to the
Philippines, Archie could scarcely reply, so delighted was he with the
brilliant prospect before him. He managed to stammer out a few words,
though, in spite of his surprise. "I always thought war correspondents
were selected from the most experienced men in journalism," he said,
but Mr. Van Bunting only laughed. "That's what we have already done, my
boy," he said, "and so far none of our distinguished correspondents have
sent us a thing worth printing that we didn't already know. You see they
can't send any more to us in the way of news than we can get from the
War Department in Washington, and most of these men are too old fogy to
send us anything out of the ordinary line of war correspondence. Now,
what we want is for you to go over there and have some adventures, and
write us something which will be different from what we have had before
from the Philippines. We are sending you, because you have had no
experience at such work, and will be sure to send us something unusual,
and that is what we want. If you can only do as well in the tropics as
you have done here in New York, we shall be more than satisfied with
your work. I am sorry that I won't have time to give you very complete
instructions, but perhaps it will be as well. And now some of the men
are waiting outside to come in and talk this matter over, so we'll have
them in now."

And Archie found himself in the midst of an editorial conference, during
which many things were discussed. The meeting lasted more than two
hours, and finally it was decided that Archie should travel from New
York to San Francisco, and go from there to Manila on the army transport
which was to sail on the twenty-fifth of the month. This meant that he
would have to leave the city in two days' time, and Archie announced
himself as quite willing to do this, as he had few preparations to make.
The editors gave him many instructions about how he was to address his
correspondence, and how he should proceed in the event of finding it
necessary to send despatches by cable. And at the end of the conference
he felt that he knew all that he would need to know, so that he could
start off without fear of not being able to fulfil his mission. As far
as Archie could understand it, his chief instructions as to duty were to
the effect that he must have as many experiences as possible of as
many different kinds, and that he must write about them in a perfectly
natural way, just as if he were writi