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The old man’s precious gear rolled away, disappearing into a hole in the wall.
That was deemed his entry fee, and so he was forced to take part in the mysterious event staged by a rat magician…
Having watched the mouse reach the exit of the maze, the old man quietly set down his magnifying glass. What on earth was he doing? A sigh of futility escaped him. To be at the beck and call of a mouse—he must have lost his mind.
The sky outside the window had already turned red. Drawn as if by some unseen force, he moved to the windowsill and watched the crows hurrying homeward. Where might that little white bird be now? Had it found a safe roost somewhere? Emotions he thought he had severed welled up again. Perhaps it was time to give up on the gears.
“How unfortunate,”
A familiar, theatrical voice broke the silence. He turned, and there in the corner of the bookshelf, the mouse was staring at him.
“So, you’re withdrawing. I see. But… tell me, is this really your room?”
The mouse’s sly grin sent him hastily glancing around. A workbench cluttered with precision tools. A bare kitchen. A small couch. All things he knew by heart.
“What are you talking about?”
The old man raised his voice as if to dispel his unease.
“This is my—”
But the mouse was gone from the bookshelf, and his words dissolved into empty air.
Once more he looked about the room. There was no need to dwell on such parting words. Surely he would not be haunted by that creature any longer. Or so he told himself.
And yet, at the same time, he had noticed something unsettling. There was an odd variation of shade on the floor. The square boards still formed the same neat pattern, but their color had always been uniform. A subtle difference, but with that mouse, such a contrivance would be no surprise.
Most likely, this was the phantom chamber the mouse had conjured. To escape it, he would have to decipher the secret hidden in the shading of the floorboards.
Puzzle:
Which board seems to hold the clue?
Hint:
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Look for a pattern in the number of darkened boards.
Answer:
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The darker boards are arranged two across each row and three down each column—but one is missing in both directions. The answer lies at the intersection of the column with only one dark board and the row with only two.
