as you want to?"

"He came pretty near spending it faster than he wanted to last night,"
put in "Bricktop."

"How was that?" asked Larry quickly, feeling that there was "in the
air," so to speak, a story out of the usual run.

Thereupon Dick told about the attempted bond swindle.

"Say, this is great!" exclaimed Larry. "This is the best yet! This beats
having you talk about New York. Do me a favor, will you?"

"What is it?" inquired Dick. "If it's to buy some gilt-edged bonds, I'm
afraid I'll have to decline."

"No, it's only this. Don't say anything about this bond business to any
other reporters."

"I'm not likely to, unless they ask me to," replied Dick. "But why?"

"Because I want to get a beat out of it."

"A beat?" inquired "Bricktop," while the other boys looked puzzled.

"Yes. An exclusive story. I don't want the reporters for any other
papers to get hold of it. If I have it all alone in the _Leader_ it will
be a feather in my cap. News that no other paper has is the very best
kind."?

"Gilt-edged, I suppose," put in Dick.

"That's it," replied Larry quickly. "Now don't tell any other reporters,
will you?"

"Well, if they come here and ask about it, I can't say it wasn't so."

"No, I suppose not," assented Larry. "But, I tell you what you can do."

"What?"

"Go for a walk, and don't come back to the hotel until after my paper is
out with the story. We publish in the afternoon and go to press about
noon for the first edition. Would it be asking too much of you to do
that?"

"No, for we were going out anyhow."

"Then come with me," suggested Larry. "I'll take you to the _Leader_
office and have a man show you how we make a newspaper. I guess no other
reporters will come in there to get the story out of you," and he
laughed in delight at the "beat" he had secured.

Dick and his friends were only too glad to get a chance to see a big
paper printed, and soon they were on their way to the _Leader_ office,
escorted by Larry.

"If any other reporters see me they'll think I'm taking some young men's
club on a tour of the city," the young journalist remarked, as the
little throng walked along. "Well, if they do, it will be a good way to
throw them off the scent."

Larry reported to his city editor about having most unexpectedly come
across a "big" story in connection with the young millionaire, and was
told to "let it run for all it's worth."

"I'll see to it that the modern Croesus and his f