While we decide over the next months how to fill the void left by Frank W. Lewis’s retirement, puzzlers will be able to enjoy some golden oldies. This was Frank’s twenty-sixth puzzle for The Nation and appeared in the April 10, 1948, issue. You will note that his style here, while in keeping with his written “Ground Rules,” is somewhat freer than in later puzzles. Also, certain clues evoke the mid-twentieth century.

ACROSS

 1  Remembers what one does when the line is busy. (7)

 5  Hindrance to a novice when it comes from a drum. (3,1,3)

9  Stick or coat. (7)

10  Regular in the army. (7)

11  Not a quality of brunettes. (15)

12  In play they are found in stones. (7)

13  Its end lies in a kind of oil. (7)

14  Petruchio was evermore this. (7)

17  Made trips after father came back. (7)

20  Fritz doesn’t keep it so much now. (5,2,3,5)

21  Not Taft’s daughter that Hope supported. (7)

22  Bitter complaint, on the verge of flight. (7)

23  Gone off because it’s rest day. (7)

24  When in the air they are flying fortresses? (7)

DOWN

 1  Effects a change of lusters. (7)

 2  Noise or more noise. (7)

 3  Implies neither Truman nor Lee was a dark-horse! (5, 5, 5)

 4  Are needed when chiefs make such cries. (7)

 5  A verse is never square to the Spanish. (7)

 6  One can hardly be constructive without them in most cities. (8, 7)

 7  See. (7)

 8  Clio, for example, is found in bed here. (7)

14  They die over and over. (7)

15  Find it in havoc to be reconstructed. (7)

16  One of the brethren is almost the subject of a melodrama. (7)

17  I charm a sort of Abyssinian with it. (7)

18  Latin up-bringing, with two eyes at first. (7)

19  Flours. (7)