tay; so lie back and get easy, boy."

"Then give me that pad and pencil." He rapidly dashed off a note to H.
Fisbee:

"_September 5th_.

"H. FISBEE,

"Editor 'Carlow Herald.'

"_Dear Sir_: You have not acknowledged my letter of the 2d September by
a note (which should have reached me the following morning), or by
the alteration in the tenor of my columns which I requested, or by the
publication of the McCune papers which I directed. In this I hold you
grossly at fault. If you have a conscientious reason for refusing to
carry out my request it should have been communicated to me at once,
as should the fact--if such be the case--that you are a personal (or
impersonal, if you like) friend of Mr. Rodney McCune. Whatever the
motive, ulterior or otherwise, which prevents you from operating my
paper as I direct, I should have been informed of it. This is a matter
vital to the interests of our community, and you have hitherto shown
yourself too alert in accepting my slightest suggestion for me to
construe this failure as negligence. Negligence I might esteem as at
least honest and frank; your course has been neither the one nor the
other.

"You will receive this letter by seven this evening by special delivery.
You will print the facts concerning McCune in to-morrow morning's paper.

"I am well aware of the obligations under which your extreme efficiency
and your thoughtfulness in many matters have placed me. It is to you I
owe my unearned profits from the transaction in oil, and it is to you
I owe the 'Herald's' extraordinary present circulation, growth of power
and influence. That power is still under my direction, and is an added
responsibility which shall not be misapplied.

"You must forgive me if I write too sharply. You see I have failed to
understand your silence; and if I wrong you I heartily ask your pardon
in advance of your explanation. Is it that you are sorry for McCune? It
would be a weak pity that could keep you to silence. I warned him long
ago that the papers you hold would be published if he ever tried to
return to political life, and he is deliberately counting on my physical
weakness and absence. Let him rely upon it; I am not so weak as he
thinks. Personally, I cannot say that I dislike Mr. McCune. I have found
him a very entertaining fellow; it is said he is the best of husbands,
and a friend to some of his friends, and, believe me, I am sorry for him
from the bottom of my heart. But the 'Herald