The Harder Chapter

Wednesday. Three parties this week have asked me which of my submarines is the harder. I answered each differently, depending on how politely they had greeted Barnacle.

The truth, for the log. The management rates the Perth Nautilus seven out of ten and the Sydney hunt eight. In both, the clues are not hard to find. They are hard to understand. I built them that way to confound the Beast, and my passengers have merely been caught in the crossfire.

First-timers ask whether they should be aboard at all. Yes. I have watched parties who had never been locked in anything, not even a lift, take the controls of the Nautilus with a sort of wild joy. They asked for extra clues when they were stuck, which is not cheating. It is navigation.

The harder chapter suits a party that has done this sort of thing before. But I have given up predicting who will shine. It is always the quiet one at the back, reading the gauges while everybody else argues.