asn't sprightly enough to suit him? Once out of a hundred times, I
suppose, the everyday processes of our courts hide something picturesque
or perhaps important in the background. Any paper that could get and
present that sort of news would liven up its columns a good deal. And it
would strike a new note in Worthington. I'll give you a motto for the
'Clarion,' gentlemen: 'The Facts Behind the News.' And now I've said my
say, and I want to hear from you."

Here for the first time Hal struck a false note. Newspaper men, as a
class, abhor public speaking. So much are they compelled to hear from
"those bores who prate intolerably over dinner tables," that they regard
the man who speaks when he isn't manifestly obliged to, as an enemy to
the public weal, and are themselves most loath thus to add to the sum of
human suffering. Merely by way of saving the situation, Wayne, the city
editor, arose and said a few words complimentary to the new owner. He
was followed by the head copy-reader in the same strain. Two of the
older sub-editors perpetrated some meaningless but well-meant remarks,
and the current of events bade fair to end in complete stagnation, when
from out of the ruck, midway of the table, there rose the fringed and
candid head of one William S. Marchmont, the railroad and markets
reporter.

Marchmont was an elderly man, of a journalistic type fast disappearing.
There is little room in the latter-day pressure of newspaper life for
the man who works on "booze." But though a steady drinker, and
occasionally an unsteady one, Marchmont had his value. He was an expert
in his specialty. He had a wide acquaintance, and he seldom became
unprofessionally drunk in working hours. To offset the unwonted strain
of rising before noon, however, he had fortified himself for this
occasion by several cocktails which were manifest in his beaming smile
and his expansive flourish in welcoming Mr. Surtaine to the goodly
fellowship of the pen.

"Very good, all that about the facts behind the news," he said
genially. "Very instructive and--and illuminating. But what I wanta ask
you is this: We fellows who have to _write_ the facts behind the news;
where do we get off?"

"I don't understand you," said Hal.

"Lemme explain. Last week we had an accident on the Mid-and-Mud.
Engineer ran by his signals. Rear end collision. Seven people killed.
Coroner's inquest put all the blame on the engineer. Engineer wasn't
tending to his duty. That's