The Sign of the Gallows

by Susanna Calkins

  When the tremors subsided, she finished up the dishes and retired to her bedchamber, placing the outdoor lantern on her little table to improve the lighting in her room. Carefully, she pulled out the cipher key she’d received from Mrs Wallace and placed it alongside the other messages and the note found on Mr Corbyn’s body.

  She examined the cipher key. Although it was torn in half, the part that remained was legible. It was similar to the cipher key that had been published in the Babington tract, displaying a grid of columns and rows. The first column consisted of the alphabet in order, with each letter neatly printed in turn. Then below the alphabet there were several double letters – ‘tt’, ‘ee’ and ‘nn’. Across the top row, the alphabet looked to be written out again, although it stopped at the letter H, where the paper had been torn diagonally in half. Then the rest of the grid was filled out with a jumble of letters and some symbols.

  How to begin? she wondered. ‘There’s a way to figure out which cipher to use,’ Lucy muttered. ‘Professor Wallace told us that. What was it he said?’

  As she racked her brain, she began to study one of the shorter exchanges between Professor Wallace and Miss de Witte. He had written:

  E C XKVJT RBI BIANR AJT LGIAPI RBI IZI. RI HI XBAR C AH EZ AJT EZ.

  Beneath it, was her reply:

  L UANYX .

  Lucy took out her quill and a fresh piece of paper. ‘All right, if I substitute each letter, then the first letter E would be substituted as a D.’ She wrote that down. ‘Then there’s a space, and then there is the letter C which substitutes for K.’ She wrote that down as well. ‘Then the next five letters together, XKVJT, which become, let’s see – YQWPF.’

  She tapped the pen harder against her paper, surveying what she had written. ‘This is all nonsense. Unless … could it be a different language now? There’s nothing I could do about that. Or maybe it’s a double substitution, where I take these deciphered letters, and decipher them again.’

  Rubbing her chin, she continued to stare at the cipher key and the messages, trying to control her rising sense of frustration. ‘If the message is a double cipher, does that mean that there is a second key? How would the recipient know?’ She began to examine the key in more detail. ‘There has to be a way that the recipient would know this.’ She began to study the first column under A again, the one she had already tried. For the first time she looked at the first eight letters. ‘Q-U-A-E-S-T-I-O,’ she read out loud. ‘Then a triangle. Then the letters B-C-D-F. No E. Why skip E?’ Then she looked at the first letters again. ‘Don’t be a dolt, Lucy, the E was already used. Let’s see, what’s next. F-G-H-J. So, no I, because the I was already used. I think I see what’s happening here. K-L-M-N, no P, no Q or R, no S, no T, no U, V-W-X-Y-Z and then some other symbols.’ She looked back at the beginning. She’d seen that word before in some of the tracts she’d printed. ‘Quaestio. I think that’s Latin. Does it mean question?’ She looked at the column labelled B. ‘R-E-S-P-O-N-U-M and then a square. I’ve also seen the word “responsum” before. Could this mean response? Perhaps the second S was removed to avoid confusion in the cipher.’ She started to grow excited. ‘Question and response? Could there be two different codes?’

  She looked at the third column, labelled C. ‘This one starts with a U, not a Q. Where’s the Q?’ Her eyes travelled up and down the column. ‘Oh, I see. The Q is at the bottom.’ Her heart started to beat faster. ‘Good heavens, I see it now. All the odd columns follow the Quaestio order, just switching one, while all the even columns follow the Responum order. Question and response.’

  She looked back at the exchange between Professor Wallace and Miss de Witte. ‘Even if the first line is written as a question, and the second one works as a response, I already tried to decipher that one.’ She snapped her fingers. ‘Maybe the cipher is found in a specific column? I just need to know where to start, Professor Wallace said. How could someone know?’

  She closed her eyes, trying to remember what the scholar had told them that night. ‘There was a way to know where the start was. Usually with the first letter, he said!’

  She looked at the message again. ‘The first letter is E, which would be one of the Quaestio columns. Do I start with the letter E, though? That would be “B” then an “I”. Then “XKVJT” is “WOUND”.’ She stopped and stared at what she had just written. ‘B. I. Wound. I wound – I wound? Let me keep going.’ She continued piecing it together.

