Always Five: A Math Theory About There's Treasure Inside | Lost Cabin Mine

Jimmy’s 3 A.M. Department of Questionable Connections:

Always Five

...What if the book is quietly guiding our thinking, without telling us what to do?

Jimmy has been thinking about something Jon Collins-Black said during a Treasure Con Q&A. While answering a question that didn't seem to have much to do with numbers, he made a remark Jimmy remembers as something along the lines of, **“It's five. Always five.”**
It was that little word *always* that caught Jimmy's attention. Five is straightforward enough, but *always* suggests something that doesn't change. A rule, perhaps? A pattern? Or just another perfectly innocent sentence Jimmy has decided to interrogate at three in the morning?
Naturally, she couldn't leave it alone.

Alt text: Black-and-white Lost Cabin Mine comic showing Jimmy, her search partner, and a raccoon investigating the words Always Five on a question board. — Jimmy is investigating the meaning of “always five.” Her search partner is considering the possibilities. The raccoon has already solved the cracker problem, although nobody asked him to.

The Always Five Math Trick

There's an old math trick that works with any number.
Pick a number, double it, add ten, divide by two, and subtract your original number. You'll always get five.
Start with seven: double it to fourteen, add ten to get twenty-four, divide by two to get twelve, and subtract seven. Five.
Start with a hundred, and you'll still get five. The trick works because the math follows a rule that cancels out your starting number.
So Jimmy has another question. **Could “always five” be suggesting mathematics rather than simply referring to a number?**
It wouldn't mean this particular trick is used anywhere in the book. The interesting part is the idea of following a mathematical rule to reach a result.

A Few Other Things Worth Considering

Treasure hunters have already noticed and discussed plenty of interesting details in *There's Treasure Inside*, including repeated words, recurring themes, dots, lines, and other little marks throughout the book.
Dots, tally marks, and notches also happen to be some of the oldest ways humans have kept count. Long before modern number symbols, people recorded quantities using simple marks. Other treasure hunters have considered whether certain symbols in the book might resemble older counting systems.
Then there are the repeated words and themes that readers have been comparing across chapters. Repetition is common in storytelling, but it's also something mathematics relies on. Patterns, sequences, and relationships are all part of mathematical thinking.
And what about the people represented in the stories? Some have connections to subjects involving mathematics, science, music, measurement, or logical reasoning. Those associations might also help suggest a mathematical approach without anyone having to write an equation.

Jimmy isn't claiming to have discovered these observations. Plenty of treasure hunters have been examining them from different angles. She's interested in whether some of those familiar details might be pointing toward a similar way of thinking.
Apparently, Jimmy has reached the stage of treasure hunting where even punctuation is under investigation. The raccoon has requested legal representation.

Different Personalities, Different Clues

Jon has said he included clues for different personality types, and that's where Jimmy finds this especially interesting.
...How did he go about doing that?
Maybe someone who naturally thinks in numbers would recognize a mathematical connection, while someone more imaginative might see something entirely different. Others might notice patterns, historical references, or visual details.
Some of those approaches could even overlap.
And here's what Jimmy keeps coming back to: **If a book is designed to hide its instructions, wouldn't one clever way to guide readers be to suggest a way of thinking without ever telling them outright what to do?**
A repeated theme, an unusual mark, or a connection to someone in a story might be enough to steer a reader toward a method. Mathematics could be one of those methods, with imagination, history, and pattern recognition offering others.
After all, writing "PLEASE USE MATH ON PAGE 47" would rather spoil the treasure hunt. Although Jimmy admits she'd appreciate the courtesy.

So, What's Always Five?

The Always Five trick shows how a mathematical rule can produce a consistent result. And when Jimmy considers that alongside the repeated language, possible counting marks, and mathematical associations already being discussed by treasure hunters, she sees an interesting possibility.

...Some of the book's themes might be quietly guiding readers toward a mathematical way of reaching a solution, without revealing the instructions themselves.

That wouldn't mean every puzzle needs an equation. Jon has already said he considered different personality types, and those different ways of thinking could even overlap.
The trick doesn't solve a particular puzzle, and Jimmy hasn't found a box. She's simply interested in how a book built around hidden clues might also hide guidance on how to approach them.

Meanwhile, the raccoon has been testing the Always Five theory with crackers.
He started with twelve, ate seven, and announced that the answer was five.
Jimmy told him that wasn't how the trick worked.
He pointed to the remaining crackers and asked whether she wanted to argue with the evidence.
Jimmy is now reconsidering which of them should be in charge of mathematics.

Jimmy is a fictional treasure-hunting persona. The raccoon insists he is real.