"Please don"t lick the editor," said the interrupter of poetic justice good-humoredly. "Appropriately framed and hung upon the wall, fifteen cents apiece. Yah-ah-ah-oo!" he yawned prodigiously. "Calm down," he added.
Hal stared at the squat and agile figure. "You"re the office bully and bouncer, I suppose," he said.
"McGuire Ellis, _at_ your service. Bounce only when compelled. Otherwise peaceful. _And_ sleepy."
"My business is with this man," said Hal, indicating Sterne. "Put up your toy, then, and state it in words of one syllable."
For a moment the visitor pondered, drawing the whip through his hands, uncertainly. "I"m not fool enough to go up against that war-club," he remarked.
Mr. McGuire Ellis nodded approval. "First sensible thing I"ve heard you say," he remarked.
"But neither"--here Hal"s jaw projected a little--"am I going to let this thing drop."
"Law?" inquired Sterne. "If you think there"s any libel in what the "Clarion" has said, ask your lawyer. What do you want, anyway?"
Thus recalled to the more pacific phase of his errand, Hal produced his doc.u.ment. "If you"ve got an iota of decency or fairness about you, you"ll print that," he said.
Sterne glanced through it swiftly. "Nothing doing," he stated succinctly. "Did Dr. Surtaine send you here with that thing?"
"My father doesn"t know that I"m here."
"Oho! So that"s it. Knight-errantry, eh? Now, let me put this thing to you straight, Mr. Harrington Surtaine. If your father wants to make a fair and decent statement, without abuse or calling names, over his own signature, the "Clarion" will run it, at fifty cents a word."
"You dirty blackmailer!" said Hal slowly.
"Hard names go with this business, my young friend," said the other coolly.
"At present you"ve got me checked. But you don"t always keep your paid bully with you, I suppose. One of these days you and I will meet--"
"And you"ll land in jail."
"He talks awfully young, doesn"t he?" said Mr. Ellis, shaking a solemn head.
"As for blackmail," continued Sterne, a bit eagerly, "there"s nothing in that. We"ve never asked Dr. Surtaine for a dollar. He hasn"t got a thing on us." "You never asked him for advertising either, I suppose," said Hal bitterly.
"Only in the way of business. Just as we go out after any other advertising."
"If he had given you his ads.--"
"Oh, I don"t say that we"d have gone after him if he"d been one of our regular advertisers. Every other paper in town gets his copy; why shouldn"t we? We have to look out for ourselves. We look out for our patrons, too. Naturally, we aren"t going to knock one of our advertisers. Others have got to take their chances."
"And that"s modern journalism!"
"It"s the newspaper business," cried Sterne. "No different from any other business."
"No wonder decent people consider newspaper men the sc.u.m of the earth,"
said Hal, with rather ineffectual generalization.
"Don"t be young!" besought McGuire Ellis wearily. "Pretend you"re a grown-up man, anyway. You look as if you might have some sense about you somewhere, if you"d only give it a chance to filter through."
Some not unpleasant quirk of speech and manner in the man worked upon Hal"s humor.
"Why, I believe you"re right about the youngness," he admitted, with a smile. "Perhaps there are other ways of getting at this thing. Just for a test,--for the last time will you or will you not, Mr. Sterne, publish this apology?"
"We will not. There"s just one person can give me orders."
"Who is that?"
"The owner."
"I think you"ll be sorry."
McGuire Ellis turned upon him a look that was a silent reproach to immaturity.
"Anything more?" queried Sterne. "Nothing," said Hal, with an effort at courtesy. "Good-day to you both."
"Well, what about it?" asked McGuire Ellis of his chief, as the visitor"s footsteps died away.
"Nothing about it. When"ll the next Surtaine roast be ready?"
"Ought to be finished to-morrow."
"Schedule it for Thursday. We"ll make the old boy squeal yet. Do you believe the boy when he says that his father didn"t send him?"
"Sounded straight. Pretty straight boy he looked like to me, anyway."
"Pretty fresh kid, _I_ think. And a good deal of a pin-head.
Distributing agency for the old man"s money, I guess. He won"t get anywhere."
"Well, I"m not so sure," said Ellis contemplatively. "Of course he acts gosh-awful young. But did you notice him when he went?"
"Not particularly."
"He was smiling."
"Well?"
"Always look out for a guy that smiles when he"s licked. He"s got a come-back to him."
Eleven o"clock that night saw McGuire Ellis lift his head from the five-minute nap which he allowed himself on evenings of light pressure after the Washington copy was run off, and blink rapidly. At the same moment Mr. David Sterne gave utterance to an exclamation, partly of annoyance, partly of surprise. Mr. Harrington Surtaine, wearing an expression both businesslike and urbane stood in the doorway.
"Good-evening, gentlemen," he remarked.
Mr. Sterne snorted. Mr. Ellis"s lips seemed about to form the reproachful monosyllable "young." Without further greeting the visitor took off his hat and overcoat and hung them on a peg. "You make yourself at home," growled Sterne.
"I do," agreed Hal, and, discarding his coat, hung that on another peg.
"I"ve got a right to."