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Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle

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James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> posted:

My previous post was so long-winded perhaps nobody noticed the puzzle
presented for solution!

Recall that in a "3-4-7" skip cipher, the secret message is extracted
by taking the letters at positions
     3, 3+4, 3+4+7, 3+4+7+3, 3+4+7+3+4, 3+4+7+3+4+7, ...
in the plain text.

> Here's an example I constructed just now.  Can anyone find the secret
> message embedded with a skip cipher?

> > Isn't our beauty most plain to see?
> > Ah, we can rejoice much in a nest. -- Aprl 3rd.

> Hints:
> (1) Delete all spaces and punctuation before solving.
> (2) This is a 2-period skip cipher (not 3-period like "3-4-7").
You'll want to guess the skip parameters.  They're hinted in the plaintext.

This puzzle was intended as a prelude to an interesting and "important"
historical puzzle, for which one clue is a document which allegedly
contains embedded messages in skip cipher.  But I won't bother further
if there's no interest in this "warm-up" exercise.


Cheers,
James

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Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-02 06:20 +0000
  Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-03 07:52 +0000
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> - 2026-03-03 12:28 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-03 18:45 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-05 04:02 +0000
        Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> - 2026-03-05 06:03 +0000
  Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Charlie Roberts <croberts@gmail.com> - 2026-03-03 15:16 -0500
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-04 05:15 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Charlie Roberts <croberts@gmail.com> - 2026-03-04 17:48 -0500
        Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-05 03:54 +0000
  Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-12 19:22 +0000
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-13 05:35 +0000
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-25 11:19 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2026-05-19 18:23 +0300
        Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-05-19 17:56 +0000
        "Instigate to poison"  (Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle) James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-30 08:35 +0000

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