Puzzles & Games
May 26, 2025
Every Monday, The Daily Chronicle challenges readers to flex their deductive muscles with a new puzzle feature. This week’s installment, “The Case of the Vanishing Clues,” transports you to the mist-shrouded moors of Dartmoor, specifically to the sprawling Baskerville Manor—home of the eccentric collector Reginald Bainbridge. Over three consecutive nights, several prized artifacts have disappeared without a trace: no footprints mar the dew-damp lawn, no windows show signs of tampering, and no witnesses recall any suspicious activity. Your task: unravel how the stolen pieces vanished from a seemingly impregnable estate.
Scenario: Baskerville Manor boasts an extensive collection of antiquities—ancient manuscripts, finely crafted porcelain vases, gemstone-encrusted snuff boxes, and rare bronze statuettes. Each artifact was displayed beneath protective glass in a climate-controlled wing. Yet, despite modern security measures—silent alarms, armed night watchmen, and loyal hounds—several items vanished during the late hours of June 1-3, 2025. The manor’s only entrances—a grand oak front door and a hidden 4-foot-wide servant’s passage—were locked securely each evening; the butler, Mr. Bartholomew Finch, and the head gardener, Mr. Jasper Brock, attest to no observed disturbances until the following mornings.
Clues:
1. A fragment of crimson eider silk fabric discovered near the veranda stairs—mirroring the distinctive pattern worn by Miss Emilia Harcourt, a visiting cousin, who sleeps in quarters two corridors away.
2. A smudge of spilled ink and a single paw print found on the Persian rug in the library—suggesting the hound, Jasper, trod through fresh ink moments after the artifact was taken.
3. The attic’s narrow casement window found slightly ajar each morning, despite strong winds and rain—implying nocturnal intervention or machinery powered from within.
Suspects:
– Mr. Bartholomew Finch: The loyal butler, intimately familiar with every secret passage and cabinet lock in the manor.
– Miss Emilia Harcourt: A distant cousin known for lavish tastes and rumored financial woes; she requested loans from Bainbridge for her art studies.
– Jasper the hound: A seemingly innocent canine with a keen nose—some whisper he assists the thief under cover of darkness.
Hints:
– Consider the manor’s concealed servant tunnels: while narrow, they connect the display wing to a remote exit in the hedge maze beyond the walled garden.
– Note that the crimson fabric fragment could have been torn deliberately to mislead investigators or as an unwilling artifact of hurried movement.
– Evaluate the role of Jasper’s paw print: did the dog track the thief intentionally, or was the print staged to deflect suspicion?
Reader Challenge:
Explain, in no more than 200 words, how the artifacts vanished from Baskerville Manor undetected. Identify the mastermind and outline the sequence of events that allowed the heist to succeed. Submit your solution via mail or at our subscription desk by Friday, June 6, 2025. Winners receive something special.
Send your answer to sherlock@tcd.game
