Chapter 1342

However, the ledger's contents weren't anything remarkable—just records of expenses for the four major families in Seathburn City. Nothing seemed special about it at all. "Could there be a hidden message? Like an acrostic or some kind of code?" Lyra listened to Charlie's wild theory and replied, "An acrostic? That would require, you know, actual poetry. "All these are entries for flour, oil, and other basics. Do you see anything unusual here?" "Well… no, not really," Charlie said. "Lyra's right. The most common thing here isn't words, it's numbers," Maeve said. "What's so special about the numbers? Are you saying they used some old numeric code? That wouldn't exactly draw us a treasure map," Lyra said. She started to grow increasingly skeptical. Charlie said, "Maybe we're looking at this all wrong. Maybe this isn't a treasure map at all?" "Could it be like just what Mr. Hackett Senior and Mr. Malone Senior said, these are just a plain ledger? And that maybe we're the ones ma