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Eighty three words hold L second and E third, and the fourth box splits them almost evenly.
A takes the fourth box in fifteen of the eighty three and E takes fourteen. The A branch gives CLEAN, CLEAR, BLEAK, GLEAM and FLEAS, while the E branch gives SLEEP, BLEED, FLEET, SLEEK and CLEEK.
Those two shapes sound different and behave differently, but they are almost exactly matched in size. That makes the fourth box a genuine coin flip rather than a shortcut.
CLEAR, CLEAN, ALERT, SLEEP and CLERK are the most common. FLEET, BLEND, FLESH, ELECT and BLESS all come up regularly.
Fifteen of the eighty three repeat a letter, and the great majority are a second E straight after the first. BLEED, BLEEP, CLEEK, FLEES, FLEET, GLEES, SLEEK and SLEEP all work that way.
It is worth spotting early. A repeated letter is easy to miss, and here it is concentrated in one predictable place.
CLEAR tests the A branch and the R, while SLEEP doubles the E. CLEAR is the stronger first move on almost any puzzle.
An old golf club with a narrow iron head, and in Scots a large hook. It sits in the same shape as SLEEK and CLECK.
The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is one of the entries here that opens with a vowel rather than a consonant cluster.
T closes sixteen of the eighty three. ALERT, BLENT, BLEST, CLEFT, CLEPT and FLEET all finish that way, several of them old past tense forms.