"How are we going to get out?" said Ellie. "Mr. B's locked us in this basement and nobody else knows we're here!"

"There's a skylight up there", said Mike, pointing to a small window high up on one wall. "If we push the desk over there, then we should be able to reach it. You solve the code on the telegram, and I'll try to open the window."

After some huffing and puffing, they managed to move the desk to beneath the window and Mike set to work with his Swiss army knife trying to unlock the catch. Within a few short minutes, they clambered out and emerged into the daylight.

"So now we know what all this is about", said Ellie, clutching the now-deciphered telegram as she and Mike walked down Oxford Road. "Jesse Haworth was a Manchester businessman who was very interested in ancient Egypt. He funded several archaeological digs there, and that's why there's such a large Egyptian collection in the Museum. Obviously some criminals realised that these things were really valuable, and were ransoming a jade statue."

"But it's all ancient history", said Mike, frustrated. "The statue will be from like a bazillion years ago and Haworth's letter is a 100 years old. Surely the treasure must have turned up since then!"

"Maybe not", replied Ellie as she thoughtfully chewed on a fingernail. "Haworth wrote to Rutherford in 1912. Rutherford told Newman about it in the 1930s so the statue couldn't have been found by then, and then Newman told Turing. And Turing also mentioned this Barquith guy..."

"I think we need to know a bit more about Rutherford", mused Mike. "He was a physicist, let's go over to the School of Physics and see if we can find anything there."

Mike and Ellie walked over to the Schuster building. Inside the foyer they found several large lecture theatres, each named after a famous physicist who had worked at Manchester and each with an accompanying bronze bust. As they sat down to think what to do next, Ellie noticed a tall white-haired gentleman come out of one of the lecture theatres, talking on his phone.

"Mike - it's Mr. B! What's he doing here? Quick, hide behind these chairs! After he locked us in the basement, I'm not sure I trust him any more", she whispered urgently.

"Yes, I know", they heard Mr. B say into his phone. "I think I've lost them now... They were in the basement. Perhaps they've had - shall we say - an accident?" They watched him scurry off, heading back towards the Museum.

Ellie wandered over where Mr. B had been standing near the Moseley lecture theatre. Next to the door, a bust of Henry Moseley stood on a solid wooden table. "What's this?" she mused, noticing a piece of notepaper wedged behind the table, as Henry Moseley's eyes stared sightlessly at her.

Alan Turing Cryptography Competition 2013 is organised by the The Department of Mathematics at The University of Manchester.
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