After attempts with AUSLAN, Venusian beetle-click code and even a Tele-psychic tophat, it was starting to dawn on Mousehammer that the Cephalopoidia Sapiens communicated via encoded tap-dancing...
Later, in the laboratory aboard the airship. Mousehammer meticulously transcribes the squid's movements on to tiny brass cards and feeds them to the Analytical Engine. With a burst of steam the mechanism begins calculating ...
Time passes...
More time passes, Mousehammer lounges at the Engine console day-dreaming...
The sudden loud clattering of the hammers of the Gutenberg Mill startle the professor from his wool-gathering. The machine is printing the decoded message !
Intrigued to discover what wisdom the Squids wanted to impart , he hurried to the Mill to retrieve the completed parchment. On the page, in large friendly letters he read...
Somewhat nonplussed by the answer, Mousehammer paused to think, then moved to compose a reply outlining the joy of Science, Technology,Engineering, Art, and Mathematics.
However, no arrangement of the statement would compile into the Cephlapoidal language. Feeding the codes to the Analytical Engine raised a "Contradiction" flag and eventually caused complete lock-up of the mechanism.
Later...
The clockwork pantograph plotted the output of a much simpler greeting,
a chime announced completion.
Mousehammer sighed as he examined the graph "I may need some help with this, like a dance troupe perhaps ?"
