I sat at the desk and the others stood round, for somehow or other I had got charge of this expedition.
It was no good.

There were hundreds of entries, and so far as I could see 10.17 might cover fifty places.

We had to find some way of narrowing the possibilities.
I took my head in my hands and thought.

There must be some way of reading this riddle.

What did Scudder mean by steps?
I thought of dock steps, but if he had meant that I didn't think he would have mentioned the number.