ered eagerly over his
shoulder.

"Now, first of all," began Grant, "you all know what this is."

"It's a combination to a safe," said George readily.

"Keep quiet, Pop," exclaimed Fred. "Give him a chance."

"It's a code," said Grant, ignoring George's facetious remark.

"We know that," agreed Fred. "Don't be so mysterious."

"What's the highest number in it?" demanded Grant.

"He sounds like a trick man," laughed George jeeringly.

"No treasure for Pop," said Grant shortly. "What's the highest number in
it?"

"I guess we'll have to do it this way," said John with a sigh. "Let me
see," he added. "I guess twenty-five is the highest number."

"All right. How many letters are there in the alphabet?"

"Twenty-six."

"But, Grant," Fred protested, "I don't see what you're getting at?"

"You will soon enough. Just have a little patience."

"But why don't you tell us what your idea is right now?"

"Because I don't want to. At any rate it's only an idea and I don't know
whether it's right or not and I haven't worked it out myself. That's
what we are doing now and I want you all to help me. The whole thing may
be wrong, but it sounds pretty good to me. John's remark about the
number of letters in the alphabet gave me the idea."

"Then I ought to get the credit if we solve the code," exclaimed John.

"You'll be lucky if you don't get shot," said George. "You ought to be."

"Go ahead with your explanation, Grant," urged Fred. "Everybody keep
quiet and give him a chance."

"All right," said Grant. "We've noticed that the highest number is
twenty-five and that there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet,
haven't we?"

"We have," said John so solemnly that George giggled outright. His
friends, however, were in a very serious mood and he quickly realized
that his hilarity was decidedly out of place.

"What number appears most frequently?"

"I guess fourteen does," said Fred after a hasty survey of the figures
spread out on the ground before them.

"No, five," exclaimed John. "There are a good many more fives than there
are fourteens."

"Perhaps there are," Fred admitted. "Go ahead, Grant."

Grant made some calculations that his comrades could not follow before
he replied to Fred's remark. His friends eyed him curiously.

"Suppose we put the letter _e_ wherever the number five occurs," he
said at length.

"What are you going to do that for?" demanded George, now very much
interested in the experiment G