Well, it's been quite an afternoon down here at the Vulture Central encryption department. Not two hours after we gave you an apparently much-needed leg up, we got an triumphant e-mail from one Mark Wutka.

Mark has every right to be pleased with himself, having successfully cracked the code and supplied the original text. He also outlined several other details - which we will obviously not disclose now - indicating that he was right on the ball.

Our hats are off to Mr Wutka, who has won himself a rack of goodies. Respect is also due to Jim Gillogly, who got his solution to us about three hours after Mark.

Other potential codebreakers need not despair, however. There's still everything to play for - including, of course, the kudos of your name in lights on the Reg. To recap, we still have eight copies of Sarah Flannery's In Code: A Mathematical Journey. Stick with it! ®