A mysterious cipher made up of Dancing Men stick figures can be seen in one of the stories of The Return of Sherlock Holmes. This collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle was published in 1903 in the Strand Magazine. It was also published in the USA in Collier’s.
The cipher appears in the story entitled ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men’. In this tale, it is upon the solving of a Dancing Men Cipher that Sherlock Holmes finds himself racing to a home of a client, only to discover he is too late. Not only is his client found dead, but his wife is badly injured from a gunshot. One of the few tragic endings for a client of Sherlock Holmes.
What did the message say? Can you figure it out? Here was the message.
In the story, Sherlock is presented with a case by Hilton Cubitt. He provides Sherlock with messages all involving Dancing Men. They had first arrived by mail, from the US, and then later appeared in the garden of his home. Cubitt goes on to explain the messages are upsetting his wife, but he had agreed to never ask questions about her past. He asks Sherlock for help to decipher the messages so he can learn the reasons for his wife’s distress, and possibly help her.
Sherlock does so. He realizes the Dancing Men are replacing letters of the alphabet. The coded messages are a simple type of substitution cipher where letters are substituted for another letter, character, or symbol. In this case, Dancing Men stick figures. Sherlock knows this type of cipher can be solved by frequency analysis.
Frequency analysis is a study of letters or group of letters. When this analysis is applied to ciphertext, it often reveals vital clues for deciphering the message. Sherlock noticed some Dancing Men figures appeared more often than others. If he were to substitute the most used Dancing Men of the ciphertext, with the most common letters used in the English language, and continue on substituting letters for Dancing Men, according to their frequency of use, a coherent message could soon be read.
The message above deciphered to: Elsie prepare to meet thy God.
Elsie was Cubitt’s wife. The end of the story has Sherlock putting all the pieces together to discover a long lost, but past dangerous love, of Elsie’s, who was trying to steal her away again and sending the messages. Cubitt interrupted the couple and was killed by Elsie’s past beau. Elsie shot herself after her husband died, but survived to live a life of helping others. Her past love was arrested for the crime he committed and sent to prison.
And the Dancing Men went on to become one of the most popular ciphers known.
Best of luck with all that you seek! Always Treasure the Adventure!