“You forget that I haven’t seen the riddle,” he remarked. “What was it?”
“It’s just a verse,” I said, “and rather a silly verse, too. Here it is,” and I repeated the lines slowly, while the Chesters listened in astonishment. Tom’s eyes were gleaming with interest and excitement.
“Let’s see; how is it?” he asked. “Say it again, won’t you?”
“‘The Rose of Sharon guards the place
Where the Treasure lies; so you must trace
Four to the right, diagonally three,
And you have solved the Mystery.’”
I repeated the lines slowly, and he soon had them. They were easy to remember, and, once learned, ran in one’s head like Mark Twain’s famous,
“Punch, brothers, punch; punch with care;
Punch in the presence of the passenjaire.”