“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” “Come, we shall have some fun now!”
“Take off your hat.”
STAGE 1: (Croquet-Ground)
N 32°38.346 W 97°23.172
Have you ever followed a treasure map backwards?
From these coordinates looking west you will find a peculiar marker.
Looking just past the middle of the marker you will see a [number].
c = Croquet-Ground First Digit
r = Croquet-Ground Second Digit
o = Croquet-Ground Third Digit
q = Croquet-Ground Last Digit
"I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles. — I believe I can guess that.”
“Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?”
“Write that down,” BUT BRING YOUR OWN PEN!
“Please your Majesty.” “I didn’t write it, and they can’t prove I did: there’s no name signed at the end.”
"What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?”
As soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being upset, and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to them, they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the accident.
If your coordinates lead you to somewhere that would get you wet then you’ve done something wrong. You won’t need a pirate ship on this journey! But here is a map for reference.
“Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!”
As well as Maddy could remember them, she told all these strange Adventures of hers that you are just about to read;
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be [Q - Fall Distance] thousand miles down, I think—yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?”
Here we are at the Croquet-Ground. Let’s research what is going on here:
A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it were white, but there were [X - number of] gardeners at it, busily painting them red.
A very curious thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as Maddy came up to them she heard one of them say, “Look out now, [Gardener Y]! Don’t go splashing paint over me like that!”
“I couldn’t help it,” said [Gardener Y], in a sulky tone; “[Gardener Z] jogged my elbow.”
On which [Gardener Z] looked up and said, “That’s right, [Gardener Y]! Always lay the blame on others!”
“You’d better not talk!” said [Gardener Y]. “I heard the Queen say only yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!”
“What for?” said the one who had spoken first.
“That’s none of your business, Two!” said [Gardener Z].
“Yes, it is his business!” said [Gardener Y], “and I’ll tell him—it was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.”
[Gardener Z] flung down his brush, and had just begun “Well, of all the unjust things—” when his eye chanced to fall upon her, as she stood watching them, and he checked himself suddenly: the others looked round also, and all of them bowed low.
“Would you tell me, why you are painting those roses?”
[Gardener Y] and [Gardener Z] said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice, “Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we’re doing our best, afore she comes, to—” At this moment [Gardener Y], who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out “The Queen! The Queen!” and the [X - number of] gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and she looked round, eager to see the Queen.
How many thousand miles did she fall?
Q = Fall Distance
Just how many gardeners are there and who are they?
X = Number of Gardeners
Y = Name of Gardener Y
Z = Name of Gardener Z
“Come, there’s half my plan done now! How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another! However, I’ve got back to my right size: the next thing is, to get into that beautiful garden—how is that to be done, I wonder?” As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with a little house in it about [K - Height of Garden House] feet high.
“That’s the most important piece of evidence we’ve heard yet,” said the King, rubbing his hands; “so now let the jury—”
“If any one of them can explain it,” said Maddy “I’ll give him [$$$ - Number of Pence] pence. I don’t believe there’s an atom of meaning in it.”
The jury all wrote down on their slates, “She doesn’t believe there’s an atom of meaning in it,” but [### - How many of them attempted to explain the paper].
“If there’s no meaning in it,” said the King, “that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any. And yet I don’t know,”
At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his note-book, cackled out “Silence!” and read out from his book, “Rule [T – Tall Rule Number]. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.”
Everybody looked at her.
“I’m not a mile high,” said Maddy.
“You are,” said the King.
“Nearly two miles high,” added the Queen.
“Well, I shan’t go, at any rate,” said Maddy: “besides, that’s not a regular rule: you invented it just now.”
“It’s the oldest rule in the book,” said the King.
“Then it ought to be Number [S – Oldest Rule Number],” said Maddy.
“Call the first witness,” said the King; and the White Rabbit blew [R – Number of Trumpet Blasts] blasts on the trumpet, and called out, “First witness!”
How many feet high was the little garden house?
K = Height of Garden House
How much money did Maddy have?
$$$ = Number of Pence
How many in Jury attempted to explain the paper?
### = Number in Jury to Explain
What are the numbers for the King’s rules?
T = Tall Rule Number
S = Oldest Rule Number
How many times did the Rabbit blast the trumpet?
