Chapter - 8 Riddles, Riddles, Codes…

Chapter – 8

Riddles, Riddles, Codes...

When the concoction was prepared (it smelt like ripened corn mashed with an old sock) it was immediately taken to the iron and gold plates respectively. Nothing happened to the iron plate (we tried both sides), but, in the gold plate, some dark brown letters began to appear! Here’s what appeared – ‘The rusty thing with, squares filled with tar and air’ At this, Bill could be heard to exclaim,” Why can’t they say, ‘Here’s the treasure, spend it wisely.’?” Actually this riddle was very easy, we all solved it easily. It Just meant the other plate, the iron plate, with squares filled with ‘tar’ and ‘air’. We ran (or rather stumbled) to the iron plate which we had left in the yard. When we had reached it, some brown letters were formed on it, as follows – ‘Up, up and the lock ran away with the key’ at this we all were stumped, even Jack couldn’t solve this.

          Now it was time for lunch (we only had one meal and one breakfast in a day, a hearty meal). What with treasures and locks running away with keys, I could hardly eat much. The others looked the same. When we all met again, Bill was red in the face, maybe due to the hope of the rest of us that he had got an idea about the riddle. So, I said,” Spit it out Bill, what have you got to say?” Bill almost shouted ,” I think I have deciphered the riddle, the part of the lock running away with the key should mean that the lock and the key are near each other, you know, for example, a man elopes with a girl, the man should be near the girl. And for the ‘up, up’ bit, it must mean the attic of this house.” Martha thumped him on the back and said,” Well done Bill, well done.”