It was extremely difficult to spot this w1 (=an extinct bird) w2 (=in the middle of, surrounded by) the bushes, but once the notorious gunman from Perfection,Nev. w3 Gummer saw it, the bird's w4 was inevitable.

w1,w2,w3,w4 are four-letter words
w2 and w3 are jointly composed of 8 distinct letters.

If the letters in the words are replaced by nine digits (distinct digits representing distinct letters)- the following equations come true:

w3+w1=w2
w3-w1=w4

q1: What digit in the alphametics is not represented by a letter?
q2: What is the bracketed word in the title ?

Hint (not mandatory):
4 968301 9401 94Y 625301 Y628 3I5

The above senseless, albeit grammatically correct, sentence may be of help.

More working backwards.

Believe it or not, I first solved the hint in its entirety, using pencil and paper and a little trial and error.

A MORBID MAID MAY OUTBID YOUR BIT
4 968301 9401 94Y 625301 Y628 3I5

q2:  This makes the title TROUBLE  

If W1 = DODO and W2 = AMID, 

then W3 = AMID - DODO = 4901 - 1616 = 3285 = BURT
and  W4 = BURT - DODO = 3285 - 1616 = 1669 = DOOM

q4: The digit not represented in the previous two formulae is 7.
Nice puzzle, Ady, but I am surprised that the bracketed word in the title wasn't 586237*.
Or maybe what I read as an L is an upside-down 7?

Posted by Steve Herman on 2013-12-14 19:18:53