of The Spectator, anyway? There you are: 19:63—6 and 8. Look it up!"
Valeska flew to the Bible and turned to the Psalms, and read from the sixty-third chapter:
"'When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
"'My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.'"
"The blessed infants! Isn't it perfectly lovely? Ruth must have had hard work to answer that; but the one she sent was nearly as good, wasn't it? Oh, let's find the next one, and get the whole correspondence quick! It's too exciting!"
Astro opened the issue of the twenty-sixth, and scanned the advertisements carefully. It was some time before they found it, and several false clues were followed up. Valeska, thinking she had discovered the secret, would hurriedly take the Bible, only to be referred to some such text in Ezra as,—
"'The children of Magbish, an hundred fifty and six.
"'The children of Kirjath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty and three,'"
and would go off into peals of laughter. Some of these false scents led deep into the "Begats"; some led into the whale's belly.
But at last the right one was discovered in the "Second Hand" column, which read, innocently enough:
FOR SALE: 64 good, 1st class, 2d hand tables. Address CHESTER, Star Office.
