White to Play and Mate in Three Moves.
White to Play and Mate in Four Moves.
White to Play and Mate in Three Moves.
White to Play and Mate in Three Moves.
“Examining the top rank of each diagram from left to right,” continued Maynard, “I noticed that the first and fifth squares were the most frequently occupied. This suggested that the squares represented the first and fifth letters of the alphabet, the important vowels a and e. Taking a blank diagram I wrote out the twenty-six letters of the alphabet on the squares in sequence, filling somewhat less than the top half of the board. Then I chose the letters indicated on the first diagram by the white pieces, in the usually accepted order of their powers, King, Queen, Castle, Bishop, Knight, and Pawn. I was rewarded by the two startling words: ‘New gas’.”
“Well, well, go on,” pleaded Burnham, his excitement outrunning Maynard’s deliberation of speech.
“The black pieces were not yet accounted for,” went on Maynard. “So I repeated the alphabet a second time, beginning with ‘a’ on the third square from the left on the fourth rank from the top of the board. This yielded the phrase: ‘New gas to be us——’, and there I stuck,” he admitted. “I floundered about hopelessly making little sense of the remainder of the diagrams, and then I concluded that I had failed to secure all the diagrams of the set. That clinched my determination to return here and search for other diagrams. I arrived, as you know, just after Evelyn discovered Von Eltz’ body. With the pressing need of finding the missing diagrams without betraying my knowledge of their existence, I decided to keep my own counsel and play a lone hand.”