you believe it, of course, but--"

"Oh," said the old man mollified. "You shall have proof of course.
We found evidence that a person stood in sight of the house in a
patch of woods. A short distance from that is a filling station,
where there is a public telephone. I took the name," he handed the
city editor a slip of paper with the name of the filling station.

"You have the means of finding such things out and verifying them.
You have the exact time of the explosion. See if someone did not
call Flynn's home at the time of the explosion without having the
call completed."

Hite punched a button on the desk. To the copy boy who popped his
head into the office, he roared:

"Send in Mac, George and Barney!"

Three young men came into the office, greeted Jimmy and waited.
His words coming like the staccato roar of a machine gun, Hite
addressed the three:

"George, a telephone call was made from this station," handing him
the slip of paper, "find the number in the telephone book. The
call was made last night at precisely the time that Flynn's house
in Pleasantville was blown up. It might have been made from a
station near there. The call was not completed, because there was
no answer. Operator was asked to ring a long time. Verify this.
Don't take any hooey from the telephone company that it's against
the rules. It's against the rules in this office for a reporter to
come back without what he was sent to get. Scram.

"Mac, you heard what I said to George. Go to the filling station I
told him about. The bird who made the call hung around there a
long time, probably in a car. Mebbe somebody caught the number of
the car. See if someone remembers this bird who made the call.
Take a taxi and tell him to step on it. If any dumb cop stops you,
tell him I'll have him broke if he won't let you go. Go on, get
out, what the hell you waitin' for?

"Barney, go up to Center Street and see the stuffed shirt in the
Commissioner's office. If he ain't in he ought to be; a public
servant ought to be at his desk by this time. It's after eight
o'clock. Lookit me. Get him out of bed if you have to and ask him
how long the public is going to be fed on hooey when there's such
an important murder case. Ask him what the hell are the police
doing on these murders besides making statements. Get going and if
you don't bring in a story for the first edition I'll drop you out
the window."

He turned to Professor Brierly:

"Excuse me a li