Compete to crack secrets lost to history—for fun, clout, and (no) profit
The cards to Ray Bartley are social traffic, not a single couple’s archive. Their open notes and signatures distinguish Ethel, R.E.B., and J.B. Their short private inserts, and one much longer field, use the same familiar geometric alphabet. The useful discovery is what each particular card says and how its concealed words fit its open prose. [1]
The mechanism is a three-dot Pigpen convention. Number nine frame positions in ordinary row order in a 3 × 3 grid. With one interior dot those positions carry A–I; two dots carry J–R; three carry S–Z, with the last cell unused. A mark’s frame position and dot count together fix its letter.
| Frame position | One dot | Two dots | Three dots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top left | A | J | S |
| Top middle | B | K | T |
| Top right | C | L | U |
| Middle left | D | M | V |
| Center | E | N | W |
| Middle right | F | O | X |
| Bottom left | G | P | Y |
| Bottom middle | H | Q | Z |
| Bottom right | I | R | unused |
The source, not an attractive sentence, determines dot count, frame orientation, and the order of margin groups. The canonical edition reports that every recovered insert re-enciphers under this one table. The longest card has thirteen physical rows and an additional picture-margin signature; a short card can still have two separately located concealed components. [2]
Capitals identify decoded writing; the accompanying prose supplies the original context. Editorial punctuation and repairs are stated rather than allowed to replace literal source forms.
Complete readable card:
Dec. 16-07. Received your card Sat. morning. This is Sat. afternoon. Windy. Mon. If you come, come in to-night. I will be home.
Physical source division:
Open: Dec 16-07 / Received your / card Sat. morning / This is Compact cipher (3/9/5): SAT. / AFTERNOON. / WINDY. Separate margin cipher: MON. / IF YOU COME COME IN / TO-NIGHT, I WILL / BE HOME.
The comma after the first COME in the readable rendering is editorial because comma-like marks also serve as word separators. The former MERRY CHRISTMAS reading is retracted: it reversed two components and omitted the three-glyph column.
Complete readable card:
Moet mo if you love me. Ha ha. I am still sitting up in front and expect to stay there the rest of this term. I was to Lodge and Harvey turned good and didn't want us to dance, but we did it anyway. Such awful weather as this is. I wanted to go to a play in Humboldt tonight, but if it keeps on this way I guess I'll stay at home. Mrs. P.E.B. sick, and Ethel and I sat up last night. I don't feel any sleepy when I have big [eats?] after dances. R.E.B.
The cipher physically reads MOET MO IF / YOU LOVE ME. Both O-for-E errors are real; Meet me if you love me is the compelling intended sentence but remains editorial. [eats?] is uncertain ordinary cursive.
Complete diplomatic card:
how do you like your card [?] Have been looking for your card. Received it today. Now is that fine for you [Richard? mother?] R.E.B. COME TO ME.
The final crossing words are not secure enough to distinguish Richard, mother, or a combined phrase. The Pigpen row COME TO ME. round-trips exactly.
Complete readable card:
Received this A.M. Walter was here a few minutes yesterday. Ruth and Mabel were just here on there way to school to take exams. Ada went over to Maud's this morning, so am alone all day. Don't you wish you were here with me? I love you. Ethel Bartle[?]
Physical cipher:
DONT YOU WISH YOU WERE HERE WITH ME I LOVE YOU
All 36 keyed glyphs and nine raised separators were checked. The source cipher has DONT without an apostrophe; readable punctuation is editorial. The open prose's there way is preserved. The signature ending remains faint.
Complete diplomatic decoded block:
I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOUABOUT SUNDAY NIGHT I BET YOU WAITED PRETTY NEAR TO DEATH FOR ME TO GET HOME THIS MORNING I AM GOING TO BE AT PARTY TUESDAY NIGHT WRITE YOU I GUESS. (MAYBE) I LIKE YOURLETTERS
Readable rendering:
I have something to tell you about Sunday night. I bet you waited pretty near to death for me to get home this morning. I am going to be at [a] party Tuesday night. [I'll] write you, I guess. (Maybe.) I like your letters. Ethel.
The supplied [a] and [I'll] are not present in the decoded source. YOUABOUT and YOURLETTERS physically lack dividers. Final source checks give WAITED (not WANTED), BE AT / PARTY (not BE A PARTY), and WRITE YOU (not ANSWER ME). The separate ETHEL reads bottom-to-top in the native margin.
The source audit began with blinded literals of the ten original scans. Later supplied readings were checked after those literals were frozen. Some early frame labels conflicted with the later interpretation, so the final source-checked edition governs: it is not correct to call every final letter an independently identical blind transcription. The canonical HCP1438 check accounts for all 36 keyed signs and nine raised separators.
HCP1440’s first row reads MOET MO IF. Both post-M forms are O signs, so the likely “MEET ME IF” remains an intention, not the diplomatic result. HCP1442’s former “MERRY CHRISTMAS” reading was withdrawn after correcting component order and restoring the omitted three-sign column. Its compact groups are SAT / AFTERNOON / WINDY; a separate margin gives the Monday visit instruction. HCP1441’s picture-margin signature has five signs, read bottom-to-top, not the four first inventoried. [2]
The campaign reports native-image checks, but the saved text supplies dependable final sign ledgers here only for HCP1439’s lower row and HCP1442’s compact insert. The other passages’ readings remain documented in the cited edition; their full source streams still require the original images. An earlier eight-sign HCP1439 inventory was inconsistent with the final record and is not used on the problem page.
All five concealed fields are closed at source level. Some ordinary cursive still has brackets, including a signature ending and crossing words on HCP1439. HCP1441 is postmarked 18 November 1907 although the catalogue says 18 December; the packet therefore begins in November, not the December start given in an older summary.
The 28 August 2026 audit checked all five portal records, the relevant HCP/DECODE crosswalk, the 2021 and 2026 postcard publications, and bounded item and phrase searches. It found no prior exact-item plaintext. The geometric method is already public, and portal labels are not reliable proof of priority. No legal identity, later relationship, or private-history claim is inferred from these five cards. [3]