The Puzzler's Mansion by Eric Berlin Page A

practical joke, staying inches out of reach. He stared at the pairs of letters and mentally begged them to form something sensible. The letters refused.
    Mal had given up on the puzzle—he had found an interesting book and was standing there reading it. He looked up as Winston walked over, and made a face to show his frustration.
    â€œHow far did you get?” Winston asked.
    â€œI found all the clues,” said Mal, “and I know they’re all rebuses. I couldn’t solve a couple of them.” He glanced at the paper in Winston’s hand. “BONUS! So that’s what that one is. Geez!”
    Winston held his notes up to his chest. “Yell the answers a little louder, why don’t you?”
    â€œSorry,” Mal said. “That one was making me nuts.”
    Jake came up to them looking like he wanted to kick something.“There are really eight clues in here somewhere? Did you guys find them all?”
    â€œI did,” Mal said. “For all the good it did me.”
    â€œI got them all, and I solved them,” said Winston, “but I don’t know what to do next. Do you want to see?”
    Both his friends did, so Winston showed them his list:

    Mal’s habit when presented with a bunch of letters that didn’t spell anything was to pronounce them out loud anyway. “Reescaoutondinng!” he intoned, like a wizard reading from a spellbook.
    â€œI think that’s more than four letters,” Jake said.
    â€œYou have to rearrange all this to get the real answer,” said Winston, “but I’m not getting anywhere with it.”
    The three of them frowned at the words for a bit.
    â€œAre you sure?” said Mal after a while. “Maybe there’s something else you have to do. Because I’m not seeing anything here.”
    â€œI see the word TOES,” said Jake. “That’s about it.”
    Winston shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe Mal’s right. Maybe there’s another step to this.” He walked over to the nearest puzzle piece and stared at it again.

    â€œI liked this one,” said Jake. “Probably because I got it real fast. Castanets! Easy.”
    â€œThis is the first one I found,” said Mal, “so then I thought all the answers were going to be musical instruments. Boy, that screwed me up for a while.”
    Winston said thoughtfully, “They’re not all instruments . . . but each of the puzzles does have a musical note.” He stared at the puzzle and then back at what he had written down.
    Lightning struck his brain. The big
aha!
moment was never a slow, creeping thing—it always leapt out of nowhere like a surprise party. As usual, there was a moment where he lost his breath entirely. He’d been waiting for a breakthrough. Here it was.
    He shouted something unintelligible but happy, and ran for a table so he could sit down, leaving Mal and Jake to stare at each other with amusement.
    â€œI think he’s got it,” said Mal.
    â€œNot yet, not yet,” said Winston. “But look at this.” The boys went over and watched as he added a new column to his notes:

    â€œThe musical notes are all different. Is that important?” Jake said.
    â€œYep!” Winston said happily. “That’s the final clue you need.”
    (Continue reading to see the answer to this puzzle.)
    Winston knew how to get the answer, but he still had to do the work. He leaned forward, writing quickly, rearranging the letters as instructed by the musical notes—starting with middle C and working his way up through the eight notes of the musical scale. When put in that order, a message appeared, clear as day: CAT OR ENGINE SOUND.
    Aha! Winston thought, and stood up to find Richard.
    But before he could take a single step, Richard said, “My friends, we have a winner!” Winston looked around with dumb surprise:
How did Richard know I solved the puzzle? I