BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / The Sherlock Holmes Riddle

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:21 pm

Sparrow, I'm stuck again! (Chapter 8) I have absolutely No Idea what to do. So I wondered if you could be clever again??

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:22 pm

Yes, it is rather late.

Which one is the third one? The one where you have to figure out how to prepare the chemical? If you've got the letters, then just use an anagram solver. It's what I did.

**Posted by Lily** February 23, 2013 9:27 pm

Yes, it is.
I did that but either I've got the wrong letters or I just don't understand the meaning of the words as none of the solutions given by the anagram solver makes sense to me.
I don't have a calculator here, so I might have made a mistake with the letters.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:29 pm

What letters did you get?

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:29 pm

Tell me the letters you found.

**Posted by Lily** February 23, 2013 9:30 pm

I F C L A O A N C U

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:31 pm

What were you saying about psychics, Molly?

Did you manage to get through 8?

@Lily, those are the wrong letters just one single letter wrong.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:31 pm

There are 12 letters, not 10

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:32 pm

Whoa, creepy!!
No, I'm still totally, amazingly, utterly stumped. Can you be clever again?

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:34 pm

Yes, I can, Is it the one with the 14 letters and the 2 heads?

And yes, there are 12 letters. So you're missing 2 and you got one wrong.

**Posted by Lily** February 23, 2013 9:37 pm

What is 8 - 7?
Isn't a 7 on a calculator just an L upside down? But that doesn't make a letter...

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:38 pm

Yep, that's the one!

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:40 pm

Ah, that one was so obvious. Notice how one head is upside down? There are 14 letters and only 7 dials, so you only need seven letters. Which ones do you pick? Well, one head's right side up, one's upside down, so that makes you think about... maybe skipping letters?

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:42 pm

Lily wrote:
What is 8 - 7?
Isn't a 7 on a calculator just an L upside down? But that doesn't make a letter...

It does. But it's a lower case letter. Which is why it's a bit trickier.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:42 pm

Yeah, obvious... Skipping letters is the first thing I think about when I see an upside-down gorgon!!

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:45 pm

It's the first thing I thought of. Did it work?

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:46 pm

No

I tried acegikm but I don't think that right...

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:51 pm

Well, of course. You need to anagram that.

**Posted by Molly Hooper** February 23, 2013 9:56 pm

Yeah, of course I knew that, I was just testing...
;)

**Posted by Sparrow** February 23, 2013 9:58 pm

Right, so did you get it?