How Holmes Frustrated "The Fenian Bombers"

Dearest Detectives,

Thank you for putting an end to this explosive tale of shady couriers and Celtic codes. Without your help, Holmes and Mr. Tomlinson might have been chasing The Fenian Bombers for quite some time. Needless to say, Mr. Cusack won’t be exacting his revenge on the Home Secretary any time soon. In case you’re keen to learn how Holmes himself got to the bottom of this one, read his report down below!

Stay sleuthing,

The Dear Holmes Team

——

12 January 1885

Dear Mr Tomlinson,

Allow me to express my gratitude for presenting me with this curious problem of the Fenians and their codes. After a trifle of analysis, I take pleasure in reporting that I have not only deciphered their latest messages, but also uncovered their true aim. The solution is quite trivial– I am certain that you have already deduced much of this– but for the benefit of your colleagues, I will guide you through my thinking below.

Your initial statements describing the London Bridge incident, dated 20 December, brought forth a number of questions. The first and most pressing was that of our villain’s objectives: What motivated this attack, or rather, what did the Fenians seek to gain? Understanding this was critical to anticipating their next action.

You speculated that the Fenians’ primary goal was that of instilling fear, or distracting the masses, but I found this theory unconvincing. If their goal was merely generating a panic, then why would the Fenians– as reported by your man, Lee– be so displeased with the results of their operation at London Bridge? With the information available to me at that time, I could not yet fully explain this, so I focused on a more practical question. What would their next target be?

The ‘excursions’ that Lee reported indicated a number of other possible sites, including the Marble Arch and Westminster Abbey. Yet, based on Lee’s observations, it was not easy to ascertain whether the excursion leaders were measuring the structures themselves, or the number of passersby, for example. Perhaps they were attempting to gauge the sort of passersby as well, I considered. I was unable to substantially develop this theory until receiving your later letters, but the contents of the first coded message nonetheless strengthened it.

The first message provided by Lee was rather simple to digest because of my affinity for music. Immediately upon seeing the message, I noted that three characters stood out: the musical notes on either end of the text, and the singular ‘number sign’ near the middle. The latter could have been a form of musical notation denoting ‘sharpness’, but I was less sure of how that might come into effect. Conversely, I had several theories to test regarding the two musical notes.

The first, a quarter note, and the second, an eighth note, immediately provided four values to toy with: four, eight, one-fourth, and one-eighth. I tried forming words by counting every four letters from the top of the message, then did the same by counting every eighth letter from the bottom of the message, to no avail in either case. Then I recalled Lee’s delivery instructions and attempted to ‘alternate’ between the counts of four and eight. I counted four letters starting from the top of the message, then eight from the bottom, then continued with another four from the top, and so on. This yielded nothing. So I then started from the top of the message, merely alternating between counts of four and eight, and huzzah! The first coded message was revealed: ‘1 5 1 0 A M HoC Erin go bragh’. This not only unveiled the Fenians’ next plot, but also suggested that the Fenians had abandoned their original target, London Bridge. Why would that be, I contemplated, unless their target was something other than the structure itself? I wrote to you promptly thereafter, and your men were able to prepare for the would-be bombers at Westminster with ample time.

Your second letter arrived not long afterwards, providing me with yet another intercepted message and more crucial information on the Fenians’ plans. Based on Lee’s new intelligence, the Fenians appeared to be employing external assistance in their recent endeavours. Both of the apprehended men claimed to be hired by the group, rather than its proud members; likewise, your informant’s reports claimed that the Fenians were making large purchases of dynamite, as opposed to manufacturing it themselves. I conjectured that whatever their plot was, they hoped to obscure it behind layers of anonymity and clueless thugs.

Beyond that, I had at least several leads to follow. Your second letter suggested that both the Home Secretary and Mr Stanhope, of the Board of Trade, could have been possible targets of the Westminster attempt. Moreover, the Fenians’ ex-leader, Garrett Cusack, was a clear suspect. Cusack could have been hoping to escape his prison, as you suggested, if not avenge his arrest, I thought. In any case, it would not be unreasonable to believe he was influencing Fenian operations from afar, especially given Wormwood Scrubs’ relative proximity to Whitechapel.

Regarding the second intercepted message, it obviously appeared to be coded differently, but this alone was no cause for alarm, as Lee had mentioned the codes were regularly changed. More alarming was the fact that it had been sent in the aftermath of the failure at Westminster, suggesting that it was a response to the ordeal. It included a drawing of a tree but no instructions. The four and eight pattern from the first message bore no results from it, nor did any of my early attempted keys. I thought, considering the length of the word ‘alder’, perhaps counting every five words, or letters, could produce a message; but alas. Then I thought, it could be that the text was a veiled poem of sorts, as you had suggested, and that the alder tree indicated a new target site– though that would be a dangerously vague form of communicating vital information. Fortunately, I only pondered this briefly before receiving your next communique on January 8th.

With your third missive, I was soon able to decipher the codes in both your second and third letters, and from there, the case unfolded before me. As Lee’s reports indicated, something was likely being planned for January 10th when you wrote to me. The conversations overheard between McCullough and company also suggested that whatever was being planned was intended to ‘bring peace’ to somebody, though of course, that somebody remained shrouded in mystery. At this point in time, I strongly suspected that the person in question was ex-captain Garrett Cusack– the information in your third letter and the next helped bolster this theory.

First of all, Wormwood Scrubs, where Cusack is imprisoned, is but a short distance northwest of St Thomas’s Church, where Lee met Slim and the ‘towering man’. Not to mention, the prison is well under construction, which would explain the unknown man’s dust-ridden uniform. I posit that the tall man was a guard who either shares ties to the Brotherhood, or has succumbed to bribery or blackmail.

Your operative’s encounter with the fellow strongly suggested that Cusack was receiving regular communiques via illicit ‘LUNCH’ deliveries. Further, the ‘deliveries’ themselves indicated that Cusack still plays a role within the Brotherhood, despite his supposed replacement. This role became clear– as did the Brotherhood’s true target– once I saw through the last coded messages, which I commend your man Talbot for nearly solving. For greater ease, I will refer to these messages by the names of the trees with which they were paired.

When I considered the ogham alphabet in its simplest state, as a whole comprising a total of twenty or so parts, I realised that I could assign each tree, and thereby message, a number. If the alphabet were to be read in sequence, then alder would be associated with the third letter of the ogham alphabet, while ash would be associated with the fifth. Thus, I counted every third letter of the alder message, to no avail. When I counted every third word, however, I yielded success and the second coded message: ‘wait for further notice, music is dead’. This made sense considering the message was a presumed reaction to the January 5th failure.

By doing the same to the ash message, but with every fifth word, I uncovered the third coded message: ‘ABORT ONE ONE ZERO, STAND BY’. This message ascertained the fact that there was an operation in the works for January 10th, but more importantly, it indicated that the operation had been postponed. I surmised that this was due to the sudden changes in Parliamentary schedules you had noted. Your final letter arrived shortly thereafter, providing just the evidence needed to verify this.

I will confess that at first, Lee’s disappearance seemed to be the most concerning part of the letter. But the information you provided and the evidence he left behind both suggested that your informant had ‘vanished’ of his own volition, and was merely being cautious. This seemed especially likely considering that the Fenians feared their plans being intercepted. Knowing this, I continued my investigation confidently and with ease of mind.

From the off, your interview with Cusack helped substantiate my existing theories. His demeanour was much more spirited than one would have expected from a labouring prisoner. While he was careful not to reveal anything too incriminating, his sly remark about expecting ‘lunch’ also confirmed my aforementioned thoughts regarding illicit deliveries.

On the other hand, Talbot’s conversation with Slattery and Byrne further verified that the Fenians were carefully masking their motives. By disseminating instructions to discrete groups of people, some completely unrelated to their Brotherhood, they hoped to divert attention away from their goals, and in turn, their recently arrested leader. ‘And what, then, have these goals been?’ you might ask– for that answer we must turn to the final coded message.

Using the same method I applied to the previous two notes, I first attempted to decipher the oak message by forming a phrase out of every seven letters, and then words; for oak are associated with the seventh letter of the ogham alphabet. I yielded no success until recalling that Lee described the tree on the card as uprooted. This led me to try counting words and characters up from the bottom of the message instead, which of course, eventually revealed the hidden message:

‘H S GONE NOW ONE ONE NINE BEST CHANCE’

Reading this, I can confirm my theory that the Home Secretary, or ‘H S’, has been the target of the Fenians’ recent attacks. Suffice it to say, the Fenians have tracked the man over the last month at their ex-captain’s behest.

I take it that by obscuring his intentions through grandiose attacks, Cusack hoped to accomplish his personal goal of vengeance all the while reinforcing the Brotherhood’s foothold on the city of London. His eager but inexperienced replacement, McCullough, has been working to facilitate this too, alongside the man’s old accomplices, Doran and Ross. Fortunately, the Home Office is now wonderfully equipped to intervene before their attempt on the 19th.

I presume you have a course of action already in mind, but even so, I strongly suggest you pay a visit to the Scrubs and locate our ‘towering man’ as soon as possible. It would also behove you to coordinate with Lee and apprehend some of the more troublesome names in question– Doran, McCullough, and Ross come to mind. With them in custody, and all of the intelligence collected by your informant, I expect you will go beyond foiling this next attempt and significantly hamper any upcoming Fenian operations, regardless of target.

I wish you, and indeed the Home Office, all the best. Should you require my assistance again, do not hesitate to contact me– Though with officers like Talbot at your side, I suspect that may hardly prove to be the case.

Sincerely,