It has emerged that four members of the mathematics department at Farthingbottom School have been working on a top-secret code-breaker for the government.
Unfortunately for them (and the school) someone has found out and they have all gone missing. The only hope of finding them is to decode their files which are encrypted on the server.
There are six canvases hanging on the wall of their research laboratory. The first four of these show the members of the team:
- Professor Sutherwell is pictured standing in the school grounds near the large letters that read "FARTHINGBOTTOM SCHOOL".
- The photo of Professor Peters shows her in the library, engrossed in a particularly weighty tome.
- Professor Bannister is seen at the blackboard, working on a particularly complex calculation.
- Professor Maxwell looks relaxed in a graveyard next to a gravestone that has been doctored to bear the name "Canute VI".
The Fifth canvas has been deliberately hung at a slant, but the picture on it is this:
The final canvas shows the following lines of text:
Madden dashed ketchup between my turkey fillets.
Putrid steak kills the unusual smell of aromatic flowers on each jasmine plant which can be found growing around John's expansive garden in the countryside of southern Madrid.
Burning every day, the bright fire in the temple was wasteful.
Stow our daughter's birth certificate near the rest of our extra-precious documents, wherever they might be.
Tony Steller
Question: Can you locate the means of decrypting the files?