I was in Reno, Nevada, running a Scrabble tournament, as I do there twice a year. It was unusually warm and sunny for a January weekend. The players were quietly playing; so I may have dozed off for a moment, when I was suddenly startled by an elderly lady, waving something in front of my face.
"Can I help you?" I asked her.
"You look like a man of words," she stated perfunctorily, without a trace of a question. "Letters are made of words, and words are made of letters," she continued, and she thrust three letters again at my face.
I took the letters, and asked, "What are these?" But, as I lowered my hands, she had seemingly vanished. I took another look at the letters I was holding. The letter on top was marked, quite simply and appropriately at that, "First Letter." I opened it.
Okay, a commission to hide a cache in Hawaii. It's been a couple of years since my last trip; so any excuse to visit the island is good enough for me. I continued onto the next letter, which not too surprisingly was labeled "Second Letter."
This one was handwritten, perhaps in a hurry, though it didn't really seem to add any useful information that I hadn't already gleaned from the first one. I hoped that everything would be made clear in the final letter, which was enscribed "Last Letter."
I opened what seemed to be some kind of scary threat, though admittedly it didn't really make much sense to me at all. I puzzled over it until one of the Scrabble tournament contestants came up to me after her game and pointed out, "It's obvious, silly."
So, I booked my trip to Hawaii and had a great time and placed the ammo can that I had received, but after I returned, I got sucked into working on taxes and I was sick and before I knew it, I had forgotten all about the cache I had placed. Now, I can't even remember exactly where it was hidden. I hope somebody can figure out where I left it!
Thanks to thequeenbee for agreeing to look after the cache! For those who want to show off how fast they solved the puzzle (or just want to check coordinates), you can verify your solution with certitude.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