R = Number of Trumpet Blasts
Proceed to STAGE 1a: (Frog-Footman Cross Roads)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Number of Gardeners
B=Croquet-Ground Second Digit
C=Croquet-Ground Third Digit
D=Croquet-Ground Last Digit
E=Oldest Rule Number
F=Name of Gardener Y
Maddy was a little startled by seeing a Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Maddy.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” said Maddy.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
[Count] how many trees are clustered together on the west side of the trail in this immediate area.
P = Number of trees at Frog-Footman Cross Roads
“What sort of people live about here?” said Maddy.
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its left paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Maddy remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Maddy.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
“I’ve seen hatters before,” she said to herself; “the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won’t be raving mad—at least not so mad as it was in March.”
As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on a branch of a tree.
Proceed to STAGE 2: (Trumpet Scroll)
N 32° 38. ABC W 97° 23. DEF
A=Number of Trumpet Blasts
B=Fall Distance
C=Name of Gardener Z
D=Croquet-Ground Last Digit
E=Name of Gardener Y
F=Number of trees at Frog-Footman Cross Roads
Maddy thought she might as well go back, and see how the game was going on, as she heard the Queen’s voice in the distance, screaming with passion.
When she got back to the Cat, she was surprised to find quite a large crowd collected round it: there was a dispute going on.
The moment Maddy appeared, she was appealed to by all [??? – Number People Arguing] to settle the question, and they repeated their arguments to her, though, as they all spoke at once, she found it very hard indeed to make out exactly what they said.
How many people are arguing?
??? = Number People Arguing
At this stage look around for a large scroll.
[Count] how many members were admitted into the accord.
W = Trumpet Scroll First Digit
M = Trumpet Scroll Second Digit
Proceed to STAGE 3: (Castle’s Cauldron)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Height of Garden House
B=Trumpet Scroll First Digit
C=Trumpet Scroll Second Digit
D=Oldest Rule Number
EF=Tall Rule Number
“Write that down,” the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all [& - Number of Dates Jury Writes] dates on their slates, and then added them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.
The Footman seemed to think this a good opportunity for repeating his remark, with variations. “I shall sit here,” he said, “on and off, for days and days.”
“But what am I to do?” said Maddy.
“Anything you like,” said the Footman, and began whistling.
“Oh, there’s no use in talking to him,” said Maddy desperately: “he’s perfectly idiotic!” And she opened the door and went in.
The door led right into a large kitchen, which was full of smoke from one end to the other: the Duchess was sitting on a [Y – Number Legs on Stool] stool in the middle, nursing a baby; the cook was leaning over the fire, stirring a large cauldron which seemed to be full of soup.
“There’s certainly too much pepper in that soup!” Maddy said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing.
There was certainly too much of it in the air. Even the Duchess sneezed occasionally; and as for the baby, it was sneezing and howling alternately without a moment’s pause. The only things in the kitchen that did not sneeze, were the cook, and a large cat which was sitting on the hearth and grinning from ear to ear.
“Please would you tell me,” said Maddy, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, “why your cat grins like that?”
How many dates did the jury write down?
& = Number of Dates Jury Writes
How many legs did the stool in the kitchen have?
Y = Number Legs on Stool
The large cauldron at this stage has several numbers on it. Two of the four digit numbers can be found twice and the numbers are very similar to each other, except one number ends with a five and the other number ends with a two.
What are the two pairs of numbers that are similar to each other?
V = Castle’s Cauldron First Digit
L = Castle’s Cauldron Second Digit
T = Castle’s Cauldron Third Digit
Proceed to STAGE 4: (Kings Keep)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Fall Distance
B=Number in Jury to Explain
C=Name of Gardener Z
D=Number People Arguing
E=Croquet-Ground Last Digit
F=Number of Pence
| |
 |
The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. “I wasn’t asleep,” he said in a hoarse, feeble voice: “I heard every word you fellows were saying.”
“Tell us a story!” said the March Hare.
“Yes, please do!” pleaded Maddy.
“And be quick about it,” added the Hatter, “or you’ll be asleep again before it’s done.”
“Once upon a time there were [@ - Number of Sisters] little sisters,” the Dormouse began in a great hurry; “and they lived at the bottom of a well—”
“What did they live on?” said Maddy, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.
