I
could. Is it true that the _Kicker_ is going to be a permanent
institution?"

"The _Kicker_ is here to stay!" Hollis informed him.

Potter's face lighted with pleasure. "That's bully!" he said. "That's
bully!"

He was of medium height, slender, lean faced, with a magnificent head,
and a wealth of brown hair thickly streaked with silver. His thin lips
were strong; his chin, though a trifle weak, was well formed; his eyes
slightly bleared, but revealing, in spite of this defect, unmistakable
intelligence. In the first flashing glance which Hollis had taken at him
he had been aware that here was a person of more than ordinary mental
ability and refinement. It was with a pang of pity that he remembered
Judge Graney's words to the effect that he was a good workman--"when
sober." Hollis felt genuinely sorry for him.

"I have had a talk with Judge Graney," volunteered Potter. "He tells me
that you are a newspaper man. Between us we ought to be able to get out
a very respectable paper."

"We will," calmly announced Hollis; "and we'll get the first issue out
Saturday. Come in here and we'll talk about it."

He led the way to the front room and seated himself at the desk,
motioning Potter to another chair. Within the next hour he knew all
about the _Kicker_. It was a six-column sheet of four pages. The
first page was devoted to local news. The second carried some local
advertisements, exchange clippings, and two or three columns of
syndicate plate matter. On the third page two columns were devoted to
editorials, one to advertisements, and three to local news in large
type. The fourth, and last page was filled with more plate matter and a
litter of "foreign" advertising--patent-medicines, soaps, hair-dye.

At the first glance it appeared that the paper must be a paying
proposition, for there were a goodly proportion of advertisements. Yet
Hollis had his suspicions about the advertisements. When he had spoken
to Potter about them he discovered that quite a number of them were what
is known to the craft as "dead ads"--which meant advertisements upon
which payment had ceased and which were carried either for the purpose
of filling up the paper or because it was found cheaper to run them than
to set type for the space which would be left by their absence.

"We won't carry any dead ads!" announced Hollis.

"Several of these are big merchants," said Potter, pointing them out
with inky forefinger; "though the contracts have