Enigmatic Variations 1005: Answer by Shark

I’ve come across a couple of Shark puzzles before and have been nicely entertained by them. Here, subsidiary indications led to an extra letter not entered, and they spelt out part of a quotation in recent editions of the ODQ although “barely indexed” in the 4th edition. Luckily I have the 5th, so thanks for that.

A fairly small 13×11 grid, and some straightforward clues, meant that I finished this in 1½ hours … average for an EV for me, and slightly more taxing than a couple of recent 45 minute solves. Before I finished the grid, I could see that the quotation probably started “Je suis …” (either that or “Jesus …”), but that didn’t help me. I carried on to the end and got ‘capitaine’ and ‘soldats’, both of which were referenced by the ODQ index and pointed to a riddle and answer of anonymous origin:

Riddle: Je suis le capitaine de [vingt-quatre] soldats, et sans moi, Paris [serait pris]?
Answer: A [ie, ‘Paris’ minus ‘A’ = pris, taken]

Of course, in English it doesn’t make any sense at all! I am the captain of twenty-four soldiers, and without me, Paris would be taken? Eh!

Mind you, ODQ doesn’t throw much light on the meaning of “captain of twenty-four soldiers” and is somewhat dismissive of any reference to letters of the alphabet and printing.

SERAIS and PRIS were supplied by the two clues given without definition, 21ac and 10dn. To finish the grid, two representations of the answer had to be highlighted in a total of 24 cells, “vingt-quatre” being omitted from the string of extra letters. It wasn’t difficult to see that all the individual As in the grid could be shaded to give two large As.

All in all, an entertaining puzzle from Shark.

Legend:
Definition in clue
X = extra letters in subsidiary indications
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden