A
Sherlock Holmes story involves a
simple substitution code
in which each letter is written as a
stick figure in a different
posture, so that lines of text look like rows of dancing men that
a
child might draw.
The full code is not revealed in the story, but 18 letters are, as
described below.
The characters holding a flag in one hand mark the last letters of
words. The last letter of the last word may or may not have a flag.
Besides that, there are 7 different ways of drawing the arms of the
man, and 8 different ways of drawing the legs, which includes one
case where the man is drawn upside down. Various combinations of
these are used to make the figures.
Arms: (names and numbers are my made-up ways of identifying the shapes)
O O O O O O O
| \|/ \| |/ |/ \| |||
| | | | <| |> `+'
left right
armless normal left right bent bent shrug
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Legs:
| ~\ /~ | |__| |__| | /| |\
^ V / \ | | | / | | \
_/ \_ | \ / |_ _| _|_ \ |_ _| /
upside ~ ~ left right stand ~ left right ~
normal down bent raised raised ing bent bent
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
For the upside-down figures, the left and right arms refer to the sides
as drawn, or in other words, assume the man flipped vertically toward or
away from you, rather than performing a cartwheel.
Code letters:
arms 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
legs
1 - E - - - - -
2 - T G D - - -
3 B M C Y N L S
4 V I P - - - -
5 - R - - - - -
6 - H - - - - -
7 - O - - - - -
8 - A - - - - -
The letters F, J, K, Q, U, W, X, Z do not appear in the coded messages in
the story, but may be presumed to be represented by other combinations of
arm and leg positions.