Steam Submarine Zelf

by Robert Denethon

  ~

  “Here - feed your peepers on this - there is a puzzle on this page somewhere, or rather, the answer to a particular puzzle, actually, but I cannot for the life of my grandmother find it. Have a try at it; see if you have any better luck.”

  The style of the page was different to newspapers I had seen - there were more pictures and the lettering was more varied.

  There was a very obvious puzzle, right there in the middle. A crossword right in the middle of the page and the answer to the previous day’s crossword directly below it!

  I thought the man must be insane.

  He noted my expression and said, “Yes, yes, I’m not talking about the crossword. No, it’s another puzzle, hidden somewhere among the various features of this page... Of course I’m not saying it isn’t the crossword - indeed, it would be just like them to put the answer in the crossword itself of course. But it might not be. Have a goose, have a gander. See if you can find it, lad, I’m at my wit’s final demise.”

  I examined the crossword.

  He hadn’t even filled in any of the words yet.

  How would he expect to find the clue without even doing the crossword? Needless to say, I hadn’t even any idea as to what sort of a clue he was looking for.