Mr. Banneker," answered the earnest Zucker. He laid a
jeweled hand upon the other's knee, and removed it because some vestige
of self-protective instinct warned him that that was not the proper
place for it. "You may have noticed that we've been running a lot of
special theater stuff in the Sunday." Banneker nodded. "That's all per
schedule, as worked out by me. An eighth of a page ad. gets an article.
A quarter page ad. gets a signed special by me. Haffa page wins a grand
little send-off by Bess Breezely with her own illustrations. Now, I'm
figuring on full pages. If I could go to a manager and say: 'Gimme a
full-page ad. for next Sunday and I'll see if I can't get Mr. Banneker
to do an editorial on the show'--if I could say that, why, nothin' to
it! Nothin' at-tall! Of course," he added ruminatively, "I'd have to
pick the shows pretty careful."

"Perhaps you'd like to write the editorials, too," suggested Banneker
with baleful mildness.

"I thought of that," admitted the other. "But I don't know as I could
get the swing of your style. You certainly got a style, Mr. Banneker."

"Thank you."

"Well, what do you say?"

"Why, this. I'll look over next Sunday's advertising, particularly the
large ads., and if there is a good subject in any of the shows, I'll try
to do something about it."

"Fine!" enthused the unsuspecting pioneer of business-dramatic
criticism. "It's a pleasure to work with a gentleman like you, Mr.
Banneker."

Withdrawing, even more pleased with himself than was his wont, Mr.
Zucker confided to Haring that the latter was totally mistaken in
attributing a stand-offish attitude to Banneker. Why, you couldn't ask
for a more reasonable man. Saw the point at once.

"Don't you go making any fool promises on the strength of what Banneker
said to you," commented Haring.

With malign relish, Banneker looked up in the Sunday advertising the
leading theater display, went to the musical comedy there exploited, and
presently devoted a column to giving it a terrific and only half-merited
slashing for vapid and gratuitous indecency. The play, which had been
going none too well, straightway sold out a fortnight in advance,
thereby attesting the power of the press as well as the appeal of
pruriency to an eager and jaded public. Zucker left a note on the
editorial desk warmly thanking his confrere for this evidence of
cooeperation.

Life was practicing its lesser ironies upon Banneker whilst maturing its
gre