“Oh, I’m going to stay along; don’t worry about that,” said Fred. “I wish Grant would tell us what he’s trying to do, but I’m going to stay by him whether he tells or not.”
“I know what he’s trying to do,” said George. “It’s simple enough.”
“What is it then?” demanded Grant.
“Why, he thinks these numbers are used in place of letters. A certain number means a certain letter and wherever he sees it he substitutes the letter.”
“We all know that much,” cried John scornfully. “What we want to know is how he figures out what letter to put in place of a certain number. Can you tell us that?”
“No, I can’t,” George admitted ruefully.
“Then you don’t know how he does it, do you?”
“No, I don’t. That is, not yet.”
“Go ahead then, Grant,” exclaimed John. “We’re wasting time here.”
“You want to go on with it, do you?”