“Shame!” I cried; but he only wiggled a little, and turned over on his face. Tom sat down beside him, and I saw that he was discouraged, too, though he wouldn’t admit it. “Very well,” I said. “I’ll get it. You two stay here.”
I remembered having seen a shabby little leather-bound book lying on the stand at the head of grandaunt’s bed, and I did not doubt that this was the Bible which she habitually used. So I flew away toward the house, and up the stair to grandaunt’s room. It was evident enough that I had guessed correctly, as soon as I opened the volume, it was so marked and underlined. With a little tremor, I turned to the Song of Solomon, and ran down the narrow column until I came to the first verse of the second chapter.
The words, “I am the rose of Sharon,” formed the first line. Just to the right of it, across the line dividing the columns, was the second line of the fourteenth verse, “in the clefts of,” then, diagonally three to the left were the words, “the” “rock,” “stairs!”
With a shriek of victory, and hugging the little volume to me, I flew down the stairs and out upon the lawn.
The boys looked up as they heard me coming, and when they saw my face, both of them sprang to their feet.
“I’ve found it!” I cried. “I really believe I’ve found it this time,” and I showed them the mystic words.
“Well,” said Tom, at last, “it does seem that that’s too big a coincidence not to mean something. ‘In the clefts of the rock stairs.’ What do you think of it, Dick?”
“The cry of ‘wolf!’ doesn’t awaken any especial interest, any more,” answered Dick languidly. “I’ve become too used to it. But I suppose we might as well look up the rock stairs, wherever they are—”
“But perhaps there aren’t any,” I objected.
“Oh, yes,” said Dick, wearily, “you’ll find there’s some rock steps around the place somewhere, and we might as well proceed to tear them down, I suppose.”