Disclaimer: The Rat Patrol is not my property. They come out to play sometimes, then I send them home.

Author's note: The clues and answers in this story are from an actual crossword puzzle printed in the New York Times for Sunday, February 15, 1942. It was, in fact, the first crossword the paper printed.

Puzzled

By Suzie2b

Tully took a bite of his eggs, set the fork down to pick up the pencil again. He looked at the page and read silently to himself, "Seven across. Four letters. 'Resourceful'." He paused for a moment, then smiled as he filled the boxes with the word ABLE. "Seven down. First letter's an A … fourth letter's an R. 'Confirm'." He started writing as he told himself, "That's gotta be 'approve'."

Tully had started the New York Times crossword puzzle the day before while he, Troy, Moffitt, and Hitch were waiting at a rendezvous. They'd gotten busy and the puzzle was forgotten until the next morning, when Tully found it on the table with his helmet. Charley was on a mission, so he was on his own and figured the crossword would entertain him at breakfast.

Now, as he ate, he diligently worked through the clues and wrote in the answers as he figured them out. There were holes where he just didn't know the answers, but he would come back to those.

Moffitt looked over Tully's shoulder as he sat down next to him with his breakfast tray. "One across is 'Wavell'."

Tully smiled as he wrote in the word. "Thanks, doc. I've never heard of a 'famous one-eyed general'."

"General Archibald Percival Wavell. It happened when he was a brigade major. He was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. He was badly wounded and lost his left eye."

"Okay, what about this one. I got 'Arabic', 'perish', and 'Odessa'. But I can't figure out fifteen down."

Moffitt took a sip of his tea as he looked at the letters he had to work with. "Let's see. Well, thirty-nine across. 'Scholarly'. That would be 'lettered'. Forty-six across is 'witness'. That would make fifteen down … 'apostil'."

They sat with their heads together, eating their breakfasts and working the puzzle. Hitch sat down across from them and said with a smile, "You two look like you're plotting something."

Tully glanced at him. "Crossword puzzle. What's a nine letter word for 'Japanese ancestor-worship'?"

Without missing a beat, Hitch replied, "Shintoism."

Tully put in the missing letters. It fit. He and Moffitt looked up at him with amused surprise.

Hitch chewed and swallowed. "Hey, I do read things other than comic books ya know."

The three of them continued to work the puzzle together. A short time later Troy arrived and sat down next to Hitch. Moffitt, Hitch, and Tully each looked up briefly to say good morning, then it was back to the crossword.

Tully read the clue, "Birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Isn't that Salem?"

Moffitt and Hitch agreed and he wrote it in. "Ninety-nine down. 'Iron prow of a gondola'."

Troy looked at the letters already there and said, "Ferro."

Moffitt, Hitch, and Tully looked up at the sergeant, who simply smiled and shrugged.

Tully said, "Hey, check out this one. 125 down, 'Suggested Nazi name'."

Hitch suggested, "'Jerry' … 'Kraut'?"

So far none of the words around this one had been filled in, so there were no letters to work with. Moffitt said, "Let's figure this out. What's 147 across?"

"Umm … 'Aggrieved'."

Hitch suggested, "Sore?"

Tully wrote it in. "143 across is 'moderation'."

Moffitt said, "Put in 'mean' and we'll see what happens."

"138 across is a 'device for indicating speed of blood circulation'."

Troy, Hitch, and Tully looked at Moffitt, who smiled and said, "Rheometer." Tully started to write it in and Moffitt gently corrected, "No, it's spelled rheometer."

Troy suddenly said, "Germs." When the others looked at him like he'd grown a second head, Troy smiled and explained, "A 'suggested Nazi name'. Germans … Germs."

Eighty-seven across turned out to be 'redenotes's for 'designates again'.

103 down asked for the 'port on Zuider Zee, occupied by Nazis'. The answer was 'Amsterdam'.

120 across read 'Donald Nelson gives out these'. That worked out to be 'contracts' and led to 'of mixed origin' being 'mongrel' for 114 down.

Troy, Moffitt, Hitch, and Tully continued working out words from the various clues, changing some they discovered they'd gotten wrong, and generally having a good time. Then Captain Boggs' aide, Corporal Leeland Green, showed up to interrupt with, "The captain wants to see you guys immediately."

##################

After Captain Boggs outlined the Rat Patrol's next assignment, they all started to head for the door. Tully stopped and looked at the captain. "Is there something else, private?"

Tully hesitated, then said, "Can I ask you something, sir?"

"Of course."

Tully pulled the crossword puzzle out of his back pocket and said, "Would you happen to know what the 'buffalo-nut of China' is?"

Troy growled, "Tully! What in the…"

Captain Boggs smiled. "It's all right, sergeant." He waved Tully over to the desk and took the puzzle. "Which one is it?"

"Seventy-eight across, sir."

The captain looked it over and said, "Hmm … well, the answer is 'trapa'."

Moffitt stepped over to the desk. "That won't fit, captain."

"But if you change forty-two down to 'usurpers' and sixty-eight down to 'charger'…"

Moffitt grinned. "Yes … yes, I see it now."

Hitch joined the others and Troy rolled his eyes with a smile as he sauntered over.

Captain Boggs said, "And this one. 116 down, 'Illinois town, scene of strike massacre'. That should be 'Herrin'. I have a cousin that lives there. So that means…"