The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-10-18

solutIon is I'm four moves. so the one
In five goes for nothing. Of course. It's
n beautiful problem, and terribly DIFF
ficult"
| After breakfast Frank carefully
dusted the chess-table and the ivory
| men ready for the brokers' visit Then
be bethought himself and set up his
uncle's problem. and az soon as May
had finished washing-up he called her
TO come and look.
"You see," he said, moving the pieces
| ms he spoke, This is the key-move-
White plays there. Blacks best move
| is 10 take the rook-so. Now comes the
difficult part. White must offer his
other rook, which Black takes-llke
that Then for move three White
plays his pawn 10 the corner square,
80. and claims a queen for II. The
original queen IL still on the board, so
we must put on a rook upside down
and call II a queen"
"Why, that was uncle's identical
fad. wasn't IT," May interrupted.
Exactly; and that's about why he
left me the problem. Spite, ] suppose"
he exclaimed irritably. Then, going
on with the problem: BLACKS best
reply now is 10 take bishop with king
and then White mates by bringing his
new queen down into the opposite cor
ner-so;" picking up the inverted rook
and bringing IT down the diagonal as
he spoke. There was tiny click, and
a little disc of ivory rolled across the
board.
whats thatT" both exclaimed.
Frank turned the rOok In bis hand
right away. The little circle of ivory
that had been within the battlements
OF the miniature castle was gone. May
was STOPPING to pick 1t up when he ex-
claimed, excitedly:
ooh, Mayi look here. There's some
thing inside. 1t looks like a paper
rolled up" lie shook II, and at last
II came out.
cit sounds like five pound-note,"
said May tremulously, as he smoothed
out the rustling paper.
"Its not a five May" he replied,
very huskily; 'it's 'thousand'!'
May never knew after whether she
laughed or cried, or little OF both.
But IL was she who recovered first
sufficiently to wonder. How II we
had used the other rookT'
Then there was Frank bringing that
down the diagonal, and-yes, another
click! more picking out, and another
rustling note.
Meanwhile his wife had discovered
that the needles they had used for
10 some OF the chessmen, which
solved the mystery, for when Frank
collected his thoughts he saw how it
was. The pieces forming that par
tlcular combination had been drilled
and finished with needle-like magnets.
tiny electro magnet, and as they
passed between the hidden magnets
its soft Iron core for the moment be-
came magnet too, drew back a tiny
bolt otherwise held by a spring, and
released the ivory disc. Take away
any Ont the Noil-
binatlon and he found the power was
too weak to draw back the bolt. And
the fact that ordinarily a rook never
moves in that direction, or ignomini-
ously stands on its head showing how
carefully thought out the scheme was
that no cha1ce hit should reveal the
secret.
Two thousand pounds! To them II
seemed more than n hundred thousand
would to some. Did IL not mean-well,
no, not the life OF their son, but at
least the means 20 try that one thing
that might mean his life?
Needless to say, the broker was not
asked TO leave his sovereign. And,
though years have passed, and the
Gibsons are now respected citizens of
our great Australian Commonwealth
they never tire OF showing their beau
tiful chess-table and men, the wonder
ful problem, and its more wonderful
solution, letting friends hear for them
selves that thrilling "clickw which had
meant so much. Their eldest son,
Frank. is now the strongest Of the
family.-Waverley Magazine.