We suggest you only tackle this puzzle after you've read the book and had a good look through it together, noting down the things that stand out, as we mentioned at the start in the general help.

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Please DO NOT be put off by the length of this solution! It is very much easier than it looks, we promise! Most of this space is taken up to explain fully and show examples to help make it easier to grasp but the actual steps to take your children through, as shown below, are quite straightforward!

 

There are two parts to this puzzle.

1: Who is the Secret Agent?

and

2: What is his message?

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We suggest you solve part one first: WHO is the Agent?

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Here's where you're going to have to put on your thinking hat. In the back of Book One where you can read the story and clue details for this puzzle, take a look at the clue for KEYWORD 2. The clue will help you find the Agent. The Agent's gender is revealed in the clue and the fact that his speech gives him away... That lets you know that only male characters' speech in the book is important for this clue. Something a male character says relates to something about this puzzle. You might find something relevant in the little story background for the puzzle.

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Now do you know who the Secret Agent is? Their name is necessary to solve the message but knowing who they are might help you indirectly as well...

Step 1: FIND THE TWO KEYWORDS

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Now to find KEYWORD 1. Hint: this is a riddle of sorts. Knowing the Agent might suggest where to look. Hint 2: Which book...?

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Step 2: SOLVE THE CIPHER
 

This is the fun bit! Before you continue, here's a link off to a lot more detail about double transposition ciphers. You don't have to read it to continue, however!

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Step 3: STEPPING YOUR CHILDREN THROUGH IT - STAGE ONE

Got both Keywords now? Good! It may look complex but, believe it or not, your children should find the key stages of this easy - and fun - to do, if you guide them through it! Here's how:

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1. Get some graph paper - or draw up some rough lines consisting of at least 10 columns and 15 rows.

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2. Since we're decrypting the code, start with KEYWORD 2. Explain to the children to start on the second row down and write out the KEYWORD from left to right, one letter in each column. For example, it should look like this:

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-------------------------------------

|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

-------------------------------------

| P | L | A | Y | F | A | B | L | E |

-------------------------------------

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3. Now, in the TOP row, above the 2nd row containing the keyword, tell the children that they have to NUMBER each row, from left to right, according to letters of the keyword in alphabetical order. If a letter is repeated, then the first time it appears is the lower number and each successive appearance of the letter heading right increases. So, for example, if you start with THREE letter "E"s, the first E from the left is 1, the second E, wherever it occurs, is 2 and the third E is 3. Here's an example that should make this clear. Note, there are two As and two Ls in the example:

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8 6 1 9 5 2 3 7 4

P L A Y F A B L E

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4. Okay! The numbers in the top row tell you the ORDER in which to place the encrypted cipher. So, get the children to start with the column numbered 1 and BELOW that letter (which would be A in our example above), write the FIRST group of characters from the code in the back of the book (that's ENDWR in the book), one under the other. Then, go to column 2 and below THAT letter, write the SECOND group of characters from the code in the book - and so on until you've done all the groups of characters, each under one of the letters in KEYWORD 2.

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Here are the groups of characters in our example cipher and below shows you the first 4 groups as they go into the grid: EHE EEP IRV EYT SOS DEC LRT UHV !CO

The last group (!CO) would have the exclamation mark going in the cell below "Y", the C below that, and the O below that (as shown in red). This is to show you that if you come across a punctuation mark in our ciphers - whether it's an exclamation mark, a question mark, a comma or a full stop - it occupies its OWN cell.

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| 8 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 4 |

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| P | L | A | Y | F | A | B | L | E |

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|   |   | E | ! |   | E | I |   | E |

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|   |   | H | C |   | E | R |   | Y |

-------------------------------------

|   |   | E | O |   | P | V |   | T |

-------------------------------------

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Congratulations! You've done the FIRST stage of decryption! On to the second!

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Step 4: STAGE TWO

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5. Now you've created the transition cipher. Get the children to write out the full code by starting with the letter on the left, directly below the row with KEYWORD 2, and write out the letters that occur from left to right. Using our example above (once you've filled in the other letter groups!) it would start off like this: UDE!SEILEHEHC...

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6. Once again - but this time using KEYWORD 1 - write out the letters of the keyword from left to right leaving a free row above to put the order of the columns. Number the columns, as in step 3. In our example, KEYWORD 1 is PLAYGATE so we have:

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---------------------------------

|   |   | 1 |   | 4 | 2 |   | 3 |

---------------------------------

| P | L | A | Y | G | A | T | E |

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The number of rows below KEYWORD 1 is determined by the total number of letters/characters in the cipher divided by the number of letters in your KEYWORD 1.

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In our example, we have a total of 27 characters and our KEYWORD 1: PLAYGATE has EIGHT letters so 27/8 = 3 with 3 left over. This lets us know that we want to allow FOUR rows below KEYWORD 1 and the LAST FIVE CELLS on the bottom row are EMPTY (put a slash through them for now) - see the example below. Now there are three rows of EIGHT characters and the bottom row contains the LAST THREE characters and five blank spaces. Understood?

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|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

-------------------------------------

|   |   |   |   | / | / | / | / | / |

-------------------------------------

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By way of further explanation, if your KEYWORD 1 has 5 letters and you have 14 characters in your cipher then you would put THREE rows below your KEYWORD and the very last cell would be a blank (allowing for 14 characters in total). On the other hand, if your KEYWORD had 3 letters and your cipher was 15 characters long then you'd have FIVE rows and NO blank cells - all 15 would be filled. Okay?

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7. Now, once you've marked the EMPTY cells (if any), have the children fill out the characters below the KEYWORD letters in order. Starting with KEYWORD letter 1, write the first character in the first row below, the second character in the second row, etc. until there are no rows left OR you come across a cell in the row at the bottom that is marked blank - if you followed the example above, a cell that has a slash through it.

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Here's how our example looks if you follow this process:

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---------------------------------

| 6 | 5 | 1 |   | 4 | 2 |   | 3 |

---------------------------------

| P | L | A | Y | G | A | T | E |

---------------------------------

| Y | O | U |   | E | S |   | L |

---------------------------------

| V | E | D |   | H | E |   | E |

---------------------------------

| C | R | E |   | C | I |   | H |

---------------------------------

| E | R | ! | / | / | / | / | / |

---------------------------------

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8. At some point your family should start to notice that the letters from left to right beneath the KEYWORD are making a sentence albeit without the spaces between the words. (In the example above, the first word seems to be YOU...) Now, have the children write out the full sentence, going left to right from the top row to the bottom and there you have it: the completed, decrypted cipher! CONGRATULATIONS!