KK Challenge 4—A Rare Dimension

I read about the open category winners of the SunHun 2007 in Michael Pang's blog. Within a duration of about 1 year, that winning team had accummulated 40 hunts under their belts. Here in KK, we have 1 hunt a year, which is the KK City Tourism Hunt (every year in February). Sometimes, if we are lucky, we get 2 hunts a year. We rarely ever get anywhere close to 5 hunts a year. It means that if I continue hunting in KK—and KK alone—I might be able to accummulate that 40 hunts over the next 20 years or so.

I've been analysing some hunt questions by numerous CoCs from the west and found a variety of styles; and to varying degrees of difficulties too. I can imagine the master hunters in KL must have seen all sorts of styles and tricks. To come up with something new for them would be extremely difficult. If I were to clerk a hunt in KL, I think those masters will find my questions somewhat outdated.

Having said that, however, I feel that there are some ideas which have been under-exploited. I decided to try out a rare dimension during the KK Challenge 4.

Q37) It piles up when the cats go down below.

A modest attempt to explore the vertical dimension. Treasure hunters are well-versed with the horizontal signboards, but it's easy to forget that there are also vertical signboards. And it is possible to take advantage of this rare possibility.

The basic part of the question lies in the first 3 words, i.e. "It piles up". The word "It" is akin to the definition of the cryptic clue. Then "piles up" is something that gives the meaning of that definition. However, there is a condition which must be satisfied first—that "It piles up" when the (letters) C,A,T,S are arranged in a downward direction (go down) below that signboard. To illustrate the configuration:

?

C

A

T

S

So now it is a little easier to see. We just need to figure out what that question mark should be in order to give the meaning of PILES (when reading up). You will see that the question mark should be SK arranged like this:

S

K

C

A

T

S

because only then you can get STACKS (which means PILES) when read upwards.

The required answer for Q37:

S
K
TRADING CO.