The published coordinates are not the location of the cache, though it does serve as the setting for this puzzle. To get the exact coordinates of the cache, you’ll need to be able to “Read” my mind.
Some Historical Context
One of the historic bridges across the Singapore River is Read Bridge, named after William H. M. Read, a prominent merchant and magistrate in the late 19th century Singapore. The bridge was constructed in 1887, replacing an older bridge at same location.
The bridge, being in the heart of Singapore’s mercantile district, was the focal point of social and recreational activities in the Clarke Quay area. Teochew coolies, merchants and boatmen would often congregate on the bridge after their long day of work to unwind by listening to traditional storytellers or watching performances such as street operas.
And, with that historical context set out, let’s move on to the puzzle:
The Mind-Reader
A crowd had gathered around a small table by the edge of Read Bridge, with men jostling with each other to take a look at some spectacle. Curious, I pushed my way through to try to see what was going on.
There were two men performing some sort of card trick, in exchange for a small wager - something that the audience happily obliged for the sake of figuring out the mechanism of what appeared to be an impossible trick.
The trick starts, as most of these do, with a member of the audience drawing five cards at random from a standard deck of 52 cards. The audience reveals the cards to one of the two men, but not the other, (let’s call them X and Y, respectively). In other words, X knows what the 5 cards are, but Y doesn’t.
X then places 4 out of the 5 cards face up on the table, for example:
and the fifth card is handed back to the audience member. The second man, Y, stared intently at the cards on the table, muttered a few magic incantations and announced that he know the identity of the missing card. He confidently proclaims, “My good sir, I believe the card in your hand is the 9 of Hearts!”
They repeat the trick a second time, just to convince the audience that it was not just a lucky guess. Another audience member drew five cards, rather cheekily I must add, by merely picking 5 consecutive cards from the middle of the deck. X chuckled at his attempt to foil them, and placed the 4 cards on the table:
After returning the fifth card, Y circled the table, looking intently at the cards from different angles. After 3 circuits, Y announced “I would like to go out on a limb here and claim that you have the 10 of Diamonds in your hand.” The audience member placed his card back on the table, and indeed it was as suggested.
At this point, a sceptic in audience tried to dismiss this as a lucky fluke, and challenges the performing duo to repeat the trick for a wager of a dollar.
The sceptic drew five cards from the deck, cautiously trying to pick out cards from different parts of the deck, and handed them over to X. X placed four cards on the table, and returns the fifth card to the sceptic:
Y did his “magical” hand motions and muttered a few more words, before announcing that the missing card was the Queen of Clubs. The sceptic couldn’t believe his ears and surrendered a coin to the pair.
Another person in the crowd suggested that the deck of cards must have had been marked in some way... to some murmurs from the other that this was such an obvious trick. He produces his own slightly tattered deck of cards, and challenged the duo to another round. He skilfully shuffled his deck a few times, and draws out 5 cards. X received the cards, inspected them for a few seconds and places 4 cards down on the table:
The remaining card was passed back to the audience member, and Y did his usual tricks and correctly announced that he was sure the last card was the 3 of Diamonds, much to the dismay of the man who would soon lose his dollar.
Now, speculation was rife among those present about how the predictions were so accurate. A lady insisted that there must be some sort of visual clue from X’s body language that would enable Y to figure out the missing card. Upon hearing that, Y offered to have himself blindfolded throughout the duration of the trick. Y tied a handkerchief over his eyes, and 5 more cards were picked. X read out loud 4 of the cards in his hand, which were as follows:
and returned the fifth card to the lady. Y remained calm, said a few “magic words”, and, with just a slight quiver in his voice, claimed that the fair lady must be holding on the 9 of Hearts. He was proven correct once again!
The crowd, now positively baffled by the trick, tried a last ditch effort to foil the efforts of the duo. Believing that there must be some sort of signal one man must be sending to the other, a group of teenagers proposed physically separating X and Y. Y would be sent to the other end of the bridge, and a neutral person would convey the message from X and prediction from Y. A large wager was set, and the duo agreed to the terms.
Y was sent off, blindfolded, to the other end of Read Bridge. Once he was there, 5 cards were drawn by an audience member and X chose the 4 cards that were to be revealed, and a messenger was sent to convey the verbal information to Y which were as follows:
After some deliberation, Y made a prediction, and sent the messenger back with the response: “The 2 of Clubs!” he announced, and the crowd gasped. Yet again, the prediction was correct!
Everyone was at a loss at how the feat was accomplished. The chattering and whispering continued for a good few minutes, before a smartly dressed gentlemen cleared his throat loudly. The crowd turned to look for the interlocutor, and once he commanded their attention, the man said, “I believe I know how the trick is accomplished. And to prove it, I am willing to wager all of my money.” A stunned silence ensued. He continued, “To prove my point, I will make not one, but three predictions for three different sets of cards as drawn by anyone here. If I can get any one of the cards wrong, I am willing to part with all of my money. But, you must agree that you repeat the trick exactly as you would have done previously.”
All eyes turned to the duo, who were as flabbergasted as the audience by the offer. A few tense moments later, X stepped forward, and accepted the deal. They shook hands, and the stranger agreed to step back from the table as the cards were drawn. Gingerly, X laid the three sets of cards on the table, each with one card removed. They were as follows:
The man was invited back to the table to inspect the cards laid out. He stroked his chin, looking carefully at the position of each card. Finally satisfied, he produced a piece of paper and a pencil, wrote down what seemed like calculations, and folded the paper. He passed the paper to Y and said, “These are my predictions. You have a choice now: if you choose to read my predictions, the earlier terms of the wager still hold. Or, you can choose to walk away… and the bet is off”.
The Puzzle
To obtain the final coordinates for this cache, you must figure out how to “Read” the mind of the magicians and figure out how the predictions were made based on the 6 rounds that were played in the story. Apply your hypotheses to the final three sets of cards, and make your predictions! If your predictions are correct, you get the prize of the final cache.
To enter your predictions into Certitude, use the following key:
- Enter the three cards separated by a comma (,). Each card will be entered as a pair of characters, the first being the card value, followed by the card suit.
- The card value will range from A (Ace), 2 – 10 (Number Cards), and finally J, Q, K (Jack, Queen, King)
- The card suit will be C, D, H and S for clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, respectively.
- For example, AD is the Ace of Diamonds, 5H is the 5 of Hearts and KC is the King of Clubs.
So, a possible entry to Certitude could be 5H,AD,KC (no spaces). Remember to input your answer in the correct order of the final 3 sets played in the story.
Good luck with the puzzle and enjoy the final location!
Note: The Contract Bridge conventions for the relative card and suit values are used for this puzzle.