  A few minutes later, she was staring at what she had written in amazement. ‘I wound the heart and please the eye. Tell me something I am by and by. That missing word has to be “what”. I think it’s a riddle.’

  She straightened back up. ‘What is the response? L-U-A-N-Y-X-. So that means the cipher will be found in the L column, except that part has been torn away. What of the message found on Mr Corbyn’s dead body?’ She looked at it again.

  M YGHX HX YGC MIN GP XCY YGC & DWA

  ‘Let’s see. It starts with the letter M. I’d wager anything that the answer falls in the M column. Except that part of the cipher key has also been torn away.’ A sense of exhaustion and despondency flooded over her, and she blew out the candle and collapsed on to her bed. Overcome by disappointment, she pulled the blanket over her head, finally ready to submit to the need for sleep.

  ‘If only we had the whole cipher …’ she murmured.

  Then she sat bolt upright. ‘I can just create the other columns!’ she whispered. ‘Why didn’t I think of that before? Each column just started by switching out one letter! I can recreate the cipher myself.’ For a moment, she thought about hopping out of bed and lighting the candle again. Then she came to her senses. ‘Lucy Campion,’ she told herself sternly, ‘you can work on this after you get some sleep.’ Hugging herself, she soon fell asleep, pleased that she might have moved one step closer towards deciphering the message.

  Several hours later, Lucy could hear the roosters starting to crow. She’d woken before the first light had begun to stream through her shuttered windows and, after eating some cold porridge, had seated herself at the workroom table. In another hour, she’d have to start doing her early-morning chores, but right now she’d begun to carefully write out the rest of the code by hand. ‘If I can just figure out the M column, I can decipher the message!’ It was tedious work, though, and she had to rub her hand several times.

  ‘What in the world are you doing, Lucy?’ Lach asked, his voice tinged with annoyance and curiosity. ‘We’ve no tracts to print today.’

  ‘Why has breakfast not been tended to?’ Master Aubrey, close behind him, added.

  She looked up, startled. The sun had climbed higher in the sky, and she could tell she was late to get breakfast started. ‘Forgive me, Master Aubrey. I will get the hearth going.’ Walking into the kitchen, she said over her shoulder. ‘You’ll not believe it!’

  ‘Tell us after you get our porridge ready,’ Master Aubrey said, scowling. He didn’t see when Lach made a rude gesture at her behind his back. In return, Lucy mimed spitting into his bowl.

  When the porridge was ready to eat, Lucy hastily placed bowls on the table, making sure to give Master Aubrey the heftiest portion. Will came ambling in then, running his fingers through his unruly thick hair, and she hurried to fill his bowl as well.

  ‘So much clamouring today,’ Will commented, watching her rush about.

  After Master Aubrey took a bite, he set his spoon down. ‘All right, lass, I can see you are itching to tell us something. What is it you discovered?’

  ‘Hang on, I’ll be right back.’ A moment later she placed the original torn cipher and the part of the cipher she had recreated alongside the copy of the corpse’s message with a bang. ‘Behold! I have deciphered a message.’

  Everyone jumped up to look at the riddle that she had deciphered. ‘See, this is the cipher key. This first letter indicates to the person receiving the message which column to use.’

  ‘Ingenious,’ Master Aubrey said.

  ‘So I figure
d out that this first line had to be deciphered using the E column and then the response is using the L column. Because the full cipher key is missing, I had to make my best guess on what a few of the characters mean.’

  Will gave her an approving look. ‘That’s some thinking, sister,’ he said, clearly impressed.

  ‘So, they sent riddles to each other?’ Master Aubrey said, rubbing his cheek. ‘I suppose that is one way for a romance to unfold.’

  Lucy nodded, feeling a pang at her broken promise to Mrs Wallace. Don’t share what my husband wrote to that woman, she had pleaded. I won’t share any more than I have to, Lucy reasoned. It’s all to help ensure I have the code right.

  Even Lach looked amazed as he peered down at the deciphered message. Swallowing, he said, ‘You don’t know if it will work.’

  ‘It will work. It just takes time and I haven’t got to the M column yet. Once I have worked out the M column, I should be able to read the message.’

  Master Aubrey rubbed his hands. ‘I suppose you’d like to work on this instead of your actual work?’

  Lucy rubbed the sides of her skirts. ‘Yes, sir. I do believe it’s important.’

  ‘Why don’t you just show it to Master Hargrave or the constable? They can work it out, now that you’ve got it started.’

  ‘Yes, that’s true,’ Lucy said, feeling crestfallen. She had really hoped to be able to decipher the message for herself.

  Catching sight of her expression, Master Aubrey relented. ‘However, it will be a better story coming from you,’ he said gruffly. ‘Just be quick about it. In the meantime, Lach, you can go to the market, I’ve some new pamphlets for you to sell.’

  For the next several hours, Lucy worked meticulously at piecing together the missing cipher. Finally, she created the cipher for the M column.

  ‘This is it,’ she whispered. With growing excitement, she dipped her quill in some ink and took a clean sheet of paper. She dabbed at the ink so that she would not blot the letters in her nervousness. She looked at the first line.

  M YGHX HX YGC MIN GP XCY YGC & DWA

  Slowly, she began to write down each corresponding letter. ‘This is the man who set the Devil free,’ she whispered.

  Her heart started beating quickly, and excitedly she went to the next line. But that line quickly showed itself to be nonsense. She muttered an oath. The next line started with the letter P. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Each line must correspond with a different column. Let’s see.’

  Sure enough, the next was Y and the last was Z. She pushed away the pages in annoyance. ‘This means I have to create the cipher all the way through to the Z column.’

  Slowly, carefully, she continued to write out the cipher for all the remaining columns, until finally she had completed the last column. With shaking fingers, she carefully deciphered the whole thing, and then read it out loud.

  This is the man who set the Devil free.

  Make him lead us to the Devil.

  Hang the ring from the Devil’s neck.

  Punish him for his deed. Send him to the gallows.

  Lucy stared at the message, before quickly writing out several copies. She hid the original and a copy in her pocket. ‘I must take this to Constable Duncan,’ she told Master Aubrey, who read it over in unveiled astonishment.

  He just waved his hand at her, before mopping his forehead. ‘What kind of apprentice do I have here, anyway?’ she heard him mutter as she sailed out the door.

  TWENTY

  As she rushed out of the printer’s shop, she collided with Lach who had just returned from a delivery, her elbow going sharply into his chest.

  ‘Ooof!’ he exclaimed. ‘Dunderhead! Why have you got to knock a man down?’

  ‘Pardon, Lach! I’m in a hurry!’ Lucy cried. ‘I’ve got to see the constable at once!’

  ‘Back to the constable,’ he said, tutting. ‘Tired of the noble life already, eh?’

  ‘Actually, I should like to see Master Adam, too. Could you go and see him? Tell him I’m away to the constable’s and—’

  ‘Uh-oh! He’s not going to like that,’ Lach commented.

  ‘Lach!’ she exclaimed. ‘Tell Master Adam that I deciphered the message that was on the corpse and—’

  ‘You did?’ Lach interrupted, his mouth hanging open. ‘What did it say?’

  ‘Lach! I don’t have time for this. Just go and tell him, would you?’

  ‘Certainly. I’m on my way. See me running there already? Knock knock knock, I’m at their door.’

  ‘Lach! Stop your jests,’ she scolded. ‘I don’t have time for this. Just say you’ll tell Master Adam about the message. Please, it’s important.’

  ‘What’s in it for me?’

  ‘What’s in it for you?’ Lucy exclaimed, getting thoroughly exasperated.

  ‘There must be something in it for me. I’m hungry and you’re asking me to do this during the time I take my noon meal.’

  ‘Fine! I’ll do your morning chores for a day! No, a week! Is that good enough?’ Inwardly, she sighed. She had no trouble beating down merchants and vendors in the markets, but Lach just wanted to torment her and there was very little room to negotiate.

  ‘My night chores as well.’

  ‘Lach!’

  ‘Promise. Or I won’t go.’ He grinned, his freckles sticking out across his cheeks.

  ‘Fine, I’ll do it! Now, just go!’

  Lucy turned to go and was gratified to see Lach stop his ambling stride and take up a rapid trot towards the Hargraves’ home.

  ‘Duncan!’ Lucy called, entering the jail. She leaned over, her hand to her chest, trying to catch her breath.

  ‘What is it?’ he replied, walking out of the back area. Seeing her doubled over, he rushed to her side. ‘Lucy, what’s wrong?’

  Straightening up, she declared, ‘I deciphered the message that was found on Mr Corbyn’s body.’

  ‘What?’ he exclaimed. ‘How ever did you do that?’

  ‘I went to Professor Wallace’s house last night to deliver some mathematical books I picked up for him in Hoddesdon. Mrs Wallace gave me half the cipher.’ She pulled out the coded message and read it out loud.

  This is the man who set the Devil free.

  Make him lead us to the Devil.

  Hang the ring from the Devil’s neck.

  Punish him for his deed. Send him to the gallows.

  He stared at her. ‘I can’t believe you worked this out!’

  ‘Well, I had a portion of the cipher,’ she said modestly.

  Duncan turned his attention back to the message and frowned. ‘Something seems off about it, though, don’t you think?’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Well, the message seems to be speaking of two people.’ He tapped the page. ‘See here. “This is the man who set the Devil free.” That’s Paul Corbyn, or Jack Campbell, who let Philip Emerson and the other men out of Newgate that day. The Devil must be Emerson. Stands to reason since the men you saw at the crossroads were Eleanor Browning’s brothers and the cipher was created by Hammett’s sister.’

  ‘Yes, that’s true,’ Lucy said. ‘However, the message then says, “Hang the ring from the Devil’s neck.” So why was the chain with the ring around Paul Corbyn’s neck?’

  ‘Lucy, Duncan,’ Adam said from behind them. He was panting slightly from his exertions. ‘What is it you’ve learned? Lach told me that you deciphered the message?’ There was more than a bit of pride and admiration in his tone.

  Lucy handed him the cipher and the message. ‘I worked the full cipher out from the partial one that Mrs Wallace gave me,’ she explained.

  ‘That’s truly incredible, Lucy,’ Adam said, looking at the reconstructed key she had created. Then, more seriously, he added, ‘You must not tell anyone about this.’

  Her mind flashed to the man who had come after her last night. Next time, he had whispered. I will kill you if you interfere again.

  She shuddered.

  Seeing this, Adam looked at he
r sharply. ‘What is it?’

  Reluctantly, she decided she’d better tell them what had happened. ‘I think that the innkeeper of the tavern, Dev Browning, may have figured out who I was. Someone came after me last night, after I left the Wallaces’ house, telling me not to interfere. I think it may have been him.’

  Duncan and Adam both stared at her, wearing equal expressions of horror. ‘What?’ they both exclaimed at once.

  Adam grasped her gently by the shoulders. ‘Slow down! Someone came after you? Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes, yes, I’m fine.’ Quickly, she recounted everything that had happened the day before, including how Dev had seen her getting into the carriage with the Hargraves. ‘I think he figured out who I was. Maybe he enquired at the booksellers in Hoddesdon. I had shown them Master Aubrey’s seal, to make sure they would be willing to bargain with me. I think it would have been easy enough to discover my identity. They had already guessed I was a bookseller when they ran me over with the cart that morning on Drury Lane.’

  ‘This man, Dev Browning,’ Duncan broke in, ‘is someone we need to speak to again. Immediately. You’ve already identified Dev, but I should like to know about the other man you saw as well – Pike? We shall question them both, and likely arrest them.’ He paused. ‘I should like you to accompany me back to Hoddesdon, Lucy. This afternoon, if possible. We do not wish them to flee, even if, as you say, the inn is so well established there.’

  ‘I will accompany you, Constable,’ Adam said grimly. ‘Those men do not need to face their accuser until trial. There is no need for Lucy to be there.’

  ‘I am coming,’ Lucy said, taking a step forward. ‘Master Aubrey will not mind, as Professor Wallace and his scholar friends gave me another list of books to procure on their behalf. Besides, I think the constable does need me there to identify them both.’

  ‘I can see you will not change your mind,’ Adam said. ‘We shall set out this afternoon.’

  ‘Why do you need to go?’ Duncan asked Adam.

  ‘If you are bringing those men into jail, I will not have Lucy travel with them, and I won’t have her travel alone.’