Ruby Redfort 1 - Look Into My Eyes (34 page)

SOLUTIONS

(1) Solution: First take Trunch across the river. Asimov and Carlucci are safe together. Then take Asimov across but since you can’t leave Asimov and Trunch together you must bring Trunch back. Then take Carlucci across the river. Finally come back for Trunch. Everyone is safely on the other side.

(2) Solution: Put three bars on each side of the scales. If they balance then the gold bar you didn’t put on the scales is the counterfeit. Otherwise take the three bars that are lightest on the scales. Take two of these bars and put them on either side of the scales. If they balance, then the bar you didn’t put on the scales is the counterfeit. Otherwise, the lighter of the two bars is the counterfeit.

(3) Solution: 42

Special thanks to my publisher and editor, Ann-Janine Murtagh, for all her help and support during the many years of thinking about writing and actually writing this book. Few editors can be tougher than her and I am grateful for it. I am also very grateful to Adrian Darbishire and Rachel Folder for reading and rereading the text and talking through countless plot options and coming up with some really good ideas along the way. Thanks to Pete Lambert, Lucy Mackay, and John Perella for discussing Ruby Redfort ad nauseam. Thank you to David Mackintosh for his beautiful and clever design work and to Nick Lake for his thorough and thoughtful editing. Last of all, thanks a whole heap to Trisha Krauss and Lucy Vanderbilt for advice on American-speak.

LAUREN CHILD is the best-selling author and illustrator of the picture books about Charlie and Lola (who also star in their own TV series) as well as the series of award-winning books about the irrepressible Clarice Bean, where the character of Ruby Redfort was first introduced. Since then she has been inundated with letters from fans asking for Ruby Redfort novels, so to all those fans — here it is! Lauren Child lives in London.

Marcus du Sautoy,
Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and all-around genius, helped to create the codes and puzzles in the Ruby Redfort series.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books,
a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

First U.S. electronic edition 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number pending

ISBN 978-0-7636-5120-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-5636-2 (electronic)

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