d
Associated Press during those years. Jon Harding was the silent
publisher of three newspapers in Washington, two in New York, and one in
Chicago. Ever hear of those men, Mariel?"

"No, no--"

"You know damned well you've heard of them. Because _those men were all
you_. Every single one of them--" Shandor was standing close to him,
now, and Mariel sat like he had seen a ghost, his lower lip quivering,
forehead wet. "No, no, you're wrong--"

"No, no, I'm right," mocked Shandor. "I've been in the newspaper racket
for a long time, Mariel. I've got friends in PIB--real friends, not the
shamus crowd you're acquainted with that'll take you for your last
nickel and then leave you to starve. Never mind how I found out. You
hated Ingersoll so much you handed him bouquets all the time. How about
it, Mariel? All that writing--you couldn't praise him enough. Boosting
him, beating the drum for him and his policies--every trick and gimmick
known in the propaganda game to give him a boost, make him the people's
darling--how about it?"

Mariel was shaking his head, his little eyes nearly popping with fright.
"It wasn't him," he choked. "Ingersoll had nothing to do with it. It was
Dartmouth Bearing. They bought me into the spots. Got me the newspapers,
supported me. Dartmouth Bearing ran the whole works, and they told me
what to write--"

"Garbage! Dartmouth Bearing--the biggest munitions people in America,
and I'm supposed to believe that they told you to go to bat for the
country's strongest pacifist! What kind of sap do you take me for?"

"It's true! Ingersoll had nothing to do with it, nothing at all."
Mariel's voice was almost pleading. "Look, I don't know what Dartmouth
Bearing had in mind. Who was I to ask questions? You don't realize their
power, Shandor. Those bonds I spoke of--they hold millions of dollars
worth of bonds! They hold enough bonds to topple the economy of the
nation, they've got bonds in the names of ten thousand subsidiary
companies. They've been telling Federal Economics Commission what to do
for the past ten years! And they're getting us into this war,
Shandor--lock, stock and barrel. They pushed for everything they could
get, and they had the money, the power, the men to do whatever they
wanted. You couldn't fight them, because they had everything sewed up so
tight nobody could approach them--"

Shandor's mind was racing, the missing pieces beginning, suddenly, to
come out of the haze. The incredibl