"You can run round to the meeting in the Town Hall to-night and see what sort of a fist you make of it," said Cairns, the man who now sat in the editorial chair of "The Grey Town Observer," to Desmond O"Connor, just one month after the young man had been admitted to the office.
"Thank you, sir," said Desmond, springing to his feet in his excitement.
"It"s a chance," said the editor. "Don"t be too diffuse, but see that you miss nothing. What is that paper in front of you?" He took the paper from Desmond O"Connor"s hands and held it at arm"s length, while a sardonic smile held possession of his face.
"Shall I let the old man see it?" he asked. "Mr. Brown would like to see himself as you see him, under the t.i.tle of "Old Eb." By the way, if you could catch Martin smiling to-night, and Langridge in tears, it would help your report. You appear to bring out the salient features of a handsome face, even if you accentuate them. Martin"s teeth and Langridge"s nose are striking objects. Let us have them for to-morrow."
Desmond returned to his type-writing with a sigh of satisfaction. In this meeting he saw a road to promotion.
Meeting Molly Healy on his way to luncheon, he paused to make her sharer in his good fortune, for Molly and he had always been good comrades.
Molly was in a tearing hurry at that moment. One of her dogs had strayed, and she was beating the town to find him; but she paused to listen to his tale.
"Going to the meeting! Is it to speak?" she asked.
"No," he replied contemptuously, "to report what the beggars say."
"Just to write down the words of a lot of windbags. That"s nothing! If I were Ebenezer Brown, you would be in Mr. Cairns" place. But, good luck to you, Desmond. I will set all the old women praying for you. Some day you will be owning a paper yourself, if I can help you."
"Thank you, Molly," he cried.
The girl cast a wistful glance after him as he left her, for no one admired Desmond O"Connor more than she. But the vision of a black dog vanishing around a distant corner caused her to start in a hurried pursuit. Round the corner she ran, straight into the arms of Constable McSherry, who was coming sedately along the footpath in an opposite direction to her own.
"What would my wife say if she saw this?" he asked, as she cannoned into him; "a young lady running into my arms?"
"Don"t be talking nonsense," she replied, laughingly. "Did you see a dog?"
"It"s nothing but dogs," he answered. "Which was the one you were after?"
"A black-and-tan collie with a blue-ribbon round his neck, and a saucy look on his face."
"A blue ribbon around his neck? It wouldn"t be the one I saw going into the public-house, then?"
The constable paused to consider, while Molly suddenly whirled down the street and pounced on the errant collie. Seeing this, Constable McSherry turned to continue his leisurely course of inspection.
As Desmond returned from his hurried meal, he again met Molly, towing her unwilling captive home. She signalled to Desmond to stop.
"I have been thinking that you might take me to the meeting," she said.
Desmond shook his head.
"Not to-night, Molly. You would have me laughing all the time. There"s a circus coming next week; will you come to that?"
"Do you think I am never serious?" the girl asked. "I would not so much as smile."
"It can"t be done, Molly. I shall be sitting at a table writing for all I am worth."
"Then I will sit just behind you and torment you all the while," she remarked vindictively.
And such was her purpose when she induced Dr. Marsh to accompany her to the Town Hall that evening.
"You don"t know what you are doing!" he protested. "I shall go to sleep, I know. Did you ever hear me snore? They tell me it"s like the grunt of a boar when he is hungry after a seven days" fast."
"Let me hear you do it now!" she laughed. "I am going there to-night just to tease Desmond O"Connor. He refused to take me."
"What is Desmond doing there?" asked the doctor.
"Taking notes of the speeches. It won"t be many notes he will take to-night," she answered.
"For shame, Molly. This is the boy"s chance of promotion. If I take you, we shall sit at the back of the hall."
"Among the boys?" asked Molly. "Then you shall take me to enjoy the fun.
I"ll ignore Desmond to-night; but I will be even with him for this."
A political meeting, with two picked speakers to leaven a number of dull and uninteresting harangues. It was not a very exciting entertainment.
But there were "the boys," vociferous, intolerant, sometimes amusing, to enliven proceedings for Molly; while Desmond s.n.a.t.c.hed up the salient features in shorthand and with pencil. Samuel Quirk was a keen politician, and he had transferred the scope of his energy from Collingwood to Grey Town. Unlike many men, he had not changed his politics with the change in his fortunes. He it was who had organised the opposition. At his word a storm of protest, a roar of ironical laughter, or a volley of interjections hara.s.sed the speakers on the platform. And it was Samuel Quirk who asked the first questions at the close of the meeting. Straightway Desmond transferred the old man to his note-book, to appear on the following morning as "The Interjector in Chief," in company with Martin and Langridge.
"You have scored a bullseye," cried Cairns, when he had read Desmond"s report, and had glanced at the sketches. "You are promoted to the reporting staff. Keep your observant faculties keen and your pencil sharp, my boy, and we will make the old "Observer" boom."
Samuel Quirk smiled when he saw himself in the morning"s paper.
"See here, old woman, what they have been doing to me!" he cried, as he banged "The Observer" down in front of his wife at breakfast.
With trembling hands, she adjusted her gla.s.ses, fully antic.i.p.ating that her husband had been sentenced to some heavy penalty for his political creed. But when she saw him on the front sheet of the paper, with the bellicose features of his face exaggerated, Mrs. Quirk was moved to anger.
"And who has been doing this?" she asked. "It is time something should be done to put an end to this. It is an outrage----. Does he call himself an artist?" she questioned, after studying the picture.
"I think it"s a very fine picture; perhaps the nose is a little large, and the mouth, too. But it"s quite a pleasant picture," said Samuel Quirk complacently.
"If I knew the man that had done it, sure I would make it quite unpleasant for him," said Mrs. Quirk.
""Tis a sign of fame to be made a sketch of," said Samuel Quirk. "They know that I have organised the boys, and this is the way they try to have revenge."
Therewith he went out to talk politics to his employes while he watched them at work.
""Tis but eight hours you will do, lads, but it will be an honest eight hours" work you will give me for the decent wages I pay you," he was accustomed to say.
Kathleen O"Connor recognised Desmond"s hand in the sketch when Mrs.
Quirk showed it to her. She, however, considered it prudent not to mention the artist"s name, for she could see that Mrs. Quirk was deeply hurt at what she regarded as an insult to the old man. Fortunately, however, an event occurred during the day that entirely diverted Mrs.
Quirk"s attention from the picture of her husband.
It was one of Kathleen"s duties to read to Mrs. Quirk the few letters that came for her.
"My sight is leaving me," the old lady remarked in excuse for her lack of education, "and these spectacles don"t appear to improve it."
Therefore, Kathleen opened a letter, addressed in a man"s bold handwriting to "Mrs. Quirk, 26 Rainey-street, Collingwood," and forwarded from that address. It had come from the United States, and had evidently been delayed in transit, for the letter was dated three months before it was received.
"My dearest old mother," Kathleen began to read.