“Let’s keep at it,” exclaimed Fred. “That’s the best way I know to accomplish anything. Talking about it doesn’t do much good.”
“Give him a couple more letters then, Grant,” exclaimed George.
“Let me give him one,” said John. “See if I can guess right.”
“All right,” said Grant, “you try it this time and see if you know the trick.”
“Give me two,” said Fred. “We worked two at a time before and we ought to be able to do it again.”
“What numbers do you want letters for?” inquired John.
“Let me see,” mused Fred. “How about eleven and fifteen?”
“Just a second now,” and John began to calculate and count on his fingers just as Grant had done.
“Another fakir,” whispered George, but as usual no one paid the slightest attention to him. Every one was intent upon the code and too much interested in it to be diverted by anything else.
“Put k in place of eleven, and o in place of fifteen,” said John after he had apparently satisfied himself as to the correctness of his calculations. “Is that correct, Grant?”