' as robbery. I really believe he
might have got away with it if----"

"If you hadn't been there," John completed the sentence for Gibson.

"Thanks, Gallant," Gibson acknowledged. "Of course, boys, I'll have to
talk to the morning newspapermen when they find me, but you saw the
whole thing for yourselves and you've got the only pictures made out
there where it happened."

"The A. M.'s will get the break on the story, but we'll have the edge on
them at that," said Brennan. "It was too late, you know, for us to come
out with an extra unless you had permitted us to tell our city editor
what was coming off."

They left the automobile when it reached their office.

"I'm on my way home now to get this doctored up," said Gibson, inclining
his head to his bandaged shoulder. "I want a bath and a sound sleep. I
haven't had either since I met 'Red Mike.' Good night, boys, see you,
tomorrow."

As they went into the office to telephone P. Q. what they had seen and
what the [text not readable - some words missing] the first edition in
the morning, John, feeling certain of a different answer than those he
had received in the past, asked Brennan what he thought of Gibson now.

"He's got nerve, all right," Brennan said. "But----"

"But what?" asked John, wondering what possible criticism Brennan could
have in view of Gibson's display of courage.

"But," said Brennan, "he's a grandstander."

"A grandstander?" exclaimed John.

"You said it, after me," said Brennan. "A grandstander, a man who plays
to the crowd instead of playing the game for what it's worth."

A surge of exasperation went through John. Was this man incapable of
ever believing anything or in anyone?

"Good heavens, Brennan!" he said, hotly. "He risked his life, didn't
he?"

"I said he had nerve."

"He did it to save others, didn't he?"

"Others?" said Brennan sarcastically. "Others? Bosh! He did it to be a
hero, for public acclamation, for glory, for power. Others? Why, don't
you see that he risked the lives of all those others you say he saved
just to make himself a hero?"

Brennan's answer, the sarcastic way he gave it, maddened John.

"Ah, you make me tired," he said in his aggravation. "What do you want
to look at it that way for? You tell me to keep my faith in men, to
believe as much as I can, and then you talk this way."

Apparently ignoring what John said, Brennan telephoned to P. Q.

"Hello, P. Q.," he said. "This is Brennan. Gibson has pu