Miscellaneous Puzzles 77condition that they could not be used; so there were three more persons in
every wagon than when they started out in the morning.
How many persons were there in the party?- PAT IN AFRICA
Some years ago ten of a party of explorers fell into the hands of a savage
chief, who, after receiving a number of gifts, consented to let them go after half
of them had been flogged by the Chief Medicine Man. There were five
Britons and five native carriers, and the former planned to make the flogging
fall on the five natives. They were all arranged in a circle in the order shown
in the illustration, and Pat Murphy (No. I) was given a number to count
round and round in the direction he is pointing. When that number fell on a
man he was to be taken out for flogging, while the counting went on from
where it left off until another man fell out, and so on until the five had been
selected for punishment.If Pat had remembered the number correctly, and had begun at the right
man, the flogging would have fallen upon all the five natives. But poor Pat
mistook the number and began at the wrong man, with the result that the
Britons all got the flogging and the natives escaped.