ace pitiful, the fear of a dog about to be whipped in
his every feature.

"Jim," he cried, "Jim! You got to get me out of this. You got to stand
by me."

"Why, what's the matter, Lou?" asked the mayor in surprise.

"Matter enough," whined Max. "Do you know what's happened? Well, I'll
tell--"

Mr. Max was thrust aside, and replaced by a train newsboy. Mr. Magee
felt that he should always remember that boy, his straw colored hair,
his freckled beaming face, his lips with their fresh perpetual smile.

"All the morning papers, gents," proclaimed the boy. "Get the _Reuton
Star_. All about the bribery."

He held up the paper. It's huge black head-lines looked dull and old and
soggy. But the story they told was new and live and startling.

"The Mayor Trapped," shrilled the head-lines. "Attempt to Pass Big Bribe
at Baldpate Inn Foiled by Star Reporter. Hayden of the Suburban Commits
Suicide to Avoid Disgrace."

"Give me a paper, boy," said the mayor. "Yes--a _Star_." His voice was
even, his face unmoved. He took the sheet and studied it, with an easy
smile. Clinging in fear to his side, Max read, too. At length Mr. Cargan
spoke, looking up at Magee.

"So," he remarked. "So--reporters, eh? You and your lady friend?
Reporters for this lying sheet--the _Star_?"

Mr. Magee smiled up from his own copy of the paper.

"Not I," he answered. "But my lady friend--yes. It seems she was just
that. A _Star_ reporter you can call her, and tell no lie, Mr. Mayor."

CHAPTER XXI

THE MAYOR IS WELCOMED HOME

It was a good story--the story which the mayor, Max, the professor and
Magee read with varying emotions there in the smoking-car. The girl had
served her employers well, and Mr. Magee, as he read, felt a thrill of
pride in her. Evidently the employers had felt that same thrill. For in
the captions under the pictures, in the head-lines, and in a first-page
editorial, none of which the girl had written, the _Star_ spoke
admiringly of its woman reporter who had done a man's work--who had gone
to Baldpate Inn and had brought back a gigantic bribe fund "alone and
unaided".

"Indeed?" smiled Mr. Magee to himself.

In the editorial on that first page the triumphant cry of the _Star_
arose to shatter its fellows in the heavens. At last, said the editor,
the long campaign which his paper alone of all the Reuton papers had
waged against a corrupt city administration was brought to a successful
close. The victory was won. H