Breaking the Code

It’s the year 1780, and the American Revolution is well underway. You’re living with your mother in a small home near New York City. For four years, the British army has kept your city under tight control. Soldiers in red coats stroll through the streets and gather at taverns, discussing plans to attack the rebel Patriots.

Your mother works at one of these taverns. As long as you can remember, she’s told you stories of how exciting it will be for America to become its own country, so it can be free from British control. Now she’s part of the heroic effort to make that a reality.

Every night, your mother listens to the British soldiers as she serves them food and drinks. If she overhears anything useful, she passes the information to a member of a group of spies who work for George Washington himself. She uses several different codes to hide what she writes, substituting numbers for letters so that only someone who knows what they mean can understand her messages.

Tonight you’re studying one of them. Your mother wants you to be able to read any coded messages that come for her while she’s at work.

She’s told you that each number in the code represents a letter, starting with the letter M. So M = 1, N = 2, and so on. The code continues past letter Z, until you end with L as 26.

Your mother left you the word below to put into code. Time to practice your spy decoding skills!

Knock, knock! There’s someone at the door. You open it, but no one is there. As you turn to walk back inside, you hear a crinkle under your feet. You spot a small piece of paper on the floor with a list of numbers on it. Could this be a secret coded message?

Excited, you run to your desk. Using your code, you try to find out what the message says. It reads:

It was the same code that your mother taught you! You successfully decoded your first message.

You blow out your candle and rush to the tavern to deliver the message to your mother. Through the front windows, you can see men in red coats clinking their glasses together in a cheer and laughing. Carefully, you make your way to the back door. You can wait for your mother in the kitchen.

Soon, your mother appears carrying a tray of empty glasses. You tug on her skirts and show her the message, telling her what it said.

Your mother hugs you with joy. But your work isn’t done! Your mother is still serving the soldiers inside and can’t leave to reply to the message. You’ll have to write and code a message for her. She tells you to leave it on your doorstep where you found the first one when you’re done.

The message your mother wants you to code is this:

With your message safely coded, you place it on your doorstep and lock the door. One hour later, you open the door just a crack to take a peek outside. The message is gone!

You communicated your first message to the Patriots–all on your own! Great spy work!