Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

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The Triple Alliance

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extraordinary look of mingled triumph, mystery, and excitement, exclaimed,-- "I've read the cipher!" "Pooh! what of that?" answered Jack, rather annoyed at being taken so far out of his way for nothing. "I expect it isn't anything particular after all." "It is, though," returned the other confidently; "and you'll say so too when you read it." "Well, tell us first how you managed to find it out." "That's just what I was going to do. You know I found that G was T, S was H, and V was E; well, I tried and tried, and I couldn't get any further. I wrote down the alphabet, and put V opposite E, and T opposite G, and S opposite H. I stared at it and stared at it, and all of a sudden--I don't know how I came to think of it--I noticed that E is the fifth letter from the _beginning_ of the alphabet, and V is the fifth letter from the _end_. The same thing held good with the next letter: G was seventh from the beginning, and T was seventh from the end." Diggory paused as though to see what effect this announcement would have on the faces of his friends. "Well!" they exclaimed; "go on!" "Why, then, I saw in a moment what they'd done: _they'd simply transposed the whole alphabet_--A. was Z, and Z was A!" "Oh!" cried Jack Vance; "I see it now." "Of course, it was as plain as print. I put the two alphabets side by side, one the right way and the other upside down, and I read the cipher in two minutes, and here's what you might call the translation." As he spoke he held out a scrap of scribbling-paper. Jack Vance took it, and read as follows:-- "Meet in the 'gym' when the fellows pass on to supper. The two cans of water are standing inside the cupboard under the stairs." Mugford stared at Jack Vance, and Jack stared at Diggory. "D'you see?" cried the latter eagerly. "Yes." "Well, what then?" "Why, it must have something to do with this row about Browse." "Of course: the fellows who did it didn't want, I suppose, to be seen talking together too much just before it happened, and so they invented this way of making their plans." "But who can it be?" asked Mugford. "It seems to me it's just like one of those secret society things in Russia." "So it is, and we must find out who they are," answered Diggory, smacking his lips with great relish. "We'll see once more what can be done by the Triple Alliance." The more the three friends thought over the matter of the cipher letter, the more their curiosity and interest were excited. "I believe it's either Noaks or Mouler," said Mugford; "they were both of them siding with Thurston, and trying to kick up a row at the meeting." "Oh, they'd neither of them have the sense to invent a thing like this," answered Jack. "They may be in it, but there's some one else besides." Diggory scouted the idea of letting any other boys share their secret. The honour of having discovered and exposed the plot must belong to the Triple Alliance alone, and it must be said that they had accomplished their task unaided by any outsiders. That evening and the following day the greater portion of their free time was spent in discussing the great question as to what should be done. The cipher note evidently had direct connection with the attack on Browse, but the translation of the letter was in itself like finding a key without knowing the whereabouts of the lock which it fitted. The question was, by whom and for whom it had been written. Afternoon school was just over, and the three friends were standing warming their feet on a hot-water pipe, discussing the likelihood of making any other discoveries which might tend to throw more light on the subject, when suddenly a happy thought entered the head of Jack Vance. "Look here, Diggory. You said you found this note in a crack in the wall under one of the grub-room windows, and that you thought some fellows were using it as a sort of post-office. Well, have you been there to see if anything's been put there since?" "No!" cried Diggory. "Good idea! I'll go now at once." He walked quickly out of the room, and came back a few moments later at a run. "I've got one!" he exclaimed, in a low, eager tone. "Don't let any one see; come to my desk." The note this time was very brief:-- ZUGVIGVZFMWVIGSVKZE. Diggory hastily fished out his double alphabet, wrote down the proper letters as Jack read out those on the paper, and in a few seconds the translation was complete, and read as follows:-- "_After tea under the pav._" The three boys stared at it in silence. "What does it mean?" asked Mugford. "Why," cried Diggory excitedly, "I see. Something's going to happen after tea this evening in that place under the pavilion--you know where I mean?" The other two nodded their heads. The pavilion at Ronleigh being raised some distance above the level of the field, there was a space between the floor and the ground used for storing whiting-buckets, goal-posts, and a number of forms, which were brought out on match-days to afford seats for visitors. The door of this den had no lock, and opened on the piece of waste turf at the back of the building. Small boys used it as a cave when playing brigands, and for so doing had their ears boxed by irate members of the Sports Committee. It was too low to admit of any one's moving about except in a stooping posture, and pitch dark unless the door was left wide open. "What do you think it is?" said Mugford. "I don't know," answered Diggory; "but I mean to go and see." "If they catch you prying about, and find out that you've been watching them, you'll get an awful licking." "I don't care if I do; I mean to go." "Well, we'll go with you," said Jack Vance. "Remember it's the Triple Alliance, and we vowed always to stand by each other whatever happened." "Yes," answered Diggory, "and so we will; but there's less chance of one being seen than three. No; I'll go alone." CHAPTER XVIII. A SECRET SOCIETY. It was a clear, starlight night. Diggory was one of the first to leave the dining-hall, and, passing swiftly out of the quadrangle, was soon hurrying across the junior playing field. On reaching the pavilion, all was quiet and deserted, and he stood for a moment considering what should be his next step. The thin hedge dividing the two playgrounds was by this time bare of

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