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Hunt

Terry Pitts Fenby / Bill Bruce

The Piper of Dreams

1979

ISBN 0 340 28606 7

Hodder and Stoughton

£4.95

gold, silver and diamond encrusted flute

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THE PIPER OF DREAMS - Solution

Location of the Treasure

The golden flute was buried 100 feet from a stone monument to Captain Cook on Easby Moor, North Yorkshire.

Clues

  1. The Master Riddle was CAPTAIN COOK (See accompanying  list for various clues to this riddle).
  2. "Your leader's on his homeward beat ... probe the roots beneath this seat (Line 16, P.26) tells you to go to the place the leaders (leader = master riddle) "roots" - i.e. North Yorkshire, Cook's home.
  3. Compass in picture on P.25 points in North Easterly direction, confirming that area is North East of England. Arrow on bedspread in picture on P.13 also points North East.
  4. "Perhaps the key is in a bridge or is the quay upon the shore" (Line 15, P.24) is a pun-way of telling you to a-bridge (i.e. take letters from) "or is the quay upon the shore." from these letters one obtains N-O-R-T-H E-A-S-T.
  5. "He's a chap of few words who can still pull the birds" (Line 8, P.24) refers to  Cook's statue in Whitby. The "positive lead" i.e. found on the bedspread (P.12/13). One of the patches is braille for "Look to the West" and the various numbers add up to 20. Looking 20 miles due west from the Whitby statue, you will see the monument to Cook on Easby Moor.
  6. "By Moorland bogs and overseas" (Line 1, P.24) is a reference to the fact that location is in moorland region and over (looks) the sea. From the top of Easby Moor, it is just possible to observe the North Sea.
  7. "Gold's in a room within range" (Line 8, P.20). Within range = close by. Therefore, the gold is in (the letters) "A room close by". From these letters can be obtained E-A-S-B-Y M-O-O-R.
  8. "... like frogs and fleas, by moorland bogs ..." (Line 1, P.24) contain the word Easby Moor.
  9. The red and white socks worn by Peter Pumpkin are the colours of Middlesborough F.C., only 8 miles north west of Easby Moor.
  10. Picture on P.25 shows Roseberry Topping - a conical shaped hill only a mile north of Easby Moor.
  11. "Upon that gently sloping ridge there could be points to score" (Line 13, P.24), refers to the ridge of Easby Moor. The "point" is the pointed obelisk of Cook's Monument.
  12. "Fifty-foot drop from the absolute toop of the place you go to view" (Line1, P.28) refers to the height of the monument (50 feet). It is also a viewing point.
  13. "Draw a bead on a spire which is very much higher" (Line 3, P.28) tells you to draw a line from the Cook monument to the distant radio mast on Bilsdale West Moor, about 11 mile to the south. You then construct a vertical line at right angles to this line, either side of the monument, to form a "T" shape. Each arm of the "T" should be fifty feet long ("fifty feet ... that's the distance you must go") with the monument ("rock cakes light" = the small rock slabs that make up the obelisk) at the centre of the "T" ("pause for tea"). You then walk the twenty paces from the end of the right-side arm "twenty paces from the the brew" (bre = T, as in cup of tea) - and dig.