Secret code

In Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Marlow, in an abandoned hut of reeds by the Congo, finds an English book on seamanship. This is unlikely enough, or so he thinks, but he is even more astonished when he finds the book is full of notes pencilled in the margin, and they are in cipher. This strikes him as an “extravagant mystery” (82). He continues his journey and eventually runs into the man who has abandoned the book in the hut. This man, a Russian, is delighted to have his book back (117). When they speak about the book it turns out that the notes are not in cipher at all. They are in Cyrillic! (Conrad, Joseph: The Heart of Darkness. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1984).