“They lived on treacle,” said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.
“They couldn’t have done that, you know,” Maddy gently remarked; “they’d have been ill.”
“So they were,” said the Dormouse; “very ill.”
Maddy tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on:
How many sisters were in the story?
@ = Number of Sisters
From this stage looking directly due south about thirty-feet away can be seen a couple of numbers that are exactly the same.
What are the two numbers that are the same?
k = Kings Keep First Digit
e = Kings Keep Second Digit
e = Kings Keep Third Digit
p = Kings Keep Last Digit
Proceed to STAGE 5: (Duck, Duck, Goose)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Number of Gardeners
B=Number of Trumpet Blasts
C=Number People Arguing
D=Number of Dates Jury Writes
E=Number Legs on Stool
F=Number of Sisters
“I beg your pardon!” said the Mouse, frowning, but very politely: “Did you speak?”
“Not I!” said the Lory hastily.
“I thought you did,” said the Mouse. “Found it,”
“Found what?” said the Duck.
The Mouse replied rather crossly: “of course you know what ‘it’ means.”
“I know what ‘it’ means well enough, when I find a thing,” said the Duck: “it’s generally a frog or a worm.
Next came an angry voice—the Rabbit’s—“Pat! Pat! Where are you?” And then a voice she had never heard before, “Sure then I’m here! Digging for apples, yer honour!”
“Digging for apples, indeed!” said the Rabbit angrily. “Here! Come and help me out of this!”
“Now tell me, Pat, what’s that in the window?”
“Sure, it’s an arm, yer honour!”
“An arm, you goose! Who ever saw one that size? Why, it fills the whole window!”
“Sure, it does, yer honour: but it’s an arm for all that.”
“Well, it’s got no business there, at any rate: go and take it away!”
At this stage ‘It’ is round. ‘It’ is very hard. ‘It’ is flat. And ‘It’ has a one digit number in the middle of ‘It’.
What is the number?
N = Duck, Duck, Goose
Proceed to STAGE 6: (Looking Glass House)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Croquet-Ground Last Digit
B=Croquet-Ground First Digit
C=Kings Keep Third Digit
D=Kings Keep Second Digit
E=Kings Keep First Digit
F=Castle’s Cauldron First Digit
By this time she had found her way into a tidy little room with a table in the window and was just going to leave the room, when her eye fell upon a little bottle that stood near the looking-glass. Maddy thought, “Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.” And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
Let me see—how is it to be managed? I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great question is, what?”
“I know something interesting is sure to happen,” she said to herself, “whenever I eat or drink anything; so I’ll just see what this bottle does.
At this stage if you were to use a telescope to view Looking Glass House to the north-west you would see a [number].
L - Looking Glass House First Digit
o - Looking Glass House Second Digit
o - Looking Glass House Third Digit
k - Looking Glass House Last Digit
“Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?”
“No, I don’t even know what a Mock Turtle is.”
“It’s the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from.”
“I never saw one, or heard of one.”
They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance, sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge of rock.
“She wants for to know your history, she do.”
“I’ll tell it her, sit down, and don’t speak a word till I’ve finished.”
“Once, I was a real Turtle.”
“When we were little, we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle —we used to call him Tortoise—”
“Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn’t believe it—”
“We had the best of educations—in fact, we went to school every day—”
“Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
“I never heard of ‘Uglification’.”
“What is it?”
“What! Never heard of uglifying!”
“You know what to beautify is, I suppose?”
“Yes, it means—to—make—anything—prettier.”
“Well, then, if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.”
“What else had you to learn?”
“Well, there was Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling
—the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week:
he taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.”
“I went to the Classics master, though. He was an old crab, he was.”
“I never went to him, he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.”
“And how many hours a day did you do lessons?”
“Ten hours the first day, nine the next, and so on.”
“What a curious plan!”
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons, because they lessen from day to day.”
“Then the eleventh day must have been a holiday?”
“Of course it was.”
“And how did you manage on the twelfth?”
“That’s enough about lessons, tell her something about the dancing games now.”
“What sort of a dance is it?”
“Why, you first form into a line along the sea-shore— Two lines!”
“Seals, turtles, salmon, and so on; then, when you’ve cleared all the jelly-fish out of the way—”
“—you advance twice— each with a lobster as a partner!”
