monarch in whose dominions the prison was situated offered them special
comforts one Christmas Eve if, without breaking that rule, they could so
place themselves that their numbers should form a magic square.

Now, prisoner No. 7 happened to know a good deal about magic squares, so
he worked out a scheme and naturally selected the method that was most
expeditious--that is, one involving the fewest possible moves from cell
to cell. But one man was a surly, obstinate fellow (quite unfit for the
society of his jovial companions), and he refused to move out of his
cell or take any part in the proceedings. But No. 7 was quite equal to
the emergency, and found that he could still do what was required in the
fewest possible moves without troubling the brute to leave his cell. The
puzzle is to show how he did it and, incidentally, to discover which
prisoner was so stupidly obstinate. Can you find the fellow?


402.--NINE JOLLY GAOL BIRDS.

[Illustration]

Shortly after the episode recorded in the last puzzle occurred, a ninth
prisoner was placed in the vacant cell, and the merry monarch then
offered them all complete liberty on the following strange conditions.
They were required so to rearrange themselves in the cells that their
numbers formed a magic square without their movements causing any two of
them ever to be in the same cell together, except that at the start one
man was allowed to be placed on the shoulders of another man, and thus
add their numbers together, and move as one man. For example, No. 8
might be placed on the shoulders of No. 2, and then they would move
about together as 10. The reader should seek first to solve the puzzle