Desert foxes
Aditya Rishi

A speck of dust. Grains of sand dance in the wind. As we glide over a vast desert, the speck of dust becomes a horse and rider. U.K. Gupta straddles the beautiful black animal. A curious breeze blows across his face and he drinks it in, as if the winds were telling something to him... that the gold is in the sight. He is the first one to decode the cell number.

The following alphametic puzzle:

NO

MAN

BEARS

+SORROW

———-

BETTER

has only one solution in base 10:

67

816

30142

+274479

———-

305504

A=1, B=3, E=0, M=8, N=6, O=7, R=4, S=2, T=5 and W=9.

Since the code is "better", it’s cell 305504 that contains the gold. U.K. Gupta sees a flickering light in the sand. He pulls the reins and the horse stops moments before the dune drops into nothingness. He dismounts, affectionately scratches the horseneck and follows the light. He finds himself in a valley of dead trees whose decayed, gnarled limbs appear to form hands. The light dances across his face. He shades his eyes and pinpoints the source...it’s Bhavna Anand; looks like she just got there too.

Dr Tarsem Lal gets there with only a handful of clues (like "B=S+1" and that E is smaller than B, O and S, which means E is less than 7) and a little guesswork.

Sahara, it’s not called the greatest desert of the world for nothing: While Gupta, Bhavna and Dr Tarsem are busy deciding who shall get the gold, Inderjit Paul and Kechit Goyal are lost in the desert and there’s no sign of the others who began the journey with them. One wrong turn has got them into this position. They forgot that the letters of an alphametic puzzle when replaced with digits give a true and unique solution and no number begins with zero. Alphametic puzzles were introduced in this column three years ago. In 1955, J.A.H. Hunter coined the word alphametic to designate a cryptarithm whose letters form sensible words or phrases.

The desert does not forgive those who forget; it sees to it that the vultures do not go without food. Patience pays, and sometimes, the quick... are the dead.

The three who got to the treasure find that the cover of the chest is so heavy that no person can move it alone, and the last ship to India leaves in an hour. They open the chest together, but there’s no sign of any treasure inside; it has already been taken. The thief has left only a note that reveals his name. After the note has been read, the winners look up in anger at the blue heavens and yell: "Et tu Brute." (Write at The Tribune or adityarishi99@yahoo.co.in)