ADVENTURES OF THE PUZZLE CLUB
The original photograph hangs on the club wall, and has baffled
every guest who has examined it. Yet any child should be able to
solve the mystery. I will give the reader an opportunity of trying
his wits at it.
Some of the members were one evening seated together in their
clubhouse in the Adelphi. Those present were : Henry Melville,
a barrister not overburdened with briefs, who was discussing
a problem with Ernest Russell, a bearded man of middle age,
who held some easy post in Somerset House, and was a Senior
Wrangler and one of the most subtle thinkers of the club ; Fred
Wilson, a journalist of very buoyant spirits, who had more real
capacity than one would at first suspect; John Macdonald, a Scots-
man, whose record was that he had never solved a puzzle himself
since the club was formed, though frequently he had put others on
the track of a deep solution ; Tim Churton, a bank clerk, full of
cranky, unorthodox ideas as to perpetual motion; also Harold
Tomkins, a prosperous accountant, remarkably familiar with the
elegant branch of mathematics—the theory of numbers.
Suddenly Herbert Baynes entered the room ; and everybody
saw at once from his face that he had something interesting to com-
municate. Baynes was a man of private means, with no occupation.
" Here's a quaint little poser for you all," said Baynes. " I
have received it to-day from Dovey."
Dovey was proprietor of one of the many private detective
agencies that found it to their advantage to keep in touch with the
club.
"Is it another of those easy cryptograms ? " asked Wilson. "If
so, I would suggest sending it upstairs to the billiard-marker."
" Don't be sarcastic, Wilson," said Melville. " Remember, we are
indebted to Dovey for the great Railway Signal Problem that gave
us all a week's amusement in the solving."
"If you fellows want to hear," resumed Baynes, " just try to keep
quiet while I relate the amusing affair to you. You all know of the
jealous little Yankee who married Lord Marksford two years ago ?
Lady Marksford and her husband have been in Paris for two or
three months. Well, the poor creature soon got under the influence
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