I think it was Sherlock Holmes, or some other noted detective, who recovered the booty from some great bank robbery by playing burglar and joining the gang. He tells about receiving a rogue's letter which gave the names of certain cities which were to be visited, and which could readily be deciphered by the initiated. By way of illustration, let us look at the following rogue's letter, purporting to come from a noted pedestrian:
“Dear Jim—I won the race. The track was at the Olympic, level and hard as cobalt. I more than won, for my position was central—eight before and eight behind. They had all a start from a half to a mile—to them a considerable advantage, but I can win on a run or walk and overtake and meander by—or kill—the best of them. Treading from early day to night the raids we follow. ELLSWORTH.”
It is a mixed-up sort of an epistle which will tax the ingenuity of our young puzzlist to decipher.
