" he said and John thought--or was it his
imagination?--that Gibson's set smile flattened a little at the corners.

CHAPTER XIV

Under Brennan's patient tutelage John progressed rapidly, learning
thoroughly the rudiments of newspaper reporting in its two branches,
news gathering and writing. P. Q. occasionally gave advice which John
knew came from a man who took a secret pride in supervising the
remarkable metamorphosis of a "cub" into a well trained reporter. It was
the gossip of newspaper workers that P. Q. excelled in the training of
his reporters whom he handled with the tact of a psychologist and the
care of a manager of a baseball team for his players. Nothing gave him
more pleasure than to develop a "cub" into a star and there were dozens
of star men throughout the country whom he brought to the top and who
still thought him the "greatest of them all."

Brennan was one of the star men who broke into newspaper work under P.
Q. Between P. Q. and his star reporter there was a peculiar relationship
which John studied with interest. When Brennan performed some especially
clever piece of work the city editor treated him as though it was
unnecessary for him to give any praise or commendation. When Brennan
disappointed him, which was seldom, P. Q. would berate him with the
same caustic fervor that lashed a stupid, thick-headed reporter to a
point of self-abnegation that gave him thoughts of suicide as the only
way out of his misery.

The praise Brennan received from P. Q. came to him in a roundabout way
and the star reporter drank it in as eagerly as a "cub," knowing as he
did it that it was a "master" who praised. P. Q. would summon some
offending reporter to his desk and after scolding him would laud Brennan
to the skies.

"If you had only one-tenth the sense that Brennan has there might be
some hope for you," the city editor would say. "Brennan is a real
newspaper man, a real reporter. I wouldn't trade him for any dozen men
in the country. Watch Brennan, read the stuff he writes and study the
way he does things if you want to become a reporter."

These words, P. Q. knew, would get back to Brennan, who would
cross-examine the reporter to get every word of the city editor's
commendation. Yet between them, except for rare occasions when they went
out to lunch together, there was a "strictly business" attitude that was
deceiving. Brennan's loyalty to P. Q. was only rivaled by the city
editor's covert admira