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nydus/The Canterbury Puzzles, and Other Curious ProblemsPublic

Henry Ernest Dudeney collects a wide variety of original mathematical and mental puzzles into this volume. The book features an introductory essay on the nature of puzzles and provides solutions for all problems at the end.

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Table of Contents

65 .— The Mystery of Ravensdene Park.

A black-and-white illustration of a group of men in suits gathered around a table studying a map or document.

The mystery was brought before the members of the Puzzle Club, who at once set themselves the task of solving it. Was it possible to discover who committed the crime? Was it the butler? Or the gamekeeper? Or the man who came in at B and went out at BB? Or the man who went in at C and left at CC? They provided themselves with diagrams—sketch-plans, like the one we have reproduced, which simplified the real form of Ravensdene Park without destroying the necessary conditions of the problem.

Our friends then proceeded to trace out the route of each person, in accordance with the positive statements of the police that we have given. It was soon evident that, as no path ever crossed another, some of the pedestrians must have lost their way considerably in the fog. But when the tracks were recorded in all possible ways, they had no difficulty in deciding on the assassin's route; and as the police luckily knew whose footprints this route represented, an arrest was made that led to the man's conviction.

Can our readers discover whether A, B, C, or E committed the deed? Just trace out the route of each of the four persons, and the key to the mystery will reveal itself.

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