TheCodeBreakers
mathematics. From 16 on he frequented the poker tables of the local
saloons, learning the game that was to be a passion of his life. He had
wanted to become a criminal
I
lawyer, but instead landed at 23 as a $900-a-year code clerk in the
State Department.
It was a case of purest serendipity, for the man and the subject were
ideally matched. His romantic mind thrilled to the stream of history that
daily poured through his hands in the form of ambassadorial dispatches,
and cryp-tology fired his imagination. He had heard vague tales of
cryptanalysts who could pry into secrets of state, and when a 500-word
message from Colonel House passed over the wires to President Wilson
one night, Yardley, with characteristic audacity, determined to see
whether he could solve what must be the most difficult of American
codes. He astonished himself by solving it in a few hours.* His success
cemented his attachment to cryptanalysis, and he followed this
annaabi.ee 
