Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (answers vary in length from four to eleven letters, and six are capitalized) then enter them in the grid one after another in the same order as their clues, starting in the upper left corner. Across words that don't end at the right continue on the next row, and down words that don't end at the bottom continue in the next column. Eleven across words and ten down words won't fit in the grid unless one of their letters is omitted. Those twenty-one letters, taken in order as they occur in across and down words, spell a seven-word message related to the mystery entry. Thanks to Kevin Wald for test-solving and editing this puzzle. (If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid).

1. Mystery entry
2. Writer beginning to master verse
3. I study, I hear, I see in a conventional way
4. Causal agent in gene transmutation
5. Skulk in embarrassment from lesion primarily in abnormal skin
6. Beats mix in recipe step
7. Game of duchesses
8. Brands oddly defective
9. Proceed with declared luggage
10. Food for an English dandy
11. Ghost withholding gray core
12. English tutor returned joint
13. Unhappy German is a pervert
14. Owns part of wealth assets
15. After turning, urinated in ocean
16. Brooded with Latin sailor
17. Bully, holding gauge, gets a "1000" as a measure of mass
18. City of Rio has him reeling
19. Vet and I reformed nonconformist
20. A green hodgepodge to infuriate
21. Bird of faster navigation
22. A mold shaped as indicative of mood
23. Kelly's prayer

1. Why his was bad, ultimately ugly, and feeble
2. Clive—he arranged for a conveyance
3. Raid on illegal order
4. I ran into westernmost ethnic group
5. Ansil, running, is a slow-poke
6. Grandmother's leguminous plant
7. Artisan redesigning this mint
8. Next-in-line conked out
9. Sabbath evening's wash
10. Keep holding foot of stout staff
11. Composer of tuba choruses
12. Each suffered pain
13. Horne is excruciatingly lean
14. Bird finally seen at sunrise
15. Prison disturbance
16. Plying Roger with alcoholic liquor
17. Cords entangled fish
18. Mora gallivanted with Sharif
19. Father eats Italian bread
20. "Elegy" in revised OED
21. Wild about silver found in Georgia
22. Singularity of monerans
23. Poor René is at no time poetic
24. Order of the French Indian
25. Lively, timeless script revised
26. Distributed code templates reversed internally