A note from the Membership Secretary
Wednesday's book was not a volume. The Membership Secretary would like this noted before anyone checks the shelves.
If the first clue kept you looking for a title, you were in good company. I had reached the second shelf before Dr Quire intervened.
The workings are below.
Mr Peregrine Fitch, Membership Secretary
The Crossing, as posed
Two clues, one shared letter. Seven letters across and seven down. They meet at the fourth letter of the across answer and the second letter of the down answer.
1 across (7). Book showing a certain restraint
1 down (7). Marines scattered what's left
The workings follow. Take another moment with the clues if you would rather solve them first.
The workings
1 across. Book showing a certain restraint (7)
The answer is RESERVE.
This is a double definition. To book a table is to reserve it. A person's reserve is their restraint in what they say or show.
"Showing" joins the two meanings. The sentence suggests a review of a book, but its first word is a verb. There are no letters to rearrange.
1 down. Marines scattered what's left (7)
The answer is REMAINS.
The definition is "what's left". "Scattered" tells us to rearrange MARINES:
MARINES, scattered, becomes REMAINS.
Every letter is used once. The clue reads as though the marines have scattered something; the instruction actually applies to their own seven letters.
And the crossing
The fourth letter of RESERVE and the second letter of REMAINS are both E. Solve the double definition first and you have a fixed position for one letter of the anagram. Solve the anagram first and you have a useful check on the other answer.
The shelves may now be left alone.
The Doorkeeper's Question, answered
The previous Dispatch asked:
Two, the devil (5)
The answer is DEUCE. A deuce is a two, as on a playing card or die. "The deuce" is also an old-fashioned expression for the devil, as in "What the deuce?" Two definitions, with no rearrangement required.
This week's Doorkeeper's Question
Follow quietly, or a flower's stem (5)
The answer appears in the next Dispatch.
The Society of Crossed Words publishes a daily crossing for those beginning, and a course in four volumes for those continuing.
societyofcrossedwords.com