"Sir:

"I home the honour to report that the matter with which you have
entrusted me is now entirely cleared up.

"This short preliminary memorandum is merely to refresh your memory
concerning the particular case herewith submitted in detail.

"In re Herman Laufer:

"The code-book, as you recollect, is Stormonth's English Dictionary,
XIII Edition, published by Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and
London, MDCCCXCVI. This book I herewith return to you.

"The entire cipher is, as we guessed, arbitrary and stupidly
capricious. Phonetic spelling is indulged in occasionally--I should
almost say humorously--were it not a Teuton mind which evolved the
phonetic combinations which represent proper names not found in that
dictionary--names like Holzminden and New York, for example.

"As for the symbols and numbers, they are not at all obscure.
Reference to the dictionary makes the cipher perfectly clear.

"In Stormonth's Dictionary you will notice that each page has two
columns; each column a varying number of paragraphs; some of the
paragraphs contain more than one word to be defined.

"In the cipher letter the first number of any of the groups of
figures which are connected by dashes (--) and separated by vertical
(|) represents the page in Stormonth's Dictionary on which the word