“It looked like a Roman numeral,” Amartia replied for
Paidia.
“Hold on a minute,” said Paidia. “I once heard that the Romans didn't have a numeral for zero ...”
“Which means,” Muko continued excitedly, “that the
floor is the problem!”
“What are you on about?” grumbled Gelio.
Paidia explained patiently: “We're on the second floor, right? We thought that was correct because of the 'II' symbol. But seeing as the Romans didn't have a zero, we have to start counting at 'I'. The ground floor would have the symbol 'I' and the first floor would be 'II'. In other words, we need to go down a floor.”
They sped to the stairs and … froze. There was Pythagoras, making a hasty exit from the library. He looked furtive, as though he was trying to escape from something, and he kept glancing over his shoulder as if to check whether he was being followed.
The children waited until Pythagoras had gone and then