ntence, as a
member of its city staff, and his host of the yacht as another
journalist. But there was one notable omission about which Banneker
determined to ask Tommy Burt as soon as he could see him. The Patriot,
most sensational of the morning issues, splurged wildly under the
caption, "Yacht Guest Cleans Out Gang Which Cowed Police." The Sphere,
in an editorial, demanded a sweeping and honest investigation of the
conditions which made life unsafe in the greatest of cities. The Sphere
was always demanding sweeping and honest investigations, and not
infrequently getting them. In Greenough's opinion this undesirable
result was likely to be achieved now. To Mr. Gordon he said:

"We ought to shut down all we can on the Banneker follow-up. An
investigation with our man as prosecuting witness would put us in the
position of trying to reform the police, and would play into the hands
of the Enderby crowd."

The managing editor shook a wise and grizzled head. "If The Patriot
keeps up its whooping and The Sphere its demanding, the administration
will have to do something. After all, Mr. Greenough, things have become
pretty unendurable in the Murder Precinct."

"That's true. But the signed statement of Banneker's in The
Patriot--it's really an interview faked up as a statement--is a savage
attack on the whole administration."

"I understand," remarked Mr. Gordon, "that they were going to beat him
up scientifically in the station house when Smith came in and scared
them out of it."

"Yes. Banneker is pretty angry over it. You can't blame him. But that's
no reason why we should alienate the city administration.... Then you
think, Mr. Gordon, that we'll have to keep the story running?"

"I think, Mr. Greenough, that we'll have to give the news," answered the
managing editor austerely. "Where is Banneker now?"

"With Judge Enderby, I believe. In case of an investigation he won't be
much use to us until it's over."

"Can't be helped," returned Mr. Gordon serenely. "We'll stand by our
man."

Banneker had gone to the old-fashioned offices of Enderby and Enderby,
in a somewhat inimical frame of mind. Expectant of an invitation to aid
the Law Enforcement Society in cleaning up a pest-hole of crime, he was
half determined to have as little to do with it as possible. Overnight
consideration had developed in him the theory that the function of a
newspaper is informative, not reformative; that when a newspaper man has
correctly