186.9 1.31 21.10 143.18 200.6 29.40 408.9 61.5

5 9 4 8 3 12 11 4
209.11 496.1 24.24 28.59 69.39 391.10 60.13 200.1
2 6 4 1 10 11 5 3

The following is Mr. Bexell's reply to his friend Captain Ducie:

"MY DEAR DUCIE,--With this note you will receive back your
confounded MS., but without a translation. I have spent a good deal
of time and labour in trying to decipher it, and the conclusions at
which I have arrived may be briefly laid before you.

1. Each group of three sets of figures represents a word.

2. Each group of two sets of figures--those with a line above and a
line below--represents a letter only.

3. Those letters put together from the point where the double line
begins to the point where it ceases, make up a word.

4. In the composition of this cryptogram _a book_ has been used as
the basis on which to work.

5. In every group of three sets of figures the first set represents
the page of the book; the second, the number of the line on that
page, probably counting from the top; the third the position in
ordinary rotation of the word on that line. Thus you have the
number of the page, the number of the line, and the number of the
word.