Four Ways
by Nick Deschenes
Solution: First, taking the letter grid, take the top left letter and the bottom right letter. Then, alternate between the two staring points, moving in a clockwise spiral.
For a 4X4 grid, it would look like this:
ABCD
EFGH
IJKL
MNOP
Would be: APBOCNDMHILEKFGJ
If you do this with the big grid, you get:
"A noise and a food, shall you go?
Turn the screw, round and round.
Four of a kind, you know.
Leaves of a drink, and that of a rose, you don't use.
Yet again, taking those is an order. Go!"
A noise and a food: Shout and Stew
These anagram to South and West.
Turn the screw, round and round:
These refer to a spiral.
Four of a kind:
The four compass points
Leaves of a drink, and that of a rose: Teas and Thorn
Anagram to East and North
You use "South and West" to make a spiral of letters:
OPQRS
NDEFT
MCAGU
LBIHV
KJYXW
by starting with "A" in the middle and moving south-west at the end of each ring.
Take the numbers and make them into ordered pairs, taking the first of the first set of numbers and the first of the second, the second of the first and the second of the second, etc.
Now, you use those pairs to locate letters on the grid.
Count the number east starting with K, and then the number north, counting the letter you landed on in the bottom row as "1". This spells out:
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the..."
You complete the quote with
"bush"
or
2554,2352
