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Dorothy L. Sayers
Topic Started: Feb 17 2007, 01:43 PM (270 Views)
jdege Feb 17 2007, 01:43 PM Post #1
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 In Dorothy L. Sayers classic mystery novel "Have His Carcase", our heros, Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Whimsey, are faced with a cryptogram. Unlike the protagonists in Poe's "Gold Bug" and Conan Doyle's "Dancing Men", it's not a simple substitution.

In fact, it's encoded in Playfair.

First hint:
Whimsey determines that the formatting - word breaks and punctuation - are spurious, intended only to confuse, and hence should be ignored. Except that the first two words, which he takes to be the city from which the letter was posted and the date.


Second hint:
He knows that the letter was posted from somewhere in Eastern Europe - Czechoslovakia or some such foreign place, and that the date was somethingteen June - that is, somewhere between the 10th and 16th of June, with the digits 0-9 encoded as letters A-K. (As is usual for Playfair, I and J are treated as the same letter, and are used interchangeably.)

So "XNATNX" is a city in Eastern Europe, and "RBEXMG" is either "a_june" or "junea_".


Quote:
 
                  XNATNX
          RBEXMG

PRBFX ALI MKMG BFFY, MGTSQ IMRRY. ZBZE
FLOX P.M. MSIU FKX FLDYPC FKAP RPD KL DONA
FMKPC FM NOR ANXP.

SOLFA TGMZ DXL LKKZM VXI BWHNZ MBFFY
MG. TSQ A NVPD NMM VFYQ. CIU ROGA K.C. RAC
RRMTN S.B. IF H.P. HNZ ME?  SSPXLZ DFAX LRAEL
TLMK.  XATL RPX BM AEBF HS MPIKATL TO
HOKCCI HNRY.  TYM VDSM SUSSX GAMKR.  BG AIL
AXH NZMLF HVUL KNN RAGY QWMCK.  MNQS
TOIL AXFA AN IHMZS RPT HO KFLTIM.  IF MTGNLU
H.M. CLM KLZM AHPE ALF AKMSM, ZULPR FHQ --
CMZT SXS RSMKRS GNKS FVMP RACY OSS QESBH
NAE UZCK CON MGBNRY RMAL RSH NZM, BKTQAP
MSH NZM TO ILG MELMS NAGMIU KC KC.

TQKFX BQZ NMEZLI BM ZLFA AYZ MARS UP QOS
KMXBP SUE UMIL PRKBG MSK QD.

NAP DZMTB N.B. OBE XMG SREFZ DBS AM IMHY
GAKY R. MULBY M.S. SZLKO GKG LKL GAW
XNTED BHMB XZD NRKZH PSMSKMN A.M. MHIZP
DK MIM, XNKSAK C KOK MNRL CFL INXF HDA
GAIQ.

GATLM Z DLFA A QPHND MV AK MV MAG C.P.R.
XNATNX PD GUN MBKL I OLKA GLDAGA KQB
FTQO SKMX GPDH NW LX SULMY ILLE MKH
BEALF MRSK UFHA AKTS.
When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.
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Revelation Feb 17 2007, 02:05 PM Post #2
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 Nice challenge! I'll definitely work on this one :)
RRRREJMEEEEEPVKLWENFNVJKEEEEEAOLKAFKLXCFZAASDJXZTTTTTTTLSIOWJXMOKLAFJNNKFNXN
RAGRBAQEMHIGDJVDSEOXVIYCELFHWLELJFIENXLRATALSJFSLCYTKLASJDKMHGOVOKAJDNMNUITN
RRRRLJVEEEEECLYVYHNVPFTAEEEEEMWLMEIRNGLARWJAKJDFLWNTIERJMIPQWOTZEOCXKNUBNXCN
RJIRPOWEANFUSNCZVDVZNMSFEKLOEPZLDKDJWSAAAAAAAOERHJCTNCKFRIMVKSOFOMKMANREWNBN
RZUDRGXEEEEENFQIDVLQNCKNEEEEEDGLLLLLLAWIOSNCDARLODMTOEJXMILDFJROTKJSDNLVCZNN
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Donald Feb 19 2007, 01:49 PM Post #3
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 A great challenge. I'm familiar with the Dorthy Sayers story, but I don't remember any details about the code or how they cracked it other than one partial clue about how they determined the next key. So, this should be fun, when I finally get some time again. <sigh>
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