“Then, you know, you throw the lobsters, with a bound into the air, as far out to sea as you can.”
“Swim after them!”
“Turn a somersault in the sea!”
“Back to land again, and that’s all the first figure.”
“It must be a very pretty dance,”
and the two creatures, who had been jumping about like mad things all this time, sat down again very sadly and quietly, and looked.
Proceed to STAGE 7: (Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Looking Glass House Third Digit
B=Trumpet Scroll First Digit
C=Tall Rule Number Second Digit
D=Croquet-Ground Last Digit
E=Castle’s Cauldron Third Digit
F=Castle’s Cauldron Second Digit
The Hatter was the first to break the silence. “What day of the month is it?”
“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!”
Maddy started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with a waistcoat.
There was not a moment to be lost: away went Maddy like the wind, and was just in time to hear Rabbit say, as it turned a corner, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!” She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen.
Very soon the Rabbit noticed Maddy, as she went hunting about, and called out to her in an angry tone, “Why, Maddy, what are you doing out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick, now!” And Maddy was so much frightened that she ran off at once in the direction it pointed to, without trying to explain the mistake it had made.
The Hatter shook his head mournfully. “Not I!” he replied. “We quarrelled last March—just before he went mad, you know—” (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,) “—it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing.
She waited for some time without hearing anything more: at last came a rumbling of little cartwheels, and the sound of a good many voices all talking together: she made out the words:
“Where’s the other ladder?—Why, I hadn’t to bring but one; Bill’s got the other—Bill! fetch it here, lad!—Here, put ’em up at this corner—No, tie ’em together first—they don’t reach half high enough yet—Oh! they’ll do well enough; don’t be particular—Here, Bill! catch hold of this rope—Will the roof bear?—Mind that loose slate—Oh, it’s coming down! Heads below!” (a loud crash)—“Now, who did that?—It was Bill, I fancy—Who’s to go down the chimney?—Nay, I shan’t! You do it!—That I won’t, then!—Bill’s to go down—Here, Bill! the master says you’re to go down the chimney!”
There is a device at this stage of strange construction. Part of it is naturally occurring, but at some point it seems to cast a spell with numbers in all directions.
How many X’s are there?
X = Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket X’s
How many V’s are there?
V = Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket V’s
How many O’s are there?
O = Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket O’s
Proceed to STAGE 8: (Duchess Woods)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Croquet-Ground Second Digit
B=Looking Glass House Third Digit
C=Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket V’s
D= Looking Glass House Second Digit
E=Trumpet Scroll First Digit
F=Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket O’s
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it.
Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it.
All the trees at this location seem to have a (number) as if they were an address above a door.
What two digits do all these trees have in common?
^ - Duchess Woods First Digit
v - Duchess Woods Second Digit
“That’s very curious!” she thought. “But everything’s curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.” And in she went.
Proceed to STAGE 9: (Rabbit Hole)
N 32° 38.ABC W 97° 23.DEF
A=Croquet-Ground Forth Digit
B=Looking Glass House Forth Digit
C=Number of Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket V’s
D=Duchess Woods First Digit
E=Duck, Duck, Goose
F=Number of Hare’s Waistcoat Pocket X’s
“In that case,” said the Dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, “I move that the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies—”
“Speak English!” said the Eaglet. “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do either!” And the Eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile: some of the other birds tittered audibly.
“What I was going to say,” said the Dodo in an offended tone, “was, that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.”
“What is a Caucus-race?” said Maddy; not that she wanted much to know, but the Dodo had paused as if it thought that somebody ought to speak, and no one else seemed inclined to say anything.
This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead, while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”
“But who is to give the prizes?” quite a chorus of voices asked.
“Why, she, of course,” said the Dodo, pointing to Maddy with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, “Prizes! Prizes!” Maddy had no idea what to do,
Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Maddy’s first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!
“That was a narrow escape!” said Maddy, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence;
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Maddy had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
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If you made it to this stage you have followed the treasure map backwards to Maddy’s Cache ground zero.
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”
Well, don’t just stand there, look around, find the cache!
... and when Maddy had finished telling of all these strange Adventures, her sister said, “It was a curious dream, dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it’s getting late.”
So Maddy got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.
Both produce little notes just like a cache log!