[dreish]

Defeatable? What on Earth does that mean? The goal of these puzzles is to find a solution, not to foil the given solution. "Lined up on a table" has a common-sense meaning. Everything else in this puzzle and the solution is purely based on the common-sense meaning of the words used.

[anigbrowl]

Well, given my erroneous thinking about lines vs. curves (something you sometimes see exploited in other puzzles), when I say 'defeatable' I mean from the point of view of the warden, who would be seeking to minimize the prisoners' chances of success. You know, 'mwuhhahaha! I never said they were in a straight line' or indeed 'mwuhahaha, I never said we were in Euclidean space!'.