The number of pages vary, however, in Bibles of different size. It was natural that the location must be a constant in order that the recipient of the note could always find it. So I began again:
Suppose Jason, looking through his Bible, found the word “feet” in the book of Genesis, the first chapter, the third verse, and the fourth word of the verse. If he should send the symbols “Gen. 1, 3, 4” to his friend, the man could easily look up the place and see what he meant. And in this case he wouldn’t have to have any certain edition of the Bible. The fourth word of the third verse of the first chapter of Genesis is the same in all copies of King James’ Bible over all the world.
Now I was working on sure ground. I had no doubt but that “dqbo” represented a certain point in the Bible—the letter “d” probably representing the book, “q” the chapter, “b” the verse and “o” the word. Once more my attention was called, with particular vividness, to the fact that all the words in the column were of four letters, proving in my mind that this last contention was true.
My heart was racing as I moved to the next step in working out the cryptogram. It was simply that of finding what method had been used to transform such a symbol as “Gen. 1, 3, 4” into such a sign as “dqbo.” If instead of four-letter words I was working with sequences of numbers such as “1, 1, 3, 4” I would have felt that the problem was solved. “1, 1, 3, 4” would have plainly meant the first book, the first chapter, the third verse, and the fourth word.
To transform letters into numbers—that was all that remained. Again I went back to “dqbo” and took the simplest method of transformation. “D” was the fourth letter in the alphabet. “Q” was the seventeenth letter in the alphabet. “B” was the second letter in the alphabet. “O” was the fifteenth letter in the alphabet. I wrote down the numbers:
4-17-2-15
And I felt sure that they meant the fourth book, the seventeenth chapter, the second verse and the fifteenth word in the Holy Bible.
Shaken, so nervous I could hardly hold my hands still, I stopped a moment to rest. This was the crisis. I was either at the verge of absolute success or hopeless failure. If when I looked up the place I found some word that couldn’t possibly be used in such a message I wouldn’t have the spirit to seek further. And it would be a real blow to all my hopes.
I opened the Bible. The fourth book proved to be “Numbers.” I turned to the seventeenth chapter, the second verse. And there I read as follows: