to you. You don't seem to appreciate the
situation, man. It's the chance of a lifetime."

"Quite so," replied Marchmont, lighting a cigarette.

"But you can't lose a minute."

"Oh, yes, I can--two or three. Time for a smoke, and then I'll write you
a first-column article that'll call for the biggest caps you have in
stock."

"But I-- What the-- Say, you know something!"

"I know that the secret service has been organised, I know the
organisers, and I know the password."

Here Marchmont's chief became unquotable, lapsing into unlimited
profanity from sheer joy and exultation.

"I'll give you a rise if you pull this off!" he exclaimed, after hearing
the recital of the events at the club. "May I be"--several things--"if I
don't! Now what are you going to do about it?"

"Suppose we inform the nearest police station, have the crowd arrested,
and take all the glory ourselves."

"Suppose we shut up shop and take a holiday," suggested the chief, with
a wealth of scorn.

"Well, what have you to propose?"

"We must work the whole thing through our detective agency."

"But we haven't a detective agency," objected Marchmont.

"But we will have before sunset," said the chief. "There's O'Brien--"

"Yes. Chucked from Pinkerton's force for habitual drunkenness,"
interjected his subordinate.

"Just so," said the editor, "and anxious to get a job in consequence.
He'll be only too glad to run the whole show for us. The city shall be
watched, and the first time 'The Purple Kangaroo' is used in a
suspicious sense we'll arrest the offenders, discover the plot, and the
_Daily Leader_, as the defender of the nation and the people's bulwark,
will increase its circulation a hundred thousand copies! It makes me
dizzy to think of it! I tell you what it is, Marchmont, that
subeditorship is still vacant, and if you put this through, the place is
yours."

The reporter grasped his chief's hand.

"That's white of you, boss," he said, "and I'll do it no matter what it
costs or who gets hurt in the process."

"Right you are!" cried his employer. "The man who edits this paper has
got to hustle. Now don't let the grass grow under your feet, and we'll
have a drink to celebrate."

When the chief offers to set up a _sub_ it means business, and Marchmont
was elated accordingly.

* * * * *

At the Club the Bishop's son still contemplated the Avenue from the
vantage-point of the most comfortable armchair