Prim, Proper and Curious: Part II

With the quill and small bottle of ink in hand, I walked over to the small wooden desk in the corner of the room and sat down in the thin wooden chair that faced it. I laid the single piece of paper down in front of me and set the ink bottle next to it. My sister, her husband Walter and the group of party guests followed me and encircled the desk, their bodies hunched forward in order to get a better look.

I dipped the quill into the ink and began to write directly below the string of seemingly random numbers. I started with the number one, and writing on down the page, stopped at twenty-three. Then, with another dip in the ink, I wrote the alphabet through “W” right next to the set of numbers.

1 A
2 B
3 C
4 D
5 E
6 F
7 G
8 H
9 I
10 J
11 K
12 L
13 M
14 N
15 O
16 P
17 Q
18 R
19 S
20 T
21 U
22 V
23 W

Below this I wrote out each letter that corresponded to each number of the puzzle. When I had finished, the string of letters appeared as follows: “theweddingwasasham”.

“The wedding was a sham”, I read aloud.

There was a small but collective gasp from the group.

“Now who would play such a foul practical joke!” Abigail’s husband Walter said in anger.

I turned to my side and saw my sister Abigail standing near me. She looked at me but said nothing. She appeared deep in thought.

“Well done solving the puzzle lad,” an older gentlemen from the crowd said.

“It was nothing really,” I responded, turning halfway around in my seat to better address everyone. “A puzzle like this is merely child’s play”.

A few people laughed.

“Then I might have something a little more difficult for you, sir”, a voice said from the opposite side of the large parlor room.

All of the party guests stood up firmly at once and turned their attention toward the voice. It had come from the party’s greeter.

“Frank!” Walter called to the greeter before the man could continue, “Where did you find this note?”

“In front of the house, sir”, Frank answered respectfully. “I came in help your wife clean up the kitchen, and when I returned to stand in front of the door, it was laying on the outside steps in front of me.”

Walter seemed satisfied with this answer and did not say another word. Frank continued.

“And then I just came in, and there was another note in the front entrance way”.

“Inside the house?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes, sir,” Frank the greeter confirmed, “It was so close to my feet I nearly stepped on it.”

He held up the second sheet of paper. Even from the opposite side of the room I could tell it had some writing on it.

“You know what this means”, I said, more to the entire group this time. “The prankster is inside this very house. Whoever he or she is, they wanted us to know this very fact”.

There was a moment of silence. The group of people huddled behind my chair began to slowly distance themselves from one another.

“But… Why?” Abigail asked me.

“I don’t know yet, but possibly the second message will shed some light on that very question. Please, if you would bring that to me, Frank,” I requested.

He did, and I set the second sheet of paper right next to the first. The second paper has this written upon it:

“The fourth is the second, the first is the fourth, the third is the first, the fifth is the third and the second is the fifth. Nothing is where it should be. Oyu biilaga i ntod veol. ”