BARBED LETTER WORD: GOLDEN
RED LETTER WORD: CARP
WORD FROM THE MASTER RIDDLE: IN
HIDDEN HARE: Ghosted in the water on top of the fish (or below it, depending on your point of view).
CLUES & COMMENTS: As important as the previous painting was, this one seems not at all.
Janet Fishwick writes: "I have always assumed from the very first time that I read Masquerade (I bought the book when it was originally published and I was still at school) that the GOLDEN (notched letter word) CARP (red letter word) is actually a "red fish" i.e. a red herring - therefore this painting is also unimportant. Again, this theory has since been confirmed for me by the fact that the word from the master riddle contained in the painting (IN) is not essential to the meaning of the riddle."