Two hours had passed since I left the church. St. Hilary and I had spent the time in a diligent study of the Bible. The result confirmed my theory beyond a doubt. With the exception of the scenes of the fifth and tenth hours, we had identified them all as Bible scenes. We had also found that in each story certain numbers were mentioned.
“To tell which are the significant numbers, that is the question,” said St. Hilary. “In two or three of the stories, at least, more than one set are mentioned. How can we be sure which numbers count, and which do not?”
“We can not be sure, I suppose,” I replied thoughtfully. “We can only guess. But at least we may make a reasonable guess. The goldsmith had some method in choosing them. What would be the most obvious?”
“That he should select the numbers that really counted in the various stories,” replied St. Hilary.
“I have observed that the important numbers are invariably mentioned in the first part of the story. We may go on that assumption to begin with, at any rate. Our search for the landmark of the second hour ought to begin from the Piazzetta, where the first landmark stands–that is, the lion of San Marco. Now our first numbers are 7, 30, 30. If we interpret those rightly, we shall find ourselves at the second landmark. Thence we may start for the third.”
“But the meaning of those numbers,” grumbled St. Hilary, “is extremely doubtful. They may be added to, or subtracted from, or divided or multiplied by others, and the landmark of the second hour is veiled in complete obscurity. If it were the landmark of the fourth hour, the House of the Camel, we should know what to look for.”
“But it is not,” I said impatiently. “Your precious landmark is quite useless by itself, because we have not been able to identify the Bible story of the fifth hour, and so we are ignorant of the numbers that will lead us to the landmark of the sixth. We are compelled to start at the first hour. From that point we go on to the second, and from the second to the third. As to the gap in the fifth hour, we won’t attempt to jump that until we come to it.”
The little man yawned. His dogged skepticism was maddening. The fact is, he resented my having been so fortunate as to make the great discovery. Because he had not made it himself, or helped to make it, he sulked and made endless objections.
“How do you propose to interpret the first numbers, 7, 30, 30?” he asked.
“Well,” I answered patiently, “say that they represent blocks of buildings. We go down the Grand Canal until seven blocks are passed. If we took the seventh canal to our left, and continued up that canal until thirty blocks had been passed––”