"I knew you"d be kind!" There was just the faintest pressure of the delicate paw, before it was withdrawn. The Great American Pumess was feeling the thrill of power over men and events. "I think I like the newspaper business. But I"ve got to be at my other trade now."
"What trade is that?"
"Didn"t you know I was a little sister of the poor? When you"ve lost all your money and are ill, I"ll come and lay my cooling hand on your fevered brow and bring wine jelly to your tenement."
"Aren"t you afraid of contagious diseases?" he asked anxiously. "Such places are always full of them."
"Oh, they placard for contagion. It"s safe enough. And I"m really interested. It"s my only excuse to myself for living."
"If bringing happiness wherever you go isn"t enough--"
"No! No!" She smiled up into his eyes. "This is still a business visit.
But you may take me to my car."
On his way back Hal stopped to tell Wayne that perhaps the Pierce story wasn"t worth running, after all. Unease of conscience disturbed his work for a time thereafter. He appeased it by the excuse that it was no threat or pressure from without which had influenced his action. He had killed the item out of consideration for the friend of his friend. What did it matter, anyway, a bit of news like that? Who was harmed by leaving it out? As yet he was too little the journalist to comprehend that the influences which corrupt the news are likely to be dangerous in proportion as they are subtle.
Wayne understood better, and smiled with a cynical wryness of mouth upon McGuire Ellis, who, having pa.s.sed Hal and Esme on the stairs, had lingered at the city desk and heard the editor-in-chief"s half-hearted order.
"Still worrying about Dr. Surtaine"s influence over the paper?" asked the city editor, after Hal"s departure.
"Yes," said Ellis.
"Don"t."
"Why not?"
"Did you happen to notice about the prettiest thing that ever used eyes for weapons, in the hall?"
"Something of that description."
"Let me present you, in advance, to Miss Esme Elliot, the new boss of our new boss," said Wayne, with a flourish.
"G.o.d save the Irish!" said McGuire Ellis.
CHAPTER XIII
NEW BLOOD
Echoes of the Talk-it-Over Breakfast rang briskly in the "Clarion"
office. It was suggested to Hal that the success of the function warranted its being established as a regular feature of the shop. Later this was done. One of the partic.i.p.ants, however, was very ill-pleased with the morning"s entertainment. Dr. Surtaine saw, in retrospect and in prospect, his son being led astray into various radical and harebrained vagaries of journalism. None of those at the breakfast had foreseen more clearly than the wise and sharpened quack what serious difficulties beset the course which Hal had laid out for himself.
Trouble was what Dr. Surtaine hated above all things. Whatever taste for the adventurous he may have possessed had been sated by his career as an itinerant. Now he asked only to be allowed to hatch his golden dollars peacefully, afar from all harsh winds of controversy. That his own son should feel a more stirring ambition left him clucking, a bewildered hen on the brink of perilous waters.
But he clucked cunningly. And before he undertook his appeal to bring the errant one back to sh.o.r.e he gave himself two days to think it over.
To this extent Dr. Surtaine had become a partisan of the new enterprise; that he, too, previsioned an ideal newspaper, a newspaper which, day by day, should uphold and defend the Best Interests of the Community, and, as an inevitable corollary, nourish itself on their bounty. By the Best Interests of the Community--he visualized the phrase in large print, as a creed for any journal--Dr. Surtaine meant, of course, business in the great sense. Gloriously looming in the future of his fancy was the day when the "Clarion" should develop into the perfect newspaper, the fine flower of journalism, an organ in which every item of news, every line of editorial, every word of advertis.e.m.e.nt, should subserve the one vital purpose, Business; should aid in some manner, direct or indirect, in making a dollar for the "Clarion"s" patrons and a dime for the "Clarion"s" till. But how to introduce these n.o.ble and fortifying ideals into the mind of that flighty young bird, Hal?
Dr. Surtaine, after studying the problem, decided to employ the instance of the Mid-State and Great Muddy River Railroad as the entering wedge of his argument. Hal owned a considerable block of stock, earning the handsome dividend of eight per cent. Under attacks possibly leading to adverse legislation, this return might well be reduced and Hal"s own income suffer a shrinkage. Therefore, in the interests of all concerned, Hal ought to keep his hands off the subject. Could anything be clearer?
Obviously not, the senior Surtaine thought, and so laid it before the junior, one morning as they were walking down town together. Hal admitted the a.s.sault upon the Mid-and-Mud; defended it, even; added that there would be another phase of it presently in the way of an attempt on the part of the paper to force a better pa.s.senger service for Worthington. Dr. Surtaine confessed a melancholious inability to see what the devil business it was of Hal"s.
"It isn"t I that"s making the fight, Dad. It"s the "Clarion.""
"The same thing."
"Not at all the same thing. Something very much bigger than I or any other one man. I found that out at the breakfast."
That breakfast! Socialistic, anarchistic, anti-Christian, were the climactic adjectives employed by Dr. Surtaine to signify his disapproval of the occasion.
"Sorry you didn"t like it, Dad. You heard nothing but plain facts."
"Plain slush! Just look at this railroad accident article broad-mindedly, Boyee. You own some Mid-and-Mud stock."
"Thanks to you, Dad."
"Paying eight per cent. How long will it go on paying that if the newspapers keep stirring up trouble for it? Anti-railroad sentiment is fostered by just such stuff as the "Clarion" printed. What if the engineer _was_ worked overtime? He got paid for it."
"And seven people got killed for it. I understand the legislature is going to ask why, mainly because of our story and editorial."
"There you are! Sicking a pack of demagogues onto the Mid-and-Mud. How can it make profits and pay your dividends if that kind of thing keeps up?"
"I don"t know that I need dividends earned by slaughtering people," said Hal slowly.
"Maybe you don"t need the dividends, but there"s plenty of people that do, people that depend on "em. Widows and orphans, too."
"Oh, that widow-and-orphan dummy!" cried Hal. "What would the poor, struggling railroads ever do without it to hide behind!"
"You talk like Ellis," reproved his father. "Boyee, I don"t want you to get too much under his influence. He"s an impractical will-o"-the-wisp chaser. Just like all the writing fellows."
By this time they had reached the "Clarion" Building.
"Come in, Dad," invited Hal, "and we"ll talk to Ellis about Old Home Week. He"s with you there, anyway."
"Oh, he"s all right aside from his fanatical notions," said the other as they mounted the stairs.
The a.s.sociate editor nodded his greetings from above a pile of left-over copy.
"Old Home Week?" he queried. "Let"s see, when does it come?"
"In less than six months. It isn"t too early to give it a start, is it?"
asked Hal Surtaine.
"No. It"s news any time, now."
"More than that," said Dr. Surtaine. "It"s advertising. I can turn every ad. that goes out to the "Clarion.""