How do I extract this value?

Hi,
I am using JQuery 1.3. I have this basic structure in my HTML ...
<li id="myid">
...
<a class="edit" href="javascript:edit
1234
"> ... </a>
...
</li>
How do I extract the "1234" from HTML assuming I know the id of the
<li> element?
Thanks, - Dave
ps - I know its bad practice to have the javascript function in there,
but sadly this is code I inherited and I can't change the href at this
point.