with the six characters on the first line on the left of the code letter and used the code square four times.Then there are six characters in the middle row, and finally to the right row of six characters.In short, go through the eighteen characters that make up the code letter, divide it into three rounds, and the operation is complete. It goes without saying that Sarkani had introduced this method to Duolongta and won the appreciation of the bankers. Can practice confirm this theory?Just try it out.The following are the eighteen characters in the password letter, it is better for readers to see for themselves: ihnalz zaemen ruiopn arnuro trvree mtqssl odxhnp estlev eeuart aeeeil ennios noupvg spesdr erssur ouitse eedgnc toeedt artuee First of all, the six characters on the left should be translated.For this reason, Sakkani separated these words by letter and by row in turn, so that each letter occupies a grid and is written in the corresponding grid respectively. The arrangement is as follows: ihnalz arnuro odxhnp aeeeil spesdr eedgne Next, place the password square on the paper, keeping the "+" at the top.In this way, the following letters are shown in the nine blank spaces, and the remaining 27 letters are covered by the real case. Then, Sarkani turned the cardboard ninety degrees clockwise so that the original upper end became the right side.The letters appearing in the space are as follows: In the third operation, the letters seen are different as follows.Careful records were made every time. To the confusion of Duolongta and Sakani, these successively formed characters did not mean anything.Since the words were obtained using cipher squares, they had hoped to read them without any problems.But these words are the same as those in the coded letter, meaningless.Is the coded letter really undecipherable? The password box is operated for the fourth time, and the result is as follows: Still no results, I don't know why. After four operations, the actual four words obtained are as follows: hazrxeirg nohaledec nadnepedn ilruopess None of this means anything. Saccani could not hide his disappointment, even irritation.The banker just shook his head and said in a mocking tone: "In short, the uprising planners probably never used this password square in their communications?" The accusation enraged Saccani, who jumped to his feet. "Let's get on with it!" he yelled. "Keep going!" Duolongta replied. Sarkani recovered from his anxiety and nervous tremors, and resumed his experiment with the second line of the letter.He used the cipher grid four more times, turning it every ninety degrees, and the resulting word was still a pile of meaningless letters: amn etnore vele ssuot et seirted zerrevnes This time, Sarkani threw the cipher letter on the table and cursed like a rascal. On the contrary, Duolongta was extremely calm, researching and thinking about each word obtained since the operation. "Go to hell with Cipher Square and the people who use it!" Sakani shouted, standing up. "You'd better sit down!" Duolongta said. "Sit down?..." "Then how about you go on?" Sarkani looked at the Duolong Pagoda, sat down again, picked up the cipher box, and experimented with the last six characters of the cipher letter.At this time, Sakani no longer knew what he was doing, he was just moving mechanically. After four operations, we get: uonsuoveu glangisve imerpuate rptsetuot This time is not much stronger than the previous few times, and these final words still don't mean anything. In a fit of rage, Sarkani grabbed the piece of white paper on which the strange characters obtained from several experiments were written, and was about to tear it up. Duolongta held him back. "Calm down!" he advised Sarkani. "Oh!" Sakani sighed, "What's the use of keeping these unsolvable anagrams!" "Please write these words one by one!" said the banker simply. "What are you doing?" "Write it out and see!" Sakani followed his advice and came up with the following long list of letters: hazrxeirgnohaledecnadnepednilruopessamnetnorevelessuotetseirtedzerrevne suonsuoveuqlangisreimerpuaterptsetuot As soon as these letters were written, Duolongta snatched the paper from Sakani.He read and called out.Now, he is the one who is impatient.Saccani wondered if the banker had suddenly gone mad. "Come and take a look!" Duolongta shouted, handing the paper to Sakani, "Read it!" "read?……" "Hey! Don't you understand? The sentences of this letter, deciphered with the cipher grid, are written backwards." Sarkani took the paper and read from the last letter forward: "Everything is ready. As soon as you signal us from Trieste, rise up and fight for the independence of Hungary." xrzah． "Tout est pret. Au premier signal que vous nous enverrez de Trieste, Tous se lereront en masse pour l'independance de la Hongrie. xrzah. " "What about the last five letters?" he asked. "The agreed signature code!" Duolongta replied. "We finally got it!..." "But the police station hasn't arrived yet!" "Leave this to me!" "You're going to keep it very secret, aren't you?" "Don't worry about that," Saccani said. "In Trieste, only the Governor will know the names of you and me, true patriots. We will bring down the rebellion against the Austrian Empire." When this shameless guy said these words, his tone and movements were full of sarcasm. "So I don't have to worry about anything," the banker asked calmly. "Nothing to worry about," Sarkani replied, "except to get your share of the money when it's done!" "When will you pick it up?" "When the three of them fall to the ground, each of us will get more than one million yuan." Duolongta and Sakani broke up.If they wanted to make good use of the secret that the god of chance had accidentally given them, and denounce them before the uprising, they must hurry up. However, Sarkani, as usual, returned to Zatmal's house.Continue his accounting work which is about to end.Count Sandov told him that he was very grateful for his enthusiasm for his work, but that after eight days his services would be useless. In Sakani's view, this clearly indicated that, approaching this day, the signal would be sent from Trieste to the main Hungarian cities as agreed. So Sarkani continued to closely monitor what happened in Earl Zatmal's house, but never left any grounds for suspicion.He was so cunning that he even pretended to be a follower of free thought and confessed his irrepressible hatred of the German nation.His performance was so convincing and flawless that Count Sandorf intended to keep the young man with him when the uprising restored Hungary to a free state.Only Bolik, he had a prejudice against this young man from the very beginning. Sarkani finally achieved his goal. On the 8th of June, with the unanimous consent of the two friends, Count Sandorf decided to give the signal for an insurrection, and that day finally arrived. However, the crime of whistleblowing has been completed. That night, at about eight o'clock, the Trieste police suddenly broke into Zatmar's house.All resistance is useless.Sandov, Earl Zatmar, Professor Bathory, together with Sarkani who did not make a sound of resistance, and Paulik were captured at the same time, and they were secretly arrested without anyone knowing.