singular reputation of printing the truth. It rarely
was "taken in," with a false item. It aspired far beyond the local.

The _Planet_, under the able management of its chief and of Swift, had
become the mirror of the world. And, if at times it reflected important
news from a convex surface, it did no more and far less than the
majority of its contemporaries, who had no telegraphic facts to throw
away daily, and who, when hard pressed to it, manufactured a murder at
home or a war rumor abroad to help pad their lean columns.

"Let me see! It is five forty-five," continued the chief, consulting his
watch. "I will not detain you any longer, Mr. Ticks. We shall want a
column from you on Russell, to-night. And now, Swift,"--when Mr. Ticks
had faded out of the room,--"who's this correspondent signed D.?"

"It's Dubbs. You know him. Associated press man and special
correspondent. Never failed me. He's the only one there who knows our
cipher."

The editor-in-chief did not change his expression, but his eyes had the
steady, stern look that showed easy determination. He quickly wrote a
few words on his pad and handed them to his favorite "sub."

"Take this to the cashier! Get to the elevated as fast as you can! Buy
what you need when you get time, and--_go!_ I depend on you for the
fullest description to be had. If you do as well as you did on the
Conemaugh, I'll give you a raise on your return. Good luck to you."

It did not take Mr. Swift five minutes to rush to his den, slip on his
coat, snatch his hat from the floor, run downstairs, receive a fat roll
of bills from the phlegmatic cashier and bolt for the elevated train. In
twenty-five minutes he was at the central station, with two minutes to
spare. He nodded pleasantly to the gatekeeper and boarded the train as
nonchalantly as if he were going to his suburban boarding-house.

II.

All of our readers will remember the curiosity, the speculation, the
horror, the apprehension, and the sympathy universally excited when, on
the tenth of September, it was learned from the morning papers that
Russell, the new capital of Harrison, was cut off from all
communication. Each morning sheet hinted darkly at the cause of this
unheard-of calamity. The _Daily Braggart_ said there was no doubt that a
cyclone of gigantic proportions, followed by a water-spout, had swept
the city entirely away, and that its evening edition would print full
details of the "awful visitation," with