Calloways Code.docx

1、Calloways CodeCalloways Code The New York Enterprise sent H. B. Calloway as special correspondent to the Russo-Japanese-Portsmouth war.For two months Calloway hung about Yokohama and Tokio, shaking dice with the other correspondents for drinks of rickshaws - oh, no, thats something to ride in; anyho

2、w, he wasnt earning the salary that his paper was paying him. But that was not Calloways fault. The little brown men who held the strings of Fate between their fingers were not ready for the readers of the Enterprise to season their breakfast bacon and eggs with the battles of the descendants of the

3、 gods.But soon the column of correspondents that were to go out with the First Army tightened their field-glass belts and went down to the Yalu with Kuroki. Calloway was one of these.Now, this is no history of the battle of the Yalu River. That has been told in detail by the correspondents who gazed

4、 at the shrapnel smoke rings from a distance of three miles. But, for justices sake, let it be understood that the Japanese commander prohibited a nearer view.Calloways feat was accomplished before the battle. What he did was to furnish the Enterprise with the biggest beat of the war. That paper pub

5、lished exclu- sively and in detail the news of the attack on the lines of the Russian General on the same day that it was made. No other paper printed a word about it for two days afterward, except a London paper, whose account was absolutely incorrect and untrue.Calloway did this in face of the fac

6、t that General Kuroki was making, his moves and living his plans with the pro- foundest secrecy, as far as the world outside his camps was concerned. The correspondents were forbidden to send out any news whatever of his plans; and every message that was allowed on the wires was censored - with rigi

7、d severity.The correspondent for the London paper handed in a cablegram describing, Kurokis plans; but as it was wrong from beginning to end the censor grinned and let it go through.So, there they were - Kuroki on one side of the Yalu with forty-two thousand infantry, five thousand cavalry, and one

8、hundred and twenty-four guns. On the other side, Zassulitch waited for him with only twenty-three thousand men, and with a long stretch of river to guard. And Calloway had got hold of some important inside information that he knew would bring the Enterprise staff around a cablegram as thick as flies

9、 around a Park Row lemonade stand. If he could only get that message past the censor - the new censor who had arrived and taken his post that day!Calloway did the obviously proper thing. He lit his pipe and sat down on a gun carriage to think it over. And there we must leave him; for the rest of the

10、 story belongs to Vesey, a sixteen-dollar-a-week reporter on the Enterprise.Calloways cablegram was handed to the managing editor at four oclock in the afternoon. He read it three times; and then drew a pocket mirror from a pigeon-hole in his desk, and looked at his reflection carefully. Then he wen

11、t over to the desk of Boyd, his assistant (he usually called Boyd when he wanted him), and laid the cablegram before him.Its from Calloway, he said. See what you make of it.The message was dated at Wi-ju, and these were the words of it:Foregone preconcerted rash witching goes muffled rumour mine dar

12、k silent unfortunate richmond existing great hotly brute select mooted parlous beggars ye angel incontrovertible.Boyd read it twice.Its either a cipher or a sunstroke, said he.Ever hear of anything like a code in the office - a secret code? asked the m. e., who had held his desk for only two years.

13、Managing editors come and go.None except the vernacular that the lady specials write in, said Boyd. Couldnt be an acrostic, could it?I thought of that, said the m. e., but the beginning letters contain only four vowels. It must be a code of some sort.Try em in groups, suggested Boyd. Lets see - Rash

14、 witching goes - not with me it doesnt. Muf- fled rumour mine - must have an underground wire. Dark silent unfortunate richmond - no reason why he should knock that town so hard. Existing great hotly - no it doesnt pan out Ill call Scott.The city editor came in a hurry, and tried his luck. A city ed

15、itor must know something about everything; so Scott knew a little about cipher-writing.It may be what is called an inverted alphabet cipher, said he. Ill try that. R seems to be the oftenest used initial letter, with the exception of m. Assuming r to mean e, the most frequently used vowel, we transp

16、ose the letters - so.Scott worked rapidly with his pencil for two minutes; and then showed the first word according to his reading - the word Scejtzez.Great! cried Boyd. Its a charade. My first is a Russian general. Go on, Scott.No, that wont work, said the city editor. Its undoubtedly a code. Its i

17、mpossible to read it without the key. Has the office ever used a cipher code?Just what I was asking, said the m.e. Hustle everybody up that ought to know. We must get at it some way. Calloway has evidently got hold of some- thing big, and the censor has put the screws on, or he wouldnt have cabled i

18、n a lot of chop suey like this.Throughout the office of the Enterprise a dragnet was sent, hauling in such members of the staff as would be likely to know of a code, past or present, by reason of their wisdom, information, natural intelligence, or length of servitude. They got together in a group in

19、 the city room, with the m. e. in the centre. No one had heard of a code. All began to explain to the head investi- gator that newspapers never use a code, anyhow - that is, a cipher code. Of course the Associated Press stuff is a sort of code - an abbreviation, rather - but -The m. e. knew all that

20、, and said so. He asked each man how long he had worked on the paper. Not one of them had drawn pay from an Enterprise envelope for longer than six years. Calloway had been on the paper twelve years. Try old Heffelbauer, said the m. e. He was here when Park Row was a potato patch.Heffelbauer was an

21、institution. He was half janitor, half handy-man about the office, and half watchman - thus becoming the peer of thirteen and one-half tailors.Sent for, he came, radiating his nationality. Heffelbauer, said the m. e., did you ever hear of a code belonging to the office a long time ago - a private co

22、de? You know what a code is, dont you?Yah, said Heffelbauer. Sure I know vat a code is. Yah, apout dwelf or fifteen year ago der office had a code. Der reborters in der city-room haf it here.Ah! said the m. e. Were getting on the trail now. Where was it kept, Heffelbauer? What do you know about it?S

23、omedimes, said the retainer, dey keep it in der little room behind der library room.Can you find it asked the m. e. eagerly. Do you know where it is?Mein Gott! said Heffelbauer. How long you dink a code live? Der reborters call him a maskeet. But von day he butt mit his head der editor, und - Oh, he

24、s talking about a goat, said Boyd. Get out, Heffelbauer.Again discomfited, the concerted wit and resource of the Enterprise huddled around Calloways puzzle, con- sidering its mysterious words in vain.Then Vesey came in.Vesey was the youngest reporter. He had a thirty- two-inch chest and wore a numbe

25、r fourteen collar; but his bright Scotch plaid suit gave him presence and con- ferred no obscurity upon his whereabouts. He wore his hat in such a position that people followed him about to see him take it off, convinced that it must be hung upon a peg driven into the back of his head. He was never

26、without an immense, knotted, hard-wood cane with a German-silver tip on its crooked handle. Vesey was the best photograph hustler in the office. Scott said it was because no living human being could resist the per- sonal triumph it was to hand his picture over to Vesey. Vesey always wrote his own ne

27、ws stories, except the big ones, which were sent to the rewrite men. Add to this fact that among all the inhabitants, temples, and groves of the earth nothing existed that could abash Vesey, and his dim sketch is concluded.Vesey butted into the circle of cipher readers very much as Heffelbauers code

28、 would have done, and asked what was up. Some one explained, with the touch of half-familiar condescension that they always used toward him. Vesey reached out and took the cablegram from the m. e.s hand. Under the protection of some special Providence, he was always doing appalling things like that,

29、 and coming, off unscathed.Its a code, said Vesey. Anybody got the key?The office has no code, said Boyd, reaching for the message. Vesey held to it.Then old Callowav expects us to read it, anyhow, said he. Hes up a tree, or something, and hes made this up so as to get it by, the censor. Its up to u

30、s. Gee! I wish they had sell, me, too. Say - we cant afford to fall down on our end of it. Foregone, preconcerted rash, witching - hm.Vesey sat down on a table corner and began to whistle softly, frowning at the cablegram.Lets have it, please, said the m. e. Weve got to get to work on it.I believe I

31、ve got a line on it, said Vesey. Give me ten minutes.He walked to his desk, threw his hat into a waste-basket, spread out flat on his chest like a gorgeous lizard, and started his pencil going. The wit and wisdom of the Enterprise remained in a loose group, and smiled at one another, nodding their h

32、eads toward Vesey. Then they began to exchange their theories about the cipher.It took Vesey exactly fifteen minutes. He brought to the m. e. a pad with the code-key written on it.I felt the swing of it as soon as I saw it, said Vesey. Hurrah for old Calloway! Hes done the Japs and every paper in town that prints literature instead of news. Take a look at that.Thus had Vesey set forth the reading of the code:Foregone - conclusion Preconcerted - arrangement Rash - act Witching - hour of midnight Goes - without saying Muff