Yep, there is a typo. Franklin’s message reads “33123 4, 33122 4, 31944 3, 33123 4, 33136 10, 30900 22, 30900 17, 33122 12, 33122 4, 16902 7.” but it should read “33123 4, 33122 4, 31944 3, 33123 4, 33136 10, 30900 22, 30900 17, 33122 15, 33122 4, 16902 7.”
It took a ridiculous amount of time to find the words once I figured out the code, but I love a good payoff. I wish there was a little bit more rhyme and reason as to where Franklin sourced his word selection, but by the grace of God, I found them all, and it took me less than two hours.
The intended message (correcting for the typo) is as follows: “In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.” What Franklin accidentally wrote was “In a hole in the ground there there a Hobbit.”
That was a pretty ingenious code, Franklin, because it wasn’t one you can Google. Instead, it took a good deal of sleuthing for me to figure it out. Well done. Here is my reply for you to figure out (and I simplified where to find the words, DScott, but you can find them the old fashioned way too if you wish):
313398 7, 33278 12, 33048 13, 29710 1, 29551 1.
Happy decoding! Hopefully it takes you less than two hours of your time to decode this message. 😀
