To be read by no one but Aunty Clara:

Solution to unnumbered letter.

The key word is WIT. In other words the letters I - T - W are the code words. All other letters of the alphabet are nothing. Only those three letters are important. Memorize them by the word Wit. That is why I chose that word. It is easy to remember.

You will note that the majority or my paragraphs begin with one of those three letters. All paragraphs which have any other letter of the alphabet as the starting letter are ignored. They are just decoys and are not entered in the code string.

There will always be 27 I - T - W paragraphs in a code letter. In other words, you must copy down, in exact order as they appear in the paragraphs the Is and the Ts and the Ws.

For example: IITIWWWIIITITITIIWTTWIIIIWT is the order in which those letters appeared in the paragraphs of the unnumbered letter.

this is the FIRST STEP then COPY DOWN THE KEY LETTERS (27 OF THEM) IN THEIR EXACT ORDER.

now place them in this fashion:

1st nine IIT IWW WII this is part of that old magic square monkey business 2nd nine ITI TIT IIW 3rd nine TTW III IWT

I drew those dotted lines to simplify your task. They should be grouped three to a box.

then the SECOND STEP is to ARRANGE THEM IN GROUPS OF THREE IN A BLOCK OF NINE SQUARES

now I will do an unmathematical thing so that you know what I am doing. I am going to number each space in which a letter falls. The idea is that you are to rearrange the letters according to numerical order. Watch and you will get the idea. Later on I will try to explain the magic square so you will know what you are doing.

8
I 17
I 26
T 1
I 10
W 19
W 6
W 18
I 24
I 8
I 17
I 26
T 1
I 10
W 19
W 6
W 18
I 24
I 8
I 17
I 26
T 1
I 10
W 19
W 6
W 18
I 24
I

Now the idea is to draw off these letters according to number like this:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25-26-27
I I I T T W I I I W  W  T  T  I  I  I  I  I  W  T  I  W  T  I  W  T  I

The THIRD STEP then is to DRAW THE LETTERS ACCORDING TO THEIR NUMBER

We are just about done now. We separate the letters into groups of three like this:

             III   TTW   III   WWT   TII   III   WTI   WTI   WTI

Then the FOURTH STEP is to SEPARATE THE LETTERS INTO THE FINAL GROUPING OF THREES

Now all we have to have is a letter of the abcs to match combinations of the three letters I - T - W. And we have. It is very simple. For the time being here is the code. I will explain later how it may be easily memorized with only a few notes.

a - III h- TTT o- WWW v- ITW b - IITi- TTIp- WWIw- IWT c - ITIj- TITq- WIWx- TIW d - ITTk- TIIr- WIIy- TWI e - IIWl- TTWs- WWTz- WIT f - IWIm- TWTt- WTW*- WTI g - IWWn- TWWu- WTT

We now match up the code letters with those of the alphabet and we have

III -   TTW -  III -  WWT -  TII -  III -  WTI -  WTI -  WTI -
     a       l      a      s      k      a      *      *      *

(continued in the noon of the following day) 4 Feb/43

The word I wrote has no meaning at this time alaska but in case I am in a place someday which is far far away I can let you know the name of it by this simple means as illustrated.

NOTE WELL: I have changed my mind about calling these unnumbered letters. We can call them "Dearest Aunty Clara" letters. I will begin all letters which I have something definite to tell you with the salutation "Dearest Aunty Clara". Any other form of greeting will be the usual kind of letter.

Here is an easy way to remember the code symbols. There are 27 symbols of three letters each and each with a combination of the same three letters. I can be represented by 1; T can be represented by 2; and W can be represented by 3. You will notice that the first row of abcdefg all begin with I or 1, the next with T or 2, and the third with W or 3. Now you simply make a list similar to the one I enclose and it will be a record which only you will be able to understand.