The dancing figures in Sherlock Holmes's work?

Question

Anybody remember what the dancing figures that was used in one of the Sherlock Holmes's work? what book was it from and is there a site that contains an explaination of it?

Answer 1

The Adventure of the Dancing Men, I believe. It was a substitution cipher to encrypt a series of messages, The story pretty well explained it.

Answer 2

Book is of course "The Dancing Men"
I'm still looking for a site that explains them.

Addenda : found two sites with complete text of book & dancing men.

Answer 3

Here's the story

http://camdenhouse.ignisart.com/canon/danc.htm

Holmes is also a competent cryptanalyst. He relates to Watson, "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyze one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." One such scheme is solved in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" which uses a series of stick